Sarah Beatty, MHSA, MLS(ASCP)
@culturebeat.bsky.social
Clinical and environmental microbiologist, founder and CEO of Culturewell, medical laboratory scientist, and infection prevention enthusiast.
https://www.getculturewell.com
Cleaning Compliance, Outbreak Response 💪
https://www.getculturewell.com
Cleaning Compliance, Outbreak Response 💪
We'll have dengue and malaria as far north as Michigan in the next few years and we are not prepared.
Climate change is an obvious cause of dengue outbreaks in new locations and with increased size.
BUT DID YOU KNOW THIS?
www.frontiersin.org/journals/imm...
BUT DID YOU KNOW THIS?
www.frontiersin.org/journals/imm...
September 27, 2026 at 3:57 PM
We'll have dengue and malaria as far north as Michigan in the next few years and we are not prepared.
No way it's just Campylobacter. Crypto? Giardia?
Investigators linked the outbreak of campylobacteriosis to untreated water from a spring contaminated with animal feces.
When the venue ran out of bottled water, guests were served water from a tap fed by a springhouse with a broken roof.
www.healio.com/news/infecti...
When the venue ran out of bottled water, guests were served water from a tap fed by a springhouse with a broken roof.
www.healio.com/news/infecti...
Contaminated spring water sickens wedding guests
Attendees at a wedding in Pennsylvania last year were sickened with a bacterial illness that investigators linked to untreated water from a spring contaminated with animal feces.At least one guest tes...
www.healio.com
September 25, 2026 at 7:13 PM
No way it's just Campylobacter. Crypto? Giardia?
Hospital Epis: if you are seeing Serratia SSIs, it's coming from the sink drains and it's because ppl are pouring protein shakes or body fluids down the drains. #IDSky
September 7, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Hospital Epis: if you are seeing Serratia SSIs, it's coming from the sink drains and it's because ppl are pouring protein shakes or body fluids down the drains. #IDSky
*looks up after picking bone shards out of cooked ground beef for 20 minutes before serving to 1 year-old* "Oh, it's about to get even worse!?"
August 28, 2026 at 4:03 PM
*looks up after picking bone shards out of cooked ground beef for 20 minutes before serving to 1 year-old* "Oh, it's about to get even worse!?"
Outbreaks and foodborne illness have been in the news lately, but my food experience as a consumer hit a new low when I was picking bone shards out of my ground beef yesterday.
August 26, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Outbreaks and foodborne illness have been in the news lately, but my food experience as a consumer hit a new low when I was picking bone shards out of my ground beef yesterday.
Tapping the sign. Almost exactly a year ago.
bsky.app/profile/cult...
bsky.app/profile/cult...
2 observations about this "let's chat w/ MAHA bc they offer a way to improve public health" thesis hyped by many inside & outside public health of late
1. In some ways, it's akin to the "lack of viewpoint diversity" accusations aimed at academia & higher ed's embrace of bad ideas to address it. 1/
1. In some ways, it's akin to the "lack of viewpoint diversity" accusations aimed at academia & higher ed's embrace of bad ideas to address it. 1/
August 21, 2026 at 4:45 AM
Tapping the sign. Almost exactly a year ago.
bsky.app/profile/cult...
bsky.app/profile/cult...
CDC should get on this, STAT. I'd like to go outside at all, ever. The ticks are growing ever bolder...
@timheidecker.bsky.social do they have a mask with this or do we need to buy the gimp wrap version instead?
@timheidecker.bsky.social do they have a mask with this or do we need to buy the gimp wrap version instead?
Wimp Wrap - the full body, artificial skin from Wimp World! #WimpSummer #CityoftheDaySponsor
August 10, 2026 at 2:03 AM
CDC should get on this, STAT. I'd like to go outside at all, ever. The ticks are growing ever bolder...
@timheidecker.bsky.social do they have a mask with this or do we need to buy the gimp wrap version instead?
@timheidecker.bsky.social do they have a mask with this or do we need to buy the gimp wrap version instead?
We need a study of med student's exposure to laboratory testing: pre-analytical variables for sample collection; how to collect and interpret a blood gas; what culture and gram stain results actually mean. Last I heard it was <7 days. It's a rare doctor who knows how to use the medical laboratory. 🧵
"The mismatch would almost be comical if the stakes were lower."
Read the #OpEd from endocrinologist and director of Clinical Research at @pcrm.org Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/122446
Read the #OpEd from endocrinologist and director of Clinical Research at @pcrm.org Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/122446
Opinion | I Prescribe Diet Changes Every Week. Med School Barely Taught Me Anything Relevant.
