Congrats to Dylan Pilz, a research programmer in Kristian G. Andersen's lab, who received the best poster presentation award at the Wastewater & Environmental Surveillance Meeting 2026 in Ghana! A @pha4ge.bsky.social member, Pilz was recognized for his work on wastewater genomic surveillance.

Dr. David Morens - who is 78 years old and served his country for nearly 50 years - used Gmail, which he shouldn't have done. However, "[he] was stripped and handcuffed [by] a half-dozen federal agents carrying guns and wearing tactical gear [..] and jailed". www.science.org/content/arti...

This is one of the saddest pieces I’ve read in a long time; brace yourself, it’s devastating I wish RFK Jr and his MAHA movement would read it (they won’t) 🎁 Link www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o...

Choice words from Dr. Szostak here. And while I am no Nobel Prize-winning scientist, I identify with the same quandary as an immigrant, moving here in 2009 and (proudly) becoming a citizen in 2023. I, too, don't recognize that country anymore 😢🇺🇸🧳🛫. newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-a-nobel...

Since I'm getting a questions about the new data - a few _preliminary_ comments: 1️⃣ Are the outbreaks in the US connected? 👉 Very likely. 2️⃣ Does this mean US will lose elimination status? 👉 Yes, but that's been clear for a while. Data: nextstrain.org/measles/geno... A few details + caveats 🧵👇

Every story has a quote left on the cutting room floor. For this one, it's this: Me: The U.S. has sequenced 1000 measles genomes from our outbreak. Virologist @eddieholmes.bsky.social: "This is 2026! There shouldn't be 1000 measles genomes. That's disastrous." kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

A new study in Nature Microbiology reveals that an eye condition called POH-VAU (persistent ocular hypertensive viral anterior uveitis) is caused by covert mortality nodavirus (CMNV) - a virus that's been devastating shrimp farms for over a decade. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Utah Is the New U.S. Hotspot for Measles www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...

Join us tomorrow! Proud to work with a unified scientific community to show up to a debate with evidence rather than insinuations. If we are going to rebuild trust in NIH, we better make sure the NIH Director is telling the truth #NIHFFS

The NIH's 2026 budget is $49 billion. WIC is $7 billion. PEPFAR was $7 billion. Budgets are statements of values.

"Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role" arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872 (preprint)

Here is a graph with dollar amounts of funding committed. The curves look very similar to those based on the number of awards.

The vast majority of labs in the U.S. rely on federal funding to do their research - labs like my own. We're already running on fumes and while top-line budgets have been maintained, for now, research isn't getting funded. Once those fumes are out 👉 🪦. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/i-wrote-re...

There's a common misconception that zoonotic viruses require significant adaptation to jump from animals to cause human epidemics. Not so 👇. Further, we see clear signs of 1977 flu experiencing cell passage, prior to epidemic. SARS-CoV-2? Business as usual. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Measles continues to spread across the Americas. Utah is reporting several hospitalizations amid an outbreak that’s grown to 358 cases. Meanwhile, Mexico is reporting 6,387 cases in 2026—nearly the same amount that it reported in all of 2025.

Open question for anyone that develops/maintains of bioinformatics tools, especially those used for public health - what do you think is the right way to fund this long term? Grants are great for new research directions, but aren't really appropriate for most tool dev/maintenance.

Please please read this from the archbishop of Chicago www.archchicago.org/statement/-/...

The point is to destroy the administrative state, centers of knowledge and all civic institutions that stand in the way of Russell Vought’s vision of an authoritarian theocracy. It sounds insane and something out of Atwood. But this is where we are. Under his eye.

This week's cover @thelancet.com

Federal funding for US biomedical research is moribund. Since October 1 2025, NIH is -80% in new grants and -70% in values (total dollars). Labs are closing down and researchers are leaving science. To what end?

Measles cases are resurging globally, but genomic surveillance at the global scale is sparse. In our new preprint, we show wastewater can provide population-level and low-cost data on virus spread and evolution. See @kgandersen.bsky.social's post for a high level summary, more detail here though!🧵

This piece by @jeneeninterlandi.bsky.social is one for the ages. The damage Donald Trump (under the guidance of Russell Vought) has done to biomedical research is profound and will be long-lasting. It is a national tragedy to be measured in the sick and the dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/o...

Measles is no joke. Focusing only on when it's fatal obscures the range of lasting harms that come from this disease. www.voicesforvaccines.org/measles-can-...

