He told them to put the whiskey in the jar

“There are now 12 confirmed cases in the outbreak, which was first reported in mid-November and is occurring in the southern part of the country..73 suspected case-patients have been tested so far, and 349 contacts were being monitored” www.cidrap.umn.edu/marburg/deat...

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

This is true both in this context, and beyond. Inherent safety may appear to be a predictable outcome of a complex system, but it isn’t. It’s the product of deliberate engineering.

"...the only long-term solution is for governments to invest in safe drinking water and sanitation." www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Sopranos creator David Chase to write HBO limited series on CIA drug program. apple.news/AkpUSN4twTKe...

Wow. NHANES js incredibly for population health surveillance, and is nationally representative as well. What a loss.

“While the administration has since rescinded more than half of the approximately 1,300 termination notices it sent, the upheaval from the layoffs that are still taking effect could undermine efforts to protect public health.” www.axios.com/2025/10/13/t...

Inside Medicine: Breaking News: RIFs in reverse. Some CDC workers have been brought back, in latest whiplash by @jeremyfaust.bsky.social bit.ly/3W4AHzk

Lots of Epidemic Intelligence Service officers ("disease detectives") gone. In-country staff in Africa (including those helping to manage the current Ebola outbreak) are fired.

CDC employees terminated in apparent Friday night massacre. open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

Predictability of infectious disease outbreak severity: Chikungunya as a case study www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The reason for military rules of engagement and adhering to laws of armed combat is not “political correctness,” it’s better strategy, serves long-term national interest, and is a way to make an awful part of the human experience a little less awful, based on lessons learned from centuries of blood.

Nemesys Insights, in partnership with Frontier Design Group , is currently conducting an online Red Teaming exercise to reduce the dangers posed by cutting-edge AI applications.  See the flyer for more information and scan the QR code to register!

#OTD in 1918, the Indianapolis News reported an outbreak of influenza at Fort Harrison. By October 2, the epidemic had spread into the community and the "Indianapolis Board of Health essentially shut down all public gatherings in the city." indyencyclopedia.org/1918-spanish...

“For now, the new Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre..is set to produce Covid and RSV vaccines..In the case of a future health emergency, the site is meant to be able to produce 100 million vaccine doses within six months.” www.statnews.com/2025/09/25/m...

RFK Jr cancelled mRNA research — but the US military is still funding it www.nature.com/articles/d41...

After months of aid cuts, the State Department has released a 35-page document detailing how it plans to roll out global health assistance. Here's what it says — and what the reaction is.

Sen. Tim Kaine: "Brian Kilmeade 10 days ago suggested that homeless, mentally ill people should be lethally injected. He apologized...He didn't get pulled off the air."

This is a perfect description.

A lack of faith in the soundness of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new direction has led states to explore enacting their own vaccine policies. A patchwork of divergent recommendations and requirements could result. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Making recommendations about vaccines isn't easy. It takes leadership & expertise from multiple sectors. Medicine, manufacturing, supply chain, policy, financing, public health. It takes real experts willing to tackle hard problems. The composition of ACIP in the US does not meet this need.

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

Susan Monarez, the CDC director for 29 days, said RFK Jr. Kennedy told her “the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing starting in September, and I needed to be on board with it”. My story, with updates to come as this Senate hearing continues: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Monarez: "Kennedy demanded 2 things of me that were were inconsistent w/ my oath of office. He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence. He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause"

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Here's how high-profile departures and widespread layoffs at the CDC will affect our health. Tldr: "Americans should be alarmed," a former top official said. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

“the agency is misusing the database” www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

If you read 1 thing today, please make it this: my so-talented colleague @ericboodman.bsky.social explains why babies in the US are vaccinated at birth against hep B — and what the human costs of changing that policy would be. www.statnews.com/2025/09/11/n...

US government signs $56 million deal for smallpox/mpox vaccine Emergent BioSolutions has received a $56 million contract extension to supply the US government with doses of the ACAM2000 vaccine.

A suspected Russian attack on Ursula von der Leyen’s plane last week was yet another sign of Russia’s hybrid warfare in Europe. Despite repeated attacks though, Europe has so far failed to find effective countermeasures.

New preprint! 🥳🎉 We looked at viral coinfection patterns at the largest scale ever in wildlife. We found a strong association among CoVs, PMVs, and influenza A, and higher coinfection rates in wildlife trade; plus, evidence that bats accumulate persistent infections. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

"The vast majority of [state health department] communicable-diseases budgets are paid for with C.D.C. dollars". In fact, ~80% of CDC's budget goes directly out the door to state, tribal, local and territorial health departments. @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

BREAKING: Susan Monarez, forced out by RFK Jr as CDC director, to testify in front of Senate panel next week. Monarez has said RFK Jr pressured her around vaccines. RFK Jr has said she was untrustworthy. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

I made a google doc to try and sort of what COVID vaccine access looks like in each state. It’s very confusing and always changing so if you have info on a state and an SOURCE (not an anecdote) please email me! [email protected] docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Robert Hooke's drawings of objects under the microscope were so beautiful. These are from "Micrographia" in 1665

One that hits close to home was his early call for biological threat awareness in the scientific community and his and strong support for biosecurity policy development. www.cshl.edu/archives-blo...

"Why on earth would we abandon institutions that have genuinely made America great? ... Why would we put at risk laboratories that are working to cure cancers or perfecting artificial limbs or exploring deep space or testing the limits of artificial intelligence?"

News in the history of molecular biology. The Science History Institute in Philadelphia has acquired a huge archive of correspondence and other scientific material from the pioneers of molecular biology (Franklin, Klug, Perutz, Delbrück etc, with items from Crick and Watson, too). 1/n

WHO - #Ebola virus disease - Democratic Republic of the Congo www.who.int/emergencies/... h/t @lsauer.bsky.social

The Atlantic: A Massive Vaccine Experiment / In just seven months, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has undone decades of vaccine synchrony by Katherine J. Wu bit.ly/42i4TdA

Every field has its dearly departed giants. DA is one of ours, and @ameshaa.bsky.social’s annual questions post is a wonderful tribute. open.substack.com/pub/ameshada...

As federal health agencies change their approach to vaccine policy leaving access for COVID shots uncertain, some states are taking things into their own hands.

📣 #Mpox is no longer a public health emergency of international concern.

Horses with genomic edits to make them run faster have been banned from polo, but a zoo of CRISPR-edited animals is gaining acceptance in agriculture go.nature.com/4mO8nNd

And from the acknowledgements... an acknowledgement the world will miss going forwards

In under 24h following the newly identified outbreak of #Ebola in the DRC, the virus has been isolated, sequenced and the virus sequence data made publicly available. virological.org/t/the-16th-e...