Viki Male (@vikilovesfacs) · DIRTY

Viki Male

@vikilovesfacs

Immunology of the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.

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Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· 14h

And the list of studies Brian recalls might be this one… 2/2 docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A slide summarising the safety of COVID infection and vaccination in pregnancy. On the left, in unvaccinated individuals COVID infection increases the risk of preterm birth, pre-eclampsia, stillbirth and neonatal death. On the right: 3 trials including 221 participants who received mRNA vaccine and 49 observational studies including at least 523,429 people vaccinated in pregnancy found no increased risk of stillbirth, miscarriage, preterm birth, SGA, congenital abnormalities, NICU admission or health or neurodevelopmental problems in babies up to eighteen months old, following COVID vaccination.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· 3d

Student researchers: the Robin Weiss Prize for Science Writing is now open! It's a great opportunity to share your ideas, develop your science-writing skills, and gain recognition for your work. Learn more and apply: oxford.ly/robin-weiss-...

Student researchers: the Robin Weiss Prize for Science Writing is now open.

It's a great opportunity to share your ideas, develop your science-writing skills, and gain recognition for your work.

Learn more and apply: https://oxford.ly/robin-weiss-prize-oxfimm

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jan 23

I actually reviewed this one! I was satisfied with the methods but I do felt it struggled for the extremely short format the journal required. To my mind, the most important finding is the Cox proportional hazards model, showing no difference in time to childbirth by vaccination status... 1/

A Kaplan Meier curve displaying time to childbirth by COVID vaccination status. There is no difference between the two groups.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 20

An economic analysis was presented suggesting that COVID vaccination is cost-effective for high risk adults over 65, but not for low-risk adults in the same age group. 6/ www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

Analysis of cost-effectiveness of COVID vaccination in different age and risk groups, from the CDC presentation linked in the post. Vaccination is cost-saving in at risk over 65, so long as it costs less than $90/dose.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 20

Taken together with the fact that babies under 6 months old are as at-risk as adults between 65 and 75, this might make a case for vaccination in pregnancy to protect newborns. These data were presented at the ACIP meeting… 5/ www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

A slide from the CDC presentation linked in the post. Graph showing that the rate of COVID hospitalisation is similar in babies under 6 months and adults over 65.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 20

3. COVID vaccination in pregnancy is about 55% effective at preventing hospitalisation of infants under 2 months and 40% under 5 months. 3/

Slide from the CDC presentation linked in the post above. Results from test negative case control studies showing COVID vaccination in pregnancy is approximately 55% effective against hospitalisation with COVID in infants under 2 months old.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 20

2. COVID vaccination is about 60% effective at protecting against ER and urgent care visits with COVID during pregnancy (though there’s a decently wide confidence interval). 2/ www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

Slide from the CDC presentation linked in the post. Results from test negative case control studies showing COVID vaccination is approximately 40% effective against hospitalisation with COVID in non-pregnancy immunocompetent women, and 60% among pregnant women. The error bars of the two estimates overlap.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 20

Props to the CDC staff who presented the science at yesterday’s #ACIP meeting. Key points relating to #CovidVaccination in #pregnancy… 1. No increased risk of any problems in pregnancy, at birth, or for infants 1/ www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

A slide presented at the 18 September ACIP meeting (linked in the post). Links to CDC run studies on COVID vaccine safety in pregnancy. A list of outcomes not associated with COVID vaccination in pregnancy in these studies, including miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, major birth defects, maternal or infant ICU admission.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 19

HHS Claim 3. “Yet another study showed an increase in placental blood clotting in mothers who took the vaccine.” Cited in support of this statement is this paper…. 15/ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Screenshot of the title of the paper cited in support of this claim. “COVID-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest: A multinational Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) cohort study of 99 million vaccinated individuals”

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 19

Cited in support of this claim is this study which did report an increase in the rate of preterm birth among those vaccinated 2nd trimester… but also a (larger!) decrease among those vaccinated in the 3rd trimester. 10/ pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Screenshot of the title and abstract of the paper cited in support of this claim (and linked in the post). The title is: Safety of SARS‑CoV‑2 vaccination during pregnancy‑ obstetric outcomes from a large cohort study.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 19

So the authors take that into account! Doing so, they find there’s no difference in the risk of miscarriage between the groups. 6/

Table 2 from the paper, showing the risk of miscarriage is the same in the unvaccinated, vaccinated before pregnancy and vaccinated during pregnancy groups, once differences in age and health are taken into account.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 19

The study looks at miscarriage in 4536 unvaccinated individuals, compared to 1820 vaccinated before pregnancy and 1164 vaccinated in the first trimester. Table 1 tells us that the groups differ in their age, health and healthcare, all of which affect the risk of miscarriage… 5/

Table 1 of the paper, showing differences in age, socioeconomic status and comorbidities between the groups

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 19

HHS Claim 1. A number of studies in pregnant women showed higher rates of fetal loss if vaccination was received before 20 weeks of pregnancy. This study is cited in support of the claim… 3/ obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Screenshot of the title and abstract of the paper cited in support of this claim (and linked in the post). The title is: Miscarriage after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination: A population-based cohort study. “Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was not associated with miscarriage” is highlighted in the abstract