It is absolutely outrageous that Moderna’s flu vaccine was met with a “refusal-to-file” even after their approved their protocol with FDA and carried out the trial as agreed. This vaccine works better in older adults than the current flu vaccines. apnews.com/article/mode...

This week marks a year since 10% of the CDC work force was fired. We are more vulnerable to the next pandemic,outbreak monitoring is crumbling, measles is basically endemic again,vaccine guidelines are now RFK Jr fan fiction. All it took was one year.

Stop drinking raw milk! Full STOP! people.com/raw-milk-out...

Measles was eliminated in 2000. Now? Back in 43 states. Not because science failed, but because leaders chose lies over public health. Vaccines work. Misinformation kills. A preventable disease is returning, and accountability matters. Stay informed. Follow @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for more.

Here is his co author admitting they got everything wrong. youtu.be/-QibLarUULUdd

Normalizing anti-science grifters is a dangerous path. We have to do what we can to call it out! If you're looking to take action, we got you covered! RALLY TO TAKE BACK SCIENCE! 🔬🧪✊ March 7th, 2026 in Washington, DC Learn more at standupforscience.net/march7 #Standupforscience

There is a cost to science denial.

We can't believe we have to say this, but POLIO IS REALLY BAD. RFK Jr.'s "independent" "expert" ACIP is destroying the foundations of our public health system. It cannot be clearer: if we want to save lives, we have to #RemoveRFKJr. Take action now: standupforscience.net/impeach-rfkjr

This is absolutely what the video shows. A person is wrestled to the ground by 6 ICE agents and then executed at point blank range.

No one wants to see these videos; and you don't HAVE to look. But we need to know what is happening - for many reasons: www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

Kicking off in a little over an hour. With the US officially having cut ties with the WHO today, this topic is more relevant than ever. What role will the US play moving forward? What role, with the PABS framework still being work out, WHO play? www.belfercenter.org/event/genomi...

Carney is bluntly telling the world, and Americans, that the post WW2 order is gone and America is left behind.

Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley: "We're hearing people being stopped with no cause & being demanded to show paperwork to determine if they're here legally. We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints. Every one of these individuals is a person of color... it has to stop"

The US has been seized by a concentration camp dynamic “It’s not that I’m trying to tell you that bad things are coming & you have to look out for them. What I’m saying is that the camps have already taken root & are on a fast-track to get exponentially worse. We’re already deep inside the process”

Whole milk will not stop the out of control measles outbreaks across America. Vaccines will. www.nbcnews.com/video/massiv...

One of the most valuable lessons my father taught me was to use my voice to speak up whenever I see wrong doing. Thanks to every researcher who spoke up against this unethical study and for every reporter who amplified. Advocacy matters. @melodyschreiber.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Amazing work by Erik Karlsson and co - a huge diversity of viruses in animal markets, detected through both sampling of birds, but also environmental surveillance approaches. 👉https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-68245-8

From #TNND: The #CDC has revised the US childhood vaccine schedule, cutting routine recommendations from 17 to 11. In the midst of one of the worst flu seasons we’ve seen, suggesting the flu vaccine might be optional for kids is outrageous and irresponsible. — @jennifernuzzo.bsky.social More ⤵️

Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress.

This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.

Congratulations to everyone who wrote an op-ed about how he just wants americans to eat better

Here's my thread on this preprint/project, in case you'd prefer a primer prior to digging into the whole thing! bsky.app/profile/josh...

Australia's wild flu season continues: Flu at epidemic levels in New South Wales heading into the first week of summer, sending more people to ED weekly than covid did at any time in 2025. This is driven by the new subclade-K variant of A/H3N2. 1/

Check out this thread highlighting our recent work on community-driven best practices in wastewater surveillance! It's been wonderful working with @josh-levy.bsky.social and the @pha4ge.bsky.social team to develop this user-friendly, open-source guidance🦠💧💩

As wastewater has become a core part of infectious disease surveillance worldwide, new guidance from WHO, GLOWACON, ASTHO, and others has laid key foundations for public health. But in practice, it’s not always obvious how to apply these recommendations or choose among available tools.

Might be futile, but at least someone is doing something to stop MAHA from inflicting mass casualties from preventable diseases www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/u...

6/ Pediatric flu vaccination continues to fall, now at 35.8%, a 23% drop since 2019. Adult rates remain steady, but still below national goals of 70%. After a year of federal chaos, shifting CDC messaging, and low perceived risk, urgency has evaporated, which is unsurprising.