Dr. Kelly O.
@drkfo.bsky.social
Chief Scientist for Next-Generation Sequencing & Bioinformatics at The Utah Public Health Laboratory 🌟 SEQUENCE ALL THE THINGS! 🌟 I oversee all the sequencing and data analysis for infectious disease pathogens for the state. All opinions are my own!
Save the date! APHL's ID Lab Con 2027 is March 15-18 in Atlanta, GA. Join public health lab professionals, epidemiologists, and researchers as we dive into the latest in infectious disease detection and surveillance. Registration opens September 2026. More details soon.
A new publication from my team! Beyond traditional outbreak investigation: Using genomic data for enhanced detection of COVID-19 disease clusters in Utah. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Beyond traditional outbreak investigation: Using genomic data for enhanced detection of COVID-19 disease clusters in Utah
Background Traditional disease surveillance, such as manual case investigation, was the primary method for identifying disease clusters during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic also provide...
journals.plos.org
Hey look, it’s me!!!
Contagion®@contagionlive.bsky.social · 4mo agoKelly Oakeson, PhD, explains how Utah public health officials are leveraging a statewide wastewater surveillance system to monitor #measles activity, identify emerging outbreaks, and supplement traditional case reporting. #asmmicrobe2026 www.contagionlive.com/view/wastewa...
One way we use pathogen genomics for public health here in Utah. www.deseret.com/lifestyle/20...
Why Utah uses sewage to find measles, COVID, flu outbreaks
Cutting-edge system was built during COVID but can pivot to other diseases
deseret.com
Great collaboration between the CDC and state public health labs!!! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-producing Acinetobacter baumannii in the USA from October, 2013, to March, 2022: a retrospective molecular epidemiological analysis
Most US carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) isolates harbour carbapenem-hydrolysing class D β-lactamases. Other carbapenemases, such a…
sciencedirect.com
I’m curious. If an outspoken atheist was to set up tables outside churches on Sunday and on campuses of Christian colleges with a sign that said “God doesn’t exist, prove me wrong,” would that person be hailed as a figure who was trying to engage in good faith debate and heal our divisions?
Going forward, what comes out of the CDC “will be a Frankenstein of science and ideology” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The C.D.C.’s Vaccine Chief on Why Quitting Was His Only Option
Podcast Episode · The Daily · 08/29/2025 · 29m
podcasts.apple.com
Kennedy “is trying to fully dismantle the nation’s vaccination apparatus, regardless of what science says or what most people want. And less than a year into his tenure as health secretary, he is succeeding brilliantly.” We are all at deep risk unless we push Congress to actually act. NOW.
Opinion | The Public Health Disaster Everyone Saw Coming
nytimes.com
BREAKING: Big moment as CDC staff stage a mass walkout. They have lined the street outside its HQ to greet and salute the four top officials who have resigned in protest at RFK Jr’s attack on the agency’s science base. (🎥 AP)
🗓 Pathoplexus turns ONE! 🎂🎉 In the past year we’ve grown from 4 pathogens to a truly global, community-driven platform for transparent, equitable & impactful pathogen sequence sharing. 📰 Read the full update: pathoplexus.org/news/2025-08... 1/10
“New Jersey health officials are issuing a warning about a possible measles exposure on NJ Transit and PATH trains. A Hudson County resident who was diagnosed with measles used public transportation while potentially infectious, the New Jersey Department of Health announced Friday.”
Warning issued for possible measles exposure on NJ Transit, PATH trains
A Hudson County resident who tested positive for measles used public transit while potentially infectious, health officials say.
cbsnews.com
www.statnews.com/2025/08/18/r...
Former CDC Director William Foege: How public health can fight back in a time of dangerous nonsense
“Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time,” writes former CDC Director William Foege.
statnews.com
They're all cool with sexually assaulting children it appears www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
Utah’s Senate president prompted law change that helped a teen charged with child rape
An 18-year-old high schooler was facing potential prison time and having to register as a sex offender until help came from a powerful ally — Senate President J. Stuart Adams.
sltrib.com
ballerina X@ballerinax.bsky.social · last yr.An 18-year-old Utahn, related to Utah Senate President Stuart Adams raped a 13-year-old. So Adams had the legislature to change the law "The teen would plead guilty to reduced charges, face no additional jail time beyond a week already served, and would not have to register as a sex offender."
🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬 Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
We’re honored to report that over 11 million showed up for today’s No Kings protest, and totals are still coming in. Just… wow. WOW 😮! There’s nothing more to say.
I once talked to Ice-T about skiing in the Delta customer service line in Salt Lake City.
Bolt: Anxious Millenial Enby@bolt451.bsky.social · last yr.Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
A little shameless self-promotion. www.aphlblog.org/how-next-gen...
How Next-Generation Sequencing Is Revolutionizing Food Safety - APHL Blog
By Donna Campisano, specialist, Communications, APHL Last year, 113 people across 23 states were sickened with Salmonella Typhimurium after eating cucumbers. Another 61 people from 19 states developed...
aphlblog.org
Check out some fun foodborne illness investigations! www.aphlblog.org/contaminatio...
Contamination Chronicles: How Laboratory Scientists Cracked Three Unusual Food Safety Cases - APHL Blog
By Donna Campisano, specialist, Communications, APHL What do raw milk, raw pet food and a drug-laced chicken sandwich have in common? They were all subjects of the “Contamination Chronicles” session a...
aphlblog.org
Time to catch up on the past week’s news about science and medicine in the US. Whew. 1/10
This week’s main story is about the budget and staffing cuts being made to public health agencies in the U.S. under RFK Jr.’s leadership, how those cuts will impact all of us, and some foolproof ideas for what scientists can do in the absence of totally superfluous stuff like, y’know, centrifuges.
💣The Carpet Bombing of HHS 💥 It's hard to describe how America's health agencies have been bombed and shelled in the past few months, but John Oliver is a good start. 🧵
RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
youtu.be
We agree that CDC needs to be more nimble and efficient. But CDC restructuring should be done by someone who understands the mission and respects science. RFKJ is not that person. He does not understand the work he is destroying and does not care to find out. www.medpagetoday.com/special-repo...
Utah just banned fluoride in drinking water, undoing decades of science-based public health progress. Time for a fluoride #factcheckfriday:
Those NAS worked great for almost 9 years. RIP!
Erin Young@erinyoung.bsky.social · 2y agoIt's the end of an era. I wish they hadn't died on me.
CDC leadership has not been included in decisions that affect the agency's future. Termination emails will go directly from HHS to CDC staff. The tone from Center directors today: “sorry we don't know anything. Please tell us if you're RIF'd. We'll do a headcount Monday of those still standing".
