Edyth Parker
@edythparker.bsky.social
Pathogen Genomic Epidemiologist at the Institute of Genomics and Global; I will be tedious and dignified on here. 🇿🇦
Reposted by Edyth Parker
We are in peak French heist season.
Thieves take €90,000 of snails meant for Michelin-starred restaurants
“It’s very surprising because they stole 450 kilos of snail meat.”
“It’s very surprising because they stole 450 kilos of snail meat.”
Thieves take €90,000 of snails meant for Michelin-starred restaurants
French police are on the trail of ‘experienced’ criminals who stole a whole year’s worth of produce from Jean-Mathieu Dauvergne’s L’Escargot des Grands Crus
stzl.ink
November 28, 2025 at 1:43 AM
We are in peak French heist season.
Reposted by Edyth Parker
1/ 🚀 Pathoplexus now supports Marburg virus (MARV) and Ravn virus (RAVN) (sister viruses in the same genus). MARV has two main clades and causes severe disease with reported fatality rates of 24–88%.
You can read more detail about adding Marburg here: pathoplexus.org/news/2025-11...
You can read more detail about adding Marburg here: pathoplexus.org/news/2025-11...
November 28, 2025 at 12:37 PM
1/ 🚀 Pathoplexus now supports Marburg virus (MARV) and Ravn virus (RAVN) (sister viruses in the same genus). MARV has two main clades and causes severe disease with reported fatality rates of 24–88%.
You can read more detail about adding Marburg here: pathoplexus.org/news/2025-11...
You can read more detail about adding Marburg here: pathoplexus.org/news/2025-11...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
A nice article, highlighting the important work our collaborators in South Africa are doing using wastewater to surveil a bunch of different vaccine preventable diseases (and finding a lot more of them than other reports would make you believe…).
💪🇿🇦
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
💪🇿🇦
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
Wastewater surveillance reveals disease trends in South Africa
From COVID-19 to measles, scientists are showing how wastewater surveillance can expose underreported infections and strengthen national health monitoring.
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:28 AM
A nice article, highlighting the important work our collaborators in South Africa are doing using wastewater to surveil a bunch of different vaccine preventable diseases (and finding a lot more of them than other reports would make you believe…).
💪🇿🇦
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
💪🇿🇦
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
When people celebrate the individual genius of folks in science, they should also
mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
November 7, 2025 at 11:43 PM
When people celebrate the individual genius of folks in science, they should also
mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
Reposted by Edyth Parker
I want to spell this out in case the implications aren't clear:
This means all public tools/webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've been used to seeing thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited.
The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.
This means all public tools/webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've been used to seeing thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited.
The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.
On Oct 1, 2025, GISAID informed us that they had ended updates to the flat file of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and associated metadata that we had used to update Nextstrain analyses since Feb 2020. GISAID's stated rationale was that their "resources are limited". 1/5
November 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I want to spell this out in case the implications aren't clear:
This means all public tools/webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've been used to seeing thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited.
The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.
This means all public tools/webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've been used to seeing thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited.
The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.
Reposted by Edyth Parker
GISAID on providing data to @Nextstrain.org: "After consulting with our staff and advisors on the feasibility of keeping your global tree up-to-date, there was a clear consensus that continuing to generate, zip and move big files back and forth is not sustainable and a waste of resources."
🙃
🙃
Nextstrain: Interruption to GISAID-based SARS-CoV-2 sequence analyses
Nextstrain blog post from 2025-11-06; author(s): Trevor Bedford, Richard Neher and the Nextstrain team
next.nextstrain.org
November 6, 2025 at 9:51 PM
GISAID on providing data to @Nextstrain.org: "After consulting with our staff and advisors on the feasibility of keeping your global tree up-to-date, there was a clear consensus that continuing to generate, zip and move big files back and forth is not sustainable and a waste of resources."
