Could a routine vaccine help protect your brain? Explore emerging research on the association between shingles vaccination and reduced dementia risk with me, Ron Swan, Jay Ingram & @asek47.bsky.social. Tune in at defydementia.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. www.baycrest.org/podcast/epis...

I was so touched to be mentioned in @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social 's Dean of the Faculty of Health Science (Dr. Paul O'Byrne) opinion piece in @thespec1846.bsky.social. So nice to see so many of my infectious disease research colleagues mentioned. I love my job. www.thespec.com/opinion/cont...

I love phagocytosis- the most ancient form of immunity (estimated at 1 billion yrs old!). Lucky to geek out with all the other macrophage and neutrophil geeks at beautiful Keble college, Oxford.

One of the challenges is being able to compare immunologic assays done across the world when there is limited/no reference material. You can mitigate that by basic standards in reporting (e.g. level of detection), which we are now including in all our papers. 2/n

I'm lucky that I remember when people are nice to me and forget when people wrong me, so I had totally forgotten this brutal criticism of my last CIHR grant on studying the immunology of COVID-19 infections & vaccinations. The reviewer didn't seem to think I was qualified to lead it. Implicit bias?

Learning lots about #lung autoimmunity as a contributor to severe #asthma from Dr Manali Mukherjee from #TheFirestone. Great reminder that blood is not always the right place to sample for autoimmunity -sputum can be a much more informative marker.

Post-doctoral opportunity @uofguelph.bsky.social to lead a translational program investigating how myocardial infarction drives coupled cardiopulmonary remodeling and neurological dysfunction. If interested, email jeremys@uoguelph.ca with CV, cover letter, by by Feb 27th. Good luck all!

Have you used CPAP, BiPAP or home ventilation? Researchers want to hear from you. Take the survey here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z6B3CGB En Francais: -https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IMPORTANCEHMV?lang=fr

Do you have experience with respiratory and sleep support therapies such as positive airway pressure (PAP) machines or ventilators for breathing or sleep apnea? If so, researchers want to talk to you! Scan the QR code below or click on this survey link. #pulmsky www.surveymonkey.com/r/IMPORTANCE...

A previous study found that frail older adults in long-term care who were vaccinated were less likely to be prescribed and antibiotic compared to those who hadn't been vaccinated, consistent with the disease-modifying effects of vaccination (6/n). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Of those who got a peri-COVID antibiotic, about 17% had an antibiotic resistant organism isolated within 6 months compared to 4% of people who had COVID but didn't get an antibiotic - 4x as many! (Association was found for Gram negative, not Gram positive) (5/n)

Frail older adults are very vulnerable to COVID and subsequent bacterial infections. About 15% of those who got a COVID diagnosis got an antibiotic prescription within 7 days. (Yes, some of these antibiotics may have been unnecessary but it is hard to diagnose vulnerable individuals) 4/n

Antimicrobial resistance is rising and by 2050 may kill more people than cancer if we don't do more to stop it. New antibiotics are hard and slow to make so anything we can do to reduce infections will give us more time. Preventing infections via vaccination is one strategy (2/n)

Congratulations to @kerryhilligan.bsky.social for her Doherty Lectureship for her most excellent body of work studying tissue immunity to infections. #ASI2025 #PerthASI

Having a blast at #ASI2025 #PerthASI &very much looking forward to the Lafferty debate with this team.Topic =‘AI in Immunology: Not really a Transformative Technology, Just New Bioinformatics We All Pretend to Understand’ We are arguing for but with the double negative that’s against. #AussiesAreFun

Happy Hallowe'en from the Bowdish lab.

What the latest on adult vaccines? Come join me and and exceptional panel at Zoomer media to get the lowdown. • Recommended Vaccines & How To Get Them ‣ Navigating Provincial Health Systems ‣ The Role Your Pharmacist Can Play ‣ Emerging Science ‣ Fighting Disinformation & Vaccine Fatigue. Free!

Vaccine programs are decided by more than efficacy and efficacy - here's a summary of what the National Advisory Council on Immunization (Canada) includes. Our review doesn't address the programmatic, cost, and social considerations, which are also important. 11/n

We also make a case to increase to increase the range of vulnerable populations. Canada has been a leader in including congregate living and equity-deserving groups in priority populations (#elbowsup !) but people living with lung and heart issues should be included 10/n.

There has been some frustration that COVID-19 vaccines don't last longer but neither does protection from either infection or vaccination for other viruses. When we compare protection < 3 months and > 3 months, COVID-19 vaccines look pretty good, esp considering rapid variant change 9/n

...but despite that disadvantage, levels of protection from symptomatic infection and severe disease are similar between COVID & influenza vaccines. Note that protection against symptomatic infection is VERY hard to estimate because people who don't get sick don't get tested. 8/n

Now look at how complicated it is to compare COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. In influenza studies it is often possible to assess which strain a person was infected with so you can assess vaccine effectiveness by strain. COVID-19 vaccines are almost never matched with the circulating variants.. 7/n

Before we get to the data - I just want to give a huge shoutout to @belongia.bsky.social l for leading so many high quality studies on influenza effectiveness - look how easy to compare year-to-year. 6/n

Comparable data is hard to find, but when we looked at 2022/23 & 2023/24 data we see that deaths are still higher for COVID than influenza *BUT* looking at % hides the fact that COVID-19 is more contagious and in 23/24 there were almost 3x as many COVID hospitalizations than influenza. 4/n

I was so touched to get this portrait from #torontofringe volunteer @moccouh.bsky.social who was inspired by my show ‘The Perils of Being Born in the Fall’. The audience has been so positive about the show and quite a few have said ‘there should be more science shows!’ -#scicomm folks, take note!

Second show at the #TorontoFringe starting at 8:15 - met people outside who are coming based on recommendations from friends. I’ve got word-of-mouth! Tickets available all through the week. fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/... #scicomm

Fringe Festival volunteers are the best! Thank you to @moccouh.bsky.social and my tech Daniel and all the other Fringe staff for making the first showing of The Perils of Being Born in the Fall great! #torontofringe

Come see ‘The Perils of Being Born in the Fall’ premiering Wed July 2nd at the Toronto Fringe Festival 5pm - Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse. Pay what you can! 7 shows in total. #torontofringe Tickets and info fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/...

Just finished up tech rehersal at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse - it’s a lovely, intimate venue. Come see ‘The Perils of Being Born in the Fall’ at the #torontofringe Tickets are ‘pay what you can - see you there, Toronto! fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/...

Repeat vaccination does not affect the T cells ability to make cytokines, even in vulnerable populations. They may express some activation markers but they are definitely not turned off. 10/n