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WELCOME TO GERM GEMS
Germ Gems is a weekly blog posted by Phillip K. Peterson, MD - an infectious diseases expert and professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Minnesota. Launched in July 2019, the weekly posts serve as a vehicle for timely information on what’s new in the microbial world.
Microbes - also known as germs and microorganisms - are essential to human health. But some microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites) can sicken or kill us.
A day doesn’t go by without the appearance of some newsworthy development involving microbes. Many of the stories you’ll read are about our enemies, germs that cause disease. Others relate to microbes that contribute to human health. Some involve the human microbiome - germs that share our body surfaces.
Even though you generally get what you pay for, don’t let Germ Gems free subscription fool you— you may read something that one day saves your or a loved one’s life.
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Pandemic Unpreparedness and the Price of Profound Stupidity
“US Completes Withdrawal from the WHO.” Samantha Anderer, Journal American Medical Association ( JAMA), February 13, 2026 “Staff members at the United States premier infectious-disease research institute have been instructed to remove the words ‘biodefense’ and ‘pandemic preparedness’ from the institute’s web pages …" Max Kozlov, senior science reporter, Nature , February 13, 2026 Despite its dark reputation, there is no evidence that more bad things happen on Friday the 13
P.K. Peterson
5 days ago6 min read
The Latest Poop on Norovirus
“The overarching goal of managing a person with diarrhea is to maintain fluid and electrolyte balance to prevent the morbidity and mortality associated with dehydration and malnutrition.” Andi L. Shane, MD, et al., “Executive Summary: State of the Art Review: Infectious Diarrhea ,” Clinical Infectious Diseases, November 2025 "The war on foodborne pathogens deserves the sort of national attention and resources that are devoted to the war on terror." Eric Schlosser, American j
P.K. Peterson
Feb 255 min read
Cryptococcal Meningitis: The Case Against Vaping Cannabis
“Medical and recreational cannabis has been shown to carry pathogenic fungi and bacteria.” Kailey Hughes Kramer, PhD, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Pittsburgh “ Contamination is not the only danger vaping weed poses.” Deepak Cyril D'Souza, Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University Minnesota established a medical cannabis program in 2014 and legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2023. This past fall that I noticed that a fancy can
P.K. Peterson
Feb 184 min read
Headed to History’s Dust Bin: Guinea Worm Disease (Dracunculiasis)
“Only 10 human cases of Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) were reported worldwide in 2025, the fewest ever recorded, bringing the parasitic disease closer than ever to eradication.” The Carter Center, January 30, 2026 “I would like to see Guinea worm completely eradicated before I die. I’d like for the last Guinea worm to die before I do.” Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking at a press conference in 2015 In 1982, former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn fo
P.K. Peterson
Feb 113 min read
Febrile Seizures: Scary but Benign
“I think it’s very important to tell parents that, yes, your child is getting a vaccine, and they can have fever that goes up rapidly or down rapidly…It is a simple, short seizure associated with fever, and it is not having any long-term consequences." Sharon Nachman, MD, Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital “To parents and caregivers, watching their child experience a febrile seizure is no doubt a frightening experience, even though these s
P.K. Peterson
Feb 44 min read
GO CAR T-CELLS! Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cells: Fighting Cancer, Autoimmune Diseases, and Aging
“Engineered immune cells are being used to successfully treat people with a range of debilitating autoimmune conditions, such as, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.” Rachel Fieldhouse, Nature November 26, 2025 “CAR-T therapies are poised for significant growth as developers seek to extend the technology to solid tumors, autoimmune conditions, and other diseases.” Science December 4, 2025 As a first year medical almost six decades ago, I remember sitting in
P.K. Peterson
Jan 285 min read
Long COVID: Progressing Toward an Effective Treatment
" The underlying pathophysiology of long COVID remains poorly understood, and evidence-based, disease modifying treatments for it have not been identified. " Nassem Bazargan, MPH, Editorial Director, MedLitera " Our hope is that it won't take as long with long COVID because of what we learned from HIV, but these things don't just happen instantly, it takes a lot of work. " Igho Ofotokun, MD, Emory University School of Medicine Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV2 infection, Post
P.K. Peterson
Jan 216 min read
Resurgence of Measles: Vaccine Misinformation at Work
“Pompous, uninformed bluster and proud ignorance based on ideology, not evidence, are running our country at the expense of innocent lives.” Chloe Nazra Lee, MD, MPH, psychiatry resident, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester “The primary cause of the resurgence in measles cases is failure to vaccinate, not failure of the vaccine.” Lien Anh Do, MD, PhD and Kim Mulholland, MD, “Measles 2025,” New England Journal of Medicine , December, 2025 The measles vaccine, c
P.K. Peterson
Jan 145 min read
The GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Revolution: From Medical Breakthrough to Trillion Dollar Industry
“Few medications have had such a meteoric rise as semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Zepbound), the GLP-1-based treatments for obesity that have captivated society and quickly become household names.” Christopher McGowan, MD, University North Carolina “When people hear about celebrities rapidly losing a ton of weight with these drugs (GLP-1s), it gives the impression of a quick fix. That perception ignores the underlying science and the medical guidance required f
P.K. Peterson
Jan 74 min read
Happy New Year!
