Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · 19h

John talks about the route of exposure with ingestion leading to high viral counts, and an inverse of this has been the possible low viral load when people have gotten eye-based infections. I think that could also contribute to the lower mortality seen in the US

Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · 19h

Why has H5N1 not been as deadly as we were expecting so far? Really liked this summary of the evidence and possible explanations by @jdrakephd.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Understanding avian influenza mortality

Three theories could explain why the North American H5N1 epidemic has not been more deadly

www.science.org

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 6d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Nathan Lo @nathanlo.bsky.social · 15d

What is the impact of the HHS decision to no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy? In our new research letter in @jamapediatrics.com, we provide estimates on the number of infant hospitalizations under different vaccine scenarios here. @mathewkiang.com, @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social

Modeling the Health Impact of Discontinuing COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy in the US

This decision analytical model study estimates the number of avertable COVID-19 hospitalizations in US infants younger than 6 months and pregnant persons with vaccinations during pregnancy.

jamanetwork.com

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · 19d

An example from our now-defunct COVID-19 forecast dashboard: covid-19.tacc.utexas.edu/dashboards/t...

Texas Dashboard

covid-19.tacc.utexas.edu

Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · 19d

Was excited to see an explanation for spaghetti models for hurricane forecasts. We use these for infectious disease forecasting too! weather.com/science/weat...

How to Read Spaghetti Models During Hurricane Season | Weather.com

Understanding this delicious-sounding term will help you this hurricane season.

weather.com

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Claus Wilke @clauswilke.com · 19d

No university will pay $100k for an H-1B visa. These visas are primarily used for postdocs, and nobody can justify paying an extra $100k for that type of position. That's an entire additional year of postdoc funding. 1/2

The Xylom @thexylom.com · 20d

EXCLUSIVE: A new analysis by The Xylom's @alexip718.com shows for the first time just how much America’s top research institutions have grown to depend on H-1B skilled workers — and how this delicate balance might be disrupted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal immigration.

The Most Detailed Maps of H-1B Visa Holders Joining America's Top Research Institutions

A new analysis by The Xylom shows for the first time just how much America’s top research institutions have grown to depend on the specialized knowledge of H-1B skilled workers — and how this…

www.thexylom.com

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Mark D. Levine @marklevinenyc.bsky.social · Aug 5

The Legionnaire's Disease cluster in Central Harlem has now grown to 58 cases. 21 hospitalized.

Tragically there has been a 2nd death.

If you live or work in zip codes 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037 or 10039 and you develop flu-like symptoms, contact a health care provider immediately.

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · Jul 31

From Senator @murray.senate.gov: the Senate's proposed NIH budget would reject 40% cuts, increase funding by $400M.

"We're not going to give up the fight against cancer, Alzheimer's or rare diseases."

Message to scientists: "we support you. We need you to stay here & keep this research going."

Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · Jul 31

Deep cuts to NIH proposed by the White House could cause economic losses of over $1B in 13 states: California, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas,
Washington, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and New Jersey.
scienceimpacts.org/fy26

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · Jul 31

“The Legionnaires' disease cluster is in Central Harlem. According to NYC Health, the following zip codes are affected:

10027
10030
10035
10037
10039

People who live or work around these ZIP codes and develop flu-like symptoms should see a health care provider right away, the agency said.”

1 dead, multiple people sickened in Legionnaires' disease cluster in New York City

New York City officials said they are investigating a cluster of Legionnaires' disease that has caused one death and nearly two dozen illnesses.

www.usatoday.com

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 30

Wow! I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen more of this unfortunately… hoping federal funding stabilizes soon 🤞

Seth Edmunds @phealthy.bsky.social · Jul 30

That sucks

www.michigandaily.com/news/news-br...

UMich cancels doctoral epidemiology program admissions for 2026

The University of Michigan School of Public Health will not admit a 2025-2026 admissions cycle cohort to its PhD in Epidemiologic Sciences program.

www.michigandaily.com

Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 30

I will be part of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS) and the center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER) there and will soon post announcements for postdoc and graduate student positions. Feel free to reach out to me beforehand if you’re interested!

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 30

I announced it at SISMID so now to make it official. In August the Fox lab will be moving to NAU in Flagstaff AZ. I am so sad to leave all my wonderful UGA colleagues, but am excited to settle permanently in the Southwest near these mountains and the desert.

