I came across this tweet from "Caroline Mansfield" about my local hospital being "empty".

So let's take a look:

First up, some warning signs:
1) A generic username, and another real Twitter account (I've emailed)
2) No registration with GCRN
3) Only recently joined Twitter

Want to include the menstrual cycle in your scientific work, but aren't sure how to do it? My lab (@katjaschmalen) have just published an article on best practices for observational studies of the cycle! Thread below! 🧵

Despite decades of research on the menstrual cycle, empirical studies have not adopted consistent methods for operationalizing the menstrual cycle, resulting in confusion in the literature and limited possibilities to conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Below, I summarize this "how to" article, and relay some of the key points!

PARTICIPANTS: All participants should be naturally-cycling people with ovaries (remember that they are not necessarily "women"! 🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧).

We provide a Reproductive Status Questionnaire with rules for identifying naturally-cycling people (current function of the sexual organs and hormonal/other medications that stop the cycle).

So many people don’t realize that they have OCD because actual obsessive compulsive disorder is rarely talked about openly. So here are the basics: 🧵(thread)

I think that a lot of people forget that OCD is a mental illness, emphasis on the MENTAL. When it’s portrayed on TV, it’s always shown as a very behavioral disorder. And while it’s true that overt behavioral compulsions are part of OCD, they don’t begin to tell the whole story

OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. That’s obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. The OCD cycle is the cycle of obsessions that lead to compulsions that lead to more obsessions that lead to more compulsions etc etc etc.

People with OCD experience intrusive thoughts (which become obsessions.) Intrusive thoughts are unwanted and invasive, and they’re generally REALLY disturbing. It’s a common misconception that people with OCD are exclusively concerned with tidiness and cleanliness. This is false

TW/ OCD subtypes

Intrusive thoughts can be about anything, but there are a few common “subtypes” of obsessions. These include harm OCD, self harm OCD, sexual OCD, pedophelia OCD, relationship OCD, contamination OCD, religious OCD, moral OCD, health OCD and “just right”

The importance of T-cell immunity!
A recent study has found that after one dose of Pfizer’s vaccine, patients had a strong T-cell response, and a boosted antibody response after their second dose. This is good news for many reasons so let’s read up.

This study found that people’s antibodies were moderately effective against the original strain after their first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine, less effective against the B.1.1.7 variant, and were unable to neutralize the B.1.351 variant. Read what I said, that’s only after ONE dose.

However, they had strong T-cell responses against ALL known variants after the first dose. So why is this important? To recap, T-cells stimulate B-cells to make antibodies. Antibodies are just your first line of defense which is what is initiated when you get a vaccine.

It’s our T-cells that are responsible for long-term immunity. When antibodies diminish after your initial inoculation, your T-cells-will tell your B-cells it’s time to produce more antibodies. As long as your T-cells still recognize this virus and inform your B-cells they need

to produce antibodies, the vaccine is still doing its job. Your antibodies will get built up over and over again. Just FYI your TCRs and your BCRs target different parts of the Coronavirus’ spike protein. Antibodies can prevent infection, your T cell-responses ensure that those

I do want to talk a bit about connections, conflicts and information during a pandemic. Since @fordnation insinuated I have COI which I don't, let's take a look at a single instance where @fordnation and Hospital for Sick Children are both making interesting decisions.

Both share a powerful supporter in Peter Gilgan, who has been a great supporter of Sickkids

But his company, Mattamy Homes, has also substantially bankrolled Ontario Proud, which I have reason to believe pushed the Postmedia hit on my reputation.

Sickkids and Mattamy have very close ties. Here is Mary Federau, a longtime Sickkids exec who has moved to Mattamy but remains involved with the Sickkids foundation:

Mary's bio is too modest. It looks as though it has been scrubbed a bit over the last 72 hours. Here's the google cache from Jan 25: