Heather Jameson

We celebrate the illustrious career of Dr. Alexa Irene Canady (b. 1950): the first African American woman in the US to become board-certified in neurosurgery, Yale New Haven Hospital’s first African American surgical resident; author of some fifty articles on neurology, and inventor of an “adjustable antisiphon shunt” to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid from the brain in patients with hydrocephalus. //bit.ly/4etyoyr

US restaurants are not required to list a single allergen on the menu. A college student studying abroad disclosed her tree nut allergy, ordered avocado toast, and was served pesto made from ground cashews. She didn't survive it. And the people defending the gap will tell you she should have asked more questions. I talked with patient advocate Lianne Mandelbaum about what actually happened, and the part worth sitting with is that she did everything the system asks of a patient. She disclosed the allergy to the restaurant. She was carrying three epinephrine autoinjectors. Her friends were with her. Then the failures stacked. The first injector didn't deliver a dose. The two that followed went in too late. Emergency responders arrived without epinephrine on board. None of that is the patient's fault. All of it is structural. Two things from the conversation are worth saving. First, epinephrine is first-line and it is time-sensitive. Not the antihistamine, not the inhaler, not the steroid pills. The faster it goes in, the better the outcome, and there is no medical downside to using it early. The stigma around the needle costs lives that the drug would have saved. Second, the labeling gap is a policy choice, not a fact of nature. Europe fines manufacturers and runs full investigations into deaths like this one. The US requires nothing on a restaurant menu. A nine-year-old is currently championing a state bill just to get the top allergens listed. That it takes a child to push this is the whole story. And it is not only restaurants: a grandmother recently died after one bite of a store cookie that turned out to be peanut butter instead of the oatmeal raisin she thought she'd bought. A food allergy is not a diet and not a trend. It is a disease that can kill in one bite, and most people who die had only mild reactions before. Listen to the full conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD. Link in the replies. If you treat patients with food allergies, what is the one question you have started asking that you didn't ask five years ago? #FoodAllergy #ThePodcastbyKevinMD

Progress. In Feb the FDA refused to even begin reviewing the first mRNA flu vaccine. This week, the Vaccines Advisory Committee voted unanimously that the benefits outweigh the risks for adults 50 and older - because the data supported it. The way science should be done.

Concerning story about #COVID, #LongCOVID and cancer risk. Dovetails with the work we have been been doing with @drmfreire's team showing that persistent SARS-CoV-2 antigen found in the GI tract of pwLC is pro-inflammatory and oncogenic: biorxiv.org/content/10.648… Stay safe 🙏

The average monthly premium decreased for Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) in 2026, but the premium for Part D coverage is still substantially higher for PDPs than for Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage. on.kff.org/4e2wXrR

@depressionlesss This is from a great movie, The Story of the Weeping Camel, a Best Documentary nominee (2005)

Mother camel rejected her white calf, after giving birth, until a Mongolian song brought them back together...

@washingtondc Thomas Sweet! 🍦

Celebrate #NationalIceCreamDay by grabbing a cone at a local shop! ⬇️ 🍦Here's The Scoop of DC 🍦The Creamery at Union Market 🍦Dolcezza Gelato 🍦Malai Ice Cream 🍦Ice Cream Jubilee 🍦Thomas Sweet What's your favorite ice cream place in DC? 📸: livinglifevibrant / IG #Only1DC

Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heatstroke and why these conditions can be harmful and even fatal npr.org/2026/06/13/g-s…

Our latest preprint is out, where we investigated a profound SARS-CoV-2 epidemiological anomaly: BA.3.2.2 is selectively infecting children. Here, we show that the lack of ancestral-strain immune imprinting is promoting BA.3.2.2 pediatric infections. 1/9 biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

Treatments based on the same mRNA technology that delivered COVID vaccines to market in record time are showing lasting benefit against the deadly skin cancer melanoma and early promise in pancreatic and ​brain cancers. reuters.com/legal/litigati…

Major alcohol study just released (after unexplained delay from HHS): Even 1 drink per day linked to higher risks of serious illness & premature death - including liver cirrhosis, certain cancers, and injuries. No net health benefits found at any level. This taxpayer-funded review adds to evidence that alcohol harms start low. It’s sparking fresh questions about past U.S. dietary guidelines and potential industry influence. Key takeaway: Less is better for long-term health! statnews.com/2026/06/09/sup…

… or infectivity (in Vero cells). So a global BA.3.2 sweep still cannot be ruled out, and high levels of BA.3.2 infection (even where it's dominated so far, infection rates are very low), could facilitate new, previously inaccessible evolutionary pathways. 6/6

Scientists at Trump’s EPA say they are being told to make chemical risks “disappear on paper.” Not to study or manage them, but to make them vanish. When a safety test on a household chemical shows danger, supervisors reportedly ask to keep shrinking the scenario until the poison looks safe. They have reassigned senior scientists to paperwork and handed life-and-death risk assessments to staff with less experience. They have installed former chemical industry lobbyists to run the very offices that are supposed to regulate the chemical industry. A gift to industry, paid for with your family’s health. They are even throwing out research on how certain chemicals hit certain communities harder, calling decades of established science “DEI.” You can make risk disappear on paper. The cancer does not disappear. The birth defects do not disappear. The infertility does not disappear. The kids drinking the water and getting sick do not disappear. The EPA exists to protect people, not to protect the profit margins of the people poisoning them. Every American deserves to know what is happening. #TrumpMakesUsSick cnn.com/2026/06/08/pol…

📣New @BMJMentalHealth study finds that adults with acute infections may face a higher risk of severe mental illness later on. Risks were highest after sepsis & meningitis, highlighting the importance of infection prevention & follow-up care. #PublicHealth mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/29/1/e…

The American Diabetes Association chair elect and conference chair resigned, in the latest update. medpagetoday.com/special-report…

Study looking at COVID variants through 2024 finds essentially 2 types: 1) Respiratory: replicates more efficiently in bronchial and lung tissue 2) Gut: replicates more efficiently in the small intestine Later variants are gut dominant. 1/ nature.com/articles/s4146…

Rates of infection with other pathogens after a +ve #COVID test versus a neg test - more brilliant work from @zalaly and team. COVID causes immune dysregulation and ⬆️risk of other infections. thelancet.com/journals/lanin…

My cancer docs are celebrating all the new drugs coming into the armamentarium, but they say in 2-6 years there’s going to be a lag because do much research has been stopped nytimes.com/2026/06/05/wel… via @NYTimes

Police removed diabetes scientists from the convention center here in New Orleans today after they attempted to pass out copies of an editorial from a peer-reviewed scientific journal (impact factor = 16.6) that was critical of NIH.

New data from David Ho's lab showing that while adults & kids have ~equal antibody responses to XFG & NB.1.8.1, children have essentially no neutralizing antibodies to BA.3.2. This seems to largely solve the BA.3.2 + kids mystery. 1/14