Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
@dremilyrsmith.bsky.social
Associate Professor @GWPublicHealth. Epidemiologist. #GlobalHealth. I study infection & nutrition in pregnancy. Advocate for evidence. Alumna @HarvardChanSPH @EmoryRollins. Lover of coffee, crosswords, & cooking with friends.
Pinned
🆘 Our work over the past few years has shown that COVID-19 in pregnancy is a serious problem that requires serious public health and medical consideration.
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Multistate infant botulism outbreak adds 8 more cases, 23 total
All 23 cases involve hospitalization.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/b...
All 23 cases involve hospitalization.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/b...
November 17, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Multistate infant botulism outbreak adds 8 more cases, 23 total
All 23 cases involve hospitalization.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/b...
All 23 cases involve hospitalization.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/b...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
🚨Dept. of Education proposes to exclude public health degrees from the “professional degree” category.
That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.
A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠
aspph.org/department-o...
That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.
A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠
aspph.org/department-o...
Department of Education Proposal Excludes Public Health Degrees from “Professional Degree” Definition
Discover the new results and implications of Dept of Ed consensus regarding professional degree programs and public health education.
aspph.org
November 13, 2025 at 3:57 PM
🚨Dept. of Education proposes to exclude public health degrees from the “professional degree” category.
That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.
A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠
aspph.org/department-o...
That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.
A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠
aspph.org/department-o...
“So the plan is to have a plan — eventually.” @rollingstone.com with the healthcare and US policy analysis we need.
The Republicans’ so-called health care plans are so secret they won’t share them with members of their own party.
“Mike Johnson, for a month now, cannot give me a single policy idea," Marjorie Taylor Greene said.
🤫 www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
“Mike Johnson, for a month now, cannot give me a single policy idea," Marjorie Taylor Greene said.
🤫 www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
November 3, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“So the plan is to have a plan — eventually.” @rollingstone.com with the healthcare and US policy analysis we need.
There are ongoing claims that acetaminophen (Tylenol) use in pregnancy causes autism. Here’s five things you should know 🧵
October 27, 2025 at 1:05 AM
There are ongoing claims that acetaminophen (Tylenol) use in pregnancy causes autism. Here’s five things you should know 🧵
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Nearly 1 in 5 Urinary Tract Infections Linked to Contaminated Meat
New study finds people in underserved neighborhoods face the highest risk of foodborne infections
Primary source study posted in thread
New study finds people in underserved neighborhoods face the highest risk of foodborne infections
Primary source study posted in thread
Nearly 1 in 5 Urinary Tract Infections Linked to Contaminated Meat | Milken Institute School of Public Health | The George Washington University
New study finds people in underserved neighborhoods face the highest risk of foodborne infections
publichealth.gwu.edu
October 26, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Nearly 1 in 5 Urinary Tract Infections Linked to Contaminated Meat
New study finds people in underserved neighborhoods face the highest risk of foodborne infections
Primary source study posted in thread
New study finds people in underserved neighborhoods face the highest risk of foodborne infections
Primary source study posted in thread
Excellent thread on the paper out this week in Nature suggesting COVID mRNA vaccines may support the immune system in responding to cancer ⬇️
I will try to do a tweetorial about this paper when I have more energy but this is really important data. It looks (tentatively, preliminarily) that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines might significantly enhance the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy (subject to many caveats).
October 25, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Excellent thread on the paper out this week in Nature suggesting COVID mRNA vaccines may support the immune system in responding to cancer ⬇️
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
1. We ( @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, and I) have a new preprint up on the arXiv.
There we explore how social media companies and other online information technology firms are able to manipulate scientific research about the effects of their products.
There we explore how social media companies and other online information technology firms are able to manipulate scientific research about the effects of their products.
October 24, 2025 at 12:47 AM
1. We ( @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, and I) have a new preprint up on the arXiv.
There we explore how social media companies and other online information technology firms are able to manipulate scientific research about the effects of their products.
There we explore how social media companies and other online information technology firms are able to manipulate scientific research about the effects of their products.
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
New 📄! We inter-compare satellite-based NASA TEMPO column NO2 with ground monitor surface NO2. Correlation is very good; best in the mid-AM and worst in the late-PM. The work highlights when and where satellite data best represents surface air quality. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
October 21, 2025 at 4:37 PM
New 📄! We inter-compare satellite-based NASA TEMPO column NO2 with ground monitor surface NO2. Correlation is very good; best in the mid-AM and worst in the late-PM. The work highlights when and where satellite data best represents surface air quality. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Just another normal HHS week: CDC researchers cannot present work at an annual Infectious Disease conference in (checks notes) Atlanta. As a CDC researcher put it:
“It appears to me that HHS’s goal is to prevent the dissemination of scientific information. It’s insane.”
apnews.com/article/infe...
