Whooping cough isn’t “back” because it’s new. It’s back because immunity wanes, vaccination coverage has slipped, and surveillance weakened during the pandemic years. Babies pay the price first. Vaccination still matters.

The debate on whether long COVID is “real” is over. The live questions now are prevalence, duration, mechanisms, and how health systems respond.

Important cohort data — but worth noting this covers 2020–2022, with very different immunity and variants than today. Reinfection risk is real, but magnitude and relevance evolve with population immunity.

Weak surveillance doesn’t just delay outbreak detection — it delays recognition of long COVID and its disability burden. Under-count infections → under-count long COVID → underestimate workforce, health-care and social impacts. What we don’t measure, we don’t plan for.

A lot of “sudden” health crises aren’t sudden at all. They’re the result of weak surveillance, delayed detection, and undercounted harm — especially long COVID and disability.

Germany is seeing simultaneous COVID and influenza pressure — not because the viruses are new, but because they now co-circulate. Health systems need year-round respiratory surveillance, not seasonal amnesia.

Measles spreads fast when coverage drops — that part isn’t new. For fully vaccinated people, risk of severe disease remains very low. The real risk sits with pockets of under-vaccination, not the population as a whole.

Flu isn’t benign, but prevention works. Removing cost barriers helps — now uptake needs to follow.

Headlines like this are easy to misread. Most of the rise in Parkinson’s reflects ageing populations — not a sudden new risk.

“Herd immunity targets” aren’t a cliff edge. The real risk comes from local coverage gaps, not national averages — which is why outbreaks like whooping cough cluster rather than spread evenly.

Clear explanation. Most respiratory transmission is airborne, which is why ventilation and masks matter — but hand hygiene still helps for other infections. Public health works best when we stack protections, not argue over one.

Measles doesn’t need many cases to look dramatic. When baseline numbers are very low, small outbreaks can quickly exceed annual averages — especially when they cluster in under-vaccinated communities.

Vaccine schedules aren’t just clinical decisions — they’re population-level control systems. Remove a dose and you don’t get a neutral outcome; you change who’s protected, where risk concentrates, and how fast disease re-enters.

This is what measles looks like in unvaccinated children. Severe complications aren’t rare outliers — they’re a known part of the disease. Two doses of MMR prevent almost all of this.

Vaccination coverage matters — not because of slogans, but because it directly changes who gets sick, how outbreaks spread, and who ends up in hospital. Misinformation doesn’t just confuse people; it erodes population protection.

Briefly disappeared this week thanks to a technical standoff involving X verification and university email forwarding. After several rounds of troubleshooting (and the help of ChatGPT), I’m back. Technology: 0 Epidemiologist: 1 Looking forward to rejoining the conversation.

By the way, ChatGPT suggested I call him Pascal. We’re becoming fast friends — which probably says something about my week.

Statins are heavily studied and reduce heart attack and stroke risk in appropriate patients. They’re not for everyone — but the evidence base is strong. Risk–benefit decisions belong in clinics, not culture wars.

A 24% weekly increase implies a doubling time of ~3 weeks. Measles R₀ ≈ 12–18. Once coverage drops below ~95%, sustained transmission isn’t surprising. Outbreaks don’t accelerate gradually — they accelerate mathematically.