pediatrician fond of birds and horses/obstinate, headstrong girl
Pemberley Manor
- Tweets 12,791
- Following 1,541
- Followers 28,598
- Likes 95,345
Pinned Tweet
Typical clinic day now includes a 2-year-old who only has 5 words, an 8-year-old with new-onset obesity, and a preschool-age child with no social skills from being home bound. A disastrous avalanche of child health probs of our own making—not “from the pandemic.” @AmerAcadPeds
181
1,722
7,300
Healthy people with a sniffle are swamping and overwhelming ERs (including the one where I work). This is squarely the fault of hysterical, fear-mongering media and bad public health messaging.
432
3,522
19,693
Every doctor i know today got an email from their medical board threatening to revoke their license if they “spread misinformation” about COVID vaccines. The boards get to define “misinformation” however they choose. Is it “misinformation” to discuss known serious adverse rxns?😳
481
3,734
11,293
One of my patients has a severe facial dermatitis. His dermatologist refused to write him a medical mask exemption. He’s 4.
594
2,417
9,983
Today I had a new patient who was due for several boosters (toddler). The mom told me that due to PH dishonesty around covid vaccines, she no longer trusted other vaccines for her child. I told her I understood and referred her to safety data for the (noncovid) vaxes.
1,056
1,159
8,090
I must admit that pre-pandemic, I had no idea how fragile our civil liberties truly are. But as an MD, I figured it out in March 2020, because I could already tell by then that the level of danger didn’t come close to justifying the lockdowns and forced business/school closures.
110
1,402
8,004
I’m Gen X and somewhat ashamed to admit that pre-pandemic, I took our civil liberties for granted. I was skeptical that we even needed the Second Amendment. I will never make that mistake again.
221
832
7,792
So puberty is actually how your brain matures into an adult brain. Among other problems with “blocking” puberty is a significant, permanent loss of IQ points (demonstrated in studies). This is why pediatricians like me learned in training that puberty blockers should only be used for brief periods and ONLY in children with significant, documented precocious puberty. The reason given at the time was multiple and concerning side effects of puberty-blocking drugs.
I wish people would understand that puberty is an irreversible harm too. We shouldn’t privilege the ordinary progression of events.
78
1,113
7,466
325,528
As a pediatrician, it is difficult to communicate the extent to which adding yearly COVID boosters to the recommended childhood vaccine schedule damaged many parents’ trust in the rest of the schedule. It increased vaccine hesitancy to a degree I have not seen in over 20 years of practice. @CDCgov
A majority of @CDCgov's COVID-19 vaccines work group is now backing an end to "universal" recommendation for shots
Instead, a new "risk-based" approach would focus on older adults and those with an underlying condition that risks severe disease
cbsnews.com/news/cdc-covid-v…
535
691
7,283
680,511
When COVID is finally judged to be endemic rather than pandemic by The Powers That Be, there will be a lot of glossing over what was done to children. “We made the best decisions we could at the time,” etc. Do not buy that BS. And don’t forget the worst offenders.
183
1,265
6,439
If celebrities don’t need a vax passport to attend the Oscars, neither should a 5-year-old need one to attend a museum.
50
932
6,678
Oh and forgot to mention: an immediate family member had a post-COVID vax severe adverse reaction: myocarditis/pericarditis. I am out of the business of judging parents for vaccine hesitancy.
172
434
6,482
None of my pediatric patients have come down with “Long Covid.” Many have come down with Long Obesity or Long Mental Health Problems during and after prolonged school closures and lockdowns. Pediatric Long Covid seems to be primarily an American media boogeyman.
222
1,210
6,312
Kids don’t need COVID vaccines to “get back to normal.” They need adults to stop imposing unnecessary, irrational and crushing restrictions on them. #Tweetiatricians
54
940
5,881
I have sent more suicidal teens from my office to the ER in the past year than in my entire preceding pediatric career of 20 years. #TrueStory
221
1,881
5,288
China convinced Italy to lock down, then the whole West decided it was a great idea. Now we are stuck in a politicized, media-driven, fear-fueled monomaniacal groupthink. As a non-political doctor with basic numeracy, this whole thing has been so confusing. Why aren’t we done?
