John Ross
LightNews LightNews
banner
johnrossmd.bsky.social
John Ross
@johnrossmd.bsky.social
13K followers 2.4K following 180 posts
Canadian in Boston. Hospitalist. FIDSA. The Longevity Bible (free for download on Internet Archive): https://archive.org/details/longevity-bible-ebook
Posts Replies Media Videos
johnrossmd.bsky.social
The Centers for Disease Control hasn't updated any vaccine-related databases in at least 6 months. Just willful dismantling of the national public health infrastructure. #IDSky www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
Forty-four databases (54%) were current, and 38 (46%) were paused. Thirty-four of the 38 databases (89%) had no data entries dated within 6 months of the date of analysis, whereas 4 (11%) paused more recently. Of the 38 paused databases, 33 (87%) were vaccination-related topics compared with none of the 44 current databases. Of the 5 paused databases on other topics, 4 addressed respiratory diseases, including disease burden and nonvaccine prevention measures, whereas 1 addressed public health (drug overdose deaths). The persistence of pauses as of 2 December 2025 was examined. Only 1 of the 38 paused databases had been updated.
January 26, 2026 at 10:54 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
"is that good" as shorthand for this
[mysterious old lady flips tarot card revealing a dude who looks exactly like me flying a hot air balloon into power lines] Me: is that good
January 26, 2026 at 6:57 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Cow tools, from the infamous Far Side cartoon
January 22, 2026 at 2:35 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Two thumbs up from Hide the Pain Harold!
January 19, 2026 at 4:18 AM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Nobody did boyish charm and weaponized narcissism better than Jean-Pierre Léaud
JPL in Out 1 JPL in La Chinoise JPL in Maman et Lu Putain
January 17, 2026 at 5:28 AM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Happy Great Molasses Flood day to all who celebrate
Boston's North End on January 15, 1915, devastated by a tsunami of viscous death
January 15, 2026 at 4:24 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Here's some data on Vibrio food poisoning in oysters in Florida from 1981-1994 (atmospheric CO2 ~350 ppm, currently ~427 ppm). Lots of cases in Oct-Nov.
Seasonality of shellfish poisoning in Florida, 1981-1994. Monthly distribution of oyster-associated V. vulnificus illness (or shellfish poisoning) and deaths occurring in Florida from 1981 to 1994. Over the 14-year period higher numbers of cases occurred during summer. Monitoring in Florida shows a statistically significant association between concentrations of this pathogen in estuaries and temperature and salinity, the latter being affected by rainfall and runoff. Adapted from Lipp and Rose (77).
January 2, 2026 at 4:47 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
According to folk wisdom, it's safe to eat raw oysters in months containing an "R." This is NOT true, as shown by an ongoing Salmonella outbreak www.cdc.gov/salmonella/o...
Ongoing Salmonella outbreak associated with raw oysters. Most cases occurred in a month containing an "R."
January 1, 2026 at 8:29 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Aspirin is no longer recommended for primary prevention (no heart disease history), although it is recommended for secondary prevention (known heart disease)

Lots of data show that ASA for primary prevention *increases* all-cause mortality
Aspirin for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease got a D grade in the 2022 United States Preventive Services Task Force guidelines
January 1, 2026 at 2:30 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
CHF admissions coming in after the holidays like
Male models wearing inflatable latex pants designed by Harikrishnan
December 30, 2025 at 10:49 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Wild story about how Joe Ladapo went from mainstream Harvard MD-PhD guy to anti-vaxxer after an alternative medicine guru performed "Ma Xing" on him (walking on his thighs, engaging "the urinary bladder master channel," and activating his spirit animal)
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Day two of his work with Maher consisted of more of the same, plus “a technique called Ma Xing,” which featured Maher walking up and down the backs of Joseph’s thighs. (On his website, Maher writes that “Ma Xing means horse stomping.”) In Transcend Fear, Ladapo recounts the experience in detail: The discomfort I experienced as he stomped on me was intense, and I went from feeling acute pain to feeling a sense of enjoyment, and—as incredible as it must sound—at one point, I even felt like a tiger. Christopher explained that this was my spirit animal. As I learned from him, Ma Xing engages the urinary bladder channel, which is the master channel in Chinese meridian theory. Further, he explained that this channel has access to every aspect of a human being’s behavior and thoughts, including their mind, brain, physical being, spiritual energy, and emotional intelligence.
December 20, 2025 at 2:13 AM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Very excited to read Coverage Denied by @mirandayaver.bsky.social, a deep dive into the Kafkaesque nightmare that is the American health insurance industry! Congrats Miranda!
Cover of Coverage Denied: How Health Carr Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States by Miranda Yaver, published by Cambridge University Press. Now in print!
December 14, 2025 at 3:00 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Scabies was one of the first human diseases to have an identified cause, when Bonomo and Cestoni discovered it was caused by a burrowing skin mite in the 17th century. Their work was attacked by the Pope's physician, and largely ignored. #IDSky
Giacinto Cestoni, an aging, sage-looking 17th-century physician. He has long grey hair, and is wearing a skullcap and black robe. No portrait of his collaborator Giovanni Bonomi has survived.
December 14, 2025 at 1:53 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
His dad was also literally a Medicare for All guy
A supporter of universal healthcare, Nelson Rockefeller served as consultant for Senator Jacob Javits' "Medicare for All" bill that would expand benefits to every American. Rockefeller described universal healthcare as the wave of the future and as a human right.
