NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵

We got a big bump in traffic yesterday when people learned about us on NPR. Thank you to @npr.org for covering our launch and bringing our story to people's attention! And thank you to all our new followers. We can do this together! 🌍️🧪💪 #ClimateAction #ClimateForUs #ProtectScience

I'm very excited to share this preprint led by @sorenlouislarsen.bsky.social and Chloe Yand, and made possible by the collaboration with my friend and colleague @ayesha-mahmud.bsky.social. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

A year before he passed away, I interviewed Dr Paul Farmer @pih.org about his book on Ebola So relevant right now, especially the dangers of “control-over-care approach” - i.e. isolation & quarantine, but fails to ensure adequate clinical care to the sick www.forbes.com/sites/madhuk...

Thank goodness, now there's somewhere to submit that project I've been stalled out on for three years...

🚨 Disease modelers: Do you use empirical VE estimates interchangeably to inform vaccine effect parameters? Me too, and it’s distorting our predictions. VE estimates often do not align with model parameters. We discuss these pitfalls & solutions in our new preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2605.18571 🧵👇

The true size of the DRC Ebola outbreak is uncertain. Imperial modelling team estimates that as of 17 May 400-800 cases had occurred, but can't rule out more than 1000. Great work by Anne Cori and team www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-i...

1. #WHO has declared the #Ebola #Bundibugyo outbreak in NE DRC a public health emergency of international concern, aka a PHEIC. Yet another sign this is likely to be a very challenging outbreak. So far there've been 8 confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases & 80 suspected deaths.

New manuscript, led by @hadley-liza.bsky.social! Model visualization is key for supporting communication between epidemiologists and policymakers. But misunderstandings still abound: so, how can we do better? www.frontiersin.org/journals/pub...

I may have lots of complaints about the US government’s response to hantavirus, but our colleagues at @unmc.bsky.social are the best of us. I’m moved by their humanity 🥹

Sooooo... Several people shared this slide with me. NIH is apparently working on a new parent mechanism called an RP1. I have many questions (and only a few answers). (EPMC is the NIH-wide Extramural Program Management Committee co-chaired by Jon Lorsch). 1/4

COVID infected 17% of the Diamond Princess in a month. Hantavirus: 5% of the Hondius in five weeks. The biology explains why this outbreak won't scale. www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

The #hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship off the coast of Africa is a serious public health event that needs to be handled properly. But if you are having #Covid flashbacks, put those worries to rest. The risk here is to people on the ship & their close contacts. www.statnews.com/2026/05/07/h...

I'm starting a newsletter! I'll be sharing "dispatches" or "field notes" about AI, language, and culture, drawn from my research, reading, and traveling. Short, frequent, informal!

A few additional key details 👇, building on what I mentioned yesterday - human-to-human transmission on-board is the most likely explanation, but, importantly, does not mean this is likely to cause a larger outbreak. The ship’s doctor among suspected cases + reportedly, no rodents on board.

It was absolutely wonderful to write something again with @skissler.bsky.social, @danlarremore.bsky.social and Aishani Aatresh. Here's our new review/perspective on the value of measuring and modelling viral kinetics as part of routine surveillance: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Hot off the press: Management implications of shifting Culex quinquefasciatus West Nile virus transmission suitability in Florida, new paper with @lippikiyay.bsky.social doi.org/10.1177/1530...

My #atscience talk about Lea is now online! If you've only ever heard me talk about NLP, here's a chance to hear me rant about #atproto (the protocol you're reading this on!), social media for researchers, and the free internet. And if you're interested in helping us build Lea, please reach out!

Parenting insight, day 168: sucking the snot out of someone else’s nose is actually oddly satisfying?

I haven’t been quiet in my life, so I’m not about to start now. Thank you, @microbetv.bsky.social, for giving me a microphone 🗣️

#ScienceSky #NutritionSky #AgSky listen to Gastropod!

