"...the US is announcing travel bans for noncitizens who have recently traveled to the region, which is “public health theater” that essentially punishes the countries and doesn’t actually stop cases..." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

The WHO discussed the R&D race to advance Bundibugyo virus vaccine candidates. Important to remember that RFK.JR is committed to ending NHP research and the CDC program shuts down this year. Without NHP studies we can't have new drugs or vaccines. www.scientificamerican.com/article/cdc-...

Travel bans can create the appearance of action. But history repeatedly shows that outbreaks are best controlled at their source by investing in surveillance, laboratory capacity, diagnostics, frontline healthcare workers, community trust, and rapid response systems.

“Some of the aid that the Trump administration cut off had been explicitly intended to safeguard against epidemics, build up health systems, create supply chains for infectious disease control supplies, and improve sanitation” www.statnews.com/2026/05/19/u...

Go Dr. Jackson!!

We know that GoF research had nothing to do with SARS-CoV-2, and we also know that Baric has nothing to do with it. That allegation is not only baseless but wrong and disproven by evidence. www.protagonist-science.com/p/treacherou...

#Ebola: New outbreak in NE DRC, in Ituri province, where the large 2018-2020 outbreak took place. Security issues there make responses challenging. DRC has announced this one is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola. Only 2 previous Bundibugyo outbreaks (2007, 2012). No licensed vaccine for it.

SARS-CoV-2 without proofreading are sad and weak viruses. out now in #mBio #lovevirology journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

wow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖

Cool, so NSF is now going to be used to essentially launder money to tech bros because universities are just too cumbersome and disciplinary oversight and regulations and accountability are all just too stifling for innovation. $1.5B for “X-Labs.”

NSF is devoting a large chunk of increasingly scarce resources to people who are not affiliated with universities. My first read on this is, it's just corruption. It'll be a lot easier for grifters and politically connected dipshits to get their hands on public cash through this mechanism.

Part of why this hantavirus outbreak feels so unsettling, especially for Americans, isn’t only because of the virus itself. It’s because of the public health landscape we’re in right now. Our public health infrastructure is more strained and weakened than it was in 2020.

In case people have forgotten about this, in Sep 2023, a(nother??) CIA whistleblower had alleged that bribes had been given for CIA analysts to change their minds. The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic had published a press release about it. oversight.house.gov/release/test...

Virology derangement syndrome running amok in the administration. Ralph Baric is being punished, in effect, for warning long before others that coronaviruses could be a threat, and seeking ways to tackle it. While US health services being run by folk who even in April 2020 said COVID was no big deal

On NSF’s postdoc page, the biology and earth science fields have been completely eliminated; the only remaining fellowships are in math, astronomy, engineering, and “entrepreneurship.” Weird choice not to support research on the life support system for 8 billion people. www.nsf.gov/funding/post...

So, Rand Paul just held a hearing at the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, with a CIA "whistleblower" on the "COVID Cover-up". The guy is an antivaxx nutter into "HIV inserts" who had NO information. #covidorigin

3/3 USAID is ... RIP 😭 Now, State Department is pushing CDC out of PEPFAR implementation - And tying funding to countries with sketchy mineral rights deals. It's unethical. Deadly. And totally on brand for this corrupt admin.

2/3 For 20 years: Congress funded PEPFAR --> State Department disbursed $$ --> USAID + CDC, with partner countries, implemented programs, saved lives, and tracked impact. Treat HIV. Prevent deaths. Stop transmission. Improve outcomes. ✅

Ralph Baric is simply one of the very best people I know. He’s a kind, compassionate person and an outstanding scientist. That he’s been treated the way he has since the pandemic is unconscionable.

Officially in press now. Really nice study on coronaviruses in pet long eared hedgehogs with Italian colleagues. Gabriele the first author did the data analysis with us here on his bio-informatics externship as part of his specialist training in Vet Micro www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

It was the privilege of my life to work with Ralph and his team, especially having his protégé (who is amazing in his own right) @timothysheahan.bsky.social as my mentor. The culture of safety, rigor, and transparency at CVRG is elite. Ralph rightly calls HHS's move what it is: bullshit.

I just did an 18-part X thread that starts below, too tired to copy paste it all for BlueSky but if someone would do that I would be appreciative

More on the immediate effects of the institution’s support of the attack on Roger Innes www.ipm.org/news/2026-05...

A more accurate title would be "Kennedy is wasting taxpayer dollars on a confirmation bias-fueled witch hunt in an attempt to drive the return of vaccine-preventable diseases."

