Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 21h

The WHO has verified the elimination of both measles & rubella in all Pacific Island countries, alongside rubella elimination in Japan. The achievement follows 2 decades of coordinated immunisation campaigns, regional surveillance, and high routine vaccine coverage. buff.ly/EpFb7HK
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Rubella elimination verified in Japan, and measles and rubella elimination verified in Pacific island countries and areas

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that the 21 Pacific island countries and areas that are part of the WHO Western Pacific Region have collectively been verified as having eliminated…

buff.ly

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Kristen Olson @olsonkm.bsky.social · 12h

Survey costs drive almost every data collection decision, but are woefully understudied. @aapor.bsky.social, @amstatnews.bsky.social, and @westatofficial.bsky.social are cosponsoring this important workshop on Survey Costs in February 2026! Submit your abstract today!

aapor.org/aapor-2026-s...

2026 Survey Costs Workshop - AAPOR

aapor.org

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 18h

The thing that is most devastating to me about the ongoing evisceration of the public health infrastructure in the U.S right is how little awareness of what's going on the majority of people in the general public have and the impact this will have on their health and safety.

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Jess Bridgen @jessicabridgen.bsky.social · 3d

A PhD opportunity to work on real-time modelling and calibration methods with me and Chris Jewell at Lancaster University iddjobs.org/jobs/real-ti...

IDDjobs — Real-time Modelling for Infection Control. PhD in Mathematical AI. — Lancaster University

Find infectious disease dynamics modelling jobs, studentships, and fellowships.

iddjobs.org

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Good Trouble Indiana @goodtroubleindiana.org · 1d

Public health is infrastructure. And every $1 spent on prevention saves up to $5.60 in health costs. So why does Indiana underfund it? We need budgets that reflect care, not crisis.

#FundPublicHealth #INHealthEquity #GoodTrouble #HoosierSky

Every $1 spent on public health prevention saves up to $5.60 in Hoosier healthcare costs.

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 2d

Statisticians in my field have been trying to improve statistical literacy in earnest since the early 20th century. The @royalstatsoc.bsky.social has an entire section on teaching statistics. We have the tools. The knowledge simply isn't valued enough.

statsepi.substack.com/p/a-brief-hi...

A brief history of medical statistics and its impact on reproducibility.

You have to admit that medical research is a strange bird.

statsepi.substack.com

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Sara Conroy, PhD @episconroy.bsky.social · 1d

😳

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 2d

The editors of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) were apparently fired today.

The precursor to MMWR began in 1878 to address emerging public health threats rapidly.

We are not “great” without it. We are vulnerable to threats from sporadic foodborne illness to bioterrorism.

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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 2d

Remember that there are righteous people among us, always.

Left: Netherlands, 1942

Right: Illinois, 2025

One day in the summer of 1942, after the onset of the deportations of the Jews from Holland to “the East”, a student, who was a courier for the ASG student underground group in Amsterdam, approached the de Vries family, asking them to hide a Jewish child. The de Vrieses, who had two children of their own, decided to accept the offer despite the risk that was involved in hiding Jews, and soon four year-old Louise Pinto was brought to their home.

Amid the smoke bombs and screams that ricocheted throughout a South Shore building last month during a massive military-style immigration raid, one man heard a knock on his door.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.

“I wasn’t planning on letting her stay, but I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.

“I didn’t want them to take her,” said the man, who didn’t want to be named because he fears he’ll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.

“I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her, ‘Just stay there. Don’t open, don’t, shh, just stay quiet,’” he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Stephen Wild @stephenjwild.bsky.social · 2d

Biostats people: let's say you are writing a grant for an NIH-funded study circa 2000 or so. How long would the process take to write the grant, get funding, and start the project?

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Jordan Nafa @jordannafa.bsky.social · 2d

"You need to use a Mann-Whitney U Test here because the data is non-normal!"

My brother in Christ, I have no idea what that is but I most definitely do not need to use it to answer this question

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Elizabeth Lanphier @ethicselizabeth.bsky.social · 7d

Hello Ohio!

A few ways you can support public health & healthcare in Ohio right now with @defendpublichealth.bsky.social.

1. Help submit letters to Sen. Husted to tell him how he is hurting healthcare by filling out the form below.

2. Come to Columbus on October 15th to hand deliver letters

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Georgia Tomova @georgiatomova.bsky.social · 3d

Do you use mixed-mode survey data? And are you sure you know how to handle it?

Extra points if you like DAGs!

