March 16: "It is time to change course before the US loses its ‘measles eliminated’ status and becomes a country where children are routinely hospitalized and die each year of a preventable disease." joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/eliminated... Mid-Sep via CDC, highest # of cases in 25+ years.

Already 300+ signatures in one afternoon. Read & consider signing + sharing a petition to reverse eligibility restrictions and ensure applicants (including 2nd year PhD students) have a fair chance at this year's GRFP. laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

Several scientists have received letters from the NIH director disinviting them from their positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding, I'm told. In July, I reported that NIH staff were told to select members aligned with Trump administration priorities.

There is time to urge a change to the current #GRFP solicitation ( #NSF 25-547 ): reverse the eligibility restrictions and ensure applicants (including 2nd year PhD students) have a fair chance in the competition. Feel free to sign and share this open petition: laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 1,514 measles cases as of Sept. 24, the highest number of annual cases since the United States declared measles eliminated in 2000. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

White House Funding Cuts to the National Science Foundation Threaten America’s Global Leadership in Science joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/white-hous... new long-form post joint with @malar0ne.bsky.social, @cl10.bsky.social and @asinclair.bsky.social

Here's my NSF GRFP OpEd. Who wants to publish it? "Revert text of NSF 25-547 (GRFP FY26) to NSF 24-591 (GRFP FY25) and keep current competition dates so that all applicants have a fair chance and awards can be made in advance of April 2026 decisions for graduate school."

"Alignment" (aka fealty) is not a merit-review criteria. If ideology determines outcomes, our world-class federally funded research system will reward apparatchiks and loyalists while punishing opponents and critics. And then soon, it won't be world-class. www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Genomic divergence across the tree of life 🧪🌐https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2319389122

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment. The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

NSF GRFP is out 2.5 months late w/key changes 1. 2nd year graduate students not eligible. 2. "alignment with Administration priorities" 3. Unlike prior years, they DO NOT specify the expected number of awards... that is a BIG problem. a brief 🧵 w/receipts www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

⚡️The fight for science is moving fast. Don’t want to miss a thing? Stay on top of our actions - and ways YOU 🫵 can get involved - by following us across these various platforms (yes, we’re on Reddit now too 👀)

Many thanks to @jeremymberg.bsky.social for documenting the funding gap and the NIH's choice to make up for lost time using a multi-year funding mechanism which reduced award rates and led to NIH awarding ~3,000 fewer research project grants than last year...

In-depth profile of @raunakdey.bsky.social from @weitz-group.bsky.social, a physics PhD student working on virus dynamics here at CMNS in UMD: cmns.umd.edu/news-events/...

EXCLUSIVE: A new analysis by The Xylom's @alexip718.com shows for the first time just how much America’s top research institutions have grown to depend on H-1B skilled workers — and how this delicate balance might be disrupted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal immigration.

Science has changed profoundly in the post-war period, but the idea that America is better off when we work as part of global teams of discoverers remains durable. d101vc9winf8ln.cloudfront.net/documents/51...

Andrew Wa efield RFK Jr. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This is interesting — in a paper out today, researchers created an alternate history to estimate what Trump's desired cuts to NIH would look like. Of 557 drugs approved 2000-2023, *more than half* are at least partially linked to NIH research that would have not happened under a 40% reduction.

Any mass firing like this by Trump, as punishment for shutdown or otherwise, is deeply illegal—as Judge Illston ruled and SCOTUS did not disagree though lawlessly let the firings continue. Also, this is a sign not of strength but of Vought weakness. He REALLY doesn’t want Congress to stand up. 1/

NEW WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened. This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it www.wired.com/story/oral-h...

New from #SCIMaP - analysis of the White House’s Proposed FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget. Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide. Report: osf.io/e8rnc a 🧵

New thread & posts soon on #SCIMaP analysis of economic impacts of the White House's proposal for the National Science Foundation FY 2026 budget...

The Guardian U.S. is hiring a Washington, DC-based Senior Science Investigative Reporter: workforus.theguardian.com/jobs/795/

Yes I will be fighting back against the unjust firing by @washingtonpost.com. I have filed a grievance and will be represented by none other than the amazing @katiephang.bsky.social and an incredible legal team. Journalistic freedom is a bedrock of a healthy society and is worth battling for.

