Earlier this week, I agreed to interviews with two USA Today journalists. They wrote fantastic articles about the Cornell case that I'm proud to have been a part of. What I did not know is that their employer considers interviews to proprietary and opens up recordings to be used by any journalist.

After 5 months of investigation, and more than 20 rejections from various science news outlets, my investigation into China's detention of surgeon Qingping Xie, the inventor of Alzheimer's disease surgery, made the front page of The BMJ today: www.bmj.com/content/394/...

China has banned an unproven Alzheimer’s operation and detained its inventor, but international clinical trials of dcLVA are still going ahead—why?

The inventor of an unusual surgical treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is languishing in Chinese detention while his idea gains traction overseas. Felicity Nelson reports An expensive and recently ban...

bmj.com

📣 I’m writing a story with The Sick Times focusing on why there are no clinical guidelines for treating children with #LongCOVID and how this affects families. If you're a family affected by Long COVID, feel free to get in touch - felicity.nelson@frogsandstars.com.

🥳 🍻 Pint of Science Australia launched tonight at University of Sydney with talks about Alzheimer's disease, heat shelters and endangered birds. Come along tomorrow and Wednesday for more science talks! lnkd.in/gmW26JBV Photos by Victoria Nelson and Felicity Nelson

🥳 🎂Frogs and Stars just turned 4!!! 🎂🥳 My big wins: - Getting the hardest piece of investigative journalism I've ever done FINALLY commissioned after 20+ rejections! - Arranging partnerships for Pint of Science Australia 🍻 - Winning an award for Excellence in Journalism for #longcovid reporting 🏆

We also won an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, from the Association of Health Care Journalists. We won third place in the consumer/feature division for our Long COVID clinical trials series.

🚨 🍻 Pint of Science Australia is coming to Sydney (University of Sydney, Balmain, Chatswood, Randwick, Parramatta) - and 14 other cities around Australia - NEXT WEEK!! 🍻 🚨 🥳 Hope to see you there! pintofscience.com.au/festival/2026/

2026

pintofscience.com.au

The winning pieces were written by co-founder and managing editor @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social, co-founder and executive editor @mileswgriffis.bsky.social, and science and medical journalist Felicity Nelson (@frogsandstars.bsky.social).

🥳🥳 I won an award for excellence in journalism!!!!!!!🥳🥳 The stories I entered were: thesicktimes.org/2025/07/29/c... thesicktimes.org/2025/05/02/h...

How fluid exits the brain is far from a passive process... My latest for Nature: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How ‘skull drains’ keep the brain safe from damage and pathogens

Veins in the skull can rearrange their borders to accommodate patrolling immune cells, a strange behaviour called ruffling.

nature.com

Shhh this hasn't hit the mainstream news yet but... the federal government is planning on forcing doctors to upload data to My Health Record or forfeit Medicare benefits. (Pathology and imaging providers are being compelled to do this from July.) www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

AMA Calls for Government-Enforced Digital Interoperability

Software providers that won’t share data are creating unnecessary friction within the healthcare system and should be penalized, argues the Australian Medical Association.

medscape.com

📣 Pint of Science Australia is now looking for speakers for its May festival. If you are a researcher or know any researchers who might be interested, feel free to share this link to your socials or newsletters! - pintofscience.com.au/about/speake... 📣

Expression of Interest (Speakers)

pintofscience.com.au

The Sun’s fiery surface, a tattooed tardigrade, rare red lightning and more - these are the best science images from 2025, chosen by Nature's Photo Team Check them out: go.nature.com/3MANqs5

I wrote in @statnews.com about the emotional toll anti-vaccine rhetoric is taking on clinicians — and how it’s straining our relationships with patients. This isn’t abstract; it’s happening every day in exam rooms across the country. 🔗 www.statnews.com/2025/12/10/a... #Vaccines #PublicHealth

Rise of anti-science rhetoric has fundamentally changed the relationship between doctors and patients

“The rise of anti-science and anti-vaccine rhetoric has fundamentally changed the relationship between clinicians and patients.”

statnews.com

To everyone directly and indirectly affected by the Bondi Beach atrocity, I'm thinking of you today. ♥️ I'll support any actions we can take to make sure this never happens again.

For #journalists reporting the terror attack on Bondi beach, here's an important and good resource from the Global Centre for Trauma and Journalism on how to report ethically and safely: gcjt.org/resources/re...

Reporting a traumatic community event - resources for media workers

gcjt.org

Coogee photo shoot 2025

Coogee photo shoot 2025

Coogee photo shoot 2025

The social media ban for under 16s is a largely evidence-free policy but I agree with Waleed Aly that it could prove historic. It officially puts social media in the same basket as smoking or pokies for the first time. www.smh.com.au/national/the...

The social media ban may be a more seismic shift than we realise

There aren’t many cases like this where the divide between experts and the people is so stark. But the implications go far beyond the issue of youth mental health.

smh.com.au

We used to pay GPs to coordinate vaccinations and (surprise, surprise) immunisation rates rose from 52% in 1995 to 95% in 2020. Those incentives were gradually scrapped. And now vaccinations have fallen off a cliff. My latest for Medscape... www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

Vaccinations Decline, Infectious Diseases Rise in Australia

A backlash against pandemic-era restrictions, online misinformation, and a lack of resources for healthcare have contributed to Australia’s falling vaccination rates.

medscape.com

The German government has committed half a billion euros for research on long COVID and other post-infection syndromes go.nature.com/48qFiTA

Long-COVID research just got a big funding boost: will it find new treatments?

The German government has committed half a billion euros for research on long COVID and other post-infection syndromes.

go.nature.com

Excited to read The Stronger Sex by Starre Vartan! It's all about how women are physically stronger than men in so many ways that aren't often measured.

Renewables produced more electricity than coal for the first time this year. ☀️✨👏👏😎🤞🌞 The cost of solar energy has dropped 90% in 15 years and we would only need 0.3% of the planet's land to supply the world's energy needs using solar. #reasonsforhope www.newscientist.com/article/2500...

Microsoft, I would PAY to REMOVE copilot! I just want to word process without the AI vomiting all over the page. But, sure, the old price is fine...

🌠 The partnerships team at Pint of Science AU (which I'm now managing!) has just published its Impact Report & Partnership Guide 2026. 🥳 🎉 Get in touch if you're looking for ways to share your science with the public! partnerships@pintofscience.com.au pintofscience.com.au/festival/par...

Halloween fairy 🧚🦋✨

Critically important journalism

The Sick Times@thesicktimes.org · 12mo ago

We're kicking off our biggest fundraiser of the year by participating in NewsMatch, a national campaign to support newsrooms across the US run by the Institute for Nonprofit News. We need your help to keep telling #LongCOVID stories. Will you donate today? the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/

What people with #longcovid and #mecfs want (based on today's Emerge Australia's meeting with federal parliament): 1. Telehealth and NDIS without an in-person requirement 2. More funding for doctor education and research 3. Less stigma, more science!!

I think this rampant use of AI just points out how much of the work we do is an unimportant waste of time as it can be replaced by passable garbage and no one notices. 🤷