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 30

Thank you to the authors for such a nice contribution to the field and giving me an easy thing to cite when these issues crop up 🙏 🙏 🙏

Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 30

I think it has large implications for seasonal diseases like flu, covid, and RSV. Since initial susceptibility is so hard to pin down and reporting rates change every season, it means we need auxiliary data sets (e.g. serological data) at the beginning of the season to make predictions.

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 30

To get around this problem in practice we typically assume that everyone in the population is susceptible or fix the reporting rate at some reasonable value, but this paper is a reminder that those decisions wholly determine the parameters we estimate, so we need to be very careful

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 30

Been thinking about this preprint a lot the past couple of weeks: arxiv.org/abs/2506.07825

It says that for an outbreak you cannot estimate a transmission rate, initial susceptibility pool, and reporting rate together. This makes sense intuitively but it’s nice to have the proof

Identifiability in epidemic models with prior immunity and under-reporting

Identifiability is the property in mathematical modelling that determines if model parameters can be uniquely estimated from data. For infectious disease models, failure to ensure identifiability can ...

arxiv.org

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 22

This will be Qianying and my second time teaching the course and we have a bunch of updated and new material for everyone

Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 22

Enjoyed wildflower season in the mountains this weekend and now I’m on my way to teach Simulation-based inference of epidemiological dynamics at SISMID! See y’all in Atlanta soon!

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 1

This is so cool to play with!

Sam Abbott @seabbs.bsky.social · Jul 1

The new support for claude with artefacts let me take a grant app rest day to try and create my dream .... customised chat interfaces to package docs (yes I am very fun).

claude.ai/public/artif...

rough around the edges but pretty insanely trendy

Primary Censored Learning Assistant | Claude

Primary Censored Learning Assistant - interactive HTML page created with Claude.

claude.ai

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jul 1

Great way to stay in touch with all of the amazing infectious disease modeling work happening these days:

Simon Cauchemez @scauchemez.bsky.social · Jul 1

Infectious Disease Modelling starter pack update! Many more modellers have joined Bluesky recently so this update is overdue. Pls keep on sending suggestions! (bio should contain experience relevant for this pack)
IDModelling pack 1: go.bsky.app/86Ao1a5
IDModelling pack 2 : go.bsky.app/2oBB7KX

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Ferric Fang, MD @fangferric.bsky.social · Jun 23

"The money the government sends to Harvard is not a subsidy to advance the university's mission. It's a payment for the role Harvard plays in advancing the research mission of the U.S."

"This is larger than any individual grant. What we are losing is a future."

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Here Is All the Science at Risk in Trump’s Clash With Harvard (Gift Article)

More than 900 research grants worth $2.6 billion are in jeopardy. So is the 80-year-old model of American science.

www.nytimes.com

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Spencer J Fox @foxandtheflu.bsky.social · Jun 20

Thank you to Adam for summarizing all of these thoughts so succinctly! Go give this a read to learn about what we knew and now know about controlling pandemics

Adam Kucharski @adamjkucharski.bsky.social · Jun 19

New piece on why it’s unhelpful to characterise COVID debate as ‘lockdowns are bad’ vs ‘lockdowns are good’ when it was really about people who claimed that COVID was 100x less fatal than it was + optimal to have a massive epidemic immediately before vaccine… vs those who sense checked these claims.

Restrictions had unequal impacts, but the pandemic itself did too. - Boston Review

Adam Kucharski responds to Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee.

www.bostonreview.net

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Jeremy BOO! Yoder 🎃💀🕷️ @jbyoder.org · Jun 17

The proposed sell-off of federal lands in the Senate budget bill includes a LOT of Joshua tree habitat—the trees grow in some of the largest areas of undeveloped land in the lower 48 states

The place where eastern and western Joshua trees hybridize, north of Creech AFB, is included

buff.ly/5GlLXMA

A map of Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service proposed for sale, covering a lot of southern Nevada, southeastern California, and western Arizona

A map of Joshua tree habitat determined from satellite imagery, covering southern Nevada, southeastern California, and western Arizona

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Reposted by Spencer J Fox

Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · Jun 11

NEW from @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social:

The Trump administration has reversed the firings of hundreds of staffers at the CDC, including those who work in divisions that handle cruise ship safety, STI prevention, and global health.
🩺
www.statnews.com/2025/06/11/h...

HHS reverses hundreds of CDC firings

The Trump administration has reversed the firings of hundreds of staffers at the CDC.

www.statnews.com

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