The nutrition curriculum gap is a choice -- but a fixable one
www.medpagetoday.com
August 3, 2026 at 10:25 PM
We need a study of med student's exposure to laboratory testing: pre-analytical variables for sample collection; how to collect and interpret a blood gas; what culture and gram stain results actually mean. Last I heard it was <7 days. It's a rare doctor who knows how to use the medical laboratory. 🧵
I dunno, I think I prefer 'Ranch It Up'.
July 24, 2026 at 4:35 AM
I dunno, I think I prefer 'Ranch It Up'.
I used to do food testing. There ARE redundancies and I can guarantee that this was tested twice with QC passing before releasing the result. In outbreak scenarios, the manufacturer is dissecting every aspect of the lab report to point to it being the lab's fault and not the mfr.
There are two possibilities here.
Taylor Farms paid a shit ton of money to get the FDA to say this.
Or DOGE decimated the FDA so significantly that they managed to fuck up a basic sample test.
Neither one is great!
Taylor Farms paid a shit ton of money to get the FDA to say this.
Or DOGE decimated the FDA so significantly that they managed to fuck up a basic sample test.
Neither one is great!
The FDA now says that Taylor Farms finding is a false positive. What a mess.
July 20, 2026 at 3:38 PM
I used to do food testing. There ARE redundancies and I can guarantee that this was tested twice with QC passing before releasing the result. In outbreak scenarios, the manufacturer is dissecting every aspect of the lab report to point to it being the lab's fault and not the mfr.
FDA is now saying that the Taylor Farms Cyclospora test was a false positive.
* How many retests were done?
* Why were the retests done?
(We don't just test into compliance).
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
* How many retests were done?
* Why were the retests done?
(We don't just test into compliance).
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
FDA says Taylor Farms cyclospora finding was a false positive
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Sunday that laboratory experts re-checked lettuce sample results from Taylor Farms in an investigation into an outbreak of the cyclospora parasite and c...
www.reuters.com
July 20, 2026 at 10:51 AM
FDA is now saying that the Taylor Farms Cyclospora test was a false positive.
* How many retests were done?
* Why were the retests done?
(We don't just test into compliance).
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
* How many retests were done?
* Why were the retests done?
(We don't just test into compliance).
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Everybody who had Taco Bell recently: m.youtube.com/watch?v=lisX...
I had taco bell for lunch!
YouTube video by Parp777
m.youtube.com
July 16, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Everybody who had Taco Bell recently: m.youtube.com/watch?v=lisX...
Correction: "Ebola spreads easily through contact with blood and body fluids. It can also spread through the air when these fluids are being coughed, vomited, or otherwise excreted from the body. It can also spread through the air during cleaning of blood and body fluids from surfaces."
July 14, 2026 at 11:24 AM
Correction: "Ebola spreads easily through contact with blood and body fluids. It can also spread through the air when these fluids are being coughed, vomited, or otherwise excreted from the body. It can also spread through the air during cleaning of blood and body fluids from surfaces."
They just hork it raw out of a GFS can and serve it with no seasoning.
Have you ever tried to eat food with any salt in it at all at the hospital? It's impossible
July 10, 2026 at 12:50 PM
They just hork it raw out of a GFS can and serve it with no seasoning.
Yes, yes, exactly. We should assign risk based on the presumption that #ebola can travel through the air because we don't have evidence that it doesn't. Respirators for #ebola. Respiratory protection and fluid protection are critical PPE. We need to protect our first responders and caregivers.
🎯🧵by @ukhadds.bsky.social over on XTwitter (June 21):
"Is #Ebolaisairborne?
What does that even mean?
What are the consequences if it is? What if it isn’t?
[...]
I thought I’d walk through why concrete assertions one way or the other are problematic."
42-tweet🧵
threadreaderapp.com/thread/20686...
"Is #Ebolaisairborne?
What does that even mean?
What are the consequences if it is? What if it isn’t?
[...]
I thought I’d walk through why concrete assertions one way or the other are problematic."
42-tweet🧵
threadreaderapp.com/thread/20686...
June 24, 2026 at 8:03 PM
This reporter is not adequately protected from Ebola.
June 3, 2026 at 10:05 AM
This reporter is not adequately protected from Ebola.
How long until we try to forcibly send Americans with Ebola TO Kenya?
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...
Opinion | Here’s Everything Wrong With the Offshore Ebola Quarantine Plan
Clinical, ethical, and legal issues abound
www.medpagetoday.com
June 1, 2026 at 12:24 AM
How long until we try to forcibly send Americans with Ebola TO Kenya?
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...
Here we go again, public health claiming that Ebola is 'droplet' and we have nothing to worry about. Same thing happened with COVID. Look where it got us.
