Look what book is now *available* for preorder!! @rebecca-altman.bsky.social’s SONG OF STYRENE coming next April. Important and gorgeous. Also that cover!! #envhist #envhum #plastics www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-So...

The newest issue of 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘌𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 (@globalenvironment.bsky.social) is guest edited by PhD candidate Lijuan Klassen & RCC Director Christof Mauch! It brings an environmental humanities perspective to planetary health: liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/whpge/current #envhist #envhum

A brilliant new study of the history of rats and plague by @julesskotnesbrown.bsky.social focused on the historically neglected case of the third plague pandemic's impact on Mauritius: "Rats, Islands, and Global Infrastructure" (OA) www.jstor.org/content/oa_c...

It was a pleasure to contribute a chapter, "Caring for Chimps as Viral Kin," on the complex relations of care and unequal relations of exchange that developed at Vilab II in Liberia, for this great volume! Open access is available @ www.jstor.org/content/oa_b... #envhist #medhist

CEPI fastbacks three candidate vaccines for Ebola BDV. Two virus vector based candidates and one mRNA vaccine candidate. Once again it's taken a raging outbreak of a pathogen identified over two decades ago for vaccine development to be accelerated. cepi.net/cepi-fast-tr...

One glimmer of hope in the Ebola response: Within hours of the outbreak in DRC being declared, researchers convened to prepare drug trials. A lot has changed on that front since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a decade ago. But huge challenges remain 🧪 My story in @science.org (🧵 to come)

Moving tribute to my Columbia colleague David Rosner, who passed away unexpectedly a few days ago. David was pivotal to uncovering the dangers of lead, silica, and many products of industrial America. blanphear.substack.com/p/how-rosner...

We are all set for the 3rd Reimagining Global Health course, starting June 8th! If you are from a low-income country, or are a student, and would like a fee waiver, please contact me We have 10 free spots! www.mcgill.ca/summerinstit...

“the only durable answer is to invest in African institutions themselves: frontline surveillance, outbreak response, and local manufacturing of vaccines, therapeutics, and protective equipment” 6555a27a-21bd-45eb-b287-1c28900211e3.filesusr.com/ugd/73a7e6_8...

What Paul Farmer told me once: "People, when they are sick, are not looking to be sprayed, controlled, counselled, told about bush meat...they are looking to survive, and when they see the quality of care is not good, they are going to flee... Control without care is what amplified Ebola epidemic"

“Travel bans don’t stop viruses, they stop solidarity.” Dr. Githinji Gitahi www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

I'm very happy to launch the website for my Wellcome Trust-funded project, 'How Did Infectious Diseases Become Wild? Plague, Yellow Fever and Disease Ecology in the Brazilian Hinterland (1920-1975)'. wild-diseases.org

And many thanks to Matthew McAdam for his editorial support of this project, and the whole @hopkinspress.bsky.social editorial team for an immaculate work and their wonderful support at each stage of the production

WHO has declared the #Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). First time this has been done without consulting an emergency committee. Extraordinary move that speaks to how concerning the facts on the ground look right now

Here we go: Official declaration from the DRC that "laboratory analyses conducted by the National Institute of Biomedical Research on May 14, 2026, on 13 blood samples, have confirmed 8 positive cases of Ebola virus disease, Bundibugyo strain" 5 samples had too little volume to be analyzed

It is curious that with all the media attention hantavirus is attracting, the most famous outbreak caused by hantavirus (but not the Andes strain) is rarely mentioned. This was the 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak. Here is some footage from the time: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydtd...

An intriguing story about a doctor, bird listers, and a virus aboard ship. www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

With thanks to @shokes.bsky.social for this thoughtful and generous reflection on our new film OVERBURDEN and the paradoxes posed by the convergences of #mining and #conservation for people and animals living in some of West Africa's most biodiverse and iron-rich regions. #envhist #envhum

After 15 years of reporting on infectious disease outbreaks, what continues to fascinate me about them is the challenge of making high-stakes decisions under uncertainty. The hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius is a perfect example My story in @science.org is here (and a thread to come): 🧪 #IDsky

Backed by the Trump administration, US mining firms, financiers, and tech investors are mounting an aggressive push into the DRC’s mineral sector, reviving an old imperial logic under the language of strategic competition. africasacountry.com/2026/05/the-...

Finally, a cover! And soon, a book! A Natural History of the Spirits offers profound meditations on the history of colonialism, racism, and social and ecological change. Coming to stores November 10! Pre-order here: bookshop.org/p/books/a-na...

I've spent yesterday and today talking to researchers across the globe trying to understand the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. My story in @science.org is here (and some threaded thoughts coming): www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 #IDsky

Looking forward to this screening and panel discussion of our new film, OVERBURDEN, hosted by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. Set in #Liberia, the film is emblematic of issues at the intersection of #mining and #conservation across West Africa. www.cambridgeconservation.org/events/film-...

