Your weekly reminder that voter "concern" with immigration doesn't correspond to actual immigration levels. It corresponds to the amount of coverage the media gives immigration. This an entirely self-fulfilling mess, and it is entirely pointless.

RFK Jr. rolled out that old chestnut again about how healthy Americans were in the 60’s, so here’s a fact check. In 1965: -42% of American adults smoked; it’s 11% now. -The infant morality rate was 24.7/1000; it’s 5.6/1000 now. -Overall life expectancy was 70 years; it's about 77 years now.

Me, trying to fit in in Berlin: ein Kaffee mit hafermilch, bitte Barista (in a heavy Irish accent): you want that regular or large?

Up early and off to #EAHMH2025! So excited to attend some fascinating talks and to present on sentinel animals in environmental health history alongside @kirchhelle.bsky.social! A big shoutout to @robertsuits.bsky.social for driving me to the airport at 4 AM so I could make it to morning panels ❤️

There is a group of seniors who meets in the cafe where I’m currently writing a conference paper, and they are laughing so hard they’re crying. It’s a real day-brightener, especially when we seem to hear overwhelmingly stories of isolation among those in their later years.

Hopping on the early morning Eurostar on my way to Basel for a very exciting workshop!! I hope the novelty of being able to travel without planes never wears off.

My cartoon for this week’s Books pages in @theguardian.com

Some of the media want to portray the thousand people protesting on asylum as being a proxy for general public opinion. They wouldn't want to say that about the much larger trans rights + allies protest of up to 100 thousand people www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/26/l...

It’s remarkable to me how much running has become an active part of my writing process over the last six years. Not only do they stretch the same muscle (showing up, consistency, endurance), but the calm energy is unlike anything else. I’m so grateful 25 year old Emily decided to give it a go.

Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.

Surely the dogs we have all the way through our PhD programmes should be conferred the rank of “dog-tor.” At least, we have decided this for Baldr, who was the load-bearing emotional support dog for two PhDs simuntaneously.

We’ve opened the call for @britishacademy.bsky.social postdoctoral fellowships. We provide three years of funding for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to complete a significant piece of publishable research www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/post...

How did the pandemic start? I have avoided publicly commenting on this for 5 years. Here's my take as someone who has no stake at all in the game. gidmk.substack.com/p/pandemic-r...

Last call for the @ihr.bsky.social #London #SummerSchool - bookings close this evening! Join us for lectures, workshops, special visits and a week exploring London's rich #history through its #Rebels. From medieval uprisings to punk & much, much more... www.history.ac.uk/ihr-london-r...

We'll be a little quieter over the next week, as our social media manager is going on leave. But fear not, we're leaving our logins in the safe hands of our very capable deputy, who has assured us of committing absolutely zero crimes:

Brilliant job on the social science of Health and Climate, three year post-doc, hybrid opportunity, come at work at #Egenis, University of Exeter: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

If you’re interested in this talk, or the Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease (CHMD) generally, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

I dont know if anybody has heard, but I gather There Is A Loneliness Epidemic. May 28 12:00-1:30PM (UK time) hybrid event Dr Fred Cooper (School of Law, University of Bristol) "The Loneliness Measurement Scales: A Critical Historical Analysis" to register contact @emilywebz.bsky.social

5 years ago: “An incalculable loss” Today: Banning masks and restricting vaccine access

"Does One Health need an ontological turn?" by Kaiser-Grolimund et al. explores some questions that have long preoccupied medical anthropologists and their applications for One Health specialists www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We were so lucky to welcome Prof Salome Bukachi yesterday to speak about her experiences working in One Health for our upcoming IAS project, “Interest in Cattle.” Salome shared insights from decades of working at the interdisciplinary health interface in Nairobi.

The US government has disbanded the CDC's infection control committee - Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) - which created guidelines for health facilities on hand hygiene, safe reuse of equipment, and reducing the transmission of pathogens in the air

Spent a sunny Sunday building some raised vegetable beds in the backyard and cultivating our pollinators 🥰

Someone's modelled the impact of a precipitous decline in vaccination uptake in the USA. TL:DR: millions of avoidable disease cases; hundreds of thousands of deaths over the next decades. HT @duncanrobertson.bsky.social jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

silly questions inspired by today’s research: is social media the modern-day pamphlet?

I just attended a conference in the US. We had one speaker detained and two others turned away at the border.

"children & adolescents w/ prior SARS-CoV-2 infection are at a statistically significant increased risk of various cardiovascular outcomes, including hypertension, ventricular arrhythmias, myocarditis, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrest, thromboembolism, chest pain, & palpitations."

Had a nice little jet-lagged pootle around Pittsburgh today before my brief stop off at #ASEH2025 tomorrow for the day :)

An exhibition so good that it’s worth being inside on a sunny Saturday!

The cat we all need right now 🥰

Had a neat day taking one of my diss students to the archive to look for records of the Sunderland Cholera epidemics. It’s always such a joy introducing someone to archival research for the first time!!

We are recruiting! 3 Bridging Fellowships of 12 months for recent PhD graduates to develop research, ideas and connections in the @durhamimh.bsky.social Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities. Applications close 25 April durham.taleo.net/careersectio... Please share widely!

@josephfgough.bsky.social made a very cool, accessible video on the concept of the mind and why it’s less valuable today than it once was. A great teaching tool!! youtu.be/tPXbnketu8I

The high prevalence of H5N1 in wild birds globally ensures that incidents like this will occur with increasing regularity. Each cross-species infection increases the risk of viral mutation, which in turn increases the risk of human to human transmission. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tonight we decided to skip out on a party to watch a BBC documentary on Thames Water, and I can say with absolute certainty that we made the right choice

Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance of Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi in Pakistan: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis ✅ Just Accepted ⭐ Editor's Choice #IDSky

Fully funded PhD opportunity 👇

Meet Evan Anzoo, a five-year-old boy in South Sudan who died when Elon Musk shut down USAID and the boy lost access to his HIV meds. Musk says no one has died because of the aid shutdown, but that's because he didn't look. RIP, Evan, you deserved better. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease on the planet, kills more than 1.25M people a year. New infections are expected to surge by 30% as a result of closing USAID, a memo says. The increase will inevitably lead to cases in the U.S.

We are happy to announce that @samuelcoghe.bsky.social will be presenting the CATTLEFRONTIERS ERC project at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Durham on 17 March durham.ac.uk/research/ins... @emilywebz.bsky.social

What students probably do not realize is that any given moment during the workday at least 10% of their professors are probably lying on the floor in their offices

Me, a Professional, talking to my morning class about the guy who routinely lobotomized women and children: “I mean, he kind of sounds like a dick, right?”

In a busy middle-of-term week, in the middle of an American political apocalypse, trying to remember to appreciate little things, like that here in Durham, it’s getting dark after 6pm.

“For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, more people in the U.S. died of influenza than from COVID-19 in the week ending on Jan. 25… nearly 1.7% of all deaths nationwide were attributed to the flu, compared to roughly 1.5% being the result of COVID-19”

The gutting of USAID is unadulterated murder.

People tend to be tickled when I, a historian of infectious disease, come down with an infectious disease. Two weeks into the flu and a sinus infection, I am no longer tickled. Moral of the story, get your flu jabs BEFORE Christmas people!!