On this strange, strange night, this helped:

On this public health week, I can’t think about anything but this. These threats, if realized, would be a public health crisis, a humanitarian crisis, a moral and civilizational crisis, on the grandest possible scale. I’m calling my representatives; we need to take a different course.

ATTENTION ASV TRAINEES! The NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award is a great opportunity to showcase your research and practice your science communication. Details below www.science.org/content/priz...

Public health is more than just systems. It’s the foundation for healthier communities everywhere. This National Public Health Week, help us celebrate and expand access to equitable health care around the globe. Learn more about how you can get involved: https://www.pih.org/advocate

New manuscript! Agricultural workers in the U.S. face huge health disparities, and living conditions in particular make agricultural workers more vulnerable to respiratory infections. But just how much more vulnerable - and how might outbreaks impact food production? tinyurl.com/ms7tv2pf

How can diagnostic tests for infection support public health – and what challenges do we need to overcome to maximize their potential? Kristin Nelson, Tyler Brown, and I have a new article out digging into this exciting, complex issue: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

CMS Says States Won't Have to Report Childhood Vaccination Levels www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/v...

Why are virologists thinking and talking about this year's strain of influenza? We are dealing with a version of H3N2 that is unusual compared to what we might expect year on year. At the same time, it is not as unusual as, say, a novel pandemic strain, far from it.

And now NextStrain as well. Next up, will GISAID start charging open-source community tools to have access? That would completely shaft users who contributed to GISAID, where we never agreed to that and assumed GISAID would be good custodians of the data we contributed. They're not.

I'm workshopping my AI & Society course for next semester, and in particular what I've been calling the "conscientious objector" path through the class (though I've given it another name). Thoughts?

Ever read a paper & think, "wow 🤩 that was well written"? Learn how to write your own *wow* paper with @midas-network.bsky.social trainees on Thurs 9/25 @ noon ET. We'll hear from @jdrakephd.bsky.social on strategies for crafting & communicating a good story. 🔗 georgetown.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Now out in NEJM. Kudos to @dhelekal.bsky.social and @tatumdmortimer.bsky.social : www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...

"Let it rip" is always a bad idea for containing epidemics. It's a REALLY bad idea for containing H5N1 in chickens. Besides the obvious biosafety issues, it has terrible ecological, economic, & food security consequences as well. Must-read in @science.org today 👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

⚠️ New preprint ⚠️: Two new antibiotics are likely coming for gonorrhea 💊. How should we deploy them in the US to minimize drug resistance? @kroster.bsky.social @dhelekal.bsky.social Eva Rumpler @yhgrad.bsky.social [1/10] www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Just few days left to apply to one of these postdoc positions in my infectious disease modelling Unit at @pasteur.fr in Paris!

Project 2025 said they’d be doing this and it’s here.

Who is excited about #EEID2025? Huge shout out to the organizers and helpers. If you see one of them, give them a wink, nod, high five, tip of the hat to show your appreciation!

I got the opportunity to speak with Science about my individual research fellowship being terminated. I was awarded the NSF GRFP before I chose Harvard for graduate school, but I still got cut. I study how we can improve treatments for a common antibiotic resistant bacteria, so this is sad to see

I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too

Calling medical journals "corrupt," Kennedy says gov't scientists may be barred from publishing in Lancet, NEJM, etc going forward. #NIH may establish its own journals, he said. Meanwhile #CDC 's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal is on the budget chopping block. www.statnews.com/2025/05/27/r...

Announcing the 2025 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease www.bwfund.org/news/announc... #bwfpath

Brief victory celebration and NEW ASSIGNMENT More than 27,000 comments posted regarding Schedule F implementation! 1/n

New preprint. After years of increases, gonorrhea diagnosis rates dropped in the US in 2022 and 2023. While the news is promising, understanding WHY is key to sustaining progress. dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/427...

These are grant TO THE STUDENTS, not to the institution, so this is just straight-up punishing students for choosing the institution

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow. It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America. All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

NSF GRFPs terminated for those in graduate school and already attending Harvard, too.