A severe bout of COVID-19 can wake up an army of dormant viruses hiding inside the body, like Epstein-Barr virus. This reactivation is linked to especially intense bouts of COVID-19 and to the development of long COVID. Published today in @nature.com:

COVID can wake up a slew of dormant viruses inside you

Reactivation of typically harmless anelloviruses, in particular, seems to be linked with developing long COVID, study finds.

nature.com

Even as Cyclospora outbreaks have become more frequent, CDC's parasite surveillance team was slashed from 11 people to 3 last year. Joel Barratt, who ran the team, tells me he worries the agency doesn't have the staffing to stop the current outbreak quickly. My story in @nature.com:

‘Explosive diarrhoea’ outbreak grips US: how researchers are hunting its source

Cases have hit record levels, and scientists are racing to pinpoint where the Cyclospora parasite entered the food supply.

nature.com

New: The National Science Foundation is preparing to claw back some $500 million in funds from some of its core science programs in physics, math, computer science, and engineering in order to fund a project from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

NSF plans cuts to core science programmes to fund White House initiative

A proposed clawback of already distributed research funds comes as the US agency’s budget is already squeezed and it struggling to clear a backlog of grant applications.

nature.com

NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵

Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants

Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.

nature.com

NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵

Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants

Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.

nature.com

Scientific American was part of Springer Nature, Nature's parent company. It pains me to lose Dan and so many other brilliant science reporters as colleagues — and SciAm as a sister magazine. I stand in solidarity with @sciamunion.bsky.social working to secure better conditions for its employees.

Dan Vergano@danvergano.bsky.social · last mo.

Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media, publisher of Discover: group.springernature.com/gp/group/med... They've fired me and other union staff, ahead of June 26 vote ratification. My rates are suddenly more reasonable, if you need editing or reporting - Argonaut2026@gmail.com

Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media, publisher of Discover: group.springernature.com/gp/group/med... They've fired me and other union staff, ahead of June 26 vote ratification. My rates are suddenly more reasonable, if you need editing or reporting - Argonaut2026@gmail.com

NIAID employees did not receive any communication about these leadership changes until this afternoon, when the institute sent out an unsigned email.

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Scoop: There has been a massive shakeup at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Eight of the top ten officials have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office. In @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NIAID employees did not receive any communication about these leadership changes until this afternoon, when the institute sent out an unsigned email.

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Scoop: There has been a massive shakeup at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Eight of the top ten officials have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office. In @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Nature has learnt that a clinical trial of two therapies against the rare Ebola Bundibugyo virus spreading in Africa is in the works, pending approval by the governments of DRC and Uganda. go.nature.com/4uNZU0i

Exclusive: Race begins to trial Ebola drugs amid current outbreak

Clinical trials for treatments against Ebola Bundibugyo virus are ‘in a strong position’ to be launched quickly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

go.nature.com

NEW: A serious staffing shortage — of the Trump admin's own making — is delaying the agency's ability to send billions to universities around the country, leaving labs reeling in the meantime. “I thought we were at rock bottom”, a senior NIH official said. “We are below rock bottom now.”

NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year

Some units at the US funding giant are so understaffed, they are focusing on mandated grant renewals rather than new awards.

nature.com

Scoop: There has been a massive shakeup at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Eight of the top ten officials have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office. In @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: NIH ousts infectious-disease leaders as COVID scientists face US charges

Eight of the top ten officials at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office.

nature.com

When you survive a global pandemic, you are never quite the same. I wrote a reflection on the Hantavirus outbreak aboard the Hondius, the invisible work of outbreak containment, and how COVID changed the way many of us process fear, trust, and infectious threats. open.substack.com/pub/bktitanj...

The Things We Carry After a Pandemic

How pandemic trauma reshaped the way we think about infectious threats

open.substack.com

NEW: A serious staffing shortage — of the Trump admin's own making — is delaying the agency's ability to send billions to universities around the country, leaving labs reeling in the meantime. “I thought we were at rock bottom”, a senior NIH official said. “We are below rock bottom now.”

NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year

Some units at the US funding giant are so understaffed, they are focusing on mandated grant renewals rather than new awards.

nature.com

Exclusive: Alleging a “pattern of deception” in virus studies done over a decade ago, the U.S. has proposed a ban on federal funding to a prominent coronavirus researcher whose more recent work has incited unproven accusations that he helped start the #COVID19 pandemic. https://scim.ag/3R7nQx1

Virologist accused of starting COVID-19 will fight U.S. ban on funding

HHS memo says Ralph Baric had a “pattern of deception” in describing virus studies long before pandemic

scim.ag

Yesterday a judge voided cuts to NEH, noting DOGE's classification of 'DEI' was incoherent One example: DOGE flagged a grant to a whaling museum, which wanted $$ to house a full whale skeleton DOGE called this DEI bc it'd “create an inclusive and impactful experience, which is aligned with DEI”

When the NIH abruptly terminated thousands of research grants last year, the fallout wasn’t distributed equitably. A new analysis suggests the cuts disproportionately hit women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ investigators. My latest for @nature.com

