A time series for London, but a similar pattern everywhere. Measles vaccine in UK: 1968. MMR in UK: 1988. You can see the impact of each, because MMR boosts uptake enormously. Most of the lives saved by MMR are from measles. Reversing this will - predictably - kill a large number of children.

The Herald may have cut its science reporter, but thank god the speed bump beat is still fully staffed

Registrations are now also open for the #netscix2026 conference. Early bird registration available until Nov 20th. netscix2026.github.io#register

Are there any chalkboards still in use at UoA?

I've written more about #vaccines - here's an article which looks at the traditional approaches to making live and inactivate vaccines, then protein subunit vaccines, then what makes #mRNA such an important development. #sciart, although my rabbits need practice...

✨ Nicholson Consulting’s 2025/26 Summer Internship is now open for applications! ✨ 🧵

MPs at the Climate Change and Business Conference sat on a panel titled "Beyond Adaptation: Can we secure a cross-party approach?" The answer, after a watch-through-your-fingers car wreck of a discussion, was a resounding no. newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/10/e...

Part of the challenge is that mRNA vaccines can sound scary - it's understandable if people are concerned. So I'm writing a series about them, starting with an explanation of what viruses do inside our cells, and how our immune system fights back. theturnstone.substack.com/p/hostile-ta...

In my work I often use women MPs as a lens to discuss the impact of online violence on democracy and human rights. I also note that's it's not only women, but keenly felt by gender minorities and rainbow folk. From April: theconversation.com/a-damning-st... #nzpol

Thanks to @bwbnz.bsky.social @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social and @royalsocietynz.bsky.social for making #TheCovidResponse book tour possible. And thanks to the Canterbury crowd at Scorpio for a lively and engaging Q&A!

Was the privilege of a lifetime to work with these folks. They each did amazing things under huge pressure day-in-day-out for more than two years.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, a group of scientists and researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand dropped everything they were doing and rolled up their sleeves to help the response. This response ultimately saved around 20,000 lives 🧪 🧵

Brian Castellani mapped how disciplines, concepts and people have weaved together over time to create our understanding of complex systems. He'll be joining us as a keynote speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/symposium/ #cccss26 #complexsystems

The Covid inquiry reboot is inspiring all sorts of revisionism on LinkedIn, including this little gem from Covid Plan B stalwart Ananish Chaudhuri “By October 2020, we knew that the vaccines did not prevent transmission”. This is not true, but how did he even come up with this? Thread. 1/N

See you at Scorpio Books in Ōtautahi for #TheCovidResponse this Thursday. Really looking forward to this!

Great event in Auckland this week for Shaun Hendy’s 'The Covid Response'! Thanks to Siouxsie Wiles, Toby Manhire, Te Pūnaha Matatini, Royal Society, Time Out and all who came. 📘 Out now: www.bwb.co.nz/books/the-covi... 📸 Dave Coles #BWBTalks

In particular, this passage. (20/n)

There's a lawsuit about AI stealing your work. It's the same lawyers taking on Elsevier et al in a separate case. Academics: 1. Check if your work is in LibGen at www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... 2. If so, let the lawyers know at www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...

I wasn’t a huge fan of their venue but sad to see it go. I’ve not had any of their beers since they stopped being available at the airport - losing that must have been a blow. www.rnz.co.nz/life/food/fo...

This is both a sub-skeet of the recent Damien Grant column and a reminder to come along to see @siouxsiew.bsky.social and I talk about #TheCovidResponse at the University of Auckland tonight at 6pm www.bwb.co.nz/events/the-c...

Using Treasury's estimates of the daily cost of alert levels and the Oxford Stringency Index in other OECD countries I estimated how much it would have cost to implement other strategies over 2020-22. My conclusion: our response saved lives and was one of the most cost effective in the OECD.

Come hear us have a chat!

This coming Monday (August 25) @siouxsiew.bsky.social and I will be talking about #TheCovidResponse with Toby Manhire at the University of Auckland from 6pm. Should be a great conversation! Details here www.bwb.co.nz/events/the-c...

This coming Monday (August 25) @siouxsiew.bsky.social and I will be talking about #TheCovidResponse with Toby Manhire at the University of Auckland from 6pm. Should be a great conversation! Details here www.bwb.co.nz/events/the-c...

