Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS

@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Infectious Disease doc and clinical researcher; runner, biker, liberal, gardener, hiker, and canoer. Professor @U of MN; Minneapolis __ ID. All posts my own. #BLM #abolishbillionaires

13.8K followers4.1K following11.6K posts

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Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Intro post since seeing lots of new faces. I’m an infectious diseases physician & researcher, with a focus on urinary infections and C. difficile. Passionate about public health, politics, & healthcare reform. Post about all of the above, plus COVID, life in Minneapolis, & dog pics 👍🏻 Hi and welcome!

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Well the first person to describe measles was Abu Bakr al-Razi, and he knew more about the disease than RFK Jr despite living >1000 years ago 🤷🏻‍♂️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bak...

en.wikipedia.orgAbu Bakr al-Razi - Wikipedia
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

“We had no idea! We got invited to the White House by a self-serving narcissist, walked into his office with cameras rolling, but trust us, we NEVER thought they would make this into a photo op” 🙄🙄🙄🤮🤮🤮

cnn.comCatholic bishops apologize after video shows them praying over Trump in Oval Office | CNN PoliticsTwo Catholic bishops have expressed regret over attending a meeting with 10 other prelates and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, saying they were “exploited” and “manipulated.”
Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

1 week out, here’s how I will grade election: -nightmare: GOP retains house & senate -bad, but something: slim house win -bare minimum: 10+ house majority -good: 15+ house, narrow senate win (vulnerable to Fetterman defection) -great: 20+ house, +2 senate -fabulous; as above, plus Emmer out (+more)

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

It’s almost like when government doesn’t care about health and science, diseases win 🤷🏻‍♂️

Amesh Adalja@ameshaa.bsky.social

“ Since September, Florida’s total reported dengue cases have almost doubled from 392 to 721” www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

washingtonpost.comDengue cases in Florida continued to climb after emergency declaredThe state’s reported cases have nearly doubled since three counties declared states of emergency, with Hillsborough County at the center of the outbreak.
Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Anything that makes people realize Polymarket/Kalshi are bullshit packaged as “wisdom of the crowd” is a win 👍🏻

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com

Brazil elected Lula again tonight. Poll averages appear to have had Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro effectively tied, maybe Bolsonaro up 1 on Lula — so not sure why the markets had this race at 80-20 Bolsonaro. Markets might miss big in the U.S. midterms in 9 days too.

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

I’m sick of headlines treating these forays as something done independently. No. Anthropic created it. Anthropic did this. And they should be held to account, not some supposedly autonomous AI www.reuters.com/world/us/ant...

reuters.comAnthropic's Claude accessed Georgia state vote count data behind paywallAI model Claude bypassed a paywall ​and accessed publicly available US ‌state of Georgia aggregate voter counts without human authorization, Anthropic said in a ​statement on Sunday.

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS reposted

Nome
@nome.bsky.social

You could not waterboard this confession out of me, much less get me to put it in an interview. Can you imagine her kid's middle school enemies getting wind of this? "You suck so much your mom needed Chat GPT to say anything nice about you."

David Gura@davidgura.bsky.social

cool, cool

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

You decided to tell the world that coming up with three things that made your child special was “an impossible task?!? 😳😳😳 And you outsourced it to your AI???🤦🏻‍♂️ This’ll be a few therapy sessions in the future 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

David Gura@davidgura.bsky.social

cool, cool

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

This should be required watching for every Democratic office holder and candidate 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

BeshearStan@beshearstan.bsky.social

Kansas Dem Sen. nominee Adam Hamilton on trans rights: “I don’t think we should take a small group of people and bully them, pick on them, and hurt them. I understand one thing really clearly when it comes to transgender people, and that is Jesus told me I was to love my neighbor as I love myself”

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

But it was an “official act”, so Trump-daddy Robert’s says it’s fine to use the DOJ to try impact elections. Our systems are not made for this level of sleaze and corruption 😳😳😳

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump admits that he told the DOJ to sue Alaska over the election

