Senior Health Reporter at @ArsTechnica. PhD in microbiology. Microbes, infectious diseases, public health, questionable puns. Find me @bethmariem.bsky.social
Joined September 2011
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Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
State childhood vaccination programs face budget cuts from CDC
arstechnica.com/?p=1951939&u…
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
"Pregnant women in states with abortion bans are nearly three times more likely to die giving birth."
At a budget hearing before the House today, @SecBecerra discussed the importance of family planning services and access to abortion and contraception.
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
“It literally can pulverize bones … it can provide this blast effect.”
The AR-15 is the weapon of choice for many mass killers. The Post sought to illustrate the lethal force of the weapon and show in detail its catastrophic effects. wapo.st/3lF9moX
ALT Image featuring text reading: "THE BLAST EFFECT: This is how bullets from an AR-15 blow the body apart. Editor's note: We are publishing these 3D animations to show the destructive power of the AR-15. The images in this story may disturb some people."
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
My latest: Moderna made >$37 billion from the lovely Covid vaccines that taxpayers helped fund & now they're raising prices.
But this is sort of the government's fault. End the drug-pricing showdowns @BernieSanders etc. Put conditions on research funding. washingtonpost.com/opinions/…
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
Good hand hygiene has always been a smart idea. Instead of ridiculing people who are doing something, anything, to try to keep themselves and others safe, let’s devote our scorn to those leaders who have only exacerbated an epidemic that has killed >1.1 million Americans.
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
COVID cases are rising across America as folks gather for the holidays.
That's why, starting today, every household can order 4 free COVID tests to be shipped straight to your door.
Head to COVIDTests.gov to get yours.
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
At the Indianapolis airport, on my way for the first of two work trips this week.
Vaccinated, wearing my mask, and using plenty of hand sanitizer while traveling. Covid aside, I don’t want to get flu or RSV (or any other viruses circulating) before Christmas! 😷 💉 🎅🏾
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
Good to see!
Quack (naturopath & homeopath) who sold sham #COVID “immunization pellets” gets 3 yrs in prison arstechnica.com/?post_type=p… @BethMarieMole
"...profited from peddling unapproved remedies, stirring up false fears, & generating fake proof of vaccinations."
Glad to see stories on this topic. Patient education, follow-up, proactive measures are critical. But it would've been great if the article noted that adding preeclampsia to cardiovascular risk calculators doesn't actually change risk estimates.
A simple screening question could help millions of women prevent cardiovascular disease. Why aren’t we using it? trib.al/fL3NpZD
"[A]djustment for conventional cardiovascular risk factors eliminates entirely, or almost entirely, any association observed between hypertension during pregnancy (including preeclampsia) and cardiovascular disease."
nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NE…
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
Insulin is WAY more expensive in the US than any other country.
One of insulin’s discoverers famously said it “does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.”
I imagine that concept might be a little hard for Elon to understand.
(Also, he said ‘patented’-that was indeed 1923)
Full answer to insulin price question is complex. Short answer is that original insulin, discovered in 1921 (not 1923), is inexpensive, costing as little as $25.
New, higher efficacy analog variants of insulin are more expensive. @CommunityNotes
time.com/6076709/walmart-low…
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
A RAND study in 2020 found that, in the United States, the average price of a standard unit of insulin analog is $99.94, but in non-U.S. OECD countries, the average price is $9.32.
rand.org/content/dam/ra…
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
Good news on COVID-19 variants. The current sub-lineages BQ.1s & XBBs are not causing a deadly wave of infections in world. In South Africa, which many times see things early in Omicron evolution BQ1s & XBB low prevalence & no cause for great concern.
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
Core problem is this: there's no real evidence for lab origin, but due to China's obfuscation, it can't be definitively refuted either. So it become a sort of Rorschach test that hinges on your priors.
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
Where are we with the hygiene hypothesis?
I asked an immunologist about the idea that kids need to be exposed to germs in order to develop healthy immune systems. Should we be worried about all the infections kids *didn't* get during the pandemic?
caitlinrivers.substack.com/p…
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
Walmart, CVS face trial for putting sham homeopathic products next to real meds arstechnica.com/?post_type=p… by @BethMarieMole ht @ArcheeDebunker
"...homeopathy is a debunked pseudoscience that dabbles with toxic substances intended to be diluted into oblivion."
#GoScience!
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
For those in Canada wondering if we're missing out by getting the Moderna BA.1 bivalent instead of the BA.4/5 version, @BethMarieMole has a nice write-up on an early study showing they're about equally good (in mice) and both better than the original. arstechnica.com/science/2022…
Moderna suing Pfizer and BioNTech: Lowe notes that Moderna is itself facing lawsuits, including from the NIH.
"This has every sign of being long, slow, and complex, and it will keep a lot of IP attorneys occupied for years to come."
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Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
The #polio outbreak in NY has #antivaxxers celebrating, spreading lies, and generally happy.
arstechnica.com/science/2022…
Beth Marie Mole (she/her) retweeted
incredibly well written review of COVID19 along 6 false dichotomies. Must read for everyone with a real interest in Covid science . Spoiler: not black and wide but shades of grey and those need to be communicated. Really great work bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.c… @KindrachukJason
