1. A bit of evolutionary biology. I'm really intrigued by a new perspective piece from Steve Frank that explores connections between how natural selection creates systems that generalize and recent work in machine learning about the surprising capabilities of massively overparameterized systems.

Generalization as the great leap in evolvability: insights from machine learning

Abstract. Natural selection encodes learned information in the genome. Learned solutions may be tuned specifically to past challenges, failing in altered e

academic.oup.com

❗ Un cas d'#Ebola a été recensé en France, un médecin humanitaire de retour de mission en République démocratique du Congo. Il est isolé et hospitalisé dans un état "stable", ses éventuels cas contact devront s'isoler à domicile pendant 3 semaines.

I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇

In the end, researchers were left with a list of 14 pathogens that they are sharing “to help state health departments say, ‘OK, what are the priority pathogens we should keep on our radar?’” @alexvespi.bsky.social says. My @science.org story on a preprint assessing outbreak risks at the World Cup.🧪

Will the World Cup kick off disease outbreaks?

Don’t expect pathogens to steal the show, says research group that studied the risk of visiting fans spreading infections

science.org

“But while the need for better tests has been clear for years, there has been little investment to develop them because there is no high-income market, said Sonjelle Shilton, who works [] for the aid group Doctors Without Borders.” Great story on Ebola diagnostics in current outbreak 🧪 #giftlink

Only the Right Tests Can Stop This Ebola Outbreak. Congo Has Hardly Any.

nytimes.com

🎉 This year, we’re celebrating 125 years of Epidemiology & Infection! 🏛️🔬 Curious to know why the journal has endured for more than a century? 🎥 Watch our anniversary video to find out: 👉 https://cup.org/48DCdiD

On the year's hottest day, a thread on why this infographic misleads (1/n)

Goldstein@goldstein.latinsky.app · 2mo ago

The Proximal Origin of the MV Hondius Andes virus outbreak. virological.org/t/potential-...

Potential geographical and ecological origin of the MV Hondius Andes virus outbreak

The recent outbreak aboard the MV Hondius caused by Andes virus raises two key questions [1]: (i) where do the outbreak genomes cluster geographically, and (ii) how can the phylogenetic signal be reco...

virological.org

There's been some high profile criticism of test-negative method for vaccine effectiveness, as well as counter-criticism. Yet remarkably little in media saying what the method actually does, why it's useful, what the limitations are, and how we can improve it. Great that John Drake wrote this:

Jay Bhattacharya Called Test-Negative Study Design ‘Crap.’ Here’s How We Know Whether Vaccines Measured With It Are Effective

Jay Bhattacharya dismissed the test-negative design as 'crap.' The biostatistics literature tells a different story.

forbes.com

Someone brought up variable naming and it reminded me of how much fun I had writing this blog post #rstats #databs benharrap.com/post/2025-03...

What makes a good variable naming convention – Ben Harrap

benharrap.com

We do not currently have a vaccine for Bundibugyo ebolavirus. BUT! There are vaccine candidates that have ben tested in animals and could go forward more quickly to human trials. Eg VesiculoVax doi.org/10.1093/infd... and another VSV-based vaccine journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...

A Highly Attenuated Panfilovirus VesiculoVax Vaccine Rapidly Protects Nonhuman Primates Against Marburg Virus and 3 Species of Ebola Virus

AbstractBackground. The family Filoviridae consists of several virus members known to cause significant mortality and disease in humans. Among these, Ebola

doi.org

A Canadian passenger from the cruise ship Hondius has likely tested positive for hantavirus, a health official told CBC. The patient, with mild symptoms, was hospitalized and is currently in stable condition. Again, this concerns a passenger.

Marc Veldhoen@marcveld.bsky.social · 3mo ago

WHO reports no new suspected cases on the ship heading to the Netherlands. They remain in regular contact with the captain, who says no one onboard currently shows symptoms.

How have UK social contact patterns changed post-pandemic? How assortative are they by age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status? Pleased to share our new @plosmedicine.org paper, jointly led by @lucygoodfellow.bsky.social and myself, with @kevinvzandvoort.bsky.social and John Edmunds. #IDSky

A great Perspective piece from @joelmossong.bsky.social on the evolution of social contact surveys, from the POLYMOD study he led in 2008 (which became the template for all others), to CoMix during the pandemic, and now on to Reconnect: journals.plos.org/plosmedicine...

