Friday, August 31, 2012

Slow month of August in D.C. Summer. On Aug. 8, 2012 did a “Science in the Cinema” performance at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring with Ian Lipkin for the movie “Contagion”. Fun being with Ian. Always a character. Problem over past 2 weeks with the PR associated with Klebsiella pneumonia – carbapenam-resistant organism (KPC) in the NIH Clinical Center. The Clinical Center (CC) and NHGRI people published a paper in Science Translational Medicine on the genetic analysis by deep sequencing of a KPC the originated from an index case in the CC and then infected spread by people or fomites to 17 other people in the CC – 11 deaths – 6 from KPC bacteremia. The PR people at CC did not handle it well. They got so absorbed in the science of the paper that they did not realize that the community reaction would be “Why did not anyone tell us about this outbreak – even though there was no actionable information here since the organism does not bother healthy people and the man-on-Wisconsin Avenue is at no risk. Aug 15 to 25, I had bad URI with fever and malaise that took 2 weeks to resolve. Over the past few weeks, I have become enamored/obsessed with the Washington Nations baseball team. I feel like I felt when I was 12 years old and knew the batting averages of all of the N.Y. Yankees. The Nats are 7 ½ games in first place and they have the best pitching staff in baseball – Steve Strasburg, Gio Gonzales, Jordan Zimmerman, Ross Detwiler, Erwin Rodriguez. There hitters are amazing. Bryce Harper (19 years old) is pounding the ball and he runs and throws and fields like Mickey Mantle. Also, Jason Werth, Adam La Roche, Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Morse, Ian Desmond, Danny Espinoza – all very good hitters.