(she/her) I teach people how to use bioinformatics to study biology. digital biology, education #BlackLivesMatter @digitalbio.bsky.social
Seattle
Joined March 2009
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Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
Why give boys a cervical cancer vaccine?
Because HPV causes 60-70% of US throat cancers, and about 10% of men carry oral HPV
Men don't have a cervix. They do have tonsils
AND they can pass it on to women
cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyn…
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
In Scotland 🏴, researchers found zero cervical cancer cases among women fully vaccinated against HPV at age 12–13.
ZERO
Quacks have promised a cancer-preventing miracle for centuries.
Scientists quietly built a real one.
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
Meet Dr. Immanuel Pfeiffer.
In 1902, this Boston physician believed healthy living could protect him against smallpox. He opposed vaccination and decided to demonstrate his confidence by visiting a hospital full of smallpox patients.
What happened next deserves a special place in the history of medical overconfidence.
And if today’s terrain-theory enthusiasts sound familiar, there’s a reason.
A historical tale of Natural Hygiene, anti-vaccination activism, and an extraordinarily unforgiving encounter with reality. 🧵
🤖 Made with AI
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
None of these people should ever have jobs in health or science ever again.
This week, I joined @NIHDirector_Jay, @DrOzCMS, and @DrSchwartzCDC at NIH to open a historic clinic dedicated to studying and caring for patients experiencing health problems following vaccination.
We must listen to patients and families who report vaccine injuries—not dismiss or gaslight them. President Trump and I are building a health system that takes them seriously, follows the evidence, and uses what we learn to make vaccines safer.
This is how we earn back trust in our public health institutions.
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
Researchers have found that within two months of infection, measles wiped out 11 to 73 percent of the range of antibodies children had acquired over their lifetimes.
Our Ask A Doctor columnist explains the consequences of catching measles:
wapo.st/4zmSy5Z
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
We don’t usually think of cancer as an infectious disease. But in 2024, infections were linked to around 2.3 million cancer cases worldwide.
Some can be prevented with vaccines, others can be treated or cured, making infection prevention an important part of cancer prevention, too.
The full list...👇🧵
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
In states with abortion bans, medical providers are hesitating or flat-out refusing to terminate ectopic pregnancies, lawsuits allege.
“I genuinely thought I was going to die,” said Kyleigh Thurman, who couldn’t get care in Texas.
propublica.org/article/ectop…
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
Trump wants to kick kids experiencing homelessness out of Head Start while using more of your tax dollars for war.
The public comment period on his cruel rule is NOW. Speak out and help SAVE Head Start.
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
In 2019, measles swept through Samoa, infecting 5,707 people and killing 83—most of them young children.
Did RFK Jr. contribute to the magnitude of that catastrophe?
Newly disclosed correspondence tells us considerably more about why he went to Samoa and what he hoped to do there.
But answering the larger question requires separating documented conduct, epidemiologic evidence and causal inference.
A carefully sourced thread. 🧵
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
Data for vaccine benefit in children
"Since 1974, vaccination has averted 154 million deaths, including 146 million among children younger than 5 years of whom 101 million were infants younger than 1 year."
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
The most striking benefit was for vaccination vs measles (Figure)
The childhood vaccine distortions today by executive order will further add to the marked increase in US measles cases, currently the highest in 35 years.
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
RFK Jr. is actively censoring scientific research to try and rewrite reality.
The COVID vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalizations. That's a FACT. It's supported by SCIENCE.
THIS is why it is so dangerous for a conspiracy theorist to be leading our nation's health.
A covid vaccine study that the CDC halted over methodological concerns was published in a leading medical journal.
It found that the vaccine reduced the risk of emergency room visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half last winter. wapo.st/4uTHf2C
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
As #HPV vaccine coverage continues to rise, cervical cancer deaths among young women plummeted.
In the most highly vaccinated cohorts, deaths fell to ZERO.
Among unvaccinated women, mortality rates barely changed.
Vaccines save lives.
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
Cervical cancer deaths fall to zero in young women given vaccine bbc.in/4ovjOLq
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
Abortion bans kill women.
More from @alexismcgill at today’s forum to hold Republicans accountable for the chaos and pain they have unleashed on American women.
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
Two of the most important biomedical breakthroughs came from science of the Gila lizard venom (GLP-1s) and yogurt (CRISPR genome editing).
"The system that turned that lizard into a medicine is now being dismantled."
"Less support for scientists means strange questions no one will get to chase."
gift link nytimes.com/2026/06/20/opini…
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
I don't care who you are—we should ALL be able to agree that detaining babies and kids is WRONG. There's no other way to put it.
ICE is out of control, and every Republican who just voted to cut them ANOTHER blank check is complicit in their inhumane actions. ms.now/news/trump-ice-detent…
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
WHO declares health emergency due to Ebola outbreak in Congo w 80+ deaths. Undetected for weeks. USAID and CDC once worked there to strengthen surveillance. As I wrote in 2023, that cut detection to <48 hrs & costs. That’s now gone. This is the result.
nytimes.com/2023/12/25/opini…
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
This is the kind of work, published today, that should be fully supported and prioritized at the highest level. Currently, there is no vaccine vs the Ebola Bundibugyo virus, the source of a major outbreak pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.25…
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
We've seen the Shingles vaccine is linked with reduced risk of Alzheimer's and dementias in 4 large natural experiments.
Today, the potential of high-dose flu vaccines vs standard dose for the same in a large retrospective age 65+ cohort [N>160,000). More pronounced in women (like Shingles vaccine)
neurology.org/doi/pdf/10.121…
Dr. Sandra Porter retweeted
What if we could engineer T cells in the body, making CAR T vs cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other applications far more practical, much less expensive?
A step forward today via genome editing T cells
nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
