How did I miss that this is somehow real and not the plot of a Despicable Me movie. Shooting dust up into the air to block the sun? Seems cool, why not? Smh the world has gone INSANE

I have posted about this before, but... Researchers at Pitt School of Public Health (with NIH funding) developed Project Tycho where they digitized reportable disease data from across the country going back to ~1900. graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d... 1/6

I hope everyone watches this

So many academics are putting in free labor and paying outrageous publishing fees on tight budgets, meanwhile academic publishers are spending their weekends like Scrooge McDuck diving into piles of money

Our paper on the phenomenon of persistence and latency in Ebola virus in an unobserved reservoir is finally out in preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

My guess is this was coordinated across the entire executive branch, like a Hands Across the Hatch Act Violation event or something

All time classic!

Hard to express to those not in the weeds just how much the current state of the immigration detention system is just utter chaos.

Just a reminder that Charlie Kirk said the civil rights act was a mistake

In no way am I in a position to criticize the job Dr. Susan Monarez is doing at this hearing but WHY is it that neither her nor Dr Houry came prepared with numbers/data to support the Hep B or COVID vaccine schedules?? Countering Rand Paul's fake stats with 'it can' is not at all sufficient

"Can they truly be so ignorant to the words of a man they have so rushed to memorialize? I don’t know. But the most telling detail in Klein’s column was that, for all his praise, there was not a single word in the piece from Kirk himself." Ta-Nehisi Coates, with receipts.

Education is the enemy of fascism.

Have no fear, Republicans will bail you out at some point with a huge chunk of taxpayer money to pay you for not being able to sell your products because of their policies. Then you can post on social media that you’re voting for them because you are against socialism.

Karen Attiah, a black woman, got fired for A: accurately quoting what Charlie Kirk said about Black women B: Accurately observing that most white Americans seem permissive of white violence. It's bullshit, but almost expected in this white supremacist country.

Firing a Black woman for quoting Kirk’s horrific statements about Black women is insane. It seems the Washington Post would rather perform politeness (and demand that the people Kirk harmed do it too) that tell the truth: karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washin...

The firing of Karen Attiah infuriates me. She has been a voice of reason on a Washington Post opinion staff that has steadily become an embarrassment to a free press, thanks to Trump-enabling oligarch owner Jeff Bezos. This is what "media capture" looks like in a society descending into fascism.

It's pretty rare to read any positive news about science or LGBTQ+ issues these days, but this story made me smile anyway 😊 Great cause too, if you want to donate: donate.misselasmo.org/event/drag-n...

“The story is this: masculinity is the default in American politics, and to this day, even when women have been at the top of two presidential tickets, masculinity to a large degree defines what kind of behavior, what kind of signifiers, are acceptable in top political candidates.”

What is the Fourth Amendment, Brett?

Crimes against women are no longer crimes (see also the Sean Combs verdict)

This point from Sotomayor: what Kavanaugh is proposing to shift administrative burdens from the state to the individual, with the widely-agreed upon expectation that the burdens will fall heavier on some groups more than others.

Justice Sotomayor is crystal clear in dissent as to what's happening: "We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent."

🚨The Supreme Court today gives Trump a license to engage in racial profiling, with Justice Kavanaugh writing in concurrence to expressly endorse ICE and Border Patrol targeting any Latinos they observe in Los Angeles speaking Spanish and then demanding their papers.

can't come up with words to describe how irresponsible and absurd this is.

RFK Jr. went on Fox News today to claim that HHS has had “no successes” in the past 40 years. I beg to differ. Figure from Lei et al., NEJM 2020. Link below.

social media gold

“We’re gonna unleash our American warriors to the EXTREME-“ <pulls out can of Mountain Dew Baja Blast> “-ULTRAMAX-“ <dumps soda out, pours in a handle of bourbon, immediately chugs it> “-GNARLIEST BROS TO EVER BRO-DOWN A GAUNTLET-“ <pukes, sends training regimens to unsecured Signal chat>

This should be the lead story in all major national news outlets. Public health people prefer to stay out of the limelight unless there is no other choice. I can’t overstate how bad things have to be for 9 former CDC directors to band together and pen an op-ed in the NYT warning the entire country.

You guys see where this is going? Right?

Emerging disease research has this exact problem, both in terms of who is allowed to participate and who the media platforms as worthy of attention. Many of the men I was a student or postdoc with are now in good faculty jobs, and yet the women I spent that time are somehow absent. How strange...

As a woman in a field historically dominated by “straight shooter” male divas who were also…very sexist, I’ll admit I *really* enjoy being just as unapologetically demanding & no-bullshit about my right to contribute to my field without having to waste time and effort dealing with sexist bullshit!

Dan Jernigan worked at CDC from 1994 until yesterday – at the farewell gathering today, he said, “I’ve worked here for 30 years, and recognize some of you who’ve been here with me that whole time.” An outbreak response pro. David Geier & his dad? Chemically castrated autistic children with Luprone.

The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses

Joining an increasing number of people publicly demanding RFK’s removal as HHS Sec: Dr. Bill Foege, a literal (6’6”) & figurative giant of public health. He served as a CDC director under Carter & Reagan, & is credited with designing the ring vaccination strategy that enabled smallpox eradication.

I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.

If pundits would like to talk about violence, a terrorist recently shot up the CDC and another assassinated Democratic officials in Minnesota but they sort of let both stories disappear Not as threatening as motorbikes in DC I know but maybe we could circle back?

God, this is disturbing I’m grateful to @kgandersen.bsky.social for compiling this thread of all the vile, horrific, extraordinarily dangerous things RFK Jr has said about the CDC But be warned: it’s really disturbing Imagine working at the CDC & knowing that your boss thinks *this* about you

First the terrorist tried to enter campus in a car filled with guns. When he wasn’t allowed past the gates, he started firing from a CVS drugstore across the street. From a semi-automatic weapon, 500 shots is a lot. He was at it for a long time. Here are the weapons & shell casings he left behind.

LEFT: Where our government incarcerates a person who has a tattoo in honor of a family member. RIGHT: Where our government incarcerates a person who has facilitated and/or engaged in the sexual assault of over a thousand children.

the thing that trans people ask of the world is so tiny, really. just to be able to exist as the person they are, without the rest of us being weird or cruel about it. it's a deep shame on our society that we are unable to deliver on so small a thing.

“The lumberjack from Real World Boston is building a nuclear reactor on the moon” is a phrase that might have gotten you a wellness check a year ago.

This is so important to read and share. It offers a brief and understandable explanation of why forcing women to undergo genetic testing for sports is stupid and wrong, but using science! Both sex and gender are complex and to pretend otherwise for the sake of convenience or politics harms us all.

'Expat'

📣 I'm recruiting a postdoc researcher to join my team for a project on mosquito-specific viruses and host interactions. Peep the job description & how to apply below. Perfect for soon-to-be or recent PhD graduates in mosquito vector biology 🦟 or arbovirology 🦠 🗓️ Application deadline 31 August 2025

Review exploring role of traditional food markets as hotspots for zoonotic disease. 👉 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Satellites orbiting in space recorded the moment when tens of thousands of Palestinians surged toward aid trucks that had entered southern Gaza, in a desperate attempt to get aid.

I fell into this thread by accident but if you're an evolution nerd, it's a great read with really cool papers!

Folks...

Nazi population cleansing also ran on two tracks: they went after marginalized groups who were perceived as unproductive (eg the disabled) and minorities whose apparent industriousness was perceived as a threat to the dominant group (Jews)