Thank you for another wonderful year at Germ Gems! We hope you have a happy and healthy 2026! The Germ Gems Team
P.K. Peterson
Dec 31, 20251 min read
Vaccine Wars: Might vs Right
“The most powerful current threat to public health is not an infectious disease or climate change; it is the rampant spread of health-related misinformation and disinformation.”Christine Laine, MD, MPH, Editor in Chief, Annals of Internal Medicine “For the first time in my career, I am deeply concerned that I cannot fully rely on the CDC’s recommendations. My duty is to my patients, and I will continue to lean on my training and the best available evidence.” Stephen Patrick,
P.K. Peterson
Dec 17, 20256 min read
HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Light At the End of the Tunnel
“The HIV field has seen its share of ups and downs, but rarely has something arrived with as much hope as lenacapavir.” Kai Kupferschmidt, contributing correspondent, Science Magazine “Recent advances have made a cure possible for the first time in the history of HIV research.”Barbara Zenz, Medscape Medical News , October 15, 2025 In 1981, the HIV/AIDS pandemic first reared its god-awful head in America debuting in gay men in San Francisco, California. I remember vividly th
P.K. Peterson
Dec 10, 20254 min read
A Formula for Disaster: Infant Botulism Outbreak
“After all, botulinum toxin is the world's most potent natural toxin—millions of times more poisonous than cyanide.” USDA Agricultural Research Service "This outbreak is traumatic for parents. They may have fed their newborns and infants a product they assumed was safe. And now they're dealing with hospitalization and serious illness of their babies." Sandra Eskin, chief executive, STOP Foodborne Illness One of the reasons I chose to pursue a career in internal medicine
P.K. Peterson
Dec 3, 20255 min read
Keeping the Focus on Influenza Viruses: A Challenge, to Say the Least
“The current circulating influenza A (H3N2) virus acquired seven new mutations over the summer, which means the virus is quite different to the A (H3N2) strain included in this year’s vaccine.” Antonio Ho, MD, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland “The United States may be headed for a rough flu season, with a virus that causes more severe symptoms than the one last year and seems to be spreading more rapidly and earlier than usual.” Apoorva Mandavilli, American investigat
P.K. Peterson
Nov 26, 20254 min read
Craving for Junk Science: an Anti-Vaxxer Addiction?
“God is an antivaxxer, and he needs you to speak up.” Del Bigtree, television and film producer, CEO of Informed Consent Action Network, an anti-vaccine group “To believe in utter nonsense is the prerogative of humans.” Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, Nobel laureate I am astounded by the growing number of anti-vaxx Americans who have drunk the Kool-Aid and developed an insatiable desire for “junk science.” It recently occurred to me that their problem is akin to that of
P.K. Peterson
Nov 19, 20255 min read
COVID-19 Vaccine Improves Survival of Patients with Lung Cancer and Melanoma
“I’m about to tell you about a new medical study that may reshape the way we treat cancer in the coming years and decades. It’s a study that suggests that the mRNA COVID vaccines, those of Pfizer and Moderna fame, may improve survival in people with cancer receiving immunotherapy, and not by a small amount.” F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine “The implications are extraordinary—this could revolutionize the ent
P.K. Peterson
Nov 12, 20254 min read
Scary Times for Public Health in the U.S.
“We must get ourselves out of this scary time by continuing to push for clear, evidence-based research and policies.” Shari M. Erickson, MPH, Chief Advocacy Officer and Senior Vice President, Governmental Affairs and Public Policy, American College of Physicians “It is like trying to fly a plane and you have no speed gauge, you have no altimeter, you don’t know your elevation, you don’t know how far it is to the nearest airport. You have none of the information that you need.
P.K. Peterson
Nov 5, 20256 min read
Guillain-Barre Syndrome Outbreak in Pune, India
“Man is his own worst enemy.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman (106 BCE-43 BCE) “At least 21 people have died and nearly 300 have been affected by Guillain-Barre syndrome in India, marking the country’s largest ever outbreak of the rare neurological illness.” Samaan Lateef, India-based UK Daily Telegraph journalist Named after Georges Guillain and Jean Barre, the t
P.K. Peterson
Oct 29, 20253 min read
Sustained Reduction in Sexually Transmitted Infections: Good News but…
“The latest CDC data is a hopeful sign that the nation is making progress on an out-of-control STI epidemic, but we have far more work to do before Americans can feel sufficiently protected.” Elizabeth Finley, interim executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors “If there’s anything that should jump out at you it’s simply this—sexual behavior has declined significantly since the late 1980s.” Ryan Burge, American political scientist and statistician While
P.K. Peterson
Oct 22, 20254 min read
2025 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for Discoveries on Regulation of the Immune System
“I think it is fair to say that the Nobel Prize is the highest honor any scientist or artist can achieve.” Lester Bowles Pearson, Canadian diplomat, 1957 Nobel Peace Prize laureate “The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the scientists who conducted fundamental research on peripheral immune tolerance, a system that pumps the brakes on the immune system and keeps it from harming the body.” Lauren J. Young, science journalist, associate editor, Scientific
P.K. Peterson
Oct 15, 20255 min read
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CONTACT ME
Phillip K. Peterson, M.D. is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he served as an infectious diseases specialist for four decades. He is a former director of the Infectious Diseases and International Medicine Division in the Department of Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Medicine and of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and in 2011 received the Gold Award for Distinguished Achievement in Research by his alma mater, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
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