🙃
🙃
Reposted by Edyth Parker
“Sudan's Death Toll Could Exceed Gaza’s. Here’s Everything You Need to Know”
Important convo on the genocide there from me/Zeteo, with 2 Sudan experts who offer actual solutions to stop the fighting & put pressure on outside actors like the UAE & Saudi:
Important convo on the genocide there from me/Zeteo, with 2 Sudan experts who offer actual solutions to stop the fighting & put pressure on outside actors like the UAE & Saudi:
Sudan's Death Toll Could Exceed Gaza’s. Here’s Everything You Need to Know
Two experts on Sudan explain how the killing in El Fasher is worse than anyone knows.
zeteo.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:59 AM
“Sudan's Death Toll Could Exceed Gaza’s. Here’s Everything You Need to Know”
Important convo on the genocide there from me/Zeteo, with 2 Sudan experts who offer actual solutions to stop the fighting & put pressure on outside actors like the UAE & Saudi:
Important convo on the genocide there from me/Zeteo, with 2 Sudan experts who offer actual solutions to stop the fighting & put pressure on outside actors like the UAE & Saudi:
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Sudan hospital bombing kills 460 patients and healthcare workers buff.ly/SJnIcle
Sudan hospital bombing kills 460 patients and healthcare workers
buff.ly
November 6, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Sudan hospital bombing kills 460 patients and healthcare workers buff.ly/SJnIcle
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Reposted by Edyth Parker
I’m so honored to be a guest on the last episode of Science in Action after a decades-long run. I only wish it were ending on a happier note, but if science were in a better place, it wouldn’t be ending.
If we had a normal Science in Action next week, we'd likely lead on this milestone in H5N1 bird flu, and the global picture
As it is, it's the final episode, and @angierasmussen.bsky.social will be joining a top top panel to discuss the dire state of anti science in 2025.
H5N1 will get a look in?
As it is, it's the final episode, and @angierasmussen.bsky.social will be joining a top top panel to discuss the dire state of anti science in 2025.
H5N1 will get a look in?
It’s everywhere except Australia. I don’t know if H5N1 will make the jump to human adaptation and pandemic potential, but it’s never had more opportunities.
youtu.be/sRJeCLgzcKY?...
youtu.be/sRJeCLgzcKY?...
October 24, 2025 at 10:18 AM
I’m so honored to be a guest on the last episode of Science in Action after a decades-long run. I only wish it were ending on a happier note, but if science were in a better place, it wouldn’t be ending.
Reposted by Edyth Parker
The count down to the end of the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has officially begun. The last patient in the treatment center has be released. 42 days need to elapsed without any new cases for the end of the outbreak to be official. Fingers crossed.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/last-e...
www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/last-e...
Last Ebola patient in DR Congo discharged; countdown to end of outbreak starts
www.cidrap.umn.edu
October 21, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The count down to the end of the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has officially begun. The last patient in the treatment center has be released. 42 days need to elapsed without any new cases for the end of the outbreak to be official. Fingers crossed.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/last-e...
www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/last-e...
Happy to see this out finally -- my thanks to the brilliant team!
Genomic epidemiology uncovers the origin of the mpox epidemic in Sierra Leone https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.15.25337823v1
October 19, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Happy to see this out finally -- my thanks to the brilliant team!
Reposted by Edyth Parker
The role of climate variability in shaping the 2023/24 outbreak of Dengue in Brazil (📉 in north regions; 📈 in southern populous regions).
Brazil recorded the largest outbreak on record which coincided with the warmest ever reported temperatures in the Americas.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brazil recorded the largest outbreak on record which coincided with the warmest ever reported temperatures in the Americas.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 8, 2025 at 10:45 AM
The role of climate variability in shaping the 2023/24 outbreak of Dengue in Brazil (📉 in north regions; 📈 in southern populous regions).
