Epidemiologist and science communicator | newsletter: epiellie.substack.com | cohost @casualinfer podcast | Causal inference for public health #epitwitter | Canadian in US 🇨🇦 | she/her/Dr
@epiellie.bsky.socialThanks 😊
Dr Ellie Murray, ScD
@epiellie.bsky.social
@epiellie.bsky.social@epiellie.bsky.socialHi, I’m good. Just dealing with some personal upheaval at the moment, but will have a big announcement soon & hopefully be more regularly back online!
@epiellie.bsky.socialThis does look interesting. Thanks for sharing!
@epiellie.bsky.social😆
@epiellie.bsky.socialAnd what does this guy spend his time doing that he is infected with so many parasites?!
@epiellie.bsky.socialOh yeah, I’m so bad at it. I havent gotten past the lungs. But I love it anyway.
@epiellie.bsky.socialNot exactly the right category of thing but I’m kinda obsessed with Pathogenic right now
@juliaraifman.bsky.socialReposted by @epiellie.bsky.socialIn a new pre-print, researchers identified a policy they estimate could save 114K lives + $1 Trillion per year: Medicare for All
📉 Saves administrative costs (+ time)
🩺 Improves access to care
💊 Reduces cost of meds
🌾 + Keeps rural & children’s hospitals open
@epiellie.bsky.socialIt sounds like you’d potentially want to err on the side of better safe than sorry & get the shingles vaccine, but definitely talk to you doctors about whether your other medical conditions might affect whether the vaccine is a good idea for you personally.
@epiellie.bsky.socialI’ll say this: I personally will be getting the shingles vaccine when I’m eligible because shingles sucks. But chickenpox also really sucked & if I could have not had that I very happily would have, even if it meant I still had to get the shingles vaccine.
@epiellie.bsky.socialThanks, I guess it’s a matter of probabilities but maybe not so unnecessary as I thought.
@epiellie.bsky.socialIf you had the chicken pox vaccine & have never had any symptoms, the chances of shingles are almost nill. At the moment, there’s no good evidence that the shingles vaccine does anything other than prevent shingles, so no I wouldn’t recommend it in this case. But, as always, talk to your doc!
@epiellie.bsky.socialLove this! We need more and better descriptive studies.
For those whose descriptive psych studies are somewhat epidemiologic in nature, might I recommend this paper on how to do good descriptive work👇🏼 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35774001/
@epiellie.bsky.socialNice explanation of why you should be skeptical of the latest shingles vaccine side benefit study. Shingles sucks big time & that alone is enough reason to get the vaccine. Would it be nice if it were also a magic cure-all? Sure. But how likely is that.
@epiellie.bsky.socialTapping the sign…
@epiellie.bsky.socialFACT CHECK: This viral graph from twitter claims to *prove* vaccines cause autism. But there's something fishy about the data! Let's dive in.
@epiellie.bsky.socialCausal inference is to statistics as statistics is to math. Many mathematicians think they know all there is to know about statistics but would struggle to do the work of a statistician.
@epiellie.bsky.socialFive public health facts RFK Jr doesn't want you to know: 1. Vaccines work and are safe. 2. Solid fats aren't health foods. 3. Random dead animals you find lying around are not safe to touch (or eat). 4. Methylene blue is a dye, not a miracle cure. 5. Measles is bad for you.