An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
February 27th, 2025
Tragic Childhood Death from Measles Reminds Us That Some Don’t Understand Either the Medical Significance or the Human Heart
My ID colleague Dr. Adam Ratner, Chief of Pediatric ID at NYU Medical Center, just published an insightful and remarkably timely book called Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health. Chapter Six is entitled “Making Nothing Happen,” and it starts off with this especially profound paragraph: Prevention can […]
February 21st, 2025
The Language Grouch Returns
If you’re an ID doctor, there’s a lot to be grouchy about these days. This. This. THIS! The list is long — and growing. Longtime readers with an interest in ID: I ask that you please contact your members of Congress to convey the harmful impacts of the workforce cuts at the CDC, NIH, VA, […]
February 14th, 2025
This Year Influenza Came Back to Remind Us It’s Not Messing Around
If it seems like pretty much everyone you know either has the flu or is recovering from it, it’s because we’re in the middle of the worst flu season in over a decade. Take a look at this figure, from our state’s surveillance data, updated yesterday: The result of all this “influenza-like illness”? Patients are […]
February 6th, 2025
Could This Be the End of PEPFAR?
Short email from a longtime colleague, working in Africa at a PEPFAR site: Without USAID, PEPFAR is essentially dead. I got chills reading this. PEPFAR, the abbreviation for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started in 2003 under the direction of President George W. Bush. To say it’s been a resounding success undersells the […]