Brazil recorded the largest outbreak on record which coincided with the warmest ever reported temperatures in the Americas.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brazil recorded the largest outbreak on record which coincided with the warmest ever reported temperatures in the Americas.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Vaccination of frontline health workers and contacts of people infected with #Ebola has begun in the #DRC’s Kasai Province where an outbreak of the disease has been declared: www.afro.who.int/countries/de...
September 14, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Vaccination of frontline health workers and contacts of people infected with #Ebola has begun in the #DRC’s Kasai Province where an outbreak of the disease has been declared: www.afro.who.int/countries/de...
As always, the deepest admiration for INRB and Placide's work: The 16th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Bulape Health Zone, Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new spillover event from an unknown reservoir host virological.org/t/the-16th-e...
The 16th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Bulape Health Zone, Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new spillover event from an unknown reservoir host
Background The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently facing concurrent outbreaks including mpox, cholera and malaria (1-4). The Ministry of Public Health, DRC has declared the 16th Ebola...
virological.org
September 5, 2025 at 8:20 AM
As always, the deepest admiration for INRB and Placide's work: The 16th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Bulape Health Zone, Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new spillover event from an unknown reservoir host virological.org/t/the-16th-e...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
DRC just declared an Ebola outbreak with 13 deaths so far.
🚨The WHO has issued an alert on a potential Ebola outbreak in the Kasai Province of Congo.
I really hope the outbreak doesn't spread bc of how difficult this will be to control without US funds -- plus the harm of travel bans, which are little more than security theatre.
I really hope the outbreak doesn't spread bc of how difficult this will be to control without US funds -- plus the harm of travel bans, which are little more than security theatre.
September 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
DRC just declared an Ebola outbreak with 13 deaths so far.
Reposted by Edyth Parker
August 27, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Join us 08/27 @ 11 AM ET for our next Biosecurity Game Changers Seminar topic: Regional Policies for Mitigating Risks Associated with AI-enabled Biodesign
🗣️ Moderated by Jon Arizti Sanz w/ panelists Rik Bleijs, Sarah Carter, & Suryesh Namdeo
Register here:
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
🗣️ Moderated by Jon Arizti Sanz w/ panelists Rik Bleijs, Sarah Carter, & Suryesh Namdeo
Register here:
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
August 21, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Join us 08/27 @ 11 AM ET for our next Biosecurity Game Changers Seminar topic: Regional Policies for Mitigating Risks Associated with AI-enabled Biodesign
🗣️ Moderated by Jon Arizti Sanz w/ panelists Rik Bleijs, Sarah Carter, & Suryesh Namdeo
Register here:
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
🗣️ Moderated by Jon Arizti Sanz w/ panelists Rik Bleijs, Sarah Carter, & Suryesh Namdeo
Register here:
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Really excited to have been a part of this study, lead by @willharv.bsky.social on how reassortment of H5N1 in birds has lead to a 'specialist' genotype that thrives in seabirds and drives summer/spring (rather than winter) waves of poultry outbreaks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Genetic reassortment and diversification of host specificity have driven evolutionary trajectories of lineages of panzootic H5N1 influenza
Since 2021, subclade 2.3.4.4b A(H5N1) high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses have undergone changes in ecology and epidemiology, causing a panzootic of unprecedented scale in wild and domes...
www.biorxiv.org
August 21, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Really excited to have been a part of this study, lead by @willharv.bsky.social on how reassortment of H5N1 in birds has lead to a 'specialist' genotype that thrives in seabirds and drives summer/spring (rather than winter) waves of poultry outbreaks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
“Gaza’s healthcare system is a broken shell, barely functioning…”
Dr Mughaisib shares with us the horror of being a medical doctor in Gaza, as he sees so many patients that could be treated if only proper treatment was available in the Strip:
Dr Mughaisib shares with us the horror of being a medical doctor in Gaza, as he sees so many patients that could be treated if only proper treatment was available in the Strip:
Medicine is being strangled in Gaza | MSF
Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib provides his testimony about the current state of the health system in Gaza, Palestine.
www.msf.org
August 14, 2025 at 2:15 PM
“Gaza’s healthcare system is a broken shell, barely functioning…”
Dr Mughaisib shares with us the horror of being a medical doctor in Gaza, as he sees so many patients that could be treated if only proper treatment was available in the Strip:
Dr Mughaisib shares with us the horror of being a medical doctor in Gaza, as he sees so many patients that could be treated if only proper treatment was available in the Strip:
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Just to give the TL;DR on this one:
*The* main purpose of the EO is to move funding priorities and decisions away from experts and career professionals over to political appointees. With the ultimate power held by Vought / OMB.