*Globalizing Wildlife* is OUT THIS MONTH (!) with @uncpress.bsky.social “An essential and timely intervention… exciting, cutting-edge vantages on crucial global histories” -Daniel Vandersommers Edited by @rafdebont.bsky.social myself, & Tom Quick #animalhist #globalhist #HistSci #envhist

Thrilled to be part of an @envirohistory.bsky.social Forum on Subterranean Archives with co-author Emmanuelle Roth. In "Visual Tailings," a surfeit of photos & films born of industrial extraction by a Swedish #mining co. in Liberia makes for unruly remains. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....

JOB ALERT: Two 4.5 year postdoctoral positions to work on my Wellcome-funded project 'Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health'. Please share widely! CLOSING DATE: 23 April (the date on Jobs.ac.uk is apparently incorrect)

Laying the red carpet for H5N1

Thanks to @africasacountry.bsky.social for working with us on this two-part series on The Underbelly of Conservation, as mining and #conservation increasingly work together to dispossess local communities of land and livelihoods in the name of development and environmental protection in West Africa.

📢 JOB OPENINGS at CSIC @cchscsic.bsky.social (Madrid)! As part of my ERC project WILDHIST, the Institute of History is hiring two 3-year postdoctoral researchers in the global history of rubber. Application deadline: 24 April 2026. More info 👉 euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/422012 @erc.europa.eu

On the history of the primate trade and colonial/postcolonial ecologies of extraction, conservation and care. Thanks to my co-editor Tara Suri and all who contributed to this Focus section in Isis. FREE ACCESS! #envhist #sts #conservation #primates www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

We just dropped the trailer to OVERBURDEN. Looking forward to getting this film out in the world. A huge thanks to the entire team involved, spanning four continents. overburdenfilm.com #biodiversity #mining #ConvivialConservation #envhist #liberia

It was a pleasure to work with the folks @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social in publishing this review of WARBODY, an unflinching examination of war as a toxic Superfund site. WARBODY is an appeal to listen: to veterans, to their bodies, and to their calls for a more compassionate system of care.

Looking forward to today's talks and discussion at the Hotspots of Concern: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biodiversity and Health workshop convened by @emmanuelleroth.bsky.social & @greggmitman.bsky.social www.cas.lmu.de/en/events/ev...

was reading a poli sci book about the US response to the 2013-16 Ebola outbreak and the challenges to (not just) experts (but expertise), was also a function/subset of challenging sovereign authority. Just who’s in charge - or should be - during health crises? Whose/what knowledge is valued?

Department "Knowledge Systems and Collective Life" seeks a Collaborative Research Coordinator! 🤝 Help expand its community-based, publicly engaged research 🎤 Advise researchers on cooperative methods 📋 Coordinate cooperation agreements 🗓️ Deadline: Sep 28, 2025 🔗 bit.ly/45FXu8R #HistSci #EnvHist

There are still many ways that the MAHA movement can crush the NIH, but the Senate Appropriations Committee—including most of the GOP—grew a spine & rejected one of the biggest ones yesterday: a full rebuke of proposed budget cuts & reorganization of the NIH. open.substack.com/pub/rasmusse...

We are looking for multidisciplinary panels to be presented at our upcoming conference "Beyond Dualism—Thinking Creatively Across Worlds," which takes place in July next year. The full call can be found in the news section on our website: www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/news/news_ev... (1/?)

I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding. It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

I subscribe to the @newyorker.com, I was part of ACT UP, I knew Larry Kramer well and know Tony Fauci too. Daniel Immerwahr's piece on RFKJr, features this and other passages that need a reponse. 1/

"A Big, Ugly, Destructive, Deadly Bill": Bishop William Barber Slams Bill Cutting Medicaid, Medicare

“It’s the next generation we have to protect and care about,” Gregg Gonsalves. Thankful to @gregggonsalves.bsky.social, who has never shied from speaking truth to power. Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate | Science | AAAS

"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants. Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging." Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council. I wrote about my decision in TIME. time.com/7285045/resi...

Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.

Internal records show that the NIH axed grants for research about transgender people despite a court order barring the cuts. Agency officials also testified that DOGE was involved in directing grant terminations. By @anniewaldman.bsky.social

So we haven't heard much in the news about H5N1 lately...is it because the threat is gone? I don't think so. Viruses don't just go away when you stop looking for them. I spoke with @carlynzwaren.bsky.social @salonnewsroom.bsky.social about it 👇 www.salon.com/2025/04/30/b...

Nature reports that the National Science Foundation has stopped awarding new grants and allotting funds to existing ones. All of them. @colincarlson.bsky.social says that unless the freeze is lifted, it “is going to destroy people's labs.” 2/10 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"Anthropology of Infectious Disease Emergence and Epidemic Control". A review by Tamara Giles-Vernick and Jules Villa www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...