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Unfathomable that a country whose leader we killed in a targeted strike is planning to do the same to us. Truly shocking 🙄🙄🙄

Frida Ghitis@fridaghitis.bsky.social

US Intel memo: “ the lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages.” www.nbcnews.com/world/middle...

nbcnews.comIranian plots to kill U.S. officials in Middle East have reached ‘advanced stages,’ intel memo warnsThe U.S. has been scaling back its troop presence and diplomatic personnel across the region, sources previously told NBC News.
Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Yes bird flu is bad (and mink farming is cruel, IMO), and the explosion of different animals getting avian flu is new/eye-popping, and we always worry about a jump to humans PLUS easy human transmission; but so far in the past decades yes it has made it to humans, but transmission has been rare

ProPublica@propublica.org

Here’s something you should know about minks: They have lungs and airways remarkably similar on a cellular level to those of people. They’ve spread flus and infected humans before with COVID-19. Right now, bird flu is spreading on a Utah farm filled with thousands of them… 🧵

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

We’re talking ~1,000 human cases, and very little transmission, since 1997. Could it ever become easily transmissible? Yes. And the more virus circulating, the more chance it has. But it hasn’t, in almost 3 decades- which is MILDLY reassuring 🤞🏻

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Yeah, I see the buzz about this movie, but have little interest. I read the reporting. Read the book. Knew she was a fraud early on. I don’t need to waste my time with her image rehab efforts 🤷🏻‍♂️🤮

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Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

I would quibble with calling these “health care companies.” They are health INSURANCE companies (CVS some clinical care); they’re not providing care, they’re taking money in and then paying it out- and taking a nice cut to get to their top 20 slots

Elizabeth Warren@warren.senate.gov

Top health care companies in the Fortune 500: United Health: #3 CVS Health: #6 Cigna: #14 One way they did it? By buying up every part of the health care system—and squeezing you dry. You shouldn't have to worry about going broke when you get sick. Let's break up Big Medicine.

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

More or less sickening than shooting a prisoner in a wheelchair? Or mocking a disabled reporter? Or bragging about grabbing women by the pussy? We need context of where these all rank in “sickening” 🙄

Hoodlum 🇺🇸@nothoodlum.bsky.social

The NY Post is calling this art installation in Tehran, featuring a performer dressed as Trump in a mock jail cell, “sickening.” Surely they jest.

Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

In other words: the inflation you see on your grocery bill is a choice Trump made to raise your prices

Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social

More than 40 farmers and agricultural industry groups are warning Washington leaders that the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is affecting the nation’s food supply, hurting farmers and risking higher grocery prices. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

washingtonpost.comTrump’s immigration crackdown disrupts U.S. food supply, agriculture leaders sayRecent ICE raids have rocked rural America, delaying meat shipments in Kansas, threatening poultry production in Pennsylvania and affecting farmworkers in California, industry leaders say.
Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

As designed by the GOP. This will lead to foregone care, delayed care, medical bankruptcy, and deaths. The GOP is killing Americans. In multiple ways.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social

"The uninsured rate for adults ages 19-64 rose to 11.2% this year, up from 8.9% in 2024, according to a new analysis by the Commonwealth Fund..."

nevadacurrent.comThe percentage of people without health insurance is growing • Nevada CurrentThe percentage of working-age adults without health insurance has increased in the past two years, largely because many people can no longer afford Obamacare coverage after Congress allowed federal su...
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Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

On to measles complications: 1-3 in 1000 have acute encephalitis, 1 in 1000 have post-infectious encephalitis, and the “one we’re all terrified of”: SSPE. Quotes incidence in 1 in 5000 in kids under 12 months; happens 6-15 years later. (Note- others have cited higher incidence). Either way: bad

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Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social

Push for one-health approach: looking for shared priorities of human and animal health. Farmers need to sell eggs. Eggs can be contaminated and spread influenza. How to address? Vaccination of poultry would be a solution 🤷🏻‍♂️

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