Today's @nytimes.com dialogue with Ross Douthat & Jay Bhattacharya is tough sledding. I wrote a book on how silent transmission made COVID harder to stop and drove misleading narratives. The interview continues to mislead as a means to seize more power. a 🧵 www.amazon.com/Asymptomatic...

Great news! The unethical hepatitis B vaccine trial planned for Guinea-Bissau has been cancelled. Public pressure and insisting that clinical trials pass ethics analysis worked. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... 1/2

Increasingly moving science to the footnotes (or eliminating data and evidence entirely) and elevating anti-science, misleading health information, and false claims to the center stage of messaging and practice within HHS & CDC.

Remember when several high-ranking #CDC officials resigned after #RFKJr refused to follow scientific evidence & federal procedures in #vaccines & #publichealth policy? Here's a chance to hear from three of them on Nov 19 w @healthjournalism.org Register here! healthjournalism.org/event/trust-...

I saved this slide from a ACIP presentation by Dr. Shimabukuro. He showed it every time he talked about VAERS.

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...

Critical point: all of this has been well-documented, for years. This study on reemergence of vaccine-eliminated diseases was published in JAMA in April. Ample time for the Florida surgeon general to take stock of the consequences and avoid an avoidable mistake. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

📢 Important update! Join the Vaccine Integrity Project live stream TOMORROW 8/19 at 2pm ET. We'll review flu, COVID & RSV vaccine data—focused on safety & efficacy during pregnancy, and for kids & the immunocompromised. Watch here:

I am so pleased to see that numerous medical and public health organizations are suing RFK Jr. and his minions for the latter’s grotesque actions to undermine vaccination programs in the U.S. Will it work? I don’t know. But we need to do everything in our power to defend public health.

Saying an AI is ‘lying’ is a bit like saying a virus ‘wants’ to infect people. In both cases, it can be tempting to project human-like intent onto an outcome - but ultimately these are just probabilistic or algorithmic processes interacting with their environments.

Important modification... from the FAQ, it seems that students who are beginning their PhDs in Fall 2025 can apply (as long as matriculation date is August 1, 2025 or after). Awards start in Fall 2026. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

Please consider a comment today if you are in the US. See the advice (shared from an email I received) in the follow-up posts below this one. Tomorrow is the deadline. This is an important part of scientific freedom in this country.

What the hell is wrong with @nejm.org? Do they think this is sound public policy? It's not just letting Prasad and Makary speak because they are now federal officials. It's giving them the cover of publication in one of our nation's oldest medical journals. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Random thread: In middle school, I met a UCSD PhD student at a family friend's dinner party—very smart, super nice, and I asked him where I could learn more about biology. He suggested reading Scientific American and I was like "I'm too poor for that" so he gave me an old issue he had lying around.

My ongoing request: If your NSF or NIH grant was terminated--whether at Harvard or elsewhere--please report it here. NSF: grant-watch.us/submit-nsf.h... NIH: grant-watch.us/submit-nih.h... Our trackers are actively used in lawsuits and are often the only record that terminations ever occurred.

Republicans have just proposed defunding Planned Parenthood nationwide. In doing so, they are telling women and people across the country that our healthcare doesn’t matter and that we are undeserving of care. It’s time to stop this bill in its tracks.

RFK Jr.’s hearing has ended, so I’ll leave you with Senator Alsobrook’s statement to him, delivered in a calm and steady voice: “Sir, you are the wrong person for this job”. 🔥

RFK Jr. said multiple times during his house and senate hearings today that no scientists have been fired from federal agencies. Our reporting has shown that hundreds, if not thousands, of scientists have been let go from NIH/CDC/FDA

🧵1/N New study published in @jama.com on re-emergence of vaccine-eliminated infectious diseases under declining vaccination in the US. We model long-term risk and conditions for return to endemicity for measles, rubella, polio, & diphtheria. Collab w/ @Mathewkiang.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

As someone directly affected by this, let me be clear: I'd rather lose my job because Harvard chose to fight than keep my job and see a generation of white supremacists parade its corpse around like a war trophy.

Harvard redid its whole homepage to push back against the administration’s demands. I mean, this is just a website but I think it’s kind of a great PR move: www.harvard.edu

Today the NY Times posted an interview with Chris Rufo that anyone associated with universities — or anyone who benefits from advances in health care or any other aspect of the research taking place there — should listen to or read in transcript. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/p...?

Check out this great new work by @caseymiddleton.bsky.social and @danlarremore.bsky.social! (also a new preprint out AND a successful thesis defense all in the same day?! amazing @caseymiddleton.bsky.social 🤩)