Helen Branswell
Senior writer, infectious diseases & global health, @statnews. I block rude. #flu #Ebola, #polio, #AMR. Neiman '11. 🇨🇦 No tagging, please.
Last synced from Twitter 18m ago
A rare antelope is being killed to make $20,000 scarves
The luxury market for shahtoosh is imperiling the Tibetan antelope.
More than 8,500 women have joined the 500 Women Scientists database
The researchers behind the organization report that journalists, conference organizers, and others have accessed the database more than 100,000 times.
Pakistani policeman assigned to escort polio workers killed
Pakistani police say gunmen have killed a policeman assigned to escort polio workers during a three-day nationwide campaign against the crippling disease
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Helen Branswell
A policeman assigned to protect #polio vaccination workers in NW Pakistan has been killed. There've been far too many of these killings over the years. People trying to protect kids from polio paralysis are #NotATarget.
35h
My Fellow Hasidic Jews Are Making a Terrible Mistake About Vaccinations
We should stop dismissing scientific evidence and endangering the lives of our children.
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Helen Branswell
"I can’t help wondering what has made some of us dismiss basic science, embrace quackery and treat objective truths as if they are no more than suggestions."
39h
As calls for measles vaccination rise, it's crickets from the White House
President Trump’s absence in the conversation about measles outbreaks has prompted some debate about whether he should be playing a more active role.
Ten years ago: The first news of H1N1
Ten years ago, this blog was just about all H5N1, and I had a lot of news on cases in Indonesia, Egypt, and Pakistan. Then, on April 21, I posted an item by Helen Branswell, then with The Canadian Press:...
New Attack on Ebola Center in Congo; 1 Militia Member Killed
Butembo city's deputy mayor says attackers armed with machetes tried to burn down center in Katwa district overnight
Helen Branswell
3. The AP is reporting that the attack at Katwa was an attempt to burn down the #Ebola treatment center. The Katwa ETC was firebombed in late February. Attacks like these are so counterproductive.
4d
WHO Ebola responder killed in attack on the Butembo hospital
Today, Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiologist deployed by WHO in the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was killed in an attack on Butembo University Hospital. Two other persons were injured in...
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Helen Branswell
An epidemiologist working to contain #Ebola in North Kivu was killed today in an attack targeting the response workers. Unimaginable, unforgivable.
5d
A pivotal test of an experimental malaria vaccine set to begin
Global health leaders believe an experimental vaccine could eventually lead to big reductions in the number of cases and deaths worldwide.
Helen Branswell
Can the first #malaria vaccine deliver in the real world the gains that were seen in a Phase 3 trial? Ghana, Malawi & Kenya will soon start using the vaccine, RTS,S, in an attempt to find out. Lot of hope riding on the results.
6d
My polio-stricken mother's advice to parents: immunize your kids
Having never seen someone with polio or pertussis or meningitis, or had a loved one die from them, many people no longer understand the value of vaccines.
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Helen Branswell
What my polio-stricken mother would tell parents today about the importance of immunization statnews.com/2019/04/19/mot… via @statnews
6d
How long do vaccines last? The surprising answers may help protect people longer
Scientists are developing vaccines that produce more durable immune responses and debating when booster shots are needed
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Helen Branswell
This is a really interesting read from @sciencecohen about what's known — and, importantly, what's not known — about the durability of the protection triggered by vaccines.
6d
U.S. team ready to start pregnancies with 'three-parent' embryos
The team used a technique called mitochondrial replacement therapy to make embryos for four women, in hopes a U.S. ban on its use will be lifted.
New York City defends measles vaccination order in court
New York City's Department of Health defended its mandatory measles vaccina...
Helen Branswell
NYC court will decide by the end of the week whether to issue a temporary injunction against the health department's mandatory #measles vaccination order.
7d
Helen Branswell
Judge in Brooklyn dismisses challenge to NYC Health Dept's emergency order demanding people in 4 zip codes be vaccinated or prove immunity against #measles — or face a $1000 fine. Ruling comes hours after health department issues 3 summonses.
6d
Woman on Flight Out of JFK Hospitalized in Coma Over Measles
A 43-year-old flight attendant remains hospitalized in a coma in Israel, suffering complications from measles, after she fell seriously ill following her El Al flight out of John F.
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Helen Branswell
The El Al flight attendant in an ICU in Israel with a severe case of #measles may have contracted it on her flight from New York to Israel.
7d
To hell in a handbasket - Wikipedia
Helen Branswell
@JeremyFarrar @sneweyy @PennyMordaunt @WHO @MSF @Telegraph Going to hell in a handbasket: "An American allegorical locution of unclear origin, which describes a situation headed for disaster inescapably or precipitately."
7d
Google Has Warned Some Employees About A Measles Case On Its Campus
In the midst of a historic US measles outbreak, at least one Google employee walking around the tech giant’s main Silicon Valley campus has been diagnosed.
Stanford clears three faculty members of 'CRISPR babies' involvement
A review said they "were not participants in [He Jiankui's] research ... and that they had no research, financial or organizational ties to this research."
Scientists restore cellular functions in brains from dead pigs
The experiment is likely to reignite an impassioned debate about what constitutes brain death, especially for the purpose of organ donation.
Helen Branswell
You know you gotta read this: "The [pigs] brains became … well, a little less dead, scientists at Yale University reported on Wednesday. statnews.com/2019/04/17/pig… pic.twitter.com/klwPEgXzHP
8d
China urges large pig farms to test for African swine fever
China will allow large-scale pig farms and breeding farms to test for African sw...