Billy Quilty@bquilty.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How have UK social contact patterns changed post-pandemic? How assortative are they by age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status? Pleased to share our new @plosmedicine.org paper, jointly led by @lucygoodfellow.bsky.social and myself, with @kevinvzandvoort.bsky.social and John Edmunds. #IDSky

Bringing some of my thoughts together. And explaining why hantavirus is emphatically not COVID news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Hantavirus likely to be fully contained but may take time — Harvard Gazette

The disease is much deadlier than COVID, but much harder to spread.

news.harvard.edu

"WHO’s assessment continues to be that the risk to health globally is low. So far, 11 cases have been reported, including 3 deaths. All 11 cases are among passengers or crew on the ship. 9 of the 11 have been confirmed as Andes virus, and the other two are probable", says @drtedros.who.int.

Join our live update on #hantavirus with Olivier Le Polain, Unit Head, Epidemiology & Analytics for Response, TODAY at 17.00 CEST [GMT+2] It will be livestreamed on WHO's X, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube

🔴 La passagère française symptomatique et rapatriée hier est positive à l'#hantavirus, annonce Stéphanie Rist sur France Inter. Son état de santé "s'est dégradé" dans la nuit, elle est hospitalisée à Bichat.

After 15 years of reporting on infectious disease outbreaks, what continues to fascinate me about them is the challenge of making high-stakes decisions under uncertainty. The hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius is a perfect example My story in @science.org is here (and a thread to come): 🧪 #IDsky

What to do with the passengers on the cruise ship hit by hantavirus?

Past studies of Andes virus offer scant evidence on transmission risks, and have sparked debate

science.org

I am hosting a media briefing on #hantavirus today at 15:00h CEST. You can join and watch via @who.int and my social media channels across X, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

I've spent yesterday and today talking to researchers across the globe trying to understand the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. My story in @science.org is here (and some threaded thoughts coming): www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 #IDsky

Cruise ship’s hantavirus outbreak puts researchers in uncharted territory

Questions about the culprit virus and its route of spread remain as health officials make plans for stranded passengers

science.org

Updates on the hantavirus situation from WHO (which we, beyond belief, are no longer part of). Seven suspected cases, three deaths. Case 1 boarded Apr 1, got sick Apr 6, died Apr 11. Likely Andes virus, given Argentina link. Consistent with infection before boarding. www.who.int/emergencies/...

The hantavirus outbreak is a stress test for WHO's IHR. Cape Verde should allow disembarkation if it has capacity The IHR requires a risk assessment, and there is no risk to the local pop. This happened during COVID & it's why the IHR were amended. We haven't learned our lesson

Not much information regarding lab results yet. I guess they meant pan-hantavirus PCR positive, rather than hantavirus positive.

Kristian G. Andersen@kgandersen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Updates on the hantavirus situation from WHO (which we, beyond belief, are no longer part of). Seven suspected cases, three deaths. Case 1 boarded Apr 1, got sick Apr 6, died Apr 11. Likely Andes virus, given Argentina link. Consistent with infection before boarding. www.who.int/emergencies/...

demoscapes.org is a visual atlas of demographic surfaces hosted at @mpidr.bsky.social. It is also my passion project growing out of my 2016 human mortality database explorer. Did you publish something containing Lexis surfaces? Consider reaching out and having your work featured on the site.

Leah Abrams@leahrabrams.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Check out @jschoeley.com's very cool project: Demoscapes! It now features interactive Lexis surfaces based on our recent PNAS paper tracking cohort trends in major causes of death in the US. It's (to us data lovers) so fun! demoscapes.org/collections/...

Similar to what happened in Europe: no #Covid19 summer wave in 2025, but not any winter epidemic 2025/26 either. Flu levels were also lower than previous season. erviss.org A major wave only to be expected if new variant with large number of mutations were to appear. Not on the horizon yet.

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀@mackayim.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#COVID19 in Australia. Having skipped any obvious summer epidemic in 2025 - for the first time since Australia opened up - the climate & immune landscape are set for a 2026 winter epidemic. March cases were a bit higher than Feb, but 2026 monthlies so far have been the smallest since lettign rip.

Only a rise from $100 to $600 is a 500% rise, not a 600% rise. And when you drop the price back down from $600 to $100 that’s not a 600% reduction, that’s an 83.3% reduction.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Rollout of powerful new HIV prevention tool in lower income countries gets a boost

Global Fund and U.S. government plan to make injectable lenacapavir available to 3 million people by 2028

science.org

Avoiding infections is good But some simply cannot be avoided - multiple exposures over the life course are inevitable In which case, when is the best time to get infected for the first time? 🤔

What people get wrong about early life infections

The confusing reality behind the timing of childhood pathogen exposure

open.substack.com

(Potentially) unpopular opinion. Too long for BlueSky so please read on Substack. jdrakephd.substack.com/p/in-praise-...

In Praise of the AI-Drafted Email

I’m going to risk sounding contrarian: I like receiving AI-written emails.

jdrakephd.substack.com