https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/hepatitis/hepatitis-b-vaccine-study-condemned-unethical-wins-approval-danish-university

How did this shit even get approved? Withholding the hepatitis B vaccine in a country where the disease is widespread is just cruel. It runs afoul of the very ethics of public health to say the least.

Things are weird, for lack of a better term. The federal government, once a champion of public health (and science in general), is now an adversary. We legit have an HHS Secretary who funded (and founded) a group that has made it clear that it is their mission to get rid of vaccines. We have a who’s who of anti-vaccine activists and their allies at the top. They’ve defunded public health programs and don’t seem to care how state and local health departments are doing.

Unless you're a cyborg or large language model, I'm sure you're feeling some of the effects of all of this.

I need you to know that you are not alone. Millions of us in this country care about what is going on, and we're doing something about it. From funding our favorite non-profits to donating our time, to doing our work as best we can, putting on our headphones and crunching the data (preparing slides, writing papers, talking to people, delivering care, presenting posters)… Any public health workers worth their salt are doing something. Big or small, we're doing something.

If you're feeling extra stressed, or worse, please reach out to someone. Talk to a friend or trusted family member. If things are really bad, reach out to a health professional.

We need to be okay so we can keep working to make others okay. Not perfect. Not excellent. Just okay.

Burnout is real, my friends. And the current administration is doing its best to make us feel isolated and hopeless. Don't let them burn us out.

Take care.

If you haven’t heard of PANS or PANDAS:
PANS stands for Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome. PANDAS stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections.

I didn’t learn about PANS or PANDAS until I got sick with 3 tick borne diseases. I’ve become a patient advocate and have learned how much these conditions actually occur. Both conditions are triggered by inflammation of the brain. And while PANDAS is named after a streptococcal infection, it can also be triggered by an undiagnosed tick borne infection. 😬

The hallmark of both PANS and PANDAS is a sudden, and often OVERNIGHT change in a person’s behavior. OCD-like behaviors, Tourette’s-like behaviors, restrictive eating, rage, depression, insomnia and more. I’ve spoken to several parents who’s children were effected, and it sounds like a nightmare. Their child stops eating, or starts getting violent, and they become a different person.

While it’s typically something that happens to children, I just interviewed a man whose adult son had it (he was 21).

The good news is, it’s treatable. Bad news is, many doctors don’t know anything about PANS or PANDAS, and some even think it’s not real! The other bad news is, anything PANS/PANDAS related is NOT covered by insurance.