191
983
4,999
Just popping in to say that if we tell pregnant women there are no OTC pain relievers they can take for any reason, good luck gettin that birth rate up 😬
105
364
5,414
177,187
So wait…we just canceled an EMERGENCY meeting on post-vaccine myocarditis in adolescents because…Juneteenth? Wut. 🤯
214
1,107
4,676
My husband just said: “those poor trans kids are gonna be like the Thalidomide babies”—the maiming of a microgeneration
103
379
4,870
105,473
In a post-vaccine world, with variants getting milder, we are doubling down on restrictions that didn’t even work in 2020. Reupped mask mandates/Zero COVID school protocols are now iteratively evolving away from logic, reason and science. How long are we going to keep this up?
211
840
4,477
Pre-covid, did you think about who gave you a cold? Were you angry at them? Because being human entails getting respiratory viruses, kids have been killing Grandma for thousands of yrs, but we don’t frame it like that because it would be stupid and cruel to do so.
145
707
4,418
So the new definition of “antivaxxer” is apparently anyone who wants to see robust safety and efficacy data for a brandy-new vaccine for babies. cool cool
87
674
4,367
Next time the world faces a scientific/medical crisis where there are huge knowledge gaps, perhaps our first impulse should *not* be to reflexively silence and censor those with differing/diverse opinions. Just a thought.
61
651
4,366
From our dept meeting: “I’ve been a Pediatric Intensivist for 30 yrs—never seen the Peds ICU this bad. This is because of lockdowns: none of them have immunity to RSV.”
210
947
4,292
Snapshot of COVID ridiculousness from clinic: literally every day, I ask coughing, sick children to remove their mask while I listen with my stethoscope. Why? Because with a mask on, they can’t move enough air through their lungs for me to hear what’s going on in there.
192
810
4,045
I wish y’all knew how many doctors and scientists disagree with many COVID mitigation policies, but cannot say so publicly.
409
486
3,919
Every pediatrician is seeing this, and it was a totally predictable outcome of attempting to gaslight the public re: safety and efficacy of covid vaccines. Best I can do is try to build and honest relationship with this parent and continue to share reliable data with her.
94
279
3,791
You daily reminder that many respiratory viruses mutate all the time—and in The Before Times, this was never an excuse to take away someone’s job, or school, or cover the faces of small children, sigh
36
595
3,777
Your daily reminder that many doctors think this virus should be called endemic at this point, and that ongoing restrictions are growing farcical. It’s just that we put our livelihood at real risk by saying so publicly.
78
693
3,564
A have a friend who is a longtime preschool teacher. Last year, she quit. Because she’s afraid of COVID? No. Because it’s impossible to teach little kids phonics and reading skills when everyone has to wear a mask, and it was breaking her heart.
55
505
3,555
So, Twitter Fam. Today I found out I have cancer. FREAK OUT, right?!? Except it’s papillary thyroid carcinoma, which has a 98% survival rate. So I’m not panicking, and I’m grateful that I know the data. Knowledge is power, friends.
299
88
3,448
Hey, remember when H1N1 killed a bunch of kids in 2009, then we got a new vaccine and required it for kids to go to school, and restaurants and everything? Oh wait…
80
414
3,240
Your daily reminder that respiratory viruses always have winter waves, hospitals are always busy during flu season, but never before did we think these were reasons to take school away from kids, livelihoods away from their parents, or forcibly cover the faces of toddlers.
35
695
3,041
Unfortunately if you are a woman, hormones rule the roost. It ain’t fair, but it’s true.
30
33
3,076
106,135
As a pre-COVID physician, I used to judge ppl for their medical decisions (even if I was diplomatic or kept it to myself). Now, with everything PH has done to lose trust, my brain and my heart just refuse to judge anyone anymore. I’m happier and I think a better doctor for it.
54
219
2,988
This pediatrician was having sex parties with her husband while his policies kept kids locked out of school and forced masks on 2-year-olds.
@AmerAcadPeds @AAPPres
151
1,076
2,991
344,498
I personally know people who advocate for universal health care, yet think people who don’t want a COVID vaccine should lose insurance benefits and have to pay their own medical bills. Do they hear themselves when they talk?
103
256
2,670
Seeing a 14-mo old in clinic who hasn’t had a checkup since she was 2 mo old (!) because the parents were terrified to take her out of the home. She is OVERDUE for 6 vaccines—all of which are for pathogens much more dangerous to her than COVID. Fear-mongering is a dangerous game.