Bottom line: Investment in research and tools on rare and exotic viruses is smart - preparedness starts in peace time, not when the outbreak is there!

Prepare for the incredibly sophisticated (sarcasm alert!) analysis of: “-vaccines are more common -chronic disease is more common We have proven that vaccines cause chronic disease” And to be clear: yes that is not how causation is proven and yes Kulldorff is that big a fraud 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

OMFG RFK Jr's adviser Kulldorff, the anti-vaxx activist who co-authored the kooky Great Barrington Declaration—which pushed for mass infection instead of mass vaccination—is leading a HUGE effort, along with Bhattacharya's NIH, to prove vaccines are "helping to fuel an epidemic of chronic disease"

Literally what played in my brain when I saw this:

THIS is the issue This current hantavirus outbreak has extremely low epidemic or pandemic potential (it’s NOT COVID—which was the deadliest pandemic in a century) But the outbreak exposes how Trump, RFK Jr & Bhattacharya have decimated US pandemic preparedness & response in so many different ways

the tiered network of regional special pathogen centers was established after the ebola outbreak in 2015 — as a RESPTC, TNMC/UNMC are very good at this. and they've gotten significant federal grant money to get & stay good at it MAHA says, "where's the ROI?" the ROI is you're not getting Andes

To watch an interview with actual experts—2 of the best respected & most trusted experts in virology, @angierasmussen.bsky.social, & public health, @meganranney.bsky.social—watch this CNN interview: observe their competence, expertise, experience, & strong messaging www.linkedin.com/posts/meganr...

When healthcare workers are overstretched and/or undertrained, hospital infections can happen despite containment protocols - remember the US nurses who got Ebola in 2014? It’s safer for everyone involved - patients, HCWs, their communities - to have protocols that distribute the load deliberately.

This is fine & was expected, given the long incubation period! That’s why follow-up monitoring has been ongoing enough to hear about this. They may test negative. Hanta patients need lots of hands-on care & containment - asking one hospital or nation to support all of them could overextend capacity.

The important lesson to take away from this is not that we are all going to die of Hantavirus. We aren’t. It’s that the United States has zero pandemic prevention capacity at the present because of deliberate sabotage by the president and his appointed lackeys.

NIH & CDC Director’s response to hantavirus: Um, ah, um, dunno, will need to look that up UK Health Security Agency Response: Specialist army team & medics parachute onto Tristan da Cunha to deliver crucial medical support since a British national on the island was suspected of being infected 1/2

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

The Spanish KLM passenger initially feared to have contracted hantavirus after the Johannesburg–Amsterdam flight has now tested negative. A second test will follow as protocol, but there is currently no confirmed in-flight transmission case linked to this incident.

Bhattacharya never pursued a residency in program or practiced clinical medicine. All who platformed and platform him, there were and are many, should hang their heads in shame. He’s an “economist”. Dwell on that

What can scientists do? They can talk to the public (like family, friends, and neighbors) about their research and why it’s important. They can, as citizens, participate in resistance communities. Oh, and there have to be troublemakers.

Our study made the cover 🤓

Every outbreak is a reminder that - our safety is always collective (none of us are safe until all of us are) - global cooperation is key - global institutions like WHO are critical - science (not politics) should drive our response - we ignore public health at our own peril

to be even more clear, since folks aren't getting it: civil servants typically step down like this when they find themselves unable to fulfill their duties because of political interference from above

⚠️ Retweeting this only to say: ⚠️ This infographic in this blog post is being shared widely, falsely attributed to WHO - it is AI slop of the highest degree, and contains wrong, unevidenced and nonsensical information, and should not be shared further. Check your sources people.

Everything’s a conspiracy if you don’t understand how anything works.

You’re at least 100 times more likely to die of COVID than you are of Hantavirus (likely a massive underestimate actually).

Thought this was a helpful update.

"All of the full-time employees in the [CDC's] Vessel Sanitation Program are now off the job... A smaller group of 12 U.S. Public Health Service officers will remain. ...the small team's staff is not paid for by taxpayer dollars. Fees from cruise ships companies pay for the program" FROM 2025 Y'ALL

Of course, the MAHA-sphere grifters looove taking scientists’ preparedness and awareness of emerging disease issues and turning it into unhinged accusations! Not even the first time they’ve done this *this week*.

These viruses have been known problems in Korea for so long that there’s literally a M*A*S*H episode about them. People work their whole careers on viruses most people have never heard of…so that you never have to hear about them.