"Perhaps no one told Mr. Trump about this trial lawyer campaign, but the costs of his intervention aren’t benign. He’s raising public fear about a useful medicine in a way that could harm maternal and fetal health. Whatever happened to do no harm?" www.wsj.com/opinion/tyle...

I don’t know who’s had a weirder 48 hours — me or the CEO of Tylenol.” — Jimmy Kimmel

This is a violation of free speech. Period. Carried out against brave federal employees who are speaking out in the public interest. It should get every ounce of attention that the cancelation of @jimmykimmel.com received. www.cnn.com/2025/09/23/p...

As the saying goes: There are old mushroom pickers and bold mushroom pickers. But here are no old, bold mushroom pickers. By which I mean, if you don't know what the hell you are doing, don't give millions of people bad medical advice because of a hunch or grift; instead rehire real scientists.

Radical transparency 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...

"We now have a regime that sees science as an enemy and public health as only fit for personal anecdotes and conspiracy." Must-read, scathing OpEd by Arthur Caplan, Prof. of Bioethics, NYU www.statnews.com/2025/09/23/t...

Realizing that the endpoint here is probably massively scaling back screening for autism spectrum disorders, limiting resources for people who need them, but leading to a decline in cases & declaration of victory. "If we stopped testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any."

Voila. This is the way.

Previous medical advice from Pres. Trump includes Treatments for COVID: Hydroxychloroquine & Ivermectin (& bleach) while Sec. Kennedy downplayed vaccines & touted Vitamin A & antibiotics to treat measles - a *viral* disease. Exercise extreme caution. False hope & bad advice have consequences.

A large (2.5M+) sibling control analysis that found "no evidence of increased risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability associated with acetaminophen use" seems to be the kind of data that requires serious consideration before declaring mission accomplished. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Short version, quoting Schulman from June 2020 "Cast out of the hall of scientific power, intoxicated and giddy, they [the Trumpian, Galilean right] discover that science has given them the tools to blow it up." That doesn't sound like they're here to save us, NIH, or science.

The New York Times piece today about US science is terrible and wrong—in many ways. I could write a whole article about this, but as one example: “To close observers, the original crisis began well before any of this…” No. I’m a close observer of science, and this is incorrect.

In an NYT Op-Ed essay that steers close to fan fiction, Schulman writes: "Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the new director of the National Institutes of Health, has inherited an agency in crisis. Everyone knows it." Everyone is a lot of people. Depends on who you ask. a 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/o...

HHS Sec. Kennedy promised to find 'root causes' of autism by September. Now the admin has its 'answer'. Extreme skepticism is needed by all (including media). 🎁 wapo.st/4nkMdCO

Incompetence, laced with malice. This is not a serious way to do anything. And the more of this we get, the less we'll be able to plan and accomplish serious things.

"The importance of getting the science right weighed heavily on the committee’s deliberations, given the potential significant implications of a changing climate and of the actions proposed to address it." -Shirley Tilghman, Chair nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2923...

Any academic folks on H1B visas (even with stamps in passports) please get legal advice from your University attorneys before leaving the US.

ADD YOUR THOUGHTS ON LIMITING STUDENT VISA TO FOUR YEARS Comment period ends September 29th www.federalregister.gov/documents/20... 1/2

Funding Cut Townhall in Baltimore MD-Sen Alsobrooks, MD Comptroller Lierman, Baltimore City Council member Porter expected w/scientists + researchers from NIH, JHUU and UMD "to discuss proposed federal cuts to research and education funding for Fiscal 2026." baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/town...

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

This is a simple message from the Infectious Diseases Society of America that more people should get behind: Sec. Kennedy should resign. Will he? Not yet. But the choice to upend evidence-based decision making at HHS/CDC is disqualifying and dangerous (and unpopular). @joshtpm.bsky.social

For R&D, continuing evidence that the Trump administration intends to willfully (and for no good reason) diminish America's ability to recruit and retain global talent who want to work together here towards a common goal of generating discoveries that drive an innovation economy.

AMA statement on ACIP meeting “The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice’s (ACIP) new process and recommendations leave parents confused about how best to protect their kids and unable to choose the combined MMRV vaccine for children under 4 years old."