113
503
2,618
I’m a pediatrician, too. But I’m going to be on the RIGHT side of history on this one. Mask mandates for kids in schools have zero credible supporting evidence and do all kinds of harm. @AmerAcadPeds @cdc
61
437
2,623
How long are we going to obsessively test healthy kids and quarantine entire school classes for an endemic respiratory virus? Asking for all the kids in America.
77
326
2,564
Listened to whole podcast. Although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, Dr. Malone certainly qualifies as an expert, is not an “anti-vaxxer,” and did not say anything that I think deserves him being deplatformed from @Twitter .
55
271
2,480
Since March 2020, I’ve witnessed most of my fellow pediatricians and @AmerAcadPeds look the other way while we threw kids into a volcano to appease the Plague Gods. I’ve had ppl go after my job for advocating for open schools. One thing is for sure: I’ll never forget any of it.🦉
50
312
2,498
Your daily reminder that there is no empirical evidence to support masking kids under 6, we are the only Western nation doing it, and masking inhibits early literacy and social-emotional learning, which both have a *critical period* window for young children.
76
532
2,267
As I care for the flood of kids in clinic with non-covid respiratory viruses, I take the opportunity to educate parents on immunity debt, aka learning loss of the immune system, aka why we should never lock kids out of school and child care for months to years, ever again.
67
371
2,286
I’ve been a member of both left and right-leaning women’s physician groups on social media. Care to guess which group is tolerant of a whole spectrum of opinions and almost always respectful of others? 😬
86
96
2,300
78,304
A little review of who suffers the worst collateral damage of lockdowns, school closures and vax mandates/passports. (checks notes) Ah yes. Children, minorities and the poor. Carry on.
26
387
2,192
My son got a “man cold”/ moderate flu and wanted to be tested for fun (at home). We all snickered when he was positive. My husband and I are both doctors, and our children are the most important thing in the world to us, but WE KNOW THE ACTUAL DATA so there was zero freak-out.
Staring at my daughter’s positive test, I asked myself the same questions many parents have asked: Will my child be ok? Could I have done more to protect her? Was this my fault? In these moments, it doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or Surgeon General. We are parents first.
146
152
2,191
Just no to kids in N95s. The time to revolt is now, parents. And teachers! If you’ve been quiet up till now, find your voice.
54
311
2,143
I truly hope ppl are starting to understand that COVID isn’t going away, and also that we can’t keep suppressing our humanity, destroying our society, and punishing our children over it.
41
300
2,054
Maybe the craziest thing that happened during covid was that a children’s services caseworker told us that she couldn’t arrange an emergency assessment of a sexually abused 5 yr old because the caseworkers were working from home.
100
383
2,095
Your daily reminder that there have always been medically fragile children, but we have never asked every other child to cover their faces about it. And COVID is not a greater threat to a medically fragile child than the flu, which has always been around.
49
305
2,116
I work in a clinic with a diverse patient population, and I really cannot emphasize enough that adding yearly COVID vaccines to the recommended childhood schedule significantly eroded parents’ trust in more established (and effective) vaccines. The juice was not worth the squeeze @AmerAcadPeds @CDCgov @CDCDirector
152
178
2,103
136,612
I remain absolutely astonished at the degree to which legacy media is aggressively ignoring the Cochrane review showing masks don’t work. And getting away with it.
67
313
2,084
113,349
In my 21-year pediatric career, the only other @AmerAcadPeds policy I disagreed with was the rec to sleep in the same room as your infant. But they are catastrophically wrong about mandating masks for children. Harms greatly outweigh benefits. So hard to watch. #tweetiatricians
45
333
2,035
I need to get this cancer out of my body before my Governor copies the idiocy of others and cancels elective surgeries. Oh, did you not know that cancer surgeries are “elective?”
76
277
1,998
And the Gaslighting of the Week Award goes to: the Public Health talking heads attributing skyrocketing adolescent suicides to “being sad about all the (mostly elderly and infirm) COVID deaths.” Not because we forced social isolation on them for 1.5 yrs, for no good reason. 😒
22
365
1,962
I think the main reason that only 2% of the tiniest tots have their covid vaccine is that many mainstream pediatricians have finally had enough. In exam rooms, they have chosen to tell parents the truth rather than tow the party line.