Register to attend our @royalstatsoc.bsky.social event on handling survey mode effects 👇

Richard Silverwood @rjsilverwood.bsky.social · 3d

We are organising a @royalstatsoc.bsky.social Social Statistics Section online event:

Handling survey mode effects

Wednesday 12 November 2025, 10.00AM - 12.10PM

Full info and booking: rss.org.uk/training-eve...

RSS Event: Handling survey mode effects

rss.org.uk

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Sara Conroy, PhD @episconroy.bsky.social · 3d

For real??? Because if this is real and you are looking for collaborators…

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Sara Conroy, PhD @episconroy.bsky.social · 3d

Is this because you keep letting people give you data in excel? 😂

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Sara Conroy, PhD @episconroy.bsky.social · 3d

Hey research peeps! What are your tips/tricks when writing your project abstract and project narrative for your grants? I have sources for how to… but looking for any specific rituals/hacks that work for you when you write.
#episky #grantwriting

a woman is sitting at a desk with her head down writing in a notebook

ALT: a woman is sitting at a desk with her head down writing in a notebook

media.tenor.com

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Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · 4d

New study in @thelancet.com

“After nearly 2 years of war and severe restrictions in humanitarian aid, tens of thousands of preschool-aged children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from preventable acute malnutrition and facing an increased risk of mortality”

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Assessment of malnutrition in preschool-aged children by mid-upper arm circumference in the Gaza Strip (January, 2024–August, 2025): a longitudinal, cross-sectional, surveillance study

After nearly 2 years of war and severe restrictions in humanitarian aid, tens of thousands of preschool-aged children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from preventable acute malnutrition and facing an ...

www.thelancet.com

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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.bsky.social · 5d

MY DEAR FRIEND WAWA GATHERU IS ON THE DAILY SHOW TONIGHT TALKING ABOUT CLIMATE AND RACIAL JUSTICE with @joshjohnsoncomedy.bsky.social and my heart is HAPPY.

I am so freaking proud of her. Wawa's an award winning founder of Black Girl Environmentalist. 😍 #blacksky

www.cc.com/fan-hub/the-...

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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 5d

Statistician, data scientist, epidemiologist

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Catherine Bulka @drcatherineb.bsky.social · 5d

In case anyone finds this helpful, I live in FL and was able to get my Covid shot at CVS today with no issues. The website made me state whether or not I a medical condition that put me at high risk so I checked yes (physical inactivity was listed and that sounds about right!). I wasn’t asked again.

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 7d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 9d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Aki Vehtari @avehtari.bsky.social · 7d

I'm looking for a doctoral student with Bayesian background to work on Bayesian workflow and cross-validation (see my publication list users.aalto.fi/~ave/publica... for my recent work) at Aalto University.

Apply through the ELLIS PhD program (dl October 31) ellis.eu/news/ellis-p...

ELLIS PhD Program: Call for Applications 2025

The ELLIS mission is to create a diverse European network that promotes research excellence and advances breakthroughs in AI, as well as a pan-European PhD program to educate the next generation of AI...

ellis.eu

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Amstat-American Statistical Association @amstatnews.bsky.social · 7d

Thank you to Stata, the October sponsor of ASA's "Practical Significance" #podcast! For 40+ years, Stata has supported researchers & analysts with powerful, reproducible statistical tools. Learn more about how Stata can power your work: www.stata.com/stata-differ... statacorp.bsky.social #STATSSKY

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AmyAlexCA @amyalexca.bsky.social · 7d

This is Buried waaaay deep in today’s @sfchronicle.com BUT I’m glad it received coverage: see this Fun look at an important economic/cultural/historic commemoration that took place yesterday in #OaklandCA. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

Black cowboys matter: Oakland parade and festival seek to preserve overlooked legacy

An Oakland parade and festival dating back a half-century serves as a reminder of the role of the Black cowboy in shaping the Old West.

www.sfchronicle.com

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Reposted by Sara Conroy, PhD

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 7d

"Deloitte Australia will issue a partial refund to the federal government after admitting that artificial intelligence had been used in the creation of a $440,000 report littered with errors including three nonexistent academic references and a made-up quote from a Federal Court judgement."

bianca wylie @biancawylie.com · 7d

“Deloitte was forced to investigate the report after University of Sydney academic Dr Christopher Rudge highlighted multiple errors in the document.”

www.afr.com/companies/pr...

Deloitte to refund government, admits using AI in $440k report

Deloitte will issue a partial refund to the government after admitting that artificial intelligence had been used in the creation of a report littered with errors.

www.afr.com

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