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Joshua Weitz

@joshuasweitz.bsky.social

9.5K followers 2.7K following 1.7K posts

Professor of Biology & Institute for Health Computing, U of Maryland; explores how viruses impact human and environmental health; 'Asymptomatic' (JHU Press, 10/2024) & 'Quantitative Biosciences' (Princeton U Press, 3/2024) & 'Science Matters' substack. .. more

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Joshua S. Weitz is an American biologist. He is both a professor of biology and the Clark Leadership Chair in Data Analytics at the University of Maryland. Previously, he was a professor at Georgia Tech, where he was the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences. In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. .. more

Biology 28%

Environmental science 26%

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 15d

New from #SCIMaP - analysis of the White House’s Proposed FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget.

Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide.

Report: osf.io/e8rnc

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Economic loss from the White House's NSF FY 2026 Proposed Budget

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 9h

This approach has been bubbling for months, co-opting the language of science without its methods so as to do whatever it takes to construct the evidence (aka 'make the proof') in the service of preferred narratives.

This way is the path of junk, loss, waste, and danger.

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 9h

Back on Feb 15...

"In the end, the search for supposed ‘root causes’ may precipitate a vast, costly, and misguided effort that undermines evidence-based interventions... It is time to change paths – now – and restore actual expertise and experts in HHS."

joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/grant-appl...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 16h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Reposted by Michael E. Mann, Joshua S. Weitz

Reposted by Joshua S. Weitz

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 16h

Not All Wars Are What They Seem: The False Promise of "The War on Science" | Great #Substack piece by @joshuasweitz.bsky.social contrasts this deceptively similarly-sounding diatribe with my own new book #ScienceUnderSiege w/ @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social: joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/not-all-wa...

Not All Wars Are What They Seem: The False Promise of "The War on Science"

Reviewing the misguided premise connecting a volume of essays edited by Lawrence Krauss that views the singular threat to science as stemming from forces on the left.

joshuasweitz.substack.com

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 16h

This is quite literally, anti-science.

It is what happens when ideologues fit the data to the narrative and not the other way around. With these leaders in charge, HHS will generate junk discoveries, junk findings, and ultimately, junk cures.

Americans must turn elsewhere for guidance.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 16h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 16h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 20h

Yes. The post has links to press coverage of donations received while Krauss was at ASU.

Reposted by Ryan Enos

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 20h

"American civil society has more than enough financial and organizational muscle to stop this authoritarian offensive. But it requires collective resolve... Harvard has shown resolve. Now it’s time to lead."

via @ryanenos.bsky.social & @stevelevitsky.bsky.social

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Harvard Must Take a Stand Against Trump's Compact

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/10/9/enos-levitsky-harvard-trump-compact/

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Reposted by Jesse M. Shapiro

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 21h

Meanwhile in Canada, there have been more reported measles cases in Alberta (cases: 1,923; population: ~5M) than reported in all of the US this year (cases: 1,563, population: ~340M).

Consequence: "The Americas region is at risk of losing its measles-free status..."

globalnews.ca/news/1146683...

Measles, Canada... 1,923 cases total

https://www.alberta.ca/measles

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

For those following along, writers include Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson, Gad Saad, Jerry Coyne, Amy Wax, Peter Boghossian, Steven Pinker, Jordan Peterson & 20+ more via Post Hill Press.

posthillpress.com/book/the-war...

The War on Science: Thirty-Nine Renowned Scientists and Scholars Speak Out About Current Threats to Free Speech, Open Inquiry, and the Scientific Process

posthillpress.com

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

Reading through, I began to wonder whether the title was a hidden signal that this book was actually part of the war, with essayists carefully chosen to wage a battle against science, scientists, and institutions in need of a comeuppance...

More via:
joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/not-all-wa...

The War on Science by Lawrence Krauss
substack review at https://joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/not-all-wars-are-what-they-seem-the

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

New post at Science Matters, reviewing "The War on Science" a collection of 30+ essays that views the war as having a single source - the left - while neglecting to reckon with longstanding (and accelerating) corporate and political threats from the right.

joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/not-all-wa...

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

I think there is space for so much more of this at all scales & local communities AND this is going to be damn good.

Reposted by Megan L. Ranney

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

Documenting what has been lost... and what still could be found with a renewed commitment to science in America.

👇

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

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 Meredith Broussard, Lisa W. Fazio, James Q. Wilson , and 38 more Meredith Broussard, Lisa W. Fazio, James Q. Wilson, Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Dorothy Bishop, Anna Nagurney, Brigitte Nerlich, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Gavin A. Schmidt, Jesse H. Kroll, Julie L. Lockwood, Patrick A. Jansen, Joshua S. Weitz, Nicole Dubilier, Jason Stajich, Simon J. Greenhill, Michael A. Clemens, Hugo Mercier, Megan L. Ranney, Rosemary A. Joyce, Philip N. Cohen, Michael J. Allen, Andrew Curry, Jacob Montgomery, Juan Cole, Kris Inwood, Smith, Robert C. Richards, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Victor Galaz, Scott A. Imberman, Sebastian Karcher, Brian Keegan, Ann Bartow, Jack Stilgoe, Ted Temzelides, Christina Pagel, Annalee Newitz, David Darmofal

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Joshua S. Weitz, Ryan Enos, Trevon D. Logan , and 1 more Joshua S. Weitz, Ryan Enos, Trevon D. Logan, Michael Jones‐Correa

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 1d

substack.com/inbox/post/1...

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

Best consideration deadline, Friday Oct 10:

#SCIMaP (scienceimacts.org) seeks to hire a Research Communications and Media Outreach Specialist at U-Maryland to facilitate public engagement related to federal investment in science and health research.

umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/j...

SCIMaP job opportunity - https://umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/job/Research-Communications-and-Media-Outreach-Specialist_JR102577

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

Choose your @nytimes.com fighter:

Option 1, Prof. of Int. Affairs at JHU
"You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That."
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

vs.

Option 2, Ross Douthat, NYT
"An Ideological Revolution Needs 12 Years in Power"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

UC-Berkeley physicist who just won the Nobel Prize tells it like it is: "It is going to be disastrous if this continues"

For "It" read -> science, economy, rule of law, and beyond.

www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Nobel physics laureate says Trump cuts will 'cripple' US research

It was just past 2:00 am when a mysterious number rang Nobel laureate John Clarke, what he deemed "obviously a joke call" that grew increasingly surreal when he heard "a voice from Sweden."- 'Basic sc...

www.yahoo.com

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

We made a similar argument in Nature on research funding:

"[G]rant-receiving institutions and the communities that they serve need assurance that funds allocated by Congress will be spent."

Impoundment subverts the law.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 2d

If appropriations bills are not seen as enforceable contracts, why should any Member of Congress vote to fund any part of the federal government under Donald Trump? You're voting to provide money for lawlessness. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

For those wondering about Jerome Adams participation in this letter (Surgeon General in Trump 1), he has been consistently critical of RFK Jr & his decision making.

Three of many examples:

www.cnn.com/2025/09/06/p...

www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Trump's ex-surgeon general slams RFK Jr.'s vaccine cuts: 'People are going to die'

"People are going to die because we're cutting short funding for this technology," Dr. Jerome Adams said in an interview with CBS News on Aug. 10.

www.usatoday.com

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Reposted by Joshua S. Weitz

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 2d

A rebootable offense.

