Grieving mom of Brendan Bjørn; Devoted mom to D; Advocate; Writing a book if you'd kindly like to help that goal here: buymeacoffee.com/addressingl…
Joined March 2016
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Do you know what is THE MOST COMMON INFECTIOUS (VIRAL) CAUSE OF BIRTH DEFECTS? 👶
📢 Please read this post to find out and share with any women who are pregnant or considering pregnancy. 🤰
🔹Did you know that approximately 1 in every 200 babies born is born positive to this virus? Of those, 20% will be born with, or will develop, a life-long disability.
🔹Did you know that this virus is the leading non-genetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss?
🔹Did you know that more children are affected by this congenital (born with) condition than other well-known congenital conditions such as Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?
🔹Did you know that this is a common virus which pregnant woman most often contract from young children via bodily fluids (saliva, urine, tears, etc)? High amounts of the virus can stay in a child's body fluids like saliva and urine for months after the infection.
🔹Did you know that if a woman contracts this virus during pregnancy, there's a 1 in 3 chance of it crossing the placenta an infecting the developing baby?
🔹Did you know that over half of adults have been infected with CMV by age 40. Once this virus is in a person’s body, it stays there for life and can reactivate. A person can also be re-infected with a different strain of the virus.
🔹Did you know there is no vaccine for this common virus?
This common virus, and leading cause of childhood disability and birth-defects, is called cytomegalovirus, or CMV. When babies are born positive to this virus, it is called Congenital CMV.
‼️While there are no ways to eliminate your risk, you can reduce your chance of getting and spreading CMV by taking extra hygienic precautions while pregnant.
Make sure you:
➡️ Do not share food, utensils, cups, or pacifiers (dummies/soothers) with a child, including your own young children.
➡️ Wash your hands with soap and water after changing diapers or helping a child to use the toilet.
➡️ Try to avoid touching your eyes and mouth so not to transmit the virus from your hands.
➡️ If you have young children, try to avoid kissing them on their face or near their mouth.
June is CMV Awareness Month. #cytomegalovirus
About me: My eldest son, Brendan Bjørn, was born in 2004 with severe brain damage due to congenital CMV. I had never heard of CMV prior to his diagnosis at 4 weeks old. Since that time, I made it my mission to raise awareness of this common but potentially devastating virus. In 2007, I established the first non-profit foundation in the world dedicated to raising awareness of CMV and supporting CMV vaccine research. While I did dissolved the foundation (Brendan B. McGinnis Congenital CMV Foundation) in 2015, there are now other non-profits around the world who have taken up this cause. I will link them below. Please don't hesitate to contact them with any queries. You may also ask me, of course.
I lost my son in 2022 when he was 17 years old. He was profoundly disabled as a result of CMV which I likely contracted while working with young children as a Child & Family Therapist in a public mental health clinic when I was pregnant, but I'll never know for sure.
In his honour, and for all the babies yet to be born, I ask you to please share this information. 🙏
"Every hour a child is disabled due to congenital CMV"
@NationalCMV @CMVAustralia @cmvactionuk
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4 yrs ago I did this article. 4 yrs later, this anomaly in the social welfare Disability Allowance hasn't been rectified. It should be. DA should continue for 12 wks after the death of a disabled adult (age 16 ) child just as DCA does for disabled children under 16 @daracalleary
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Tracy 💜 ☮️ 📸 ✍🏼 retweeted
Jun 13
Did you know that more children are disabled by this congenital (born with) condition than other well-known congenital conditions such as Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?
June is CMV Awareness Month. Please share the below tweet. #cytomegalovirus
Do you know what is THE MOST COMMON INFECTIOUS (VIRAL) CAUSE OF BIRTH DEFECTS? 👶
📢 Please read this post to find out and share with any women who are pregnant or considering pregnancy. 🤰
🔹Did you know that approximately 1 in every 200 babies born is born positive to this virus? Of those, 20% will be born with, or will develop, a life-long disability.
🔹Did you know that this virus is the leading non-genetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss?
🔹Did you know that more children are affected by this congenital (born with) condition than other well-known congenital conditions such as Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?
🔹Did you know that this is a common virus which pregnant woman most often contract from young children via bodily fluids (saliva, urine, tears, etc)? High amounts of the virus can stay in a child's body fluids like saliva and urine for months after the infection.
🔹Did you know that if a woman contracts this virus during pregnancy, there's a 1 in 3 chance of it crossing the placenta an infecting the developing baby?
🔹Did you know that over half of adults have been infected with CMV by age 40. Once this virus is in a person’s body, it stays there for life and can reactivate. A person can also be re-infected with a different strain of the virus.
🔹Did you know there is no vaccine for this common virus?
This common virus, and leading cause of childhood disability and birth-defects, is called cytomegalovirus, or CMV. When babies are born positive to this virus, it is called Congenital CMV.
‼️While there are no ways to eliminate your risk, you can reduce your chance of getting and spreading CMV by taking extra hygienic precautions while pregnant.
