James McCaw
@jmccaw.bsky.social
Professor in Mathematical Biology and Epidemiology and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. I investigate the determinants and impacts of infectious diseases. Otherwise, find me in outdoors cycling, running, hiking, adventuring
Yep. Yesterday JSTOR was unreachable. Aaron Swartz was hounded to death for far less.
Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦@merz.bsky.social · 8h ago#AI #LLM Something I've not seen commented on is the explosion of bot-impeding pages (e.g., via Cloudflare) that now appear before web pages load. The cumulative time waste for human users has got to be in the billions of person-hours. An immense burden imposed on everyone by the AI-bro assholes.
"While we can't predict what exactly will happen from now with the virus's spread, any wishful thinking it wouldn't establish in local birds is past." www.abc.net.au/news/science...
Now bird flu has hit seagulls a 'super-spreader' event is more likely
Unlike other birds detected with the virus so far in Australia, seagulls travel beyond coastal environments to more urban and inland areas too.
abc.net.au
Nature did a short piece on our preprint about how LLMs will affect the practice of science; my more detailed thread is below.
Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts
Research suggests that the combination of incentives to publish and the use of large language models will lead to more papers, but they will be less refined.
nature.com
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2w ago1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.
"An individual’s protection against infection with a specific strain is determined by their entire infection history" From the @jmccaw.bsky.social group in 2025 -#flu is such a complex beast journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
How immunity shapes the long-term dynamics of influenza H3N2
Author summary Influenza A H3N2 causes yearly epidemics in temperate regions causing substantial mortality and morbidity, particularly in older individuals. Infection with influenza elicits an immune ...
journals.plos.org
We're hiring in statistics, econometrics, ML, statistical computing, data vis, etc. It's a great place to work, which is why I've been here for more than 30 years! Details at bit.ly/3Tld8UV. Level is roughly equivalent to Assistant/Associate Prof in North America. #stats #datascience #rstats
Job Search
careers.pageuppeople.com
I don't know if the story about OpenAI going rogue and becoming a hacker is real or just hype but like most stories about AI no-one comes out of it looking like someone who should have control of trillions of dollars.
1/ 📣 New Perspectives article 📣 📄 How understanding the diversity of perspectives & systems in governments can increase the impact of scientific research. ✍️ Co-authors from 14 countries share experiences as infectious disease modellers during COVID-19 pandemic to unravel science-policy interface.
How understanding the diversity of perspectives and systems in governments can increase the impact of scientific research - Communications Health
Communications Health - How understanding the diversity of perspectives and systems in governments can increase the impact of scientific research
doi.org
Was an honor to get to play a small role in this — congrats @hadley-liza.bsky.social on a really nice article on strengthening communication between scientists and policymakers! www.nature.com/articles/s44...
How understanding the diversity of perspectives and systems in governments can increase the impact of scientific research - Communications Health
Communications Health - How understanding the diversity of perspectives and systems in governments can increase the impact of scientific research
nature.com
⏳ IDD Connect - Asia | 1 day to go | 08 July 2026 | 12:30:13:30 Indian Standard Time 👥 Hear from experts from across the continent to show how modelling is shaping public health decision-making in Asia. 🔗 Zoom link | Time zone guide: www.gsidd.org/events #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #OneHealth 🧪
Events | GSIDD
gsidd.org
Global Society for Infectious Disease Dynamics (GSIDD)@gs-idd.bsky.social · last mo.1/ 📢 Next IDD Connect event is in partnership with the MIDSEA Network (Modelling Infectious Diseases in South East Asia) 🌏 Region: Asia 👥 Hear from experts from across the continent to show how modelling is shaping public health decision-making in Asia. #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #OneHealth 🧪
“Humanitarian group Red Crescent told ABC NEWS Verify that, generally speaking, it has observed an increase in online campaigns and entities claiming to conduct humanitarian work on the ground in Gaza.” Great reporting on an increasingly prevalent form of online scam www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07...
She claims to be helping children around the world, but is it real?
Receiving millions of views online, the Lily Jay Foundation claims to help children across the world. She was even given an award for her work. But what is real and what is AI-generated? ABC NEWS Veri...
abc.net.au
PhD position (Melbourne, Australia) Mechanistic modelling of the epidemic dynamics of vector-borne zoonotic diseases in Australia with Oliver Eales, Freya Shearer, Marya Potorek at University of Melbourne More details: http://iddjobs.org/jobs/2561
1/ 📢 Next IDD Connect event is in partnership with the MIDSEA Network (Modelling Infectious Diseases in South East Asia) 🌏 Region: Asia 👥 Hear from experts from across the continent to show how modelling is shaping public health decision-making in Asia. #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #OneHealth 🧪
"I recently had the opportunity to hear Bhattacharya in person during his visit to Purdue University. I expected to endure scientific ignorance, right-wing pandering and claims of victimisation, and I was not disappointed." @davidsanderssci.bsky.social in @timeshighered.bsky.social
The NIH director’s visit has only deepened my concerns about him
I expected scientific ignorance, right-wing pandering and victimisation claims from Jay Bhattacharya. I was not disappointed, says David Sanders
timeshighereducation.com
ADA leaders were forcibly removed from their own meeting for sharing copies of an ADA OpEd critical of Jay Bhattacharya. Thanks to you it's now got >125,000 views. As CDC interim director, Jay also blocked publication of this paper because it showed that COVID vaccines work. You know what to do.
