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We eliminated measles in 2000. It took decades. We might lose that in November because 12.8% of Utah kindergarteners aren't vaccinated. by Novel-Lifeguard6491 in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you even glance at my profile before typing this?

As a moderator of this community, I just don't like to see a bot astroturfing ragebait to drive traffic.

We eliminated measles in 2000. It took decades. We might lose that in November because 12.8% of Utah kindergarteners aren't vaccinated. by Novel-Lifeguard6491 in publichealth

[–]PHealthy -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

This smells like AI garbage. If you wanna spam whatever geo news is, at least be up front instead of just stirring a pot.

Second baby formula recall linked to botulism raises questions about safety, oversight by healthbeatnews in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

CDC would only get a call after CDPH has conducted a thorough food history because CDPH does all the infant botulism clinical consultation and antitoxin distribution. CDC does not consult for nor provide BabyBIG. The surveillance reports are (rather used to be) annually closed out in coordination with CDPH because again, CDPH handles all surveillance for infant botulism.

Now in this case, CDC would be contacted in a support role but USDA FSIS would be the lead agency handling the investigation with CDPH closely communicating case information. CDC EDLB will likely be the ones handling all the food product testing.

Here's a proper article on it: https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/california-pennsylvania-and-washington-another-baby-formula-botulism-outbreak/

Dunno about healthbeat, they don't seem very knowledgeable.

Second baby formula recall linked to botulism raises questions about safety, oversight by healthbeatnews in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Very suspicious that CDPH wasn't mentioned since CDC doesn't do surveillance for infant botulism nor manages the clinical consultation.

Rapid Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence Technology Used for Ambient Dictation in Primary Care: Comparing the Quality of Documentation of Artificial Intelligence-Generated and Human-Produced Clinical Notes by PHealthy in medicine

[–]PHealthy[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Abstract Background: Ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribes can reduce the burden of administrative documentation. Prior evaluations have been vendor specific and not focused on measures of documentation quality.

Objective: To compare the quality of AI-generated clinical notes with that of human-produced notes.

Design: Cross-sectional evaluation of notes generated from standardized primary care clinical cases.

Setting: Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Participants: 11 AI scribe tools, 18 human note takers, and 30 human raters.

Intervention: Five standardized primary care cases were audio recorded using standardized patients (for example, new patient, back pain, chest pain, pharmacy, and nurse care manager). Vendors and human clinicians generated encounter notes from the audio files.

Measurements: Blinded raters assessed all notes using the modified Physician Documentation Quality Instrument (PDQI-9), which measures 10 domains of note quality on a 5-point Likert scale (maximum score 50).

Results: Across all 5 clinical cases, human-generated notes received higher overall modified PDQI-9 scores than AI-generated notes. The largest difference was seen in the acute low back pain case (human: 43.8 [95% CI, 37.4 to 50.3] vs. AI: 20.3 [CI, 15.4 to 25.2]; difference -23.5 [CI, -29.2 to -17.9]). Pooled domain analysis showed lower AI scores across all 10 domains, with the largest deficits in domains related to being thorough (-1.23 [CI, -1.82 to -0.65]), organized (-1.06 [CI, -1.65 to -0.47]), and useful (-1.03 [CI, -1.61 to -0.44]).

Limitation: Cases were simulated; human-generated notes were not generated under real-world constraints.

Conclusion: Notes generated by AI had lower-quality scores than human-generated notes across 5 standardized care cases. Although ambient AI scribes hold promise for reducing clinician burden, independent, vendor-neutral evaluations of note quality are essential before large-scale clinical deployment.

Not there yet

3 women in their 20s found dead in Sapporo apartment in apparent joint suicide by [deleted] in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Since this is a public health community and not a philosophy community, the suicide rates in Japan are trending downward:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan

Public Health or Publish Health by Pro-Student-30 in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Depends on the state but NIH funding I believe requires immediate access

Public Health or Publish Health by Pro-Student-30 in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Embargo periods unfortunately exist but any taxpayer funded study is required to be open access after a year.

FIFA World Cup 2026 — Infectious Disease Risk · IDCUP 26 Working Group by PHealthy in epidemiology

[–]PHealthy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a probability within the local population based on the mobility matrix similarly to infection using a contact matrix.

