Steve Valeika DVM PhD

He’s going to team up with Noem on an RCT for puppy euthanasia.

I’m in Upstate SC working directly on the measles outbreak. What’s helping reduce cases lately isn’t writing parents off. It’s clear, credible communication that addresses confusion and misinformation. Many families just need trustworthy information from leaders they trust.

Exclusive | FDA’s Controversial Vaccines Chief Will Leave the Agency Dr. Vinay Prasad will depart in April, after a year leading the division that approves vaccines and biotech drugs.

www.wsj.com/health/healt...

"FDA’s Controversial Vaccines Chief Will Leave the Agency
Dr. Vinay Prasad will depart in April, after a year leading the division that approves vaccines and biotech drugs."

via @lizessleywhyte.bsky.social @wsj.com

Yeah, sounds good. Nothing makes people change their minds like telling them they’re shitty people. Super effective. Cornerstone of public health.

Im a historian of vaccination.
Every semester/year since 2015, I teach the histories of smallpox vaccination.
And every semester/year, I have had anti-vaxxers/vaccine hesitant people in my classes.
If I want to change their minds, telling them how evil or stupid they are isn't going to cut it.

Just know that they keep missing the point in ways that are almost exquisite in their obtuseness.

Then you’re even more stunning in your inability to understand the original post, because that is at the core of everything that follows. And by dehumanizing that person and not deleting or apologizing you’re only showing that, no, in fact you don’t understand what you claim to understand.

I disagree with absolutely everything you’ve said. You’re embarrassingly ignorant. Every post you make is pure cringe at this point. You are so unaware of what you do t even know that I’m almost awestruck by the stupidity.

Thank you for what you are doing. Those of us on the Buncombe County NC Health Dept board have been in awe of what y’all are doing over the border.

Is this another “piece of shit?” Shouldn’t they just be telling the parents what awful people they are instead?

man, @publichealthguy1.bsky.social was (afaik) the first former CDC person to publicly call *explicitly* for RFK's resignation, rather than gently scold him, and he's currently being called a piece of shit and dogpiled for saying vaccine hesitant parents are facing a bad information environment

How many people who *actually do public health* do you need to tell you how wrong you are before you stop and think, “hmm, maybe I’m wrong?” Because you’re kind of the main character on med/PHsky right now. Or keep doubling down. And no apology for calling a former CDC worker a POS? No regrets?

This has been my whole timeline today. And that person just keeps doubling down, not realizing they e hit main character status on the medsky TL.

You’ve made it clear that you’ve never done this work and have no idea how to effectively practice PH and change minds. I get it.
You also called a human being who does more to get people vaccinated than you ever will a piece of shit.
You’ve made it absolutely clear that your opinions are garbage.

Ahh, so it’s the “bare minimum to treat hesitant parents with respect,” but also evidently the bare minimum to call the public health worker you don’t know who does that type of education a “piece of shit” for posting a take you disagree with. Makes a lot of sense.

This is one of the rare examples where explaining the joke made it funny, because at first I was like, wtf? 😂

Your Poop Is Not Reliable, At Least for Now Let’s say you mail your poop to two different companies—not an illegal act, by the way, provided it doesn’t smell or soil anything, and that it’s packaged and labelled appropriately. It also helps if ...

Those gut microbiome kits you pay good money for may as well be a ticket to see your local fortune teller.

Seven different companies; a standardized poop sample; and results that are all over the place.

My latest for @mcgilloss.bsky.social.

www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...

Public health friends, can any of you think of an example in our history where telling a group that they are “bad people” led to better health outcomes? Have any of my pediatrician or vet followers ever convinced a hesitant parent/pet owner to vax by telling them they’re bad parents?

Is telling people they are “bad parents” an effective public health strategy? Is it more effective than approaching them with compassion? Yes they’ve made a bad choice, but they didn’t make it in a vacuum. In public health we try not to hate the player, we hate the game.

So doubling down on your ignorance about how to do effective public health. What he said is not the least bit controversial in public health circles. Look at the people who follow and support him. Good luck with your getting angry at people on the internet and trying to get the bullied. Great work!

people who make poor health choices due to social determinants limiting their choices? Why is the information environment someone finds themselves in any different?

How many vaccine hesitant people have you interacted with and tried to convince they should vaccinate their kids or themselves? How much of the literature about vaccine hesitancy and best practices to overcome it have you read? I’m guessing less than he has. How often do you sympathize with

Way to make 30,000 new enemies.

We aren’t going to bully them into making good choices. Public health has always leveraged compassion as one of its most effective tools. But I have very little compassion for this poster for dehumanizing one of the best people on this site who was engaging in good faith. What an absolute fuckwad

Being susceptible to/a victim of misinformation is as much of a social determinant of health as any of the rest of the systemic issues that lead to poor health choices. Anti-vax parents make me mad too, but anger isn’t a public health strategy and doesn’t achieve the goal of getting more kids vaxxed

You are a POS—a Piece of Sunshine!
I had a similar experience today

Getting angry at stupid parents makes you feel good, but it doesn't get more children vaccinated.

I feel that for sure. But that’s not the same as saying that their kids deserve hospitalization because they made a stupid choice. And, many of them made their bad choice because they are truly victims of disinformation. Credentialed people in high places who make convincing arguments endorsing them

Quite a big overlap between the two. Dog distemper symptoms are very similar. They also can come down with a deadly encephalitis years after recovering from the initial infection that shares similarities with SSPE in humans. No one has looked at immune amnesia afaik

…rinderpest, which is the only disease besides smallpox to heave been eradicated from the planet