Some notes about TB prevention, as a former TB patient. TB is a bacterial disease. There is a vaccine, but it has variable efficacy & is not widely used in the U.S.. So, you can't make a "personal choice" (vaccine) to maximally protect yourself against this disease. So what protects you?

This new guidance is yet another step closer towards an isolationist, diminished view of American science. Changing rules on the fly wastes time & effort and undermines the pipeline of discovery and innovation. Unacceptable & inexcusable (again): grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

This is the People's money. This is my money and your money. We did not give it to one man to dispense as he pleases. It was allocated in good faith under the authority of the People's representatives.

Harvard standing up!

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/o... It may seem like a small outbreak, but this is how it starts. Also, measles infection is thought to wipe out existing immunity in our bodies to other infections, making us more vulnerable to them.

BREAKING: As Cory Booker goes on to his 23rd hour straight, his livestream on TikTok has been “liked” over 175 million times. Yes 175 MILLION!

Gyanendra Shah fined for littering at least.

www.thenation.com/article/acti... They were targeted because they could be, because they are vulnerable.

Peter Marks’s resignation letter. Everyone should read this.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/b... the cure is where the disease is not, and the disease is where the cure is not

State Dept gave Congress its full list of 5,300+ USAID program terminations. The sweeping cuts for health alone - from global childhood vaccines to surveillance for deadly diseases to malaria work - entail massive loss of life & national security risk. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/h...

What world are we in??

Yesterday when I talked to @maxkozlov.bsky.social about this, I wondered which of my NIH-funded colleagues would have their grants cut. All of them. Research on pandemic viruses has now ground to a screeching halt in the US. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NTY reports that US support for Gavi is to be suspended. The US has supplied upwards of 10-15% of Gavi's total budget. We have expected this since 20 January, but that makes it no less callous and short sighted. Vaccination abroad is both a humanitarian good and in the financial interest of the US

I too have been dismissed from NIAID Board of Scientific Counselors along with 3 other women and a non-white man

From interview of Lee Bollinger, 1st Amendment scholar who served as dean of @UMichLaw, president of @UMich, and president of Columbia University. www.chronicle.com/article/were...

A tracker estimating TB deaths from USAID funding discontinuation #IDsky #TBsky tb.impactcounter.com

Columbia announced mass suspensions, expulsions, and degree revocations the same day it received a letter from the Trump administration telling them to do just that if they wanted to keep getting funding

NEW: DOGE backtracks on promises of transparency, making its new errors harder to find. (We found more anyway) www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/u...

My home institution is reeling. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/u...

As noted below, they will not stop w/Columbia www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Vindictive bullying in the open..

The coolest thing I’ve seen today is that a bunch of volunteer public health professionals and developers have restored the CDC website from before January 20th 2025. This differs from an archive in that they want to rebuild the links between pages and replicate the full website.

“University presidents are staying quiet as Trump tries to destroy their institutions. It won't work” @gregggonsalves.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/soci...

I am not going to call this a Bluetorial, because I do not want to sully that term (which, at least I, find joyful). Let’s call it a Orwellial.

It’s time to say it plainly. America’s leadership has switched sides in the war. The American people have not, and they should speak up.

Trump and Vance have repeatedly claimed that Zelensky has not been sufficiently grateful for U.S. support throughout the war. We compiled instances where Zelensky has publicly expressed gratitude to the U.S., its people, and its leadership for being Ukraine’s largest supporter.

Rubio terminated 5800 USAID contracts – more than 90% of its foreign aid programs – in defiance of the courts. Here’s a list of just some of the lifesaving awards that were terminated. Nearly all were Congressionally mandated. They’ve saved millions of lives. 🧵

SAVE OUR SCIENCE! There's a war on science happening right now, and we're trying to win—for the sake of our families, our friends, and our communities. Want to support #StandUpforScience2025? Show up in DC, locally, call your representatives, or visit www.caaps.co/caapsstandup... ☀️

This is what bullying looks like: www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...

Welcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025! Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide! #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

“This is absolutely shattering, heartbreaking, and incomprehensible. The termination letters issued by the US state department in the last 24 hours mark the abrupt and devastating end to years — decades — of investment in lifesaving programmes” bhekisisa.org/health-news-...

On International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we express our heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Bhawana Shrestha of GENETUP for her unwavering dedication to supporting those affected by Tuberculosis. Thank you for your invaluable contributions. You inspire us all. #11February

A new publication describing our recent work in characterizing TB outbreak investigations in the United States and projecting their costs, impact, and cost-effectiveness in collaboration with researchers at @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social DTBE/CDC and CADPH wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

Sort of semi-fired

Not that you needed any more evidence that Musk is an utter buffoon but JFC.

One thing I've learned to do when I have questions about social security number holders who are age 100 or older is to look up the SSA Inspector General audit report, "Numberholders Age 100 or Older Who Did Not Have Death Information on the Numident." t.co/AdWTV8eIPV

BREAKING WAPO: Elon Musk's DOGE is seeking access to a heavily-guarded IRS system that includes detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business, and nonprofit in the country — sparking alarm within the tax agency. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Just received this photo from a friend of a warehouse in Kinshasa. These are tuberculosis medications--ALREADY PAID FOR--that aren't being distributed due to the Trump Administration's stop work order. TB treatment is being interrupted in SO many patients around the world. What does that mean? (1/2)

There will be nothing left of biomedical research in the US when Trump is done. Just think about that and anytime you or someone you love has been sick or dying. www.science.org/content/arti...

Epidemic intelligence service officers are the cream of the cream. They're top doctors, veterinarians & other health professionals. They sign up for a two-year training program to serve the country. Not only is terminating them bad for the country, it's also a disgraceful violation of a commitment.

Another pandemic maybe brewing. This is exactly when we need a strong and competent government, that is able to coordinate and work with local public health bodies, to work with media to communicate information in a transparent and timely manner, to work with scientists to be better prepared.

Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Conference 2025. The call for abstracts is now open for the EEID 2025 conference at sites.nd.edu/eeid2025 with a submission deadline of March 17. The conference is June 16-19 at the University of Notre Dame.

I am in Cairo, where I have been visiting with health organizations, including WHO and other partners of USAID. Trump and Musk say lifesaving assistance is not affected by the shutdown of USAID and support to WHO. I can tell you that is 100% false. #SaveAID www.instagram.com/share/_ogGRd...