Make sure you:
➡️ Do not share food, utensils, cups, or pacifiers (dummies/soothers) with a child, including your own young children.
➡️ Wash your hands with soap and water after changing diapers or helping a child to use the toilet.
➡️ Try to avoid touching your eyes and mouth so not to transmit the virus from your hands.
➡️ If you have young children, try to avoid kissing them on their face or near their mouth.
June is CMV Awareness Month. #cytomegalovirus
About me: My eldest son, Brendan Bjørn, was born in 2004 with severe brain damage due to congenital CMV. I had never heard of CMV prior to his diagnosis at 4 weeks old. Since that time, I made it my mission to raise awareness of this common but potentially devastating virus. In 2007, I established the first non-profit foundation in the world dedicated to raising awareness of CMV and supporting CMV vaccine research. While I did dissolved the foundation (Brendan B. McGinnis Congenital CMV Foundation) in 2015, there are now other non-profits around the world who have taken up this cause. I will link them below. Please don't hesitate to contact them with any queries. You may also ask me, of course.
I lost my son in 2022 when he was 17 years old. He was profoundly disabled as a result of CMV which I likely contracted while working with young children as a Child & Family Therapist in a public mental health clinic when I was pregnant, but I'll never know for sure.
In his honour, and for all the babies yet to be born, I ask you to please share this information. 🙏
"Every hour a child is disabled due to congenital CMV"
@NationalCMV @CMVAustralia @cmvactionuk
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100% this.
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Tracy 💜 ☮️ 📸 ✍🏼 retweeted
Since Scotland won their first Football World Cup game in the early hours of this morning, it's time for some Scottish football history...
Did you know that Scotland is home to the world's oldest football - even better, it may have been kicked by Mary Queen of Scots!
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As summer nears, Grand Teton National Park bursts into color. It's a good reminder to pause, breathe deep, and take in the beauty all around us.
Photo by John Tobiason / NPS
ALT A wide field of bright yellow wildflowers stretches across the foreground, with the snow-capped peaks of the Teton Range rising in the distance beneath a vivid blue sky dotted with large white clouds. The flowers fill the landscape, creating a colorful contrast against the rugged mountains and open sky.
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The last few weather model updates have shown a blast of very warm air moving up around the 25th. This far out it is very very uncertain but interesting both models have shown it as a possible outcome. Could see us hit 30c again “if” it did happen.
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As the saying goes, there's a time and a place for everything. This spectacle & the UFC cage fighting don't belong on the WH grounds. But, it will appeal to the redneck supporters. The rest of the country and the world see it for the circus (sh*t show) that it is.
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true 🤣🤣
Donald Trump is now officially an octogenarian and he won't have a clue what that means.
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The Department of Enterprise has warned the state’s utilities regulator that looming spikes to the firms’ wastewater bills pose a major risk to the country’s ability to attract foreign direct investment.
Wastewater charges for hundreds of businesses will increase from October 2026, following a decision made by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).
The tariffs will be charged by Uisce Éireann, the state’s water utility.[#IrishWater]
..a move that means 84 per cent of firms will see their bills increase.
Intel told the CRU in a separate submission it was “increasingly concerned about the cumulative impact of rising utility costs in Ireland and the degree to which these costs are undermining Ireland’s competitiveness relative to peer international jurisdictions”.
#CRU #Intel #Quango #FDI
businesspost.ie/companies/go…
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Tracy 💜 ☮️ 📸 ✍🏼 retweeted
Morning everyone I hope you are well. One of my favourite spots to lose myself on Loughrigg Fell overlooking Rydal Water, and the view is not too bad either. Have a great day.
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the health minister, has issued a four-week deadline for working hours to be brought into line with the new contracts.
A damning internal HSE report has revealed that only 11 per cent of consultants are rostered to work Saturdays and only 37 per cent plan to work new evening hours despite obligations in public-only work contracts that came into force late last year.
✍️ Jennifer Bray
A second HSE audit, dated March 2026, also warned that there is “no structured national or regional reporting framework to monitor the phased elimination of private practice in public settings and or the achievement of enhanced roster flexibilities”.
thetimes.com/article/3a1a378…
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Tracy 💜 ☮️ 📸 ✍🏼 retweeted
Wet wet wet - Torridon Hills below Beinn Eighe, Highlands of Scotland 🏴🏴
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The Government is to introduce a new Derelict Property Tax in 107 cities and towns across the State rte.ie/news/2026/0614/157829…
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Tracy 💜 ☮️ 📸 ✍🏼 retweeted
Jun 12
EXCLUSIVE: A commercial airline pilot filed safety reports after nearly being blinded by lights from Donald Trump's UFC structure when flying into Washington, D.C.'s Reagan airport.
My latest with @MeidasTouch: meidasnews.com/news/white-ho…
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Tracy 💜 ☮️ 📸 ✍🏼 retweeted
Jun 13
Consultants in Rotunda give €1,500 ‘gifts’ to public doctors to deliver babies buff.ly/QPsFJFI
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