*The* main purpose of the EO is to move funding priorities and decisions away from experts and career professionals over to political appointees. With the ultimate power held by Vought / OMB.
This is literally some of the craziest shit I have ever read.
And that's saying a lot.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
And that's saying a lot.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal
www.whitehouse.gov
August 7, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Just to give the TL;DR on this one:
*The* main purpose of the EO is to move funding priorities and decisions away from experts and career professionals over to political appointees. With the ultimate power held by Vought / OMB.
*The* main purpose of the EO is to move funding priorities and decisions away from experts and career professionals over to political appointees. With the ultimate power held by Vought / OMB.
Reposted by Edyth Parker
📢New job posting!📢
Are you excited by the idea of building global infrastructure to make pathogen sequencing more accessible, interpretable, and equitable? 🧑🏻💻🧬
My group at @swisstph.ch has an opening working with ARTIC2, @pathoplexus.org, & Loculus - read on!
1/5
Are you excited by the idea of building global infrastructure to make pathogen sequencing more accessible, interpretable, and equitable? 🧑🏻💻🧬
My group at @swisstph.ch has an opening working with ARTIC2, @pathoplexus.org, & Loculus - read on!
1/5
July 25, 2025 at 10:44 AM
📢New job posting!📢
Are you excited by the idea of building global infrastructure to make pathogen sequencing more accessible, interpretable, and equitable? 🧑🏻💻🧬
My group at @swisstph.ch has an opening working with ARTIC2, @pathoplexus.org, & Loculus - read on!
1/5
Are you excited by the idea of building global infrastructure to make pathogen sequencing more accessible, interpretable, and equitable? 🧑🏻💻🧬
My group at @swisstph.ch has an opening working with ARTIC2, @pathoplexus.org, & Loculus - read on!
1/5
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Babies starving to death and hospital staff too weak to treat them. As a deliberate policy. What even is left to say at this point? www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Mass starvation stalks Gaza as deaths from hunger rise
Aid agencies warned for months that Israel’s harsh limits on food aid would bring acute malnutrition and widespread suffering to Gaza’s 2.1 million people.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 24, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Babies starving to death and hospital staff too weak to treat them. As a deliberate policy. What even is left to say at this point? www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Slow-motion denialism — our leaders are allowing the HIV response to collapse. South Africa is staging a sequel to Mbeki-era denialism, only this time the science, solutions and costs are clearer. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
Slow-motion denialism: SA’s leaders allowing HIV response to collapse
South Africa is staging a sequel to Mbeki-era denialism, only this time the science, solutions and costs are clearer.
www.dailymaverick.co.za
July 23, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Slow-motion denialism — our leaders are allowing the HIV response to collapse. South Africa is staging a sequel to Mbeki-era denialism, only this time the science, solutions and costs are clearer. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
Reposted by Edyth Parker
Nearly 800,000 mpox vaccine doses that the US gov had promised to donate to African countries experiencing an outbreak of the disease cannot be shipped because they’re expiring in less than six months.
US has wasted hundreds of thousands of vaccines meant for Africa, health officials there say
The expiration of shots the Biden administration promised to send comes after President Donald Trump cut deeply into foreign aid.
www.politico.com
July 17, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Nearly 800,000 mpox vaccine doses that the US gov had promised to donate to African countries experiencing an outbreak of the disease cannot be shipped because they’re expiring in less than six months.