Australian friends! I'm going to be visiting Sydney in just over a week. I'll be at UNSW on June 23-25th and Macquarie on June 26-27th. I'd love to catch up with people in person, and also will be giving (at least) two talks at UNSW. The first is science-of-science modeling talk, on June 23:

Possibly the best thing I've read about ChatGPT yet. h/t @melaniemitchell.bsky.social amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-e...

For example, explaining that smoking causes lung cancer "directs people to believe one idea over another regarding health outcomes." Helping people understand that vaccines prevent diseases and do not cause autism "directs people to believe one idea over another regarding health outcomes."

A core element of public health involves working with the public to help them understand how they can protect themselves and their neighbors from disease. This memo (see the next post) equates this vital aspect of public communication with censorship.

Here NIH officials target contracts that "may be related to any form of censorship at all or *directing people to believe one idea over another regarding health outcomes*." Directing people to believe one idea over another regarding health outcomes IS public health. It's also education.

A science agency wants to stop knowing which ideas are true and which ones aren’t.

Nailed it

I would very much like the researchers we already have in Australia to be properly funded, before we consider new money for poaching people from other countries. But one cannot help but contrast this ERC announcement with the narrow thinking here in Australia.

Very important paper that avoids saying ANZ had some easily followable approach to COVID, while at the same time drawing out genuinely general principles for pandemic response - not least that it requires but is not receiving adequate resources.

Latest post on measles vaccines and the fallacy of ‘one more study to settle things’: kucharski.substack.com/p/a-wild-vac...

In one week: - An unnecessary study to investigate a debunked vaccine conspiracy has been authorized. - Federal grants to study vaccine hesitancy have been rescinded. - False conspiracies regarding measles are been pushed by health leadership. The scale of damage this is causing will last decades.

I don't know how else to say this except for bluntly: It is not normal to have outbreaks of preventable diseases in wealthy countries. It is not normal to have children dying from preventable diseases in wealthy countries. This is the first US measles death in 10 years. There should be none.

PhD position (Melbourne, Australia) Developing an integrated modelling and health economics approach to understand Strep A transmission and control. with Rebecca Chisholm, Angela Devine at La Trobe University More details: http://iddjobs.org/jobs/2281

this is how it's done

PhD position (Melbourne, Australia) Mathematical modelling of antivirals against influenza virus infection with @ada-w-yan.bsky.social @jmccaw.bsky.social at University of Melbourne More details: http://iddjobs.org/jobs/2268

The quadratic formula is one of the great achievements of human civilisation; artists of all people should realise that we should provide support to and education in all such endeavours regardless of immediate utility or variability in subjective enjoyment.

“in seeking to conflate and confuse on its centrepiece policy, the Coalition is doing little more than treating voters like mugs, assuming they'll be more interested in style over substance.” www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...

Struck today looking at the {EpiNow2} contributors page how much work it takes to maintain a package over the long term. Below link is filtered to just the maintenance period in which there has been no "output" (in the traditional academic sense). github.com/epiforecasts...

This is so backward 1. Science is more than just commercialisable widgetry 2. Making progress on our biggest problems (climate change, infectious diseases, misinfo to name a few) will need more collaboration between STEM and hum/social sci not less.

Make no mistake, colleagues: the exclusion of humanities & social science research from national competitive funding could easily happen here in Australia. The signs & actors are already clear. We let it happen at our collective peril.

Historical revisionism on Covid threatens NZ's pandemic preparedness, by @marcdaalder.bsky.social newsroom.co.nz/2024/12/03/h...

Inspired by @michaelplanknz.bsky.social 's pictures, and that hiking is one of my go-to pastimes, I thought I'd post a few photos of my favourite places in Victoria, Australia - Mt Buffalo (in colour) and near Mt Magdala (in b&w). These are from summer 2023, both covered in snow during the winter.

Well, I'm making my first post here, and it is a fun one: I have recently advertised for up to 4 post-doctoral research positions, 3-5 years in duration. If you are interested please get in touch or apply. An opportunity to work in Melbourne, great team, great city! Details at iddjobs.org: