Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
@pvanheus.bsky.social
1.3K followers 650 following 560 posts
#bioinformatics at @SANBI_SA, building bioinformatics workflows for (Pan-)African PH. health & justice! married. @[email protected]
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Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
diplomatofnight.com
Greta Thunberg: “Israeli soldiers hit, kicked, starved, and tortured me”

• They placed a flag next to me, and anytime the flag touched me, they kicked me
• Whenever I raised my head to look at Ben-Gvir, I was kicked
• She was filmed while stripped naked

Aftonbladet: tinyurl.com/a33vxatc
Aftonbladet
pvanheus.bsky.social
And despite the sterling work @olivia.science @timnitgebru.bsky.social and many others have done on critical AI materials, responding to this thing is *yet more* unpaid academic labour drawn from a vanishingly small time budget!
pvanheus.bsky.social
Is this EDS-HAT thing of yours facility specific? Reasons I've heard for not doing similar have included shortages of bioinformaticians, difficulty interpreting results, difficulty building data to action pathways. Can be overcome but how did you do it?
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
benlangmead.bsky.social
New tool "bwt-svg" for making illustrations of the BWT and the many auxiliary arrays and other structures related to it. Pyodide-based no-installation-necessary interface here: benlangmead.github.io/bwt-svg/. (H/t to @robert.bio for pointing me to pyodide!) Full repo: github.com/benlangmead/....
Illustration of Burrows-Wheeler Transform and many auxiliary structures from the input string how$now$brown$cow$#
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
saskiapopescu.bsky.social
Maldives becomes the first country to achieve ‘triple elimination’ of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B

hq_who_departmentofcommunications.cmail19.com/t/d-e-gwgjl-...
pvanheus.bsky.social
100%! And for those making out this is some kind of moral failing of Sudanese or other Africans... just nope. No. Not going there.
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
wagatwe.com
my biggest beef with bluesky is that I get way more updates on what Curtis Yarvin or Peter Thiel than anything on the African continent
okwonga.bsky.social
What the Twitter takeover did so effectively was fracture the way we get our news. If, for example, I want to get in-depth updates on Sudan I still check in with Twitter as that's where a lot of the biggest accounts are. There's no one-stop shop anymore.
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
kendrawrites.com
For some context the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report in addition to being just a good read, to quote wikipedia, "is the main vehicle for publishing public health information and recommendations that have been received by the CDC from state health departments. "
sherylnyt.bsky.social
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
jeremymberg.bsky.social
My quote of the day

Nobody ever thanks you for saving them from the disease they didn't know they were going to get.

William Foege
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
rygraham.bsky.social
Last month Trump said he wanted proof that COVID vaccines are effective. Yesterday, during his "semiannual" physical, Trump received a COVID vaccine as well as a flu shot.

That's because vaccines — which Trump's administration have made harder to get — work.
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
boghuma.bsky.social
Standing in solidarity with colleagues at the CDC who were fired as part of yet another RIF wave.
We are all less safe without their expertise and dedication.
sherylnyt.bsky.social
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
belongia.bsky.social
CDC has been a global leader in public health & played a key role in smallpox eradication. Health depts in red states & blue states rely on CDC expertise & support. The CDC EIS program trains the next generation of public health leaders & disease detectives.

They are burning it to the ground.
JAMA Health Forum Oct 9, 2025 by LO Gostin and P Lurie.
Abstract
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has long served as the cornerstone of the US
public health system, combining technical expertise, evidence-based policy recommendations, and high-quality health information. Yet, it is undergoing profound weakening by the Trump administration, including major funding cuts, the dismissal and resignation of experienced senior staff, and the erosion of its scientific independence. With tightening political control, public trust in
the CDC is diminishing. Undermining the agency’s reputation and capacities will reverberate for generations, making the nation less prepared for future health emergencies, including diseases of
pandemic potential. At this perilous moment, we document the current assault on the CDC that will inevitably have serious repercussion
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials
“Disease detectives,” high-ranking scientists, the entire Washington office and the staff of a weekly public health journal were among those who learned late Friday that they would lose their jobs.
#GiftLink

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...
Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
amymaxmen.bsky.social
🧵RFK "HIV-doesn't-cause-AIDS" Jr. is now linking circumcision with autism.

This nonsense was posted by his anti-vax group Children's Health Defense years ago, and I looked into it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS9D...
SHOCK CLAIM: RFK Jr. Says Children Circumcised Early Have Twice The Autism Rate Due To Tylenol Use
YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
gavinyamey.bsky.social
“A study, published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that last season’s 2024–2025 mRNA COVID vaccines reduced people’s risk of emergency department visits by 29%, their risk of hospitalizations by 39% & their risk of death by 64%”

Benefits were seen even if 0 risk factors
sorenlarsen.bsky.social
Annual COVID Vaccines Protect People against Severe Disease, Even with Prior Immunity

"The new research also “calls into question the idea that younger individuals and those without risk factors don’t need the vaccine,” Viswanathan says."
Annual COVID Vaccines Save Lives, New Study Shows
A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination
www.scientificamerican.com
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
disabilitystor1.bsky.social
"consuming AI art is like eating styrofoam"

The always brilliant The Oatmeal on the emptiness and sadness of AI art

theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
A screenshot of the Oatmeal comic, featuring a colorful meal on a plate with emojis around it, the text reads: "Someone once told me that art is like emotional nutriton. That made sense to me. Art feeds my feelings (accompanied by a smiley face and sad face emoji). And if thats the case, consuming AI art is like eating styrofoam"
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
nanjala.bsky.social
I’ve known both David Adler and Zukiswa Wanner for many years and I’m truly saddened to receive news of their unjust detention in Israel. Both of them sailed with the Global Sumud Flotilla to demand an end to the blockade on Gaza and are being unjustly detained with no contact for four days.
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
autisticbook.bsky.social
An RFK jr. Antivax cottage industry by the pathological homeopathic quacks. Parents tell the guy which vaccine they gave the child.The guy will formulates a detox based on the info 250.00 a treatment.
This is not medicine or truth.
Austistic kids dont need to be detoxed.
Vaccines are safe.
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
thirugeneva.bsky.social
43 years ago on 5 Oct 1982, the New York Times published this piece on this fun piece on WIPO negotiations: "An international patent conference opened today that pits the Reagan Administration against the third world and some Western allies." @profseanflynn.bsky.social @roneilll.bsky.social
U.S. AND THE THIRD WORLD AT ODDS OVER PATENTS (Published 1982)
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
jannisgrimm.bsky.social
Criticism of biased media coverage of Gaza is often discarded as baseless..

so we set out to study the coverage of Palestinian and Israeli victims by German press systematically!

The resulting study 'Hierarchies in Death' was just published #OA by Peacebuilding www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
galaxyproject.bsky.social
On Day 1 of European Galaxy Days, Mina Hojat Ansari presented FAIRYMAGS: A Galaxy Workflow for MAG Recovery Applied to Termite Microbiomes.
Read more: https://elixir-europe.org/how-we-work/scientific-programme/commissioned-services/science/bfsp/fairymags

##termite ##EGD2025 ##microbiomes (1/2)
FAIRYMAGS: A Galaxy Workflow for MAG Recovery Applied to Termite Microbiomes
Reposted by Peter van Heusden (he/him) 🗿
rahaeli.bsky.social
Hey remember when the CDC dropped 6 of the 8 foodborne illnesses from the nationwide monitoring system in July and one of them was listeria? Mentioning for no particular reason www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
pvanheus.bsky.social
I feel like they add this kind of stuff because they think the devastating impact on people in Kenya isn't enough to get their readers interested. I hope they underestimate their readers.