Wow. A microbiology lab at Texas A&M accepted purchased raw milk samples from NPR for H5N1 testing, then contacted the milk producers to seek permission. When the producers said, "don't test our milk," the lab not only declined to carry out the tests but also refused to send the samples on to another lab.
In the age of "you do you" public health, it's not just that the government won't/can't guarantee food safety - this public university won't even let you get it tested. That's how much more value they put on agriculture than consumers' rights/transparency/public health.
Ok, I edited the first post in this thread because there's no June 6-7 meeting after all. When I emailed them to ask about the agenda, they posted this: #HICPAC
Hi #medlibs -- some positivity for you. For years I've been offering trainings around graduation time about practicing evidence-based public health without an academic library.
In past years, the people who showed up were mostly university staff who also teach at other local universities, wanting info about getting around paywalls for their students at less-resourced institutions. Very few new grads!
Just got a peer review request from a journal I didn't know, and because the topic was right up my alley I went and looked up the journal -- diamond OA, CC-BY, author retains copyright -- all things I want to support. None of which they mentioned in the request.
Don't hide your light under a bushel, handling editors!
This made me feel a lot better:
As of Friday, CDC recommends that people working with animals potentially infected with bird flu use PPE including respirators, implicitly acknowledging airborne/aerosol/“through the air airborne transmission/inhalation.”
About the IAQ aerostability of SARS-CoV-2 paper that has been all over COVID-cautious Mastodon - it's fascinating (and open access).
Haddrell et al (2024). Ambient carbon dioxide concentration correlates with SARS-CoV-2 aerostability and infection risk. Nature Communications, 15(1), 3487. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47777-5
To contextualize their finding that "a significant increase in SARS-CoV-2 aerostability results from a moderate increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (e.g. 800 ppm)," take a look at the CO2 ppm readings from two meetings I attended in person last week.These meetings were both in a recently renovated (2019 IIRC) building with mechanical ventilation.
So - if you are that unusual type of person who is both COVID cautious and trusting towards building managers - well, spaces in this recently renovated building, at a university that can afford to have nice things, when used as intended (ie, not overcrowded and not doing more physical activity than expected) are reaching these CO2 concentrations. FYI.
"All of the artwork for this podcast series has been created with a generative AI image-to-image tool! The prompt for this episode was 'open and free science available to all communities as an abstract painting.'"
Does this make anyone more likely to subscribe to the podcast? #medlibs
Surprised in a good way to see #APHA members writing a joint consensus statement with AIHA members: "Public Health Experts Urge CDC’s Advisory Committee to Follow the Science and Protect Health Care Workers and Patients"
If you want to read or sign (deadline April 12): https://forms.gle/1s4neNoXFKUrThvh6 #HICPAC