Yikes: "We have a fentanyl vaccine, and we lost funding for the Phase I clinical trial because of the current administration’s misalignment on vaccines. […] Now we have a bunch of very expensive vials that are just sitting there, ready to go in somebody’s arm."

“'Public health got it wrong' is a comforting story precisely because it implies there was a right answer and someone simply fumbled it. There were definitely mistakes, but mostly, the scientist hands over a range of options and a pile of uncertainty, and an elected official decides."

1/7 New #ecology preprint out. We’ve spent half a century searching for Arenavirus and Hantavirus reservoirs, but it turns out global surveillance is essentially just us looking under the nearest streetlight. It is decoupled from actual host biodiversity.🧵 doi.org/10.64898/202...

Incredibly excited to see our work on Jamestown Canyon virus published in Current Biology!! I have grown with and loved this project for 3 years and couldn’t be prouder of the final paper 🩵🧬 Read it here to see how phylodynamics reveals JCV's complex life cycle! www.cell.com/current-biol...

For anyone looking to deepen their understanding of the energy-AI challenge (should be everyone!), there's an excellent new Substack worth subscribing to currentclimatedp.substack.com

New in @science.org ‼️ In the most comprehensive study to date, we show that wildlife trade is driving animal-to-human zoonotic spillover at a planetary scale, with +1 spillover per host every 10 years. Live animal markets and illegal trade pose even greater risks. 🔓 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Just write anything. It literally doesn't have to make sense even to you. If you're any good at this, you will be the last person to ever know

✏️ In the media capital of the world, 4 out of 5 NYC public high schools don’t have a journalism class. One of my closest friends leads the NYC Youth Journalism Coalition and is collecting signatures urging leaders to support citywide funding. Sign + spread the word! tinyurl.com/jweek-letter

If you ever want to read a paper for free and can't find it otherwise, email the lead author and politely ask for a copy. You will not be bothering the person. You will in fact make their whole entire day. I have had scientists get so excited I asked they sent me everything they ever published.

ICYMI: Trans people's IDs in Kansas were revoked overnight. They are: - Unable to drive - Unable to fly - Unable to leave the state on their own - Unable to apply for work - Unable to vote (Kansas has voter ID) - Unable to apply for driver's licenses in *any other state* /1

The Kansas driver's license law is purely about bigotry, stigmatization, and criminalization of difference. It serves no rational or legitimate purpose. A 🧵1/

NEW‼️ For the forthcoming Pandemic Agreement travaux préparatoires edited by @alexandraphelan.bsky.social, we did a deep dive on how experts and evidence shaped the negotiations. What we found is a microcosm of global health: limited time, high stakes, and familiar shady actors like Big Pharma. (1/3)

Something very different and cool for my lab. Sequencing a 4.4mb TB genome using the Artic-style PCR amplicon method with >5128 primers in two reactions 🤯 Enables culture-free WGS for TB! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Ahh! It’s so cool to see my book out in the world, especially in the hands of former students who’ve become friends! @haileyrobertson.bsky.social got in on the ground floor back in 2018, providing invaluable research assistance for the data project culminating in this book!

So excited for my copy of Governing Truth by @kellyzvobgo.bsky.social — an absolutely monumental research effort. Highly recommend to anyone curious about what it takes for transitional justice (and specifically, truth commissions) to succeed in the face of impunity and political violence.

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

We're looking for a full-stack developer! Help us build the best open data platforms for pandemic prediction in the world. Probably a short-term contract, but if you're looking for a full-time gig, let's talk. Inquire within: www.viralemergence.org/blog/were-hi...

Our paper on the Genomic Epidemiology of DENV2/3 in Colombia and the Americas is finally out @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, check it out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Big thanks to my collaborators @lambod50.bsky.social, @viralverity.bsky.social, @nathangrubaugh.bsky.social, and many others!

Jesus. www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

we're excited to share that Proceedings B has also come on board for listing PHAROS as a recommended repository for open wildlife pathogen and parasite testing data! thanks to @royalsociety.org for the support. @viralemergence.org royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/pages/f...

🦟📄 New preprint! Our first large-scale phylodynamic study of Jamestown Canyon virus (JCV) reveals how mosquito ecology shapes the evolution, persistence, and spread of this understudied arbovirus in North America. Read it here! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out our new print that combines dense sequencing and phylodynamics to uncover a bunch of 😎 things about an understudied virus. - Doesn't evolve for 10 months a year ✅ - Uses some mossies for maintenance, others for spread ✅ - Established in Northeast for ~300 years ✅

Important read. Among many other things, Judge Ellis found that Kristi Noem "commented that the more people protest, the harder the government will come after them."

