Some of my books on the history of Mexico, essential for understanding the illnesses of Coahuila y Texas for my new book on Texas epidemics @mitpress out next year, I detail how cholera decimated Monclova and the Veramendi Ruiz/Navarro Tejano families, Stephen F Austin cholera acquired during his imprisonment in Mexico City on top of his earlier debilitating vivax malaria, the etiology of matlazthuatl what caused it and its impact on the 1813 Battle of Medina and more

Been reading a remarkable book long since forgotten by James Thomas Flexner the son of Dr. Simon Flexner the founding Director of @RockefellerUniv and nephew of Abraham Flexner of the “Flexner Report.” It’s like a Microbe Hunters of early Colonial and American medicine. First written in 1937, detailed but not fussy, well written, lousy title, found it as one of the Dover resurrection editions of the 1970s which were common when I was a HS student

Scheduled to go on @AC360 tonight around 8:30 PM Eastern, 7:30 PM Central and speak with @JohnBerman about a possible lab-associated case of pneumonic plague in Russia. FYI the lab in Irutsk, Siberia is close to a zone of the Central Asian steppes where plague is endemic

Many thanks @JohnBerman for hosting me this evening on @AC360 as I explain why it makes sense for a Russian institute on the northern edge of the Central Asian steppes where plague circulates in wild animal populations to study the plague bacillus but the puzzling disconnect between Russian Government communications and the actions around quarantine and hospital control