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 19

In his recommendation on COVID vaccination, the HHS secretary cites three studies – reassuring ones, as it happens, but we’ll get to that. But it’s important to remember we have really extensive evidence on the safety of mRNA COVID vaccines in pregnancy. 2/ docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A slide summarising the safety data on COVID infection and vaccination in pregnancy. On the left, in unvaccinated individuals COVID infection increases the risk of preterm birth, pre-eclampsia, stillbirth and neonatal death. On the right: 3 trials including 221 participants who received mRNA vaccine and 49 observational studies including at least 523,429 people vaccinated in pregnancy found no increased risk of stillbirth, miscarriage, preterm birth, SGA, congenital abnormalities, NICU admission or health or neurodevelopmental problems in babies up to eighteen months old, following COVID vaccination.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Sep 19

Today, #ACIP will be voting on #CovidVaccination. I will be examining a PhD viva at the time and won't be able to follow live. So, to anticipate some of the claims that may be made on COVID vaccination in #pregnancy... 🧵 www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/defaul...

Screenshot of the header of Secretary Kennedy’s justification for repealing the recommendation for COVID vaccination to children and pregnant individuals (linked in the post).

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jun 26

The simulated trial did find a slightly increased risk of high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia associated with RSV vaccination, but the severity of these (when they occurred) was the same in both groups, and birth outcomes were the same. 3/

Slide from the CDC presentation, showing an increased risk of hypertension (1.09), pre-eclampsia (1.12) or gestational hypertension (1.10) but not eclampsia or HELLP (0.77) in the vaccinated cohort.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jun 26

👀 As for all new vaccines, the safety of the #RSV #vaccine is being closely monitored. 👩‍🔬 The CDC did a simulated trial of 13,996 vaccinated in pregnancy vs 13,996 matched unvaccinated controls 👍 No increased risk of preterm birth, stillbirth, small babies 1/ www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

A slide from the CDC presentation of the simulated trial. Among 13,966 vaccinated individuals, the preterm birth rate was 4.0%. Among 13,966 unvaccinated individuals, the rate was 4.5%.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jun 9

This weekend, @abigailgoodship.bsky.social and I spent a total of 18 hours talking to more than 100 people about their menstrual cycles at the Great Exhibition Road Festival! Pink and purple are positive aspects, green and blue are negative. Can we see a pattern? 🤣 #ReproSky #GERF2025

PhD student Abigail Goodship with her crowdsourced poster on how health changes over the menstrual cycle.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jun 5

Thanks AI overview. That's very helpful

A google search asking about "robs vs robins". The AI overview says that "Robs refers to a risk of bias tool, specifically the Cochrane Risk of Bias tools. Robins refers to bird species, like the American Robin or European Robin."

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Feb 5

Missed opportunity

The footnote referred to in the original post. Contrary to all reasonable expectations, it is not a Rickroll.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Feb 5

Dare I click on this footnote? (From Foolproof, by @profsanderlinden.bsky.social)

A screenshot of text from an ebook. There is a clickable footnote associated with the word “Rickrolling”.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jan 31

I am! There’s a frost here and I have fairy lights and wine. 🍷

Half a glass of red with on a coffee table, with a jar of fairy lights in the background

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jan 27

948 users prospectively entered #MenstrualCycle & #LongCovid #MECFS symptom data into tracking app Visible. 👉 Crashes more likely during menstruation 👉 Crashes less common in ppl taking combined hormonal contraception 1/ #ChronicIllness #MedSky #ReproSky #IDSky www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Two graphs show the mean symptom score reported by people living with Long COVID or ME/CFS. The left graph shows menstrual cycle phase, with symptoms most severe before and during the menstrual period, and least severe at around the time of ovulation. The right graph shows less severe symptoms in people taking combined hormonal contraception, compared to none or progestin only.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Jan 9

Thought my DMs were open here! I must fix that… Thanks for drawing my attention to it. I can’t believe it’s mad theory is still doing the rounds. But I did have a bit of a laugh at…

Austin Powers Dr Evil air quotes meme

“Flow Cytometrist”

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Dec 29

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky 💙📚 #BookChallenge Day 20. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

The cover of the Penguin Classics edition of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. In shadow puppets, a cat with red eyes is seen beheading a man in a suit.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Dec 28

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky 💙📚 #BookChallenge Day 19. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.

The cover of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Dec 26

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky 💙📚 #BookChallenge Day 18. Beloved by Toni Morrison.

The cover of Beloved by Toni Morrison. Pink and orange branches, on a burgundy background.

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Dec 24

Nowt wrong with this setup… … but tonight’s occupant is 37, 6’2” and, not unreasonably, fears aerial assault by an unholy alliance of Lego and geodes. #DuvetKnowItsChristmas

An eight-year-old girl’s single bed, with Lego and geodes piled up in the headboard

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Dec 24

Day 17 of #BookSky 💙📚 #BookChallenge It’s Christmas Eve so let’s do a crossover with #DuvetKnowItsChristmas Christmas in Exeter Street by Diana Hendry.

Christmas in Exeter Street by Diana Hendry (and a bit of my Christmas tree!)

Viki Male@vikilovesfacs· Dec 23

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky 💙📚 #BookChallenge Day 16. Grass by Sherri S Tepper.

The cover of Grass by Sherri S Tepper.