1/ Over the weekend, the FDA announced that a lettuce sample from Taylor Farms tested positive for Cyclospora. Within 24 hours, the FDA backtracked, calling the result a false positive. Taylor Farms quickly deleted its own posts about its bagged lettuce and boasted the FDA had apologized to them.

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."

The Xylom@thexylom.com · last mo.

NEW: June 26th is the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. We spoke to Marco Pravetoni, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, who's leading a team to explore antibody- and vaccine-based approaches that prevent fentanyl overdoses.

“'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."

The irony of the hantavirus quarantine

Can we finally have an honest conversation?

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

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

Current/Climate | Daniel Propp | Substack

[placeholder]. Click to read Current/Climate, by Daniel Propp, a Substack publication. Launched 2 minutes ago.

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/...

✏️ 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

Expand Access to Journalism Education for NYCPS Students

We are urging the New York City Council to invest in student journalism! If you want to help spread the word for J-Week (March 23-27), check out our <organizing toolkit>. <The formatted let...

actionnetwork.org

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.

tomate 🍅@jascha.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 5mo ago

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

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!

Hailey Robertson@haileyrobertson.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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.

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.

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...

We’re Hiring! — Verena

The Verena Institute is looking for a full stack developer or full stack development team (hereafter, the “Supplier”) to assist with the maintenance, documentation, and development of the Pathogen H...

viralemergence.org

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!

Genomic epidemiology of dengue virus 2 and 3 reveals repeated introductions and exportations of several lineages in Colombia

Dengue fever, a major mosquito-borne viral disease, is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes and poses a significant global health burden. Despite extensive…

sciencedirect.com

Ricardo Rivero H. 💻🧬@ricardoriveroh.bsky.social · 12mo ago

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...

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...

Evolutionary history of Jamestown Canyon virus disentangles complex multi-vector ecology

Jamestown Canyon virus (JCV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne virus of increasing concern in North America. It has been historically understudied, leading to significant gaps in our understanding of it...

biorxiv.org

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 ✅

Ellie Bourgikos@ebourgikos.bsky.social · 7mo ago

🦟📄 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...

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...

General_Instructions

Instructions for Authors Authors who publish their papers under our open access model or who are NIH-funded will have their paper automatically depos

academic.oup.com

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...

🚨🐭🦠 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...

ÉPICBiodiversity@epic-biodiversity.org · 8mo ago

🧪 New @mdcatchen.bsky.social preprint! Here's how we can decide where to look for wildlife disease, based on combinations of biodiversity, uncertainty, and prevalence data. This is a really cool paper, that is pushing the boundaries of what we can do with sampling and monitoring techniques.

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...

Weird wet weather has Joshua trees flowering early — or late? Help the Yoder Lab map this “bonus bloom” to understand why

A flowering tree in Yucca Valley, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor wanderingmojave on December 9. A tree with lots of flowers in Tehachapi, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor tina9294 o…

lab.jbyoder.org

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.

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announces another boat strike in response to a request/wish from Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet.

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...