“It appears to me that HHS’s goal is to prevent the dissemination of scientific information. It’s insane.”
apnews.com/article/infe...
Government shutdown means many CDC experts are skipping a pivotal meeting on infectious disease
An annual conference about infectious diseases is seeing a dramatic attendance decline, in part because Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts can’t participate.
apnews.com
October 21, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Just another normal HHS week: CDC researchers cannot present work at an annual Infectious Disease conference in (checks notes) Atlanta. As a CDC researcher put it:
“It appears to me that HHS’s goal is to prevent the dissemination of scientific information. It’s insane.”
apnews.com/article/infe...
“It appears to me that HHS’s goal is to prevent the dissemination of scientific information. It’s insane.”
apnews.com/article/infe...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Washington, D.C.’s No Kings protest is converging on a rallying point just west of the Capitol building. This was one of several locally-organized feeder marches just before merging with an even bigger crowd on Pennsylvania Avenue 👇
October 18, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Washington, D.C.’s No Kings protest is converging on a rallying point just west of the Capitol building. This was one of several locally-organized feeder marches just before merging with an even bigger crowd on Pennsylvania Avenue 👇
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
THIS WEEKEND! Join us for No Kings Day nationwide, across 50 states, in DC and Puerto Rico, and internationally! We're standing up for science and democracy, and in solidarity with fired federal workers.
#standupforscience #nokingsday
#standupforscience #nokingsday
October 15, 2025 at 2:49 PM
THIS WEEKEND! Join us for No Kings Day nationwide, across 50 states, in DC and Puerto Rico, and internationally! We're standing up for science and democracy, and in solidarity with fired federal workers.
#standupforscience #nokingsday
#standupforscience #nokingsday
“Genomic analysis identified an Ebola virus with more than 99·5% identity to the lineage that was responsible for the first outbreak in Yambuku in 1976.”
Interesting bit of correspondence in @thelancet.com:
" #Ebola virus in Kasai revives 50-year-old questions on viral latency" www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
" #Ebola virus in Kasai revives 50-year-old questions on viral latency" www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Ebola virus in Kasai revives 50-year-old questions on viral latency
On Sept 4, 2025, DR Congo declared its 16th Ebola virus outbreak. The epicentre of
this outbreak occurred in the Kasai province—the first resurgence in this region since
2008.1 Genomic analysis identi...
www.thelancet.com
October 18, 2025 at 1:03 PM
“Genomic analysis identified an Ebola virus with more than 99·5% identity to the lineage that was responsible for the first outbreak in Yambuku in 1976.”
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Here is the students' @idsnews.bsky.social report out of Indiana University, where the student media director was fired today. www.idsnews.com/article/2025...
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS: IU fires student media director after he refused to censor the IDS
Indiana University directed the IDS to stop printing news.
www.idsnews.com
October 15, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Here is the students' @idsnews.bsky.social report out of Indiana University, where the student media director was fired today. www.idsnews.com/article/2025...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
NEW: More than half of the roughly 1,300 layoffs notices at @CDCgov have been rescinded. But analysts with top-secret clearance working on biodefense preparedness at another health agency have lost their jobs, per sources. Our story 1/4
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Hundreds of CDC layoffs reversed, but biodefense preparedness staff hit
More than half of the roughly 1,300 CDC layoff notices have been rescinded, but workers at health agencies who work on biodefense and mental health still lost their jobs.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 14, 2025 at 12:34 AM
NEW: More than half of the roughly 1,300 layoffs notices at @CDCgov have been rescinded. But analysts with top-secret clearance working on biodefense preparedness at another health agency have lost their jobs, per sources. Our story 1/4
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
The White House’s mass firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff on Friday has decimated offices related to injury prevention, respiratory disease surveillance, and chronic disease. www.statnews.com/2025/10/11/c...
‘It’s a massacre’: CDC battered by government shutdown firings
The White House’s mass firing of CDC staff on Friday has decimated offices related to injury prevention, respiratory disease surveillance, and chronic disease, according to four people familiar with t...
www.statnews.com
October 11, 2025 at 7:42 PM
The White House’s mass firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff on Friday has decimated offices related to injury prevention, respiratory disease surveillance, and chronic disease. www.statnews.com/2025/10/11/c...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Searching for Jackie Merlos: What happened when the Trump administration disappeared an immigrant mother and her four U.S. citizen kids
Her Kids Are U.S. Citizens. Trump's Admin Disappeared Them Anyway
Donald Trump's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) disappeared an immigrant mom living in Portland and her four U.S. citizen children.
www.rollingstone.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Searching for Jackie Merlos: What happened when the Trump administration disappeared an immigrant mother and her four U.S. citizen kids
Did I ever tell y’all about the first time I was in Paris (recently!), sat down at a cafe, and ordered “French onion soup”? The waitress looked confused and said something to the effect of, “erm you mean onion soup”?! Yes, of course.