Talking on a panel about community agency tomorrow evening in Wellington. Event is free to attend as part of the Critical Signals collective action space. criticalsignals.nz/programme/co...

Library copies available if you want to read up beforehand: christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S3... ^MT

#nzpol #sexism #patriachy #leadership I appreciate David Fisher's reporting on this - but the sub ed needs to be told there's no question mark needed in this headline. Fisher gives us multiple clear cut eg's of how sexism & patriarchal culture actually works 🧵 www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-...

If you missed it, a good weekend read: We spent generations strangling our rivers to make room for our homes and farms, only to find we've ended up supercharging their flows. What do we do when we realise we've built a society in a riverbed? newsroom.co.nz/2025/08/13/l...

#TheCovidResponse is coming to Ōtautahi on Sept 4. Rebecca Macfie will be interviewing me about New Zealand's COVID-19 response that evening at Scorpio Books. The doors will be open from 5.30pm, with the event kicking off at 6pm. See you there! www.bwb.co.nz/events/covid...

Slightly diminish a band: Moana and the Moa Spotters

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said." It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy. I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

Fully entered a state of madness by the time I finished this essay, on the remarkable intellectual (and political) failures of New Atheism, and a new anthology edited by Lawrence Krauss nymag.com/intelligence...

Worth remembering that our elimination strategy cost us less than most other countries (including Sweden). What the Treasury report is considering is the extent to which the government spent to protect us from those costs. We should all be prepared to carry more of the cost next time I guess.

New article led by Tara McAllister & co-authored by Lelani Walker, @niiyokamigaabaw.bsky.social, myself, Bradley Moggridge, Serena Naepi, Brittany Kamai and @napaaqtuk.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I am really excited to be a part of this team. We took our time writing this, putting a lot of thought into how our journeys as #NativesInSTEM were affected by different aspects of Universities and looking for commonalities across the world. I hope folks in academia appreciate this work.

It’s incredibly depressing reading incident reports from accidents that involve highly experienced people who decide they can cut corners. It’s even worse when their decisions put other people at risk. Wear your vest when asked. It’s the law. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

The Robinson Research Institute was the first recipient of funding from the new Advanced Technology Institute, but the RRI was built from decades of basic research funding. www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/08/06/f...

In 2018, the New Zealand Government set the ambitious goal of achieving one million te reo Māori speakers by 2040. It’s a bold and audacious goal, but are we even on track to achieve this? What policies or interventions might help to get us there? 🧪🧵

News story describes drivers navigating their cars into stationary objects, who then characterise this as suffering an attack on themselves. Are they OK in New Plymouth?

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/... Majority of Government’s $231m spend on Advanced Technology Institute funded through planned research funding cuts

Hey folks - if you missed it at the Writer's Festival #TheCovidResponse is heading back to Auckland. Join Toby Manhire, @siouxsiew.bsky.social and me to hear about the book and what the future holds at Auckland Uni on August 25 from 6pm (doors open at 5.30) www.bwb.co.nz/events/the-c...

I imagine that Crimson is pretty heavily exposed to the war on US higher education and need a new gig

Hey folks - if you missed it at the Writer's Festival #TheCovidResponse is heading back to Auckland. Join Toby Manhire, @siouxsiew.bsky.social and me to hear about the book and what the future holds at Auckland Uni on August 25 from 6pm (doors open at 5.30) www.bwb.co.nz/events/the-c...

The Olympics dropped SRY sex testing in 2000, but a quarter century later, World Athletics brings it back as a 'reliable proxy for determining biological sex'. Biological sex is much more complex than one gene, writes Andrew Sinclair who discovered SRY theconversation.com/world-athlet...

Recruiting PhD: Population Connectivity and Biological Assessment of Non-Target Fisheries Species in the Ross Sea You could hang out with us in our pretty little office in Nelson! See link for contact details: niwa.co.nz/about-niwa/s...

Federal agencies hiding out in a bunker

Back in the day, we negotiated a free trade deal with China by offering to take - checks notes - hundreds of Chinese chefs. I say we take a leaf out of the PRC playbook by offering to send the US all of our cookers.

That feeling when you realise that there is no snack or personal grooming service that would make normal people vote for you

You’ve been badly misled over COVID origins theconversation.com/how-conspira...