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John Ross

@johnrossmd.bsky.social
13K followers 2.5K following 477 posts

Hospitalist in Boston. FIDSA. Is Ceanadach mé. An Seanduine Liath. #IDSky

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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 33m
New master race just dropped
Elon Musk with a dowager’s hump, gynecomastia, and pencil legs
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
There is no mystery about this condition. Human kidneys did not evolve to tolerate intense heat, dehydration, and prolonged physical labor that clogs kidney tubules with leaked muscle proteins
thehill.com
Kidney disease of unknown origin spreads in US. Who is at risk?
People with CKDu don’t have the classic risk factors of kidney disease, like hypertension or diabetes.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
David Quammen's essay in The New York Times today closes with this paragraph. It's both a scientific falsehood, and an incredibly dangerous narrative. If you're willing to give me five minutes of your time, I'd like to explain why.
The Ebola virus doesn’t need to spill back. It abides in its reservoir host, and awaits its next opportunity. A virus can’t climb out of a bat or a monkey and fly off in search of human prey. It can only spill over. If humans left the reservoir host alone — not hunting it, not capturing it, not eating it, not exporting it live, not disturbing its forest habitat — the virus wouldn’t re-emerge in humans. It would remain where it is, harming no one. But of course that’s not what happens. And when viruses spill, they often spill into us, because the human population is such a big, busy target.
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
God quits Ed Sheeran tour in support of Macklemore
bostonglobe.com
Ed Sheeran’s weekend Gillette concerts canceled due to arriving nor’easter - The Boston Globe
"The decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority," the promoter wrote on social media.
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teamhamiltonhq.bsky.social @teamhamiltonhq.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Meischa was Roger Marshall's patient. This is her story.
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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 21/09/2026
What's happening in Alberta is even more batshit than I ever thought. Danielle Smith is a dangerous psychopath, and the AB separatist movement largely exists because COVID broke far-right brains, and is led by Christo-fascist religious white nationalists, relying on dark money. 2/n
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Boy with time machine meme, in which the boy goes back in time to plant several hundred Roman dodecahedrons to confound modern archeologists
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The Medicaid work requirement in the Big Beautiful Bill will likely cause millions to lose the coverage they gained in the ACA. Likely results: a decline in US life expectancy and an existential crisis for safety net hospitals that will have to treat growing numbers of the uninsured.
kff.org
Tracking Implementation of the 2025 Reconciliation Law: Medicaid Work Requirements | KFF
KFF's interactive tracks key data and policies that will affect how states implement Medicaid work requirements, which are required under the 2025 budget reconciliation law starting in January 2027. T...
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
One way we can reconstruct ancient trade networks is via the presence of foreign coinage. This map shows locations of recovered coins of /purported/ Roman lineage. In 2013, on the island of Okinawa, 4th-century AD Roman bronze coins were excavated from the ruins of Katsuren Castle.
A crude relief/ecology map of Eurasia and Northern Africa, showing the location of Roman coinage (purported, many of these were amateur finds never confirmed), and the concentrations are in Europe, the Nile and India, with some coins in China, Vietnam and Japan.
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My mom had polio when she was five. She was living on a US military base in Japan (1947). Four kids on the base died. She was the only survivor.
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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Not sure if people know Wakefield was trying to sell a competing measles vaccine when he made up his fraudulent study about the MMR. It was only after that failed (because he is a complete fraud) that he started grifting off opposing all vaccines. It’s all just a grift. Antivaxxers are their marks.
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Winnie the Pooh meme
Slob Pooh: Canadian
Tuxedo Pooh: Associate European
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have seen too much cefepime delirium/encephalopathy in the hospitalized elderly, so I try to avoid it unless it’s absolutely necessary. New study shows cefepime is associated with higher all-cause mortality vs comparator antibiotics #IDSky jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
The posterior probability that cefepime was associated with increased mortality was 99.3% vs ceftazidime (OR, 1.30; 95% Crl, 1.06-1.62), 94.7% vs carbapenem (OR, 1.26; 95% Crl, 0.95-1.66), and 77.6% vs piperacillin-tazobactam (OR, 1.09; 95% CrI, 0.87-1.34).
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Mara Wilson @marawilson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Having grown up in it, much of Hollywood (and yes, TV journalism IS Hollywood) is just Hanlon’s razor. Incompetence, rather than malice.
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Siddharth Kogilwaimath, MD FIDSA @hivdocsk.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I miss the chatter and engagement of #IDTwitter and I realise I should be more active!! Here’s my attempt: who’s actually going to be at #IDWeek @idweek.bsky.social ??
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Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Another measles death. 18 years old. Unvaccinated. See also: www.pa.gov/agencies/hea... H/T @melodyschreiber.com @tom.medsky.social
Letter from Coroner of Mifflin County confirming the death of an 18 year old from measles, ADEM.