December 13, 2025 at 6:10 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Flu update:
- cases rising, most due to H3N2 subclade K
- although there is some mismatch due to antigenic drift, vaccine should still benefit, especially as H3N2 was NOT predominant last year (so most folks are not recently exposed)
- good news: 40.4% of US adults got flu vax, vs 38.2% last year
8.1% increase in positive flu tests this past week (trending steadily up). 3.2% of medical visits this past week due to respiratory illness.
December 12, 2025 at 7:24 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Bravo to MMWR for this middle-finger salute to RFK Jr #IDSky
Screenshot of MMWR graphic stating that "COVID-19 vaccines protect children from severe illness." Link to article: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/wr/mm7440a1.htm
December 11, 2025 at 6:14 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Same energy
Cartman about to crash out because he got Ants in the Pants for his birthday, and not the Red Mega-man
December 5, 2025 at 10:22 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Florida has stopped tracking vaccine-preventable diseases. Last monthly report appeared on May 29, 2025.
Florida last issued a Vaccine Preventable Disease Report on May 29, 2025, covering the month of April 2025. Screenshot from https://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/vaccine-preventable-disease/vaccine-preventable-disease-report-archive.html
November 27, 2025 at 1:54 AM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
So, private equity has been quietly buying up nursing homes/rehabs, spinning off the real estate into a trust, cutting costs and running them into the ground while milking the Medicare income, and then redeveloping the real estate for profit when the facilities inevitably go bankrupt 2/2
Let's see who you really are meme: Fred discovers that private equity is responsible for the haunted amusement park, and everything else going wrong in the US of A
November 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
It's harder to discharge hospital patients now because rehab quality is declining, and families are reluctant to send patients to nursing facilities who are too weak to go home safely. "Golden Acres used to be great, but they cut staffing, and Mom almost died the last time she went there." 1/2
Monetizing Nursing Home Real Estate (from https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/PESP_Report_NursingHomes_April2025.pdf) Within the nursing home industry, it is common for real estate to be held separately from operations through the use of two separate companies. These companies may share an owner or have different owners, such as a private equity-owned operations holding company and a real estate investment trust (REIT) property holding company. This strategy has been encouraged to help shield assets in the event of lawsuits or bankruptcies. It also provides an avenue to siphon money out of the nursing home to investors.
November 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Sociopathy
C-SUITE·LEADERSHIP McKinsey studied the most successful Fortune 500 CEOs and found they share one similar trait
November 17, 2025 at 12:31 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
New WHO TB report just dropped #IDSky
▶️TB back to world's #1 infectious cause of death⚰️
▶️amazing reduction in TB deaths in Africa, now at risk due to USAID cuts
▶️rising TB in the Americas stabilized but trend worrisome. Tanking economies and rising prison populations seem to be major drivers 📉👮‍♂️
Screenshot of Figure 12, Trends in TB Deaths, from the World Health Organization 2025 Global Tuberculosis Report, available at https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240116924. Explanation in text of skeet.
November 14, 2025 at 3:23 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Never forget www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/m...
The second round of the 1975-76 playoffs featured a series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Philadelphia Flyers. But it was really about Pyramid Power versus Kate Smith. The Flyers were the defending Stanley Cup champions and had legendary singer Kate Smith warbling "God Save America" as a good-luck charm. Leafs coach Red Kelly was looking for something to focus his troops, who were in tough against the Broad Street Bullies. Irascible Leafs owner Harold Ballard had even predicted his team would in five games. The Leafs were facing elimination going into the series’ Game 6 in Toronto, so Kelly tried something radically different. He had a 20-foot pyramid placed in the Leafs dressing room – pointed north to draw magnetic energy – and several smaller ones under the Leafs’ bench, hoping his team would draw energy from the objects. Kelly had reason to believe. His daughter had been suffering from severe migraines, and after being told about the pyramids’ healing power, gave her some small pyramids to place under her pillow and she soon felt better. "I thought that was kind of neat that Red would take that time and that thought to do something like that for us," winger Dave (Tiger) Williams recalls. "What was really good about it was the Toronto media just talked about it and never talked about us, so we had some breathing room there finally for a change." Red Kelly, Toronto Maple Leafs coach in 1976. A middle-aged man in a vintage Adidas track suit contemplates a plastic pyramid
November 10, 2025 at 5:18 PM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
You don't need a desert for this, btw. We are exporting power to the grid from rooftop solar in Massachusetts in November.
Rooftop solar supplied 730% of our residential needs in Massachusetts thus far in November
November 6, 2025 at 11:13 AM
johnrossmd.bsky.social
Literal insanity that a company that made a product that saved millions of lives just a few years ago could go out of business www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/m...
Today Moderna faces a crisis unlike any other in its 15-year-history. Wall Street has pushed executives to slash spending, as Covid vaccine sales have slumped and no new blockbusters have emerged. The federal government, which had all but midwifed the company, has turned on it. In May, the Health and Human Services Department — led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has touted falsehoods about mRNA vaccines — canceled $766 million in contracts to prepare shots for a potential bird flu pandemic. Moderna’s market value has fallen by more than 90% — $185 billion, or a full Sony — from its 2021 peak to around $10 billion this month. Layoffs and restructurings, often undisclosed, have roiled the company. Further cuts have not been ruled out.
November 4, 2025 at 4:49 PM