Public health: we have already proven to ourselves that droplets generate aerosols, droplet v. airborne isn't real (it's just a risk framework)
Public health: we have already proven to ourselves that droplets generate aerosols, droplet v. airborne isn't real (it's just a risk framework)
May 22, 2026 at 1:42 AM
Here we go again, public health claiming that Ebola is 'droplet' and we have nothing to worry about. Same thing happened with COVID. Look where it got us.
Public health: we have already proven to ourselves that droplets generate aerosols, droplet v. airborne isn't real (it's just a risk framework)
Public health: we have already proven to ourselves that droplets generate aerosols, droplet v. airborne isn't real (it's just a risk framework)
I would really like the @who.int to adopt the "aerosol until proven otherwise" stance instead of the "not aerosol unless proven" stance for emerging pathogens. Pretty please?
May 18, 2026 at 4:09 AM
I would really like the @who.int to adopt the "aerosol until proven otherwise" stance instead of the "not aerosol unless proven" stance for emerging pathogens. Pretty please?
🧵☣️Hantavirus - The ship's doctor has symptoms!? Buried in this article is a mention of the symptomatic individuals still on the *Hondius*, including the ship's doctor. Regardless of how it started, I am concerned about human-to-human transmission. 1/n
May 6, 2026 at 12:56 AM
🧵☣️Hantavirus - The ship's doctor has symptoms!? Buried in this article is a mention of the symptomatic individuals still on the *Hondius*, including the ship's doctor. Regardless of how it started, I am concerned about human-to-human transmission. 1/n
Not surprising from someone who openly refuses to wash his hands because he doesn't believe in germs.
www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth...
www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth...
April 21, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Not surprising from someone who openly refuses to wash his hands because he doesn't believe in germs.
www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth...
www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth...
Very excited to read this paper, hoping to see how it's framed and if the authors frame it as reflecting race + class or some other metric? Cool stuff.
The Blackness scale might be one of my favorite parts of the paper. People often talk about identity as continuous (“She’s Black, but she ain’t Black Black”), so we developed a way to capture that perception. We then estimate how much different traits predict those ratings.
April 20, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Very excited to read this paper, hoping to see how it's framed and if the authors frame it as reflecting race + class or some other metric? Cool stuff.
Jeffries, silent. AOC, silent. Schumer, silent.* Elissa actually posting is good because war crimes are bad. I want to see more dems talking about the 25th. Shout it from the rooftops. Our president is not okay.
*at least on Bluesky
*at least on Bluesky
Pres. Trump's latest threats on Truth Social, if carried out, would violate the law of armed conflict as laid out in the Geneva Conventions and the DoD Law of War Manual. It is both irresponsible and wrong to indiscriminately kill civilians in Iran and destroy civilian infrastructure.
My statement:
My statement:
My statement regarding Trump’s latest threats on Iran
President Trump's latest threats on Truth Social, if carried out, would violate the law of armed conflict as laid out in the Geneva Conventions and the DoD Law of War Manual.
open.substack.com
April 6, 2026 at 12:56 AM
Jeffries, silent. AOC, silent. Schumer, silent.* Elissa actually posting is good because war crimes are bad. I want to see more dems talking about the 25th. Shout it from the rooftops. Our president is not okay.
*at least on Bluesky
*at least on Bluesky
@bloomberg.com was it you or MSN that misquoted the President of the United States? You forgot the part where he tells Iran to "open the fuckin' straight" and says "Praise be to ALLAH".
(MSN does not appear to be on Bluesky. Wild).
@nytimes.com what say you?
(MSN does not appear to be on Bluesky. Wild).
@nytimes.com what say you?
April 5, 2026 at 6:08 PM
@bloomberg.com was it you or MSN that misquoted the President of the United States? You forgot the part where he tells Iran to "open the fuckin' straight" and says "Praise be to ALLAH".
(MSN does not appear to be on Bluesky. Wild).
@nytimes.com what say you?
(MSN does not appear to be on Bluesky. Wild).
@nytimes.com what say you?
Very exciting and a fresh take on what publishing and open peer review could look like.
Scientific publishing: Rethinking how research is reviewed and published
Review of how the loss of impact factor affected submissions at eLife - uneven drop across countries, but generally holding up remarkably well and shows a new model is possible
elifesciences.org/articles/110...
Review of how the loss of impact factor affected submissions at eLife - uneven drop across countries, but generally holding up remarkably well and shows a new model is possible
elifesciences.org/articles/110...
Scientific Publishing: Rethinking how research is reviewed and published
Taking a radical new approach to the publication process resulted in eLife losing its impact factor, but authors, reviewers, editors and funders support the journal and its efforts to reform scientifi...
elifesciences.org
March 25, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Very exciting and a fresh take on what publishing and open peer review could look like.