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Cychlorphine, a new synthetic opioid, is 10 times as potent as fentanyl, not detected by standard lab tests, and may be less susceptible to reversal by naloxone. Use of *multiple doses* of Narcan is advised cychlorphine OD is suspected
Critically, respiratory depression assayed by non-invasive plethysmography was most pronounced for fluorphine, chlorphine, and brorphine; and, concerningly, for some compounds, pre-treatment with naloxone (6 mg/kg i.p.) only partially reversed respiratory depression, indicating possible non-opioid contributions to toxicity or receptor kinetics that differ from classical opioids.6 Similarly partial naloxone reversal of cardiorespiratory impairment induced by these analogs in vivo was reported.6 The preclinical findings, extrapolated to the N-propionitrile modification in cychlorphine, suggest a drug with extremely potent MOR agonism, pronounced respiratory depressant capacity, and potentially complex naloxone reversal dynamics in overdose scenarios.
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Daily reminder that poverty kills
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Boston Public Health Commission @publichealth.boston.gov · 14/09/2026
Since measles continues to impact communities across the US, we're sharing an update on what's going on in Boston. Here's what you need to know. There have been no recent outbreaks of measles in Boston because we have maintained our herd immunity (vaccination rate above 95%) ⬇️
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Locally-acquired dengue cases in Florida up to 111 this year, mostly in Tampa Bay (including one fatality). Hillsborough County officials have been conducting mass aerial spraying of low-dose Dibrom (naled), an organophosphate banned in the EU due to its dubious safety in pregnancy
wfla.com
Nearly 100 dengue fever cases reported in Hillsborough County; 111 across Florida
Dengue fever cases have spiked once again in Hillsborough County, which leads the state in the number of reported cases.
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
For those not on the other site: the Kansas Jayhawks made a rivalry hype video that repeatedly references John Brown. x.com/ku_football/...
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is the Rood Approach, a sensory stimulation technique used to activate weak muscles after stroke. Trump has had a wonky right leg since his mystery visit to Walter Reed in September 2020. This 2020 clip shows circumduction gait, in which the weak leg is dragged in a semicircle after a stroke.
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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is seismic news for fisheries scientists. Northern cod is *the* iconic symbol of total fisheries collapse due to overfishing (and other factors) *and* the iconic symbol of a complete failure to recover for decades afterwards. This is like announcing the complete recovery of bison on land.
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Nothings Monstered @nothingsmonstrd.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
One excellent remedy for the Male Loneliness Epidemic I haven't seen on the op-ed pages would be to bring union membership up to where it was in the good old days. This would also be useful for non-male loneliness, and other things.
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Antebellum politics is fascinating, the South kept getting policy concessions and whipped themselves up into a paranoid rage anyway, essentially because they couldn't stand being culturally judged for having slaves
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krat @kwholesaler.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Maha is just another astroturfed front in the American Reactionary Movement. This movement is responsible for every public health crisis: climate, automobile deaths, gun violence, homelessness, poverty. Its the Don't Tell Me What To Do movement. They are few but they're mobilized for war.
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Julia Raifman, ScD @juliaraifman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
In a new pre-print, researchers identified a policy they estimate could save 114K lives + $1 Trillion per year: Medicare for All 📉 Saves administrative costs (+ time) 🩺 Improves access to care 💊 Reduces cost of meds 🌾 + Keeps rural & children’s hospitals open www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
Graph depicting cost savings with Medicare for All, with full description in linked paper
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Deforestation in Italy had become so severe by the Emperor Augustus’ time that wealthy Romans were importing timber from 1000 miles away for their villas
journals.plos.org
Dendrochronological evidence for long-distance timber trading in the Roman Empire
An important question for our understanding of Roman history is how the Empire’s economy was structured, and how long-distance trading within and between its provinces was organised and achieved. More...
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Miranda Yaver @mirandayaver.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Prioritizing erectile dysfunction research over addressing infant mortality, cancer screenings, and suicide prevention tells you basically everything you need to know about this administration's health priorities.
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Lab leakers be like
Crying Wojak meme
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Haven’t put up the Labor Day decorations yet, gotta run to Walmart to pick up an animated dancing Eugene V. Debs
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MapQuest @mapquest.com · 27/08/2026
We’re not changing it.
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Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre @olgatennisonautism.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
For our annual Research Showcase tomorrow, Dr Patrick Dwyer will present on - Monotropism: Understanding Autistic Minds. Read more: otarc.blogs.latrobe.edu.au/dr-patrick-d... Registrations are open here: events.humanitix.com/2026-otarc-r... #OTARC #LaTrobeUni #monotropism
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Russian outbreak of infection with multiple parasitic flukes and worms blamed on North Korean migrants. If true, this suggests that population health in North Korea is really, really bad.
news.sbs.co.kr
Surge in Parasite Infections in Small Russian Coal Town Blamed on Influx of North Korean Workers
According to a 2025 epidemiological report recently released by health authorities in Russia's Rostov Oblast, cases of soil-transmitted parasitic infections such as trichuriasis and ascariasis, as wel...
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Man with no penis has opinions
hollywoodreporter.com
Randy Quaid Slams Tom Cruise Over Anne Hathaway ‘Days of Thunder 2’ Role: “Anne Isn’t Sexy”
The original 'Thunder' co-star posted an offensive rant about 'The Odyssey' star being cast in the sequel: "If you haven’t noticed, she’s pregnant."
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Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
"So, what did the study actually find? In short, vaccines passed with flying colors. In every comparison, risk was lower with vaccination than without vaccination." thelogicofscience.com/2026/08/28/c...
thelogicofscience.com
COVID vaccines are safer than COVID itself
Some of the most persistent myths and misconceptions around COVID19 vaccines concern the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly in young people. A massive new study has obliterated thes…
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Keri Crewson, M.D. @kericrewsonmd.medsky.social · 30/08/2026
Do farts break the surgical field? Good question actually.
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Tarini Grace @candidkitten.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Fun fact, polio massively affects recovery, if people actually want to know why his recovery is taking forever
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This baby was born with active measles infection (known to increase perinatal mortality) and had an enlarged fragile spleen (a known complication of measles infection)
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Typhus, historically associated with war and famine, is making a comeback in rat-infested American cities, with 220 cases in LA county and 1100 cases in Texas in 2025 #IDSky
city-journal.org
The Typhus Rats of Los Angeles
A medieval disease is rocking the vermin-ridden county.
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The Obama administration spent north of $6 billion fighting Ebola in 2014-15, not including USAID monies. Current guy has spent about $500 million.
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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Important thread on how Trump’s insane trade war with Canada will screw over Republican Senate candidates in key northern states (Maine, Alaska, Ohio, and Michigan).
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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
He’s a child. A dangerous child.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Two people have died in Pennsylvania from measles, the state health department said. Both were unvaccinated. These the first deaths related to measles within the state in 35 years, it reports
abcnews.com
2 people die from measles in Pennsylvania
Two people have died in Pennsylvania from measles, the state health department said Tuesday.
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Josh Trebach, MD @jtrebach.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
As an ER doctor I hate these e-bikes… Please wear a helmet Don’t drink alcohol and e-bike Don’t carry a baby while riding an e-bike Don’t e-bike after taking your blood thinners and reminiscing about your last hip fracture
Graph titled Estimated e-bike injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms, 2020-2025
National estimates extrapolated from the CPSC NEISS hospital sample.
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
If Trumpism wasn't the logical endpoint of Reagan / Bush, it would not have done nearly as much damage, because it would have been halted by all those federal judges and justices who came of age under (or were literally appointed by) Reagan / Bush. Instead, they happily accelerated it.
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Strahan Cadell 🇨🇦🇻🇦🇺🇦🇬🇱 @quincunctial.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Finished reading Making Sense of the Troubles by McKittrick. It is mindblowing how close the psychology, the activities, the culture and the responses to events of Northern Irish Unionists and American Confederates were and are. Parallel after parallel after parallel.
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
This isn't the first time the USA has placed 50% tariffs on Canada. In 1890, the USA's Tariff Act was touted as a way to build up American industry, but the true goal was forcing the annexation of Canada. It backfired and made Canada stronger. This is the story. 📸 LoC 🧵1/10
Political cartoon criticizing the Republican platform for favoring untaxed whiskey (jug labeled "Untaxed Whiskey 20¢ Gal.") while presenting war‑taxed common cloth with an 89% tariff, highlighting perceived hypocrisy.
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John Ross @johnrossmd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The effects of climate change on disease are unpredictable. Yellow fever outbreaks are usually driven by heavy rain, but a recent epidemic in Brazil occurred during drought. Monkey carriers migrated to cities in search of water, and mosquitoes vectors bit more than usual to avoid dehydration #IDSky
science.org
Drought dynamics explain once in a century yellow fever virus outbreak in Brazil with implications for climate change
While excess rainfall is associated with mosquito-borne disease because it supports mosquito breeding, drought may also counterintuitively increase disease transmission by altering mosquito and host b...
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Miranda Yaver @mirandayaver.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
A few things worth noting here: LOTS of prior auth denials are reversed upon appeal. The reversal rate upon appeal can be even higher when AI is being deployed. But appealing is very taxing, as my book Coverage Denied illustrates, which is why I characterize this as rationing care by inconvenience.
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