US health agencies like CDC and NIH and FDA remain full of dedicated and exceptional scientists and health professionals doing the right thing for public health. But this example shows they can be overruled by an exceptionally unqualified secretary of HHS.

I'm fortunate to live in a state with a high-quality health department that provides information based on science. For those who don't I recommend Canadian or UK advice.

As the quality of health advice becomes more politicized and arbitrary, and less science-based Americans are going to have to turn to state health officials (some of them) or other countries for good advice.

The Department of Health and Human Services has a process for making and updating recommendations like this, using expert scientists and clinicians. RFK is deliberately putting Americans' health at risk and sidestepping good science for political reasons.

Don't post much here any more but this is worth commenting on

I just joined APHA -- a strong advocate for public health right now. Encourage others to do the same!.

RT @SenPei_CU: We will kick off the @ColumbiaMSPH seminar series on infectious disease modeling in the spring semester with a fantastic tal….

Excited to share a new preprint led by Indra Gonzalez Ojeda on a new tool to improve pangenome calling in bacteria, CLARC. . Passing output of Roary for S. pneumoniae populations through this tool reduces accessory genome > 30%, resolves other puzzles.

RT @CDCMMWR: A new CDC report shows how real-time modeling can spot COVID-19 surges early, aiding early public health action. Learn more: h….

RT @ClinicalEpi: Interested in causal inference and #IDEpi? Come and join the @DGEpi and @gmdsEV IDEpi’s working group workshop in Hamburg….

My profound thought for today: Jargon and buzzwords are opposites. Jargon are words almost no one uses that have precise meaning. Buzzwords are words everyone uses that have little meaning. Clarity is avoiding both.

RT @TheSGTJoker: Trump’s Project 2025 explained hilariously, terrifyingly, and perfectly. Trump’s Project 2025 will end America as we kno….

Application in a paper published recently

Just out w @chrisbboyer Emulating target trials of postexposure vaccines using observational data. Spurred by great collab with @nycHealthy on mpox vaccines, but applies to any postexposure intervention on an infection to reduce risk of bad outcomes.

Application in a paper published recently

Just out w @chrisbboyer Emulating target trials of postexposure vaccines using observational data. Spurred by great collab with @nycHealthy on mpox vaccines, but applies to any postexposure intervention on an infection to reduce risk of bad outcomes.

RT @mbiojournal: Qiu et al. developed a weighting system to adjust pneumococcal invasive disease data to represent the carriage population,….

The @nytimes should not have this even in the Opinion section. No responsible statistician uses 13 predictors (actually many more because many of the predictors have variable thresholds) to predict 30 data points ("120 years of presidential elections"). Clickbait pure and simple.

RT @BhadeliaMD: This book was a behemoth for the editors I am sure- and years in the making. But I’m so honored to part of the critical eff….

models explain significant parts of post-PCV13 evolution of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the US. Inverse-weighting of isolates from invasive disease surveillance mimics carriage populations in which the evolution is occurring, improves quality of fits.