Exciting news to start 2026: for the first time ever, the PHAROS repository for wildlife disease surveillance is a journal-recommended home for your archived data! Thanks to Integrative and Comparative Biology for taking the leap with us 🦠🔢➡️🌎💻💫 academic.oup.com/icb/pages/Ge...

Variations in annual dengue intensities are explained by temperature anomalies Our new work led by Abbey Porzucek, @rafalpx.bsky.social, @colincarlson.bsky.social, Dan Weinberger to develop a method to compare relative dengue intensity between years and countries. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google. My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence! go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT

🚨🐭🦠 New preprint! Monitoring wildlife disease is expensive, so we need to be smart about where we sample to get as much useful info as possible. We show how SDMs can guide adaptive sampling for zoonotic disease surveillance, using case studies in rodents.

This is, not a joke, one of my favourite papers in a long time. Absolutely stellar co-authors, but also a straight line from "nitpicky little nerds obsessing over sampling" to "translational research with clear implications for management". Go read all about it here: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿 lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...

ICE raided a James Beard award winning restaurant & because the chef/owner was prepared, left emptyhanded:

Bad framing: ACIP voted to scrap the universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendation for newborns. Accurate framing: Anti-vax conspiracy theorists appointed to ACIP by Robert Kennedy Jr., who made a fortune as an anti-vax profiteer, voted to expose babies to a preventable, incurable, deadly illness.

Yesterday, we sent this message to the @viralemergence.org team, bringing a (hopefully temporary) end to our project three years into what started as a decade of planned work. /1

They’re killing people as a twitter joke. It’s depraved. Can’t let yourself lose the capacity to be appalled and disgusted and outraged by this.

I'm excited to announce that the first chapter of dissertation is published in @commsbio.nature.com !!! and i feel super fortunate that it could be published during bat week 💗🦇 www.nature.com/articles/s42... @danjbecker.bsky.social @colincarlson.bsky.social @/amandavicentesantos

🚨 We're about to start reviewing applications, but there's still time to reach out for our postdoc position on climate change impact attribution! If you have experience with attribution science or climate epidemiology, and want to help us launch the Global Burden of Climate Change Study, reach out!

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Earlier this year, I wrote an op-ed about the importance of NSF/NIH funding for Kansans. I am THRILLED to see a candidate for my home state who names science cuts for what they are (bad + illegal!) and promises to step up to the plate on that issue, and many others (Medicare/Medicaid, USAID, etc!)

New preprint! 🥳🎉 We looked at viral coinfection patterns at the largest scale ever in wildlife. We found a strong association among CoVs, PMVs, and influenza A, and higher coinfection rates in wildlife trade; plus, evidence that bats accumulate persistent infections. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

They're right. RFK Jr. is a serious threat to public health and our lives. He is undermining vaccines, boosting dangerous conspiracy theories, and decimating lifesaving research. Resign or be fired. He needs to go.

How has climate change shaped your lifetime of heat? Younger people today are experiencing more extremely hot days during their childhood compared to previous generations. Check out the new interactive tool by @climatecentral.org: climatecentral.observablehq.cloud/generational...

“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.” That’s from the resignation of CDC’s Demetre Daskalakis @drdemetre.bsky.social (on X) 🧪

I'm delighted today to announce we're launching the Global Burden of Climate Change Study, an international team effort to standardize estimates of present day death, disability, and illness due to climate change. @chelseaeharvey.bsky.social with the scoop: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

party parrot timeline cleanse with the best figure you’ll see today

🧪 New study: Learning about economic impact of NIH funding motivates action to oppose funding cuts. Evidence from two preregistered, randomized experiments with >5,000 U.S. adults. Similar change for liberals and conservatives. Preprint from @asinclair.bsky.social et al: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Unsurprising but horrifying. Wherever there are people forced into crowded living conditions, there will be tuberculosis. Wherever people are dehumanized, there will be tuberculosis. prospect.org/health/2025-...

If this sounds like you, come work with us (or send cool people our way!) Can confirm the group and research is cool and fun™️

NEW 🚨 The violence is the point. Elected Dems must call for widespread resignations (RFK, Bhattacharya, Prasad) in response to the CDC shooting. Public health must demand this of them, and the public must demand that of us. With @publichealthguy1.bsky.social in STAT: www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/c...

It’s my pleasure to share our new preprint, which I had the opportunity to lead, and which has been in the making since 2022. In this work, we used climate data, phylogeography, and antigenic profiling to uncover the dynamics of DENV spread in Colombia. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

I'll say it a thousand times -- any account of the past that only celebrates the good parts of a nation without reckoning with the bad is not what we call "history" It is propaganda, pure and simple.