Rachael Burke
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rachaelburke.bsky.social
Rachael Burke
@rachaelburke.bsky.social
3.6K followers 1.6K following 170 posts
Assist. Prof @lshtm.bsky.social and NHS infection doc (SpR). I work on TB and HIV epidemiology and aim to make the world a bit more equitable. Useless before coffee time. She/her.
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This looks really cool…. Any of my LBGTQ+ / stats nerds Venn diagram intersect crew fancy helping to organise a rainbowR conference?!
🌈 🌐 rainbowR conference: online, early 2026 🌐 🌈

Are you LGBTQIA+, do you code in R, and would you like to get involved in rainbowR’s first-ever conference? We are looking for people to join our conference organising committee!

➡️ rainbowr.org/conference
🗓️ 1st meeting: July 9, 4pm UTC
Conference – rainbowR
Join our conference organising committee! See our conference page for more info.
rainbowr.org
Don’t forget about “irrelevant positives”!
Aargh… this is, like, the most obvious thing to me. And un-evidenced based screening (or screening with proven aggregate harm still being offered) drives me up the wall!

I guess I should remember “screening can be bad” is apparently not intuitive.
Reposted by Rachael Burke
What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders?

It's all just linear models. Statistics is, like, three linear algebra operations in a probability-shaped trenchcoat.
What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders?

There are thousands of freshwater fish species in North America alone. My historical dataset from Missouri alone had 200 species. And they're all more interesting than bass
What is common knowledge in your field, but. shocks outsiders?

Most algae isn't bad or harmful. #NotAllAlgae
I’m not convinced they are unimportant positives either…. U just thing we have absolutely no idea either way! And that seems a bit rash for TB peeps (not you particularly… but the general vibes) to be pushing ACF until we know. There will be individual harms too.
Yea, agree with all that. But I remain very irritated with all the “excitement” about community based screening DESPITE the fact that there is poor evidence on the individual level benefits and harms of detecting asymp. TB.
But what about “unimportant positives”? I mean, once you have a positive test you are obviously going to treat. But what would have happened to those people who never encountered screening for their (“true”) asymptomatic TB? How many would have reverted anyway and had no harm from their TB?
How did you not know that?! It’s a core ID fact!
Reposted by Rachael Burke
Given discussions at I had at #ESCMIDGlobal, it might be useful for new researchers to know how a journal editor screens submissions (obviously this is my approach and so it might differ for others).
I feel seen… and I don’t like it… 🤣
Reposted by Rachael Burke
Its right there in the title.

Gelman, Andrew, and Hal Stern. "The difference between “significant” and “not significant” is not itself statistically significant." The American Statistician 60, no. 4 (2006): 328-331.

sites.stat.columbia.edu/gelman/resea...
sites.stat.columbia.edu
One plus side of *gestures* *this* is that I have now learnt about the existence of the Heard islands. They seem extremely cool… thousands of penguins, flowing lava, ecosystem with external inputs. It’s extremely cool! 🐧 🏝️ 🌋 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Trump tariffs: How island of penguins and seals ended up on list - BBC News
The remote Heard and McDonald Islands haven't been visited by humans in almost a decade.
www.bbc.co.uk
Well, any group can have individual douche bags in it. I feel like overall the Quakers are extremely awesome (doi: not a Quaker, but family are).
My parents are Quakers I think this is reprehensible from the Met police. To make a pre-decided plan to have a force of 20 police (some with tasers) barge into a place of worship is dreadful behaviour and not something we should tolerate in our society.
🚨 Outrage as 20 police officers break into Westminster Quaker Meeting House and arrest six. 🚨
This shocking violation of a place of worship is a direct result of crackdowns on protest and dissent - freedom of speech, assembly and democracy are at risk.🕊️
👉 www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...
Quakers condemn police raid on Westminster Meeting House
Police broke into a Quaker Meeting House last night (27 March) and arrested six young people holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.
www.quaker.org.uk
I’d quite like to know when to start ART in serum CrAg pos / CSF CrAg negative, relatively asymptomatic people though?
Yea, I think it depends what setting you are in and what you are trying to achieve? Biological betterness? Or less cost to people / easier to implement protocols? If you’ve got individualised care, different patients/scenarios are different. For one-size-fits-most policy I’m not sure it’s priority.
There is also a JIAS systematic review of SaPIT and all the other eight trials of earlier vs later TB kicking around (you may recognise some authors 🤣)…. The trials are a bit of a mixed bag.
I mean… Malawi have been starting ART and TB treatment on the same day (as diagnosis, and each other, without steroids) for a few years now. Seems to be fine for most people.
We’ve just finished a trial of same day vs deferred ART (“ART first” vs “TB results first”) in people with TB symptoms. Results in to IAS! But there was v little IRIS seen.
Reposted by Rachael Burke
🏆 The Stephen Lawn Prize acknowledges young researchers conducting promising work focused on reducing the burden of TB and HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The Union is proud to present the award at our World Conference on Lung Health.

📖 Be sure to read @rachaelburke.bsky.social and Aliasgar's profiles.
Two new Profiles capture the work of Rachael Burke and Aliasgar Esmail, joint winners of the 2024 Stephen Lawn TB–HIV Research Leadership Prize🧵⤵️
I love this! And so many GREAT people, looking at the names.
Aww, thank you!! And thank you for your FANTASTIC Stephen Lawn Lecture 2023 on the "know-do" gap. It was brilliant.
Come along everyone to what looks like an amazing TB event on Thursday at 5:30pm at LSHTM.

The Stephen Lawn Memorial Lecture 2025.

Open to all!
This is me! Eeek!
Two new Profiles capture the work of Rachael Burke and Aliasgar Esmail, joint winners of the 2024 Stephen Lawn TB–HIV Research Leadership Prize🧵⤵️