Still my most popular Substack post ever…. all about the real French onion soup and the authentic recipe the french really do at home. Really.
jamieschler.substack.com/p/authentic-...
jamieschler.substack.com/p/authentic-...
Authentic French Onion Soup
Top off your New Year’s Eve revelry the traditional French way.
jamieschler.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Did I ever tell y’all about the first time I was in Paris (recently!), sat down at a cafe, and ordered “French onion soup”? The waitress looked confused and said something to the effect of, “erm you mean onion soup”?! Yes, of course.
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
"As medical care evaporates it is moms who die in childbirth. As food disappears overwhelmed husbands abandon wives and children. As social order unravels it is mostly girls who are raped. And when times are desperate it is girls who are married against their will."
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...
Opinion | The Tax on Being a Girl
www.nytimes.com
September 28, 2025 at 11:35 AM
"As medical care evaporates it is moms who die in childbirth. As food disappears overwhelmed husbands abandon wives and children. As social order unravels it is mostly girls who are raped. And when times are desperate it is girls who are married against their will."
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.
September 27, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
Before prescribing leucovorin, doctors would first need to determine whether a patient suffered from the deficiency, Dr. Kesselheim said. How they would arrive at that diagnosis short of a risky, expensive spinal tap was not clear, he said.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...
F.D.A.’s Approval of a Drug for Autism Upends Review Process
www.nytimes.com
September 24, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Before prescribing leucovorin, doctors would first need to determine whether a patient suffered from the deficiency, Dr. Kesselheim said. How they would arrive at that diagnosis short of a risky, expensive spinal tap was not clear, he said.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...
Reposted by Emily R Smith, ScD, MPH
It’s hard to know whether talking about these things is helpful or just gives them more oxygen, but the current acetaminophen fire is already roaring so here we go. Most importantly: ACOG affirms their position that acetaminophen is safe in pregnancy bsky.app/profile/acog...
September 23, 2025 at 9:16 AM
It’s hard to know whether talking about these things is helpful or just gives them more oxygen, but the current acetaminophen fire is already roaring so here we go. Most importantly: ACOG affirms their position that acetaminophen is safe in pregnancy bsky.app/profile/acog...
And FWIW a study of medication use during pregnancy in the United States from 2011 to 2020 found that while use of acetaminophen with opioids declined over this period, trends for acetaminophen use remained stable (Mansour et al. AJOG 2024) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Prescription medication use during pregnancy in the United States from 2011 to 2020: trends and safety evidence
Medication use during pregnancy has increased in the United States despite the lack of safety data for many medications.This study aimed to inform res…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 23, 2025 at 1:55 AM
And FWIW a study of medication use during pregnancy in the United States from 2011 to 2020 found that while use of acetaminophen with opioids declined over this period, trends for acetaminophen use remained stable (Mansour et al. AJOG 2024) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Indeed, untreated fever in pregnancy is linked to miscarriage, birth defects, and preterm birth. Unmanaged pain in pregnancy is linked to high blood pressure, anxiety, and depression which are all bad for both mom and baby.
So yes, “toughing it out” and avoiding meds in pregnancy is dangerous.
So yes, “toughing it out” and avoiding meds in pregnancy is dangerous.
I’m only now watching longer clips of Trump’s autism disinfo presser and… it’s crazier than I realized? He was unable even to say “acetaminophen” or come up with the word “rubella”; cited his feelings as the basis for changes; and said pregs women should “tough it out,” which is actually dangerous
September 23, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Indeed, untreated fever in pregnancy is linked to miscarriage, birth defects, and preterm birth. Unmanaged pain in pregnancy is linked to high blood pressure, anxiety, and depression which are all bad for both mom and baby.
So yes, “toughing it out” and avoiding meds in pregnancy is dangerous.
So yes, “toughing it out” and avoiding meds in pregnancy is dangerous.
For you epi nerds inspired to brush up on analytical challenges in perinatal pharmacoepidemiology, here is a nice piece from @anecdatally.bsky.social!
Associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure & child neurodevelopment: Truth, bias, or a bit of both? pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure & child neurodevelopment: Truth, bias, or a bit of both? pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and child neurodevelopment: Truth, bias, or a bit of both?
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
September 23, 2025 at 1:07 AM
For you epi nerds inspired to brush up on analytical challenges in perinatal pharmacoepidemiology, here is a nice piece from @anecdatally.bsky.social!
Associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure & child neurodevelopment: Truth, bias, or a bit of both? pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure & child neurodevelopment: Truth, bias, or a bit of both? pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...