New Substack article is live!

I get woefully little traffic over there so a follow would be appreciated! 🩺🛟

open.substack.com/pub/kattalks...

"If you can't pronounce it you shouldn't eat it"

I've heard y'all mispronounce jalapeño, chorizo, quesadilla, horchata, and pozole my whole life so I guess you better stop eating Mexican food.

Hope this helps!!

"If you can't pronounce it you shouldn't eat it"

Ok...Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Yersinia enterocolitica can all be present in raw milk.

So by that logic you shouldn't be drinking raw milk. Hope this helps!

BREAKING: The USDA has confirmed five additional dairy herds in California have tested positive for the virus, raising the total to 732.

Currently, 74% of the state's dairy herds are infected with H5N1.

“If there is new evidence about H5N1 that is been held up for political purposes, that is just completely at odds with what government’s responsibility is, which is to protect the American people,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health.

The first MMWR in 3 weeks was released today. Was it about bird flu? No. The KS TB outbreak? Nope. It was about the use of syndromic surveillance in EDs to estimate the effects of wildfires on healthcare use. Important? Yes. But maybe we should focus on the emerging infectious diseases.

I have zero faith that RFK Jr. will fail to be confirmed today. So I'll just say that no matter what happens, public health pros will continue doing our work to better the nations health no matter who is in office. #medsky #publichealthsky #episky 🛟🩺🧪

This information is also vital to the work of local public health agencies. This is not good, to say the absolute least.

President Trump moved quickly on Monday to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, a move that public health experts say will undermine the nation’s standing as a global health leader and make it harder to fight the next pandemic. nyti.ms/4hilymo

Not even through the first chapter and loving this. I've been such a sucker for fun anatomy books recently. 🫀🩺🦴

"'There’s a long history in America of nostalgia for a past that was better than the present,' he said. 'History is all about erasure — the things we don’t choose to remember.'”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/h...

Please join science supporters, scientists, and experts in signing an open letter asking Congress to stand up against attempts to politicize or eliminate scientific roles, agencies, and federal research that protect our health, environment, and our communities. sign.moveon.org/petitions/de...

Children aren't the only ones affected by falling vaccination rates. Waning immunity, breakthrough infections, and the fact that some people can't get vaccinated (e.g., allergies, immune conditions, etc.) mean that adults will be affected too. 🧪🩺🛟
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/h...

"RFK Jr. and others nominated by President-elect Donald Trump will endanger the health and well-being of Americans and we urge the U.S. Senate to ensure that only qualified candidates assume these crucial federal health posts."

RFK wants to pause infectious disease research to focus on chronic diseases...at the beginning of an H5N1 outbreak. This plus the fact that many chronic diseases are CAUSED by infectious diseases should be proof that we need both.

The number of people who complain about "a cough" or "feeling funny" and still go to the gym is ridiculous. We learned nothing from 2020. Not only do the people who also go to that gym not want to get sick, but their grandparents/kids/friends don't either!! #maskup #publichealth

All counties affected by H5N1 bird flu in poultry, according to the CDC.

This is very concerning and will only serve to "other" immigrants even further. Unfortunately, it's not without precedent as the U.S. has a long history of labeling immigrants as dirty and disease-ridden.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/u...