NIH grant cuts disproportionately hit minority and female scientists

A survey reveals sharp divides in who bore the brunt of last year’s spree of grant cancellations by the Trump administration.

nature.com

Are attention spans really shrinking? asks @nature.com It feels wrong to summarise this, but: A: ppl do flit from task to task more often than in the past but "there is little evidence that the brain’s fundamental ability to concentrate has been impaired" www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Are attention spans really shrinking? What the science says

Digital distractions are vying for people’s focus, but our underlying capacity to pay attention seems to be undiminished.

nature.com

When the NIH abruptly terminated thousands of research grants last year, the fallout wasn’t distributed equitably. A new analysis suggests the cuts disproportionately hit women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ investigators. My latest for @nature.com

NIH grant cuts disproportionately hit minority and female scientists

A survey reveals sharp divides in who bore the brunt of last year’s spree of grant cancellations by the Trump administration.

nature.com

The scope of these terminations is unprecedented. At RFK Jr's HHS alone, 77 advisory boards were disbanded in 2025 — more than a quarter of all the panels. For context: in 2024, HHS terminated just two. Among the casualties: panels on organ transplantation, dietary guidelines, and long COVID.

The Trump administration is downsizing US science by historic margins — but it's not just via funding or workforce cuts. Our new @nature.com analysis reveals the government has cut more than 100 scientific advisory panels across major agencies. w/ @alexwitze.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social

Key US science panels are being axed — and others are becoming less open

A Nature analysis shows that the Trump administration has terminated more than 100 advisory committees to science agencies — and reduced the transparency and independence of those that remain.

nature.com

The Trump administration is downsizing US science by historic margins — but it's not just via funding or workforce cuts. Our new @nature.com analysis reveals the government has cut more than 100 scientific advisory panels across major agencies. w/ @alexwitze.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social

Key US science panels are being axed — and others are becoming less open

A Nature analysis shows that the Trump administration has terminated more than 100 advisory committees to science agencies — and reduced the transparency and independence of those that remain.

nature.com

NEW: NSF has been funding research at a fraction of its historic rate. Last week, the agency finally began distributing money to its directorates and is now likely to pick up the grantmaking pace. But these allocations also amount to substantial cuts across the sciences. My reporting:

Delays have kept new NSF grants to a trickle — that could be about to change

The agency is finally ready to distribute a spate of new grants, but it is also preparing substantial cuts to areas such as biological and social sciences.

nature.com

Thank you to @whyy.org for casting a spotlight on the impacts of science funding cuts in our conversation today with @maxkozlov.bsky.social. Check out the recording below ⬇️

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'll be on @whyy.org with @asinclair.bsky.social at 12:15p ET to talk about how US labs have tightened budgets, clinical trials have been scaled back or delayed, and how a generation of young scientists faces an increasingly uncertain future. Tune in here!

I'll be on @whyy.org with @asinclair.bsky.social at 12:15p ET to talk about how US labs have tightened budgets, clinical trials have been scaled back or delayed, and how a generation of young scientists faces an increasingly uncertain future. Tune in here!

Fact, fiction and future for U.S. scientific and medical research | Studio 2 from WHYY | 04/22/26

YouTube video by WHYY

youtube.com

In a rare show of unity, both R and D US lawmakers agree: the scientific publishing industry needs reform. Lawmakers are worried about the literature being flooded with 'AI slop' and the high open-access fees that some publishers charge. Read more @nature.com on this week's House Science hearing

US lawmakers intensify scrutiny of scientific-publishing practices

A congressional hearing covered the rise of paper mills and the costs of open-access publishing — but there was little agreement on what reform would entail.

nature.com

“We scientists are used to sticking to our knitting. But I began realizing that science needed defending,” says @samwang.bsky.social. @nature.com talked to researchers running for office who say the "science is above politics" era is a failed business model.

‘Science needs defending’: record number of researchers run for office in US mid-terms

Many Democrats making the switch to politics are motivated by the Trump administration’s cuts to science — whereas energy and AI are a pull for some Republicans.

nature.com

“We scientists are used to sticking to our knitting. But I began realizing that science needed defending,” says @samwang.bsky.social. @nature.com talked to researchers running for office who say the "science is above politics" era is a failed business model.

‘Science needs defending’: record number of researchers run for office in US mid-terms

Many Democrats making the switch to politics are motivated by the Trump administration’s cuts to science — whereas energy and AI are a pull for some Republicans.

nature.com

The president's budget request is out. The process for funding federal agencies in 2027 has begun. What's a science journalist to do? Register for our chat with @maxkozlov.bsky.social, @alesszimm.bsky.social, and @virginiagewin.bsky.social, coming up on 4/30. connector.casw.org/event/follow...

Follow the Money: How To Cover the Federal Appropriations Process - CASW Connector

Join CASW Connector for a lively virtual chat explaining this complex, multistep process using the federal budget process as a framework.

connector.casw.org

Straight from the horse's mouth: If Trump's proposed $5B cut to NIH were enacted in FY27, the number of new NIH research grants would drop **47%** To be clear, this is from a document justifying the request. It's what they *want*. They think this is good. officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/pdfs/FY27/br...