Sarah Cobey
@cobey.bsky.social
Professor at U. Chicago. Computational epidemiology, evolution, influenza, SARS-CoV-2, vaccines, and B cells. Infectious disease dynamics across scales.
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
November 13, 2025 at 10:31 PM
A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
It was surreal to be quizzed on “freedom of inquiry” and other values in my mandated U. Chicago/NIH/NSF research security training tonight given the restrictions to our research over the past eight months. Jeremy describes the experience perfectly below. (His piece is outstanding.)
October 7, 2025 at 1:47 AM
It was surreal to be quizzed on “freedom of inquiry” and other values in my mandated U. Chicago/NIH/NSF research security training tonight given the restrictions to our research over the past eight months. Jeremy describes the experience perfectly below. (His piece is outstanding.)
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404
October 4, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Immigrants, particularly on H1Bs, are the lifeblood of American innovation. If you wanted to hurt US competitiveness in the next century, I can think of few more effective ways than a move like this
Even when found illegal, the mere intent will have irreparably harmed our future
Even when found illegal, the mere intent will have irreparably harmed our future
September 20, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Immigrants, particularly on H1Bs, are the lifeblood of American innovation. If you wanted to hurt US competitiveness in the next century, I can think of few more effective ways than a move like this
Even when found illegal, the mere intent will have irreparably harmed our future
Even when found illegal, the mere intent will have irreparably harmed our future
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
But it does not *want* to do that. It has the personality and confidence of a 10x coder, and *absolutely lies to your face* to maintain the illusion.
It races to establish huge frameworks, call up parallel agents, and build you something that gives an output.
It races to establish huge frameworks, call up parallel agents, and build you something that gives an output.
August 12, 2025 at 12:47 PM
But it does not *want* to do that. It has the personality and confidence of a 10x coder, and *absolutely lies to your face* to maintain the illusion.
It races to establish huge frameworks, call up parallel agents, and build you something that gives an output.
It races to establish huge frameworks, call up parallel agents, and build you something that gives an output.
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
NEW: I just observed two interesting data deletions from the CDC's website. Both having to do with vaccine surveillance in children. There's nothing about these datasets that would have tripped any "gender" flags.
You can still download them from our site: www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...
You can still download them from our site: www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...
July 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
NEW: I just observed two interesting data deletions from the CDC's website. Both having to do with vaccine surveillance in children. There's nothing about these datasets that would have tripped any "gender" flags.
You can still download them from our site: www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...
You can still download them from our site: www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Just few days left to apply to one of these postdoc positions in my infectious disease modelling Unit at @pasteur.fr in Paris!
New postdoc positions with a number of exciting epidemic modelling projects opening in our Unit at @pasteur.fr in beautiful Paris. Deadline for applications: 26th June.
research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...
research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...
Postdoctoral positions in epidemic mathematical/statistical modelling - Research
Job description We are recruiting postdocs to contribute to research projects in the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases Unit, at Institut Pasteur in Paris. The candidates will be expected t...
research.pasteur.fr
June 23, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Just few days left to apply to one of these postdoc positions in my infectious disease modelling Unit at @pasteur.fr in Paris!
Sang Woo (Daniel) Park and I are excited to share a new preprint, "Susceptible host dynamics explain pathogen resilience to perturbations" [1/8]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 23, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Sang Woo (Daniel) Park and I are excited to share a new preprint, "Susceptible host dynamics explain pathogen resilience to perturbations" [1/8]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
🧪 You can sign a supporting letter in solidarity with the NIH scientists here:
www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...
www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...
June 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
🧪 You can sign a supporting letter in solidarity with the NIH scientists here:
www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...
www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
More of this, please: a class action lawsuit by UC Berkeley researchers to restore illegally cut federal grants. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
UC Berkeley researchers team up for first-of-its-kind lawsuit over Trump funding cuts
University of California staff members hope to use a class action lawsuit to restore their research funding.
www.nbcnews.com
June 7, 2025 at 11:37 AM
More of this, please: a class action lawsuit by UC Berkeley researchers to restore illegally cut federal grants. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
How bad will it be? Catastrophic.
Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.
But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.
Speak up now before it is too late.
(inflation adjusted $-s below)
Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.
But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.
Speak up now before it is too late.
(inflation adjusted $-s below)
May 31, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
A not very happy Friday. CERI had 6 NIH grants canceled, which will impact operations, surveillance and response to epidemics. We are working to try to minimize disturbance but not easy with 6 grants terminated at the same moment. A crisis is unfolding in SA www.news24.com/southafrica/...
SA universities face funding crisis as US federal agencies freeze research grants | News24
An investigation into the impact of the US aid freeze on research funding to South African universities has found that 44 programmes worth R2.5 billion were affected.
www.news24.com
May 23, 2025 at 5:29 AM
A not very happy Friday. CERI had 6 NIH grants canceled, which will impact operations, surveillance and response to epidemics. We are working to try to minimize disturbance but not easy with 6 grants terminated at the same moment. A crisis is unfolding in SA www.news24.com/southafrica/...
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
I was working on a proposal in response to one of these calls. Submission deadline next week. The proposal was 95% done, and I only learned about the cancellation from this post. 🤷♂️
NIH moved up the expiration date for some funding opportunities, effectively *canceling* the next application date without removing it from the standard table. I can't even imagine how many people are still prepping these grants.
