Lauer is super concerned about the demoralizing impact of low success rates...now that it is white folks being affected drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/l...

There is time to urge a change to the current #GRFP solicitation ( #NSF 25-547 ): reverse the eligibility restrictions and ensure applicants (including 2nd year PhD students) have a fair chance in the competition. Feel free to sign and share this open petition: laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

NSF GRFP is out 2.5 months late w/key changes 1. 2nd year graduate students not eligible. 2. "alignment with Administration priorities" 3. Unlike prior years, they DO NOT specify the expected number of awards... that is a BIG problem. a brief 🧵 w/receipts www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Tracy Beth Hoeg at FDA is highly likely to use the VAERS data to make spurious inferences on COVID vaccines. She comes with strong biases against childhood vaccination and no experience in infectious disease epidemiology. Beware what Hoeg, Makary and RFK are selling…

Dr. Gonsalves has written a piece that is equal parts brilliant and tragic. Read it and use it as motivation to keep fighting the destruction of US science infrastructure. @gregggonsalves.bsky.social

The great @jimalwine.bsky.social and I on the absolute necessity of restoring the NIH's funding. www.statnews.com/2025/06/26/n...

New paper! Synchronized breathing data and network models show that age and sex shape infection risk in bottlenose dolphins—critical insight for protecting marine wildlife from future outbreaks. Collab w/ @bansallab.bsky.social rdcu.be/epHE8

🔥 When smoke from climate-linked wildfires drives people indoors, respiratory infections rise. But if 10% of people wear masks, this effect could be offset. New research in PLOS Climate by Arregui-García and colleagues 👇 journals.plos.org/climate/arti...

Joining colleagues in backing NIH staff who wrote the Bethesda Declaration. Time to defend the research infrastructure that has made US biomedicine a global leader from harmful political interference.

important historical perspective on the value of federal funding of basic research at universities: "These are the building blocks of America's extraordinary strength, created over the last 100 years, and they are now being dismantled in 100 days" 🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qk4...

NIH moved up the expiration date for some funding opportunities, effectively *canceling* the next application date without removing it from the standard table. I can't even imagine how many people are still prepping these grants. 👀 List of impacted opportunities: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Applying to STEM grad programs? 🎓 Apply now for #CLGSMI! 🤩 ➡️ cientificolatino.com/gsmi The GSMI program supports applicants through 1-on-1 mentorship, fee waivers, professional development, and community building! Applications accepted on a ROLLING basis until 5/31!

So what should NSF grantees, worried by terminated grants, do? That's something I've been thinking a lot about, given my own NSF grants. First, I'd encourage to read this AAUP guide focused squarely on NSF grant termination policies: www.aaup.org/sites/defaul...

Raise your hand if you’ve ever used the Wayback Machine! ✋ The Internet Archive project (funded in part by NEH, #IMLS and #NSF) is an invaluable treasure trove of millions archived sites, texts, software, movies and more. All FREE. And a vast majority of federal funding has been cut. archive.org

Drug-resistant gonorrhea, a form of the widespread sexually transmitted infection, is considered an urgent health threat worldwide. The US has just lost its ability to detect it. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/h...

UPDATE: Here's where we're at w/ NIH grant terminations: ❌ 429 NIH grants terminated* ❌ 137 related to HIV/AIDS prevention ❌ 27 on cancer ❌ 16 on Alzheimer's The full Airtable, thanks to wizardry of @noamross.net👇 *This is just what we know. There are certainly more we don't know about yet.

If the public already knows, then surely there is no harm in posting the results. But they want to suppress them because RFK Jr., who is an anti-vaxxer and who has never conducted scientific research, thinks vaccines are bad. www.propublica.org/article/meas...

RFK Jr.’s lackey claims that the CDC doesn’t need to post the expert report on the measles outbreak. She says this because it shows that people are more susceptible to measles if they live in under-vaccinated places. She claims that the report “doesn’t say anything the public doesn’t know”.

I was just working with NCES data yesterday (to quantify how many 5-6 year olds are homeschooled and miss school vaccine requirements). NCES data aren't just important for education but critical for tracking and improving child nutrition and health too.

86 children and 19000 adults have died from flu this season in the U.S. and that's with a vaccine. If we have no vaccines come September these numbers will increase. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

🚨 Excited to see our work published in @jmirpub.bsky.social🚨 Our study characterizes the geographical connectivity across spatiotemporal scales, highlighting the significant heterogeneities that influence disease dynamics. W/ L Alvarez-Zuzek @vcolizza.bsky.social @bansallab.bsky.social

An excellent effort to get the voices of scientists heard throughout the country 👇👇👇

Since RFK Jr just got confirmed today, I am taking this chance to share this wonderful @sciam.bsky.social piece on The Staggering Success of Vaccines www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-...

There’s a lot going on right now & it can be hard to get work done! We’re offering a virtual space for @midas-network.bsky.social trainees to make some writing progress on Monday, Feb 10, at 2pm ET. Join us for an hour to write alongside supportive peers! Register: notredame.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

🚨🧪😷 NEW research: What did outbreak reporting look like during Covid-19 and mpox? We found evidence of: ⚖️ Big moves from WHO on transparency 🌡️ More outbreaks potentially linked to climate change 🐔 Weird gaps and shifts in influenza outbreak reporting Please share! 🔓 journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

NEW 🦠‼️ Several countries and reports have called for the creation of an Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics. Over the last two years, we brought global health law experts together with IPCC and IPBES members, and mapped out a blueprint for its scope and governance. 🔓 papers.ssrn.com/abstract=508...

