Heather McSharry, PhD
@pathogenscribe.bsky.social
1.1K followers 440 following 960 posts
Virologist turned science writer. She/her. Fighting science misinformation with a podcast/blog. Infectiousdose.com My views are my own & do not represent any organization
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Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
I am fascinated by how viruses evolve - and not just since #SARSCoV2 has shown us at the global stage how consequential virus evolution can be for us.
In my new story in @science.org I got to explore how researchers are probing deeper into the past with old RNA virus genome.
So a 🧪 thread…
On an Arctic archipelago, frozen soil may preserve a hidden history of viruses
Scientists are hunting for ancient RNA in Svalbard’s permafrost, hoping to shed light on the evolution of viral diseases
www.science.org
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
This week’s episode, The R@VN, reimagines Poe’s The Raven as a requiem for antivaxxers — a poetic haunting of misinformation that just won’t die.
🕯️ “And the system, softly clicking, watched my pulse wane, slow and ticking,”
🎧 Listen (if you dare): www.infectiousdose.com/post/the-raven
The R@VN: A Requiem for Antivaxxers
The R@VN: Requiem for the Antivaxxers — a dark reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, where a vaccine denier’s smart-home AI bears witness to his paralysis from polio. A gothic warning about sci...
www.infectiousdose.com
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
I cannot even imagine what it must be like to a physician in a rural, underserved area AND having to fight this off on a daily basis. Unbelievable.
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
I heard the initial story, but the story is advancing and getting quite interesting!
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
People continue to call COVID advocates’ pleas for masking “unreasonable”.

Yet people who’ve already been disabled by COVID have no choice but to live with the “unreasonable” burdens of constant COVID safety.

My latest:
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Beyond all reason
Long COVID patients are constantly harangued about our requests for COVID safety. Yet what we're asking for is far less than what we're called on to do to survive.
substack.com
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
Good people need to start outing their ICE family members, neighbors, and community members.

They need to be made into pariahs in the places decent Americans gather.
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
I can't get over how the CDC layoffs are coming less than two months after the attempted mass shooting. The agency is being taken apart brick by brick. The public servants there do not deserve this.
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
Reposted by Heather McSharry, PhD
5️⃣ Shift the blame later.
When outbreaks spread, they’ll say, “See? The CDC failed.”
It’s self-fulfilling. They broke the system, then point to the wreckage as proof it never worked.
👉 This is about control — of information, perception, and power.
end
4️⃣ Create space for privatization.
When public systems collapse, private companies step in. Testing, data tracking, even “health freedom” groups can profit from the chaos.
4/
3️⃣ Feed the ‘deep state’ narrative.
By gutting trusted institutions like the CDC, they can claim they’re “draining the swamp.” It’s political theater — and it sets the stage to rebuild those agencies with loyalists instead of scientists.
2️⃣ Remove the watchdogs.
The 70+ Epidemic Intelligence Service officers are the “disease detectives” who investigate outbreaks and make findings public. Getting rid of them stops the people who could contradict political messaging.
2/
Why gut the CDC? A thread.
There’s strategy here:
1️⃣ Silence the data.
Firing the CDC’s Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report team means no one’s left to publish national outbreak data. No data = no accountability. That lets leaders say whatever they want about “what’s really happening.”
1/
🚨 CALL TO ACTION!
CDC outbreak teams & the MMWR staff are gone.
States must step up.
📞 Call your governor:
“With CDC gutted, our state must strengthen outbreak tracking, protect vaccines & share real data.”
👉 Find your governor’s contact info: usa.gov/state-governor
usa.gov
Weekend watchlist 🔮👆👆
for #MonthOfTheMacabre week three coming up!
The films above aren’t just horror — they’re warnings.
Watch with me if you like your chills poetic, your science real, and your denial fatal.

#SickFlicks #TheRaven #InfectiousDose
🎞️ Vertigo (1958) — obsession that spirals into madness.
👻 The Others (2001) — denial so deep it becomes the afterlife.
Each mirrors Poe’s truth: grief, fixation, and the horror of what we refuse to see.
#SickFlicks #MonthOfTheMacabre #InfectiousDose
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElOU...
Vertigo
YouTube video by YouTube Movies
www.youtube.com
🦠 The Fly (1986) — science denied becomes flesh undone.
Hubris, infection, transformation — a slow horror you can’t reason away.
Available here:
archive.org/details/the-...
#SickFlick #TheFly #MonthOfTheMacabre #InfectiousDose
The Fly : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
The Fly
archive.org
🪶 Next week on #InfectiousDose:
A man mocks vaccines — until his smart home starts to whisper.
This week’s #SickFlick lineup: obsession, decay, and the long fall into madness 👇
#MonthOfTheMacabre #TheRaven
Can't live on US trauma alone.
It's time for a #PathogenPoll!
If fear is infectious, what's its R₀?
(R₀ = how many one “infected” person infects.)
🧍‍♂️ One R₀ < 1
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Whole village R₀ ≈ 3–5
🌍 Global R₀ ≈ 10+
🕯️ Infinite R₀ = ∞
🎧 infectiousdose.com/post/salem-1...
#MonthOfTheMacabre #InfectiousDose