124
173
1,944
I have some advice for @NPR and @nytimes , gleaned from many conversations with many people covering many subjects over the past several years. You may want to stop referring to everyone who doesn’t agree with an extreme left position as being “far right.” Calling moderate ppl “far right” has lost you many viewers/readers and has damaged your credibility.
133
165
1,961
74,770
My dept meeting started “on a serious note” with the chair “holding space for those who may be upset by recent events.” Zero awareness that she may be speaking to doctors who voted differently than she did. Zero self reflection that this is why they lost.
92
110
1,933
32,560
My patients sometimes ask me when I think COVID will “be over.” I always smile and say, “when we stop counting cases.” Remember Swine Flu? Now it’s just “flu.”
21
177
1,868
I always thought of myself as “socially liberal” but I don’t think it’s cool to tell second graders that they should feel bad about the color of their skin or that God might have “put them in the wrong body.” So, maybe not anymore?
151
136
1,871
67,925
Received a verified report that some schools are using isolation at lunch (“Lonely Lunch”) to punish students. With pediatric mental health in crisis due to our misguided pandemic response, adding purposeful forced social isolation is tantamount to child abuse. Unconscionable.
72
359
1,811
Someone really needs to tell the college kids how low-risk they are, and that they don’t get extra credit for complying with social isolation to the point of suicidality.
25
161
1,806
I’m sorry if this goes against your politics, but prolonged school closures killed more kids than school shootings have in recent years, and I will be voting accordingly.
34
181
1,779
“Already a Brown University study tracking cognitive development in small children attributes a dramatic drop in verbal and nonverbal development to masking.” nypost.com/2021/12/05/mask-m…
60
766
1,767
Me, in clinic: “He doesn’t have autism. It’s just that you’ve mostly kept him in the house for his entire 2 years of existence and he hasn’t really developed any social skills.”
Same speech, second time this week. Fear-mongering in the US about COVID and kids did real damage.
32
222
1,770
97,866
I realize how many people really, really want this to be true, but there is approximately zero evidence that masks prevent colds.
55
161
1,740
Instead of spreading the good news that children are extremely low-risk for Covid, my prof org @AmerAcadPeds helped amplify the fear-mongering and failed to protect kids from extreme mitigation that did great harm to them. They failed children on a grand and tragic scale.
65
394
1,698
I watched the media push us into some very stupid and destructive things during COVID, so forgive me for not just taking their word for it that starting WW3 would be a great idea…
18
164
1,727
I have a crazy idea: how about we stop letting geriatric, hypochondriac germaphobes make all the rules for the rest of us.
41
137
1,714
For all the parents of 5-year-olds who think that vaccinating their kid is going to get him/her out of Dystopia: the college-kid parents are on Line 1.
35
220
1,672
Notes from our clinic’s Pediatric Mental Health meeting: social workers are seeing an unprecedented level of severe anxiety disorders ***in 5 and 6 year-olds*** after 2 yrs of forced masks and telling them they will kill Grandma. 😔
64
405
1,643
I am done with all the hysterical, fear mongering doctors pretending that absence of COVID is the only measure of health and attacking anyone who says otherwise like a pack of rapid dogs. You have all lost my respect. Please take off your blinders.
20
121
1,643
As a pediatrician with a long history of early childhood advocacy work, I am so disappointed in @AmerAcadPeds. Recs to continue masking kids as young as 2 in school (after all adults have had vaccine access) put AAP on the wrong side of science and history. #tweetiatricians
58
305
1,610
We can’t let infectious disease doctors unilaterally make decisions for society *ever again*. They fundamentally don’t understand that health is more than the absence of disease. @AmerAcadPeds should listen to the primary care Peds dealing with the fallout from those policies.
37
236
1,631
Parents are not stupid. Many understand that our covid vax policies look like they were designed by Pfizer. I’m getting tired of awkward exam room conversations in which I have to explain that all the other childhood vaccines have a LOT more safety and efficacy data behind them.
110
162
1,566
Yes, yes, we never had a “Chinese-style lockdown.” From all of us who fought that like hell—you’re welcome.