The addition of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) sessions at scientific conferences is excellent progress! ...

Managing diseases in livestock in a country the size of the U.S. is a huge challenge due to the frequent and extensive movement of animals across the nation. Learn more in a piece I wrote for @statnews with my colleague, Colleen Webb (CSU):

Pasteurization appears to inactivate #H5N1 so milk continues to be safe, but you might be surprised to learn how prevalent raw milk consumption is in the US. Raw milk sales are permitted in most states (thanks to @AlexesMerritt for the map, data from )

Hearty Congratulations to @casey_zipfel! So proud!

As we near the end of the 2022 monkeypox PHE, it’s important to keep an eye on future orthopoxvirus outbreak risk with residual smallpox vaccine immunity waning globally. Check out our new study led by @julianactaube⁩ & @mtevarest w/⁦@jlloydsmith⁩

So proud of @AlexesMerritt and @julianactaube who presented at #midas2022 and crushed it! Thanks to everyone who shared positive feedback with these amazing junior researchers. #WomenInIDD

Does anyone have any resources to suggest on decolonizing population ecology? I've been trying in recent semesters to improve my population biology course, but have been limited by the resources available. Would love suggestions for more inclusive histories and case studies.

I'm looking forward to seeing those of you that can make it to the @MIDAS_Network Annual Meeting in DC next week! ICYMI, the public health guidelines have been updated, and masking will now be required. Here's to a safe and productive meeting! #MIDAS2022

The ongoing monkeypox outbreak has brought to the forefront the legacy of smallpox eradication. Historical smallpox vaccination efforts were heterogenous leaving a modern patchwork of long-lasting protection. We characterize this landscape in new work: . 🧵

The pandemic has highlighted the increased risk of airborne transmission risk in INDOOR environments w/out ventilation. But it turns out we know very little about rates of indoor activity and how this varies by location. A 🧵on a new study in which we start to fill this gap (1/)

Really enjoyed the faculty mentoring workshop led by @erindolan1 at @GUBiology today. Helpful evidence-based tools and much food for thought. Thank you so much for coming, Dr. Dolan!

Just your neighborhood COVID vaccination tracker here with some positive news.👇is the progress we've made in 1-dose coverage over the last 3 weeks (thanks to 5-11-year-olds!). By the time we're at the Dec holidays, most of these 8.3 million indivs will be fully protected! 1/2

Prospective PhD students: if you're considering programs in EEB/Biology, stop in for office hours/Q & A about the @GUBiology graduate program with some of the faculty today at 4pm or next week at the same time. It'll be informal. Bring your questions!

Wherever you are in the world, I’m sure you had some good news this week and some dark. On this Diwali, may light dispel the darkness of our lives, and guide us towards gratitude for the good and hope for the possibilities to come. 🪔🪔🪔

#Epidemics8 community, we are planning a networking/mentoring event at the Epidemics8 conference for early career researchers to talk about science and careers with senior folks one-on-one. What have you seen in past meetings that works? What would you like to see in this one?

We have learned much about how US communities vary in disease burden & response (spatial heterogeneity). We focus less on how intensely connected we are via mobility (spatial connectivity). These forces together create a pandemic in which the actions of 1 community impact many.🧵

It's a big day in the lab today with @casey_zipfel defending her @Georgetown @GUBiology PhD dissertation titled "The Interplay between Human Behavior and Infectious Disease Dynamics". I'm a proud mentor today. Go Casey! 💪🏽

I have been prioritizing requests today from local news outlets. Vacc campaigns are carried out locally, and transmission dynamics are driven first by local processes. Local news reporters have an important role to play in getting us safely out of this pandemic. Hats off to them!

There are undervaccinated communities around the country where both unvaccinated/vaccinated remain vulnerable. Communities within these clusters will more easily support transmission than others. CC: Andrew Tiu, @AlexesMerritt, @ZacharySusswein

Today was an on-brand 2021 day and included: @casey_zipfel's dissertation deadline, analysis for a major news outlet, research meetings, grant admin, #SISMID planning, a phishing attack, a memorial service, wedding planning, a tornado nearby, and a dead tree removed in our yard.

During this holiday weekend and beyond, consider not just your own vaccination status but that of your community and neighboring communities when you make decisions about activities. Vaccination remains highly heterogeneous across the United States. A short thread. (1/

At the @MIDAS_Network annual meeting next week, I'll be moderating a panel on funding opportunities for infectious disease modeling with reps from NSF, NIH, CDC, & Gates. The panel will be open for all to attend. What questions/thoughts do you have for the panelists? Reply👇🏽or DM

In the race between vaccination and variants, how will we know that vaccination is winning? Tracking vaccination coverage systematically and accurately is crucial to understanding how the rest of 2021 will go. But currently, this tracking remains patchy & inconsistent. A 🧵.

Many thanks to @DaniSBassett for her excellent talk at #NERCCS2021 on race, ethnicity, and gender imbalances in citations for neuroscience. We need this important work in all fields of science. #MathBio folks, #EEBers, #NetSci peeps, who is with me?