Interim Estimated Effectiveness of 2025-2026 COVID-19 Vaccines in Adults
This case-control study estimates vaccine effectiveness of 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccines among adults with COVID-19–associated emergency department or urgent care encounters and COVID-19–associated hosp...
jamanetwork.com
And to understand what is required for good research, even if that student will never do it again. The process is an education in itself; it teaches the student to respect quality, peer-reviewed research because they have had a true glimpse at its demands.
When I assign a research paper, it's not because I want an essay I can use to evaluate the student ex post. It's because I want the student to have the experience of going through the process of all of the above steps, perhaps iteratively, that is necessary to write a good research paper.
No—blue books, in-class exams, locked down browsers, etc. won't fix this. Nothing will replace the research, reading, thinking, organizing, writing, and revising skills that students developed through the good old fashioned research essay that has been the core of higher ed for countless decades.
"In some cases, the very same companies selling detection tools are also making apps that allow students to cheat, including by writing papers for them or rephrasing text written by others." Sylvester McMonkey McBean approves.
2/ Community Review of draft GSIDD Bylaws 🔍 The Founding Committee will review all input and use it to inform the final version. 🗳️ The final Bylaws document will be put to a vote and adopted in late 2026. 👥 We are grateful to everyone who takes the time to engage! /end
1/ Community Review of draft GSIDD Bylaws 👐 Though the draft document has been shaped by months of discussion and careful thought by the GSIDD founding committee, it belongs to all of the GSIDD community. 🔗 Provide your feedback here: www.gsidd.org/bylaws #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #OneHealth 🧪
ByLaws | GSIDD
gsidd.org
In general public outrage achieves little but it's impossible to feel anything but the white heat of fury that the World's first trillionaire may have contributed to this dreadful situation by cutting at the US Government. www.reuters.com/business/hea...
True scale of Congo Ebola outbreak still unknown one month in, responders say
One month after Ebola cases were confirmed in eastern Congo, its true scale remains unknown, with major data gaps muddying the picture and persistent, sometimes violent, community resistance hampering...
reuters.com
👇 Read about the latest updates from the Global Society for Infectious Disease Dynamics (GSIDD; @gs-idd.bsky.social) 📄 Includes development of the draft of the society Bylaws and an invitation for input from the GSIDD community.
Global Society for Infectious Disease Dynamics (GSIDD)@gs-idd.bsky.social · 2mo ago1/ GSIDD Transmission Digest: June 2026 ℹ️ The GSIDD Transmission Digest keeps you updated on what is happening with GSIDD, from upcoming events to the latest announcements. 🔗: hustling-producer-1761.kit.com/posts/gsidd-... #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #OneHealth 🧪
We are hiring! Two Lecturer/Senior Lecturer (research+teaching) positions in the School of Maths & Stats, University of Canterbury ▶️One in Statistics, closes 15 July jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a... ▶️One in Applied Maths, closes 21 July jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a... Please share!
Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Statistics - University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha
jobs.canterbury.ac.nz
Congrats Jen on this very well deserved honour
MACSYS@macsys.bsky.social · 3mo agoCongratulations to MACSYS Deputy Director Professor Jennifer Flegg - just named a 2026 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, recognised for her internationally leading work in mathematical biology. 👉 Read the full story: macsys.org/jen-flegg-20...
tough to overstate how quickly science funding in New Zealand has been blown to pieces - on Friday the NZ govt straight up disbanded the Marsden fund (our version of the NSF) it'll be replaced by a 'transition fund' with less money and zero information, as of yet, about what it will support #nzpol
The true size of the DRC Ebola outbreak is uncertain. Imperial modelling team estimates that as of 17 May 400-800 cases had occurred, but can't rule out more than 1000. Great work by Anne Cori and team www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-i...
Report - Estimation of the size of the outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Report - Estimation of the size of the outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
imperial.ac.uk
🚨 Disease modelers: Do you use empirical VE estimates interchangeably to inform vaccine effect parameters? Me too, and it’s distorting our predictions. VE estimates often do not align with model parameters. We discuss these pitfalls & solutions in our new preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2605.18571 🧵👇
Incorporating vaccine effects into epidemiological models: common pitfalls and solutions
Incorporating vaccination into mathematical models appears deceptively simple: models integrate vaccine-derived protections, such as reduced susceptibility to infection, using parameters informed by e...
arxiv.org
1/ 📢 Join us for our next IDD Connect event, in partnership with the Center for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (CEMA)! 🌏 Region: Africa 💪 Theme: “Strengthening Infectious Disease Modelling in Africa”. #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #OneHealth 🧪