23
142
1,535
Just so we’re clear: the water fountains have COVID. The soda machine does not. #Science
81
165
1,479
Mom of my infant patient is breastfeeding, had COVID, recently Antibody +, has a letter from her doc and STILL may be fired within the next couple months because she isn’t comfortable getting a COVID vax. These mandates are dumb.
59
115
1,448
Gov is mandating masks for all children in school. My special needs kid is hearing impaired and often hard to understand. Asked him if he wanted a medical exemption; he said no—he’s starting a new high school and doesn’t want to stand out. Reason 1000 why mask mandates suck.
70
122
1,437
Oh, look. A whole front page full of unintended consequences of #lockdowns and school closures. #tweetiatricians
46
464
1,414
I have decided that I am going to refuse to do the mandatory DEI training this year. If I am questioned, I will tell them that I found last year’s training discriminatory and that it caused me moral injury to be forced to do it (truth).
EXCLUSIVE: UW Health employee sent this from their mandatory DEI training:
White employees are required to check off examples of their white privilege & white fragility.
Whites are also instructed to take steps like yielding positions of power to non-whites in order to atone for their natural racism.
They are also directed to take courses to unlearn the systemic racism they were inherently born with.
132
170
1,455
105,142
Hey @AmerAcadPeds. I’m in touch with a lot of pediatricians. It may not be obvious #onhere, but IRL more and more of them are realizing that there’s no substantive evidence to support mask mandates for school kids. Now would be a good time to change course. #Tweetiatricians
40
223
1,434
My friend’s daughter is en elite runner, about to compete in state championships this weekend. Yesterday, she almost passed out from being forced to wear a mask while running laps in gym class. She was sent home for mask non-compliance. (This is the high school my kids attend)
103
239
1,370
Incredibly poor uptake of covid vax for the under 5s. Despite @AmerAcadPeds and @CDCgov messaging, all of my left-leaning Peds and Family Practice colleagues are thumbs-down on recommending this to their patients—and for their own kids.
100
165
1,423
According to @CDCgov , adults get an average of 2-3 colds per year. How long are we going to obsess about what kind of cold it is?
68
121
1,401
Parents are calling me asking if they should get their 6 mo-2 yr old a covid vaccine. My first question: has the child had covid? If so: there is no evidence that the vaccine will provide further protection. I tell my patients the truth.
95
139
1,385
therapist, and instead talked my ear off about all that was wrong in his world. It was a privilege to be a sympathetic ear. The kids are still not alright, and they need real normal back, now (also: you never know why your doctor might be running late, so pls be kind 😊)
43
59
1,397
I continue to marvel at the cognitive dissonance of my fellow pediatricians who have convinced themselves that kids need an EUA vaccine—for a dz that is *very low-risk* for them—to get back to normal. When all vulnerable adults have had a chance for vax! 🤯 #tweetiatricians
68
233
1,325
Dear @CDCgov and @AmerAcadPeds,
Please end mask mandate recs for children/schools. Please also stop giving healthy men < 30 the 2nd dose of any mRNA vaccine, as the myocarditis safety signal seems pretty clear. Rooting for your credibility.
From, A Very Concerned Pediatrician
33
260
1,356
Your daily reminder that we are the only Western nation (and maybe the only nation at all) forcing kids under 6 to wear masks. When this comes up in conversation, most ppl have no idea. I guess I need to put it on a t-shirt? #tweetiatricians @AmerAcadPeds
44
322
1,331
If you think abortion is morally wrong but should still be legal (with restrictions), hate to see low-income women lose options but also understand the shaky legal underpinnings of Roe and have a newfound appreciation for Federalism after covid…come sit by me 🙃
118
88
1,311
My response to @ab_peds re: revoking board certification over whatever they choose to define as COVID “misinformation”—or is it “disinformation?” (they used both words) #tweetiatricians @AmerAcadPeds
60
314
1,317
Husband is an ER doc and I remember him telling me, early on, that he was noticing a lot of clotting events following pts getting covid vax. One the one hand, obv this is anecdotal: one doc’s experience. On the other: he would have been fired for speaking publicly about it.
57
162
1,346
48,828
Update from real life: moderate ppl of all political stripes, as well as many reasonable doctors who can’t speak out publicly, are losing patience with @CDCgov ‘s endless masking recs. Lots of ppl realize COVID is here to stay, and it’s time to start living normally again.
34
178
1,304