Over 40 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo and Uganda. Health authorities have confirmed more than 260 cases of the virus in the two countries and are investigating 1,100 more possible infections. www.nbcnews.com/world/africa...

Wonderful news from the #Ebola outbreak in DRC: four health workers have recovered and been discharged. Every Ebola survivor is worth celebrating. Today, we celebrate the survivors and the teams that made their recovery possible. www.afro.who.int/countries/de...

Pharma already abandoned basic neuroscience, antibiotics, and rare disease research because the ROI timelines don't pencil out. That's not a criticism. It's how capital markets work. Public funding exists to do what markets cannot. Like a 40-year ROI on jellyfish that now saves millions of lives.

Want to fix it? I'm with you. Reduce compliance burden. Fund longer grants. Create mechanisms for high-risk proposals. Raise paylines. All of that requires more investment, not less. The scientists writing grants all day agree the model needs work. Handing it to industry is not the fix.

“...I’m trying to stay out of politics as much as I possibly can because I think science is what the NIH should be always about.” —NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya weeks before speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Our fourth Bhattacharya Fact Check piece is out today…

Aid workers in Uganda are watching the Ebola crisis unfold in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. They're doing what they can to prepare for an uptick in cases, but foreign aid cuts aren't helping. n.pr/4o2YoVU

First signs of the coming decline of US science and the ascendence of Chinese science. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/b...

“As the admin moves from cutting budgets and attacking elite universities to dismantling the foundations of the US research enterprise, pharma CEOs have remained silent. Their silence is a choice.” www.biocentury.com/a...

"Infectious diseases do not respect borders. Weakening the systems that detect and contain them overseas is not an act of prudence, but of short-sightedness" @martinmckee.bsky.social for @prospectmagazine.co.uk on Ebola's return www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Will Primary Care Physicians Soon Be Prescribing Blind? www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

Yup. UK Unis are laying off academics, including scientists. The supply of PhD- & even postdoc-trained UK scientists has vastly exceeded the number of UK jobs in scientific research for pretty much the whole of my 40 yr career as a Uni bioscientist.

WSJ - Some African nations are rejecting American health aid, outraged by US demands for access to private health records and even minerals. www.wsj.com/world/africa/trum...

From @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social. Read through these. Take action. See alt-text for more. Science in America is at risk.

In this piece I’m quoted about medical countermeasures against Ebola and other aspects of the outbreak jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The goal is twofold: 1) Create a permanent spoils system in which all considerations of merit are eliminated, and science is administered by politicians. 2) Eliminate all funding for any science that contradicts Christian fundamentalism

Psych. reactance (emotional discomfort caused by perceived loss of freedom, power or control) leads to foolish beliefs, attitudes & decisions. "Sales of raw milk have spiked as 'food freedom' activists argue for their right to make personal health decisions." 1/3 www.vox.com/podcasts/489...

3/ raw milk in 1987, but House bill H.R. 7880: The Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2026, seeks to lift the ban. Call your Rep; tell them to vote no. & if you live in one of the 18 states with (>40) bills to make it easier to buy/sell raw milk, call your state legislators or submit testimony against.

US publicly-funded science and public universities were engines for not just our prosperity but for the expansion of human knowledge and capabilities It is tragic that we are about to lose them and humbling to realize most people don't know what we're losing Let's not let them go without a fight

Look, plantar fascitis sucks but I think this guy has bigger issues going on

📣 New publication: First reported case of Andes hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome treated with a combination of favipiravir, ribavirin, icatibant and baricitinib: www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.org/article/S119... #hantavirus

Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda: rapid assessment from the ESCMID Emerging Infections Subcommittee @cmijournal.bsky.social @escmid.bsky.social www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.org/article/S119...

This does not bode well.

Several people have asked for possible content and structure for comments regarding the proposed OMB regulations. With some suggestions from others, I have posted on example (as a Word document) for downloading). jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... I hope this is helpful.