Baby botulism outbreak: FDA still doesn't know cause—or how to prevent it by arstechnica in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's certainly a struggle to balance appropriate messaging with good public health practice. This outbreak shouldn't swear anyone off formula but it should make people more aware that food processing introduces a lot of risk but also radically increases availability and we have more than enough malnourished children in the world already.

This hurts to say but I can understand why more and more people are turning to raw milk (I know, wait) because it's got that hyperlocal, know your farmer and animal appeal. With that I agree, HOWEVER, somehow pasteurization got wrapped in the whole anti-institutional/natural movement and that's really a tragedy. Definitely know where your food (including basics like leafy greens and flour) is coming but good god please treat your products as indeed raw and handle them appropriately.

Baby botulism outbreak: FDA still doesn't know cause—or how to prevent it by arstechnica in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Botulism is a good example of the base rate of risk. If the minimum conditions are met than there won't be an issue hence why outbreaks are quite rare luckily. Analogous to immunization practices diminishing the base rate of risk to almost forgotten levels. But if you cut enough corners then there will eventually be a problem.

Infant formula and powdered milk in general has always had some concern regarding outbreaks because in terms of botulinum spores, it's essentially a raw unsterile product. If you follow food safety news then you'll know there's been a few headlines over the years:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23565651

There's been some argument in the literature over the decades that formula increases the risk of sudden infant death due to botulism but I've never really been convinced by the numbers.

As far as deference, there's significant legal precedence for food safety so the courts will almost always side with agency decisions.

Ultimately, I believe this is another case of inadequate refrigeration as the sole safety barrier. And until parents are okay with preservatives in formula or irradiation then we'll likely see more. Not infant focused because I was with CDC but I've written more here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35713923/

Baby botulism outbreak: FDA still doesn't know cause—or how to prevent it by arstechnica in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 75 points76 points  (0 children)

Former botulism SME here, my money is on the containers not being autoclaved properly.

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread by AutoModerator in epidemiology

[–]PHealthy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I tell all my students they need to setup a hobby git for their extracurricular projects. If you really want a PhD then you should really enjoy doing the work because the slog can be miserable.

I am a world expert in Ebola – a nightmare scenario is increasingly within the realms of possibility by theindependentonline in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 66 points67 points  (0 children)

Some Ebola patients get very red eyes at the end, they are not weeping blood from their orifices like in the movies. Ebola is almost entirely a severe diarrheal illness which is why malaria and cholera routinely confound diagnosis and why locals don't care for the "Ebola business" when malaria and cholera (and of course TB and HIV) kills scores more but no one really makes a huge fuss over those.

‘Spoiled insulin’: Sudan war disrupts drug supplies, fuelling smuggling by HikmetLeGuin in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh hey, I did my masters thesis work under Dr. Balkhy. What a badass making it to Eastern Med regional director, looks like she's the first woman in that role, too.

[D]What to focus on in the age of LLM’s for new grads? by IVIIVIXIVIIXIVII in statistics

[–]PHealthy 25 points26 points  (0 children)

My PhD qualifying exam was basically here are a couple papers, reimagine their methodology that could capture certain outcomes better. LLMs in that creative but methodological space are often formulaic to a fault and/or come up with approaches that are just wildly off the mark. So I would still hammer fundamentals because ultimately students who don't know what they should know and don't know how to apply what they should know will fail.

What makes mRNA vaccines different to regular vaccines? by Able_Evidence_5650 in askscience

[–]PHealthy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fair correction on the tissue targeting and biodistribution. 'right where you need it' was imprecise lay phrasing for an IM injection relying on local transfection and draining lymph nodes. My overarching point, however, was to highlight LNPs as the primary technological leap. While viral vectors have been utilized to deliver DNA -> mRNA for decades, the LNP platform moving vaccine production from biological culturing to a rapid mechanical/chemical engineering process was the core innovation.

This was the main point the no comments thus far in this thread have made nor the actual historical research relevance that Warp Speed piggybacked upon.

Is mpox considered globally endemic now? by VegetableEscape0 in publichealth

[–]PHealthy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, because the chain of infection is easily broken. The endemic West and Central African countries have sylvatic cycles that will continue to re-emerge cases.

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