👀 List of impacted opportunities:
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
👀 List of impacted opportunities:
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
May 20, 2025 at 11:12 PM
I was working on a proposal in response to one of these calls. Submission deadline next week. The proposal was 95% done, and I only learned about the cancellation from this post. 🤷♂️
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Yes, that’s exactly what they are doing. They are trying to hurt Harvard by destroying my research
May 15, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Yes, that’s exactly what they are doing. They are trying to hurt Harvard by destroying my research
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Things are going from bad to worse at NSF; www.science.org/content/arti...
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
www.science.org
May 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Things are going from bad to worse at NSF; www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
But it seems disingenuous to bluntly and severely penalise researchers (and with zero advance notice) for focusing on issues that you’ve built your own career on.
May 6, 2025 at 8:58 AM
But it seems disingenuous to bluntly and severely penalise researchers (and with zero advance notice) for focusing on issues that you’ve built your own career on.
This is disastrous for many scientific fields and labs.
Translation: any projects that are pending w/foreign collaborators are now held in limbo.
May 2, 2025 at 1:57 AM
This is disastrous for many scientific fields and labs.
I received a surprising and disturbing request from NIH on Friday. They wrote to cancel a subaward to Hong Kong on one of my grants. (This was disturbing but not surprising.) They also ordered us not to interact with our collaborators in Hong Kong on any work under the award:
April 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
I received a surprising and disturbing request from NIH on Friday. They wrote to cancel a subaward to Hong Kong on one of my grants. (This was disturbing but not surprising.) They also ordered us not to interact with our collaborators in Hong Kong on any work under the award:
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Really excited to be a part of this study and see it published today!
Efficacy of Baloxavir Treatment in Preventing Transmission of Influenza | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Efficacy of Baloxavir Treatment in Preventing Transmission of Influenza | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Efficacy of Baloxavir Treatment in Preventing Transmission of Influenza | NEJM
Baloxavir marboxil (baloxavir) rapidly reduces influenza virus shedding, which suggests that it may reduce transmission. Studies of treatment with neuraminidase inhibitors have not shown sufficient...
www.nejm.org
April 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Really excited to be a part of this study and see it published today!
Efficacy of Baloxavir Treatment in Preventing Transmission of Influenza | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Efficacy of Baloxavir Treatment in Preventing Transmission of Influenza | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Per source, NIH has been instructed to hold off from issuing ALL awards to Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Northwestern (including med schools)
Agency staff have also been instructed to not speak about this funding freeze to grantees and applicants
Agency staff have also been instructed to not speak about this funding freeze to grantees and applicants
April 18, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Per source, NIH has been instructed to hold off from issuing ALL awards to Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Northwestern (including med schools)
Agency staff have also been instructed to not speak about this funding freeze to grantees and applicants
Agency staff have also been instructed to not speak about this funding freeze to grantees and applicants
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
We’re in the bad place
April 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
We’re in the bad place
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Specifically, I experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction.
April 16, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Specifically, I experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction.
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
This is horrible and maybe now academics in the global north who have always traveled freely without the added worry of visa and immigration concerns will have some empathy for academics from the global South for whom this is actually the norm i.e. harassment at borders and visa denials.
I just attended a conference in the US. We had one speaker detained and two others turned away at the border.
There are great conferences and science in the US, but with the way things are right now, it’s too risky to attend.
April 14, 2025 at 11:51 AM
This is horrible and maybe now academics in the global north who have always traveled freely without the added worry of visa and immigration concerns will have some empathy for academics from the global South for whom this is actually the norm i.e. harassment at borders and visa denials.
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
Exclusive: Kathleen Neuzil, an infectious disease and vaccine specialist who was head of the Fogarty International Center, received an e-mail notice today from the Department of Health and Human Services that immediately put her on administrative leave.
Chief of NIH’s international center is latest director to lose job under Trump
Kathleen Neuzil had led the Fogarty International Center for less than 1 year
scim.ag
April 11, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Exclusive: Kathleen Neuzil, an infectious disease and vaccine specialist who was head of the Fogarty International Center, received an e-mail notice today from the Department of Health and Human Services that immediately put her on administrative leave.
Reposted by Sarah Cobey
An important point getting overlooked:
When NIH cancels "diversity" grants (e.g., diversity supplements, Fs, Ks, etc), they aren't canceling the grants based on *what* the grant studies.
They're cancelling them based on *who* is doing the research. And that disallowed "who" is anyone not white.
When NIH cancels "diversity" grants (e.g., diversity supplements, Fs, Ks, etc), they aren't canceling the grants based on *what* the grant studies.
They're cancelling them based on *who* is doing the research. And that disallowed "who" is anyone not white.
April 4, 2025 at 1:24 PM
An important point getting overlooked:
When NIH cancels "diversity" grants (e.g., diversity supplements, Fs, Ks, etc), they aren't canceling the grants based on *what* the grant studies.
They're cancelling them based on *who* is doing the research. And that disallowed "who" is anyone not white.
When NIH cancels "diversity" grants (e.g., diversity supplements, Fs, Ks, etc), they aren't canceling the grants based on *what* the grant studies.
They're cancelling them based on *who* is doing the research. And that disallowed "who" is anyone not white.