Some perspective on the 2013-2016 #Ebola epidemic versus our current response, my latest at @msnowreports.bsky.social.

Money is fungible, there's no "shifting the burden." This is just another way to defund American science.

Research Funding Slows Again for Universities Targeted by White House - The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/u...

Ways to push back against the proposed OMB regulations fight2win.standupforscience.net

If you are going to comment on the proposed changes to how science is done in the US, please use this guide. The rules specify that you have to mention the number associated with the proposed changes, and this blog has those. Here is where to comment: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

"Nearly 7 years after her first attempt to test Ebola prevention drugs, Jaspard is stunned by the sudden interest in the trial. “I've kept this project for all these years, despite the fact that a lot of people were saying it's not useful, you don't need to do this, go away,” she says." 🧪

"Approximately one in five persons with confirmed measles in this outbreak required hospitalization for pneumonia, dehydration, or other complications, including rare cases of serious illness or death."

Read this to understand why the current Ebola outbreak in a conflict zone with scarce resources, is likely to end up as the largest and most deadly in history www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/w...

Ars Technica: Proposed new US funding rules: We can cancel any grant at any time Peer review now optional, political staff would screen grants for forbidden topics. by John Timmer bit.ly/434kTAe @arstechnica.com @jtimmer.bsky.social

If you want to understand the reality of #Ebola and what it is like, listen to this @npr.org story by @jonathanlambert.bsky.social It shares perspectives from myself & other clinicians who worked on the frontlines of Ebola and cared for patients. www.npr.org/2026/05/29/n...

But here's the thing: "States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren."

tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.

A devastating parasitic fly that eats warm-blooded animals alive has been found in a young sheep ‌in Mexico within 31 miles (50 km) of the U.S. border. www.reuters.com/business/hea...

A surge in malaria cases in Zimbabwe is exposing fragile health systems and growing treatment shortages in rural areas.

Slipping in a Friday executive order directing the CDC to no longer recommend kids get vaccinated for: -hepatitis A & B -meningococcus -rotavirus -influenza -Covid-19 I’ve seen all those diseases. They can be devastating and fatal. The vaccines have miniscule risks. This will kill kids #WarOnKids

This must be the free and open academic debate we keep hearing about

Research Funding Slows Again for Universities Targeted by White House www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/u...

Triple the science budget AND fix agency governance. TLDR: Those are the two essential things we must fix in US science. Get the president out of the science agencies, no presidential influence beyond appointment, stop the attacks on the civil service, restore Congressional power and oversight.

While regulations.gov incorrectly lists this action as "closed for comments", you can submit your comments directly here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/OM... My response is below, but don't feel that you need to draft anything nearly so long-winded. A short statement will also be very helpful.

#MurdochJournal attacks peer review as, uh, woke "group think." If the academy is so left-wing, it's amazing how easy it for the Journal, Times, and Post to find right-wing profs to write op-eds. A Way to Challenge the Groupthink of Scholarly Journals www.wsj.com/opinion/a-wa...

The White House today announced it plans to make major changes in how the U.S. government manages research funding. https://scim.ag/43HgW4s

NEW: A lot of bad has happened to American science over the last year but nothing comes even close to what’s about to happen if we don’t speak out in opposition to the OMB rule changes and I hope @aaas-socsci.bsky.social @apsphysics.bsky.social and others will launch public campaigns about this. 🧪🔭⚛️

“Surveillance is very, very, very weak. Case management is catastrophic.” www.economist.com/middle-east-...

The tally of people with Ebola is soaring, reaching roughly 1,000 cases this week. Here are the tools that experts say could help to bring the outbreak under control. go.nature.com/3PwRP1b

I spoke to E&E News: A new administration proposal is part of a larger campaign by the president to exert political control over the federal scientific enterprise. www.eenews.net/articles/tru...

Unreliable and underperforming antibodies are a longstanding problem, so while the reveal of apparently manipulated antibody data in Thermo Fisher's catalog was a shock, the frustration it sparked among many researchers is perhaps no surprise. My reporting: