Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mera L🪬 @mlicc1701.bsky.social · 6h

We all breathe a little easier after the CDC inspection report comes in fr

Mera L🪬 @mlicc1701.bsky.social · 6h

"select agent vial missing"
"mycoplasma PCR was positive"
"N gene control fluoresced"
"All offspring still heterozygotes"

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 17h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 18h

"The chancellor approved it"

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 1d

So now the Administration are saying that the mass firing of CDC scientists, including many responsible for preventing outbreaks, was an “error” and many will be brought back.

Whether by intention or incompetence, dismantling public health will kill people.

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🎃nisillos @onisillos.bsky.social · 1d

“If H5N1 does make the jump in the US, we will likely not know about it until it is already a pandemic.”

open.substack.com/pub/rasmusse...

The Death of Public Health

Another Friday night massacre, but this time it's not just an essential federal public health agency that will die

open.substack.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1d

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

an incontestable fact of the second trump administration is it is actively trying to sicken and kill as many americans as it can

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

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Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · 1d

Not enough news outlets are making it absolutely clear that last night’s RIFs are unlawful

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Mera L🪬 @mlicc1701.bsky.social · 1d

Just ordered some amazing merch to support the CDC mutual aid network!

Noam Ross @noamross.net · 1d

Decided to donate to the CDC mutual aid network to support laid-off and furloughed employees. They also have some *excellent* merch: www.cdcresourceportal.org

A candle with the words "Smells like Data Chaos" with a picture of a burning file cabinet.

A postcard with a "Fuck RFK" sign put up to cover a broken window, evoking the bullet-ridden windows from the CDC attack

A mug with the text "FAFO is not a good public health strategy."

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 1d

RIFed
Civilians in Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS)-CDC’s Disease Detectives

Read about this rigorous training program 👇
"They are not household names but over the years they were first to confront the outbreaks that became known as hantavirus, Ebola & AIDS."

This decision will haunt our future

Beating Back the Devil

Check out Beating Back the Devil - <B>The universal human instinct is to run from an outbreak of disease like Ebola. These doctors run toward it. Their job is to stop epidemics from happening.</B><BR>...

bookshop.org

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 1d

RIFed:

LLS - Laboratory Leadership Service

Y’know, another crucial hands-on and practical training program where fellows hone their laboratory expertise and skills.

Yet another blow for when the next novel disease outbreak comes…..

So fucking short sighted.

About The Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS)

LLS is a laboratory fellowship for health professionals to gain laboratory expertise and skills.

www.cdc.gov

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 1d

RIFed:

Several CDC staff currently working on an Ebola outbreak overseas.

You know — the ones literally helping contain and prevent it from spreading. (Like, to the U.S.)

Trust us: dying from Ebola is a MISERABLE way to die.

Ebola disease

WHO fact sheet on Ebola: key facts, definition, transmission, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, WHO response.

www.who.int

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

RIFs can’t be done without agency leadership so this is RFK Jr extending his purge of CDC scientists to help Vought’s shutdown agenda. Genuine public health risks created by aggrieved men.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

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:

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 1d

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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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 2d

5 things I’m watching closely in U.S. public health this fall/winter:

1. COVID & influenza trends
2. H5N1 spillover risk
3. Measles resurgence
4. Public Health workforce strain
5. Impacts of Medicaid unwinding and insurance premiums rising

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Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · 2d

Unknown layoffs are happening at HHS. Unknown in terms of who and which agencies.

www.statnews.com/2025/10/10/h...

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HHS employees to be fired as White House enacts mass terminations it blames on shutdown

Federal health employees are being fired as the White House makes good on a promise to terminate federal employees en masse because of the shutdown.

www.statnews.com

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Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 3d

“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

Soren Larsen (SEGL) @sorenlarsen.bsky.social · 3d

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

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Mera L🪬 @mlicc1701.bsky.social · 3d

How tf did they manage to make this *more* confusing??

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Rock Lab @rocklabtb.bsky.social · 4d

Ditto. Thanks for this Sarah. www.statnews.com/2025/10/06/g...

The NIH ordered me to stop my ‘dangerous’ gain-of-function research. It isn’t dangerous at all

Safe gain-of-function research is necessary to identify new treatments for diseases like for tuberculosis — but the NIH has imposed unfounded stops.

www.statnews.com

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Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 6d

Also, the "experts of ACIP" is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my professional life; almost all are utter kooks, extreme anti-vaxx activists, or vaccine skeptics with no expertise at all in vaccines, infectious disease epidemiology or immunology (www.science.org/content/arti...)

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Ed Belongia MD @belongia.bsky.social · 7d

CDC is being run by politicians now.

"there are few experienced leaders left at the CDC; some 80% of..center leaders were laid off or terminated, or have [left]. Houry was the only permanent career official in CDC's office of the director... there were 10 political appointees remaining, she said."

🎃 public HELLth guy 🎃 @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 7d

a respected senior CDC official telling the public that the federal agency has undergone a hostile takeover and it barely makes the news because that’s the state of the world today

Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · 7d

This is another damning picture of Kennedy refusing to meet with senior scientists and get advice about infections or vaccines whilst he spreads disinformation #healthpolicy

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🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 7d

Like...this is the biggest corruption scandal the NIH has experienced in its entire history and its not even close. Half of a BILLION dollars to a single project as a result of political spoils. That's the equivalent of several hundred R01s.

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Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 7d

MAGA hero Jay Bhattacharya says that “political priorities may override the scoring system provided by outside experts appointed to hundreds of review panels”

This is absolutely disgusting & utterly scandalous. If your study doesn’t fit with Trump & Bhattacharya’s right wing ideology, it’s toast 👀

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 7d

Even though it's crisis #192308 in our current time, I don't think it's sufficiently sunk in with ppl in the academic community that getting federal funding for your research will primarily depend on whether Trump political appointees find you and your work useful
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News

The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

kffhealthnews.org

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Mera L🪬 @mlicc1701.bsky.social · 11d

That is straight up just not true on multiple counts, starting with the "majority" support.

Mera L🪬 @mlicc1701.bsky.social · 11d

of ideas and interpretations on which we all agree. (Notably, those are in direct conflict with the Likud government's genocide.)

Mera L🪬 @mlicc1701.bsky.social · 11d

different people over several centuries with different interpretations of the same text. Plenty of scholars have looked at the same text and gotten radically different interpretations (ex: Hillel and Shammai). There's an old joke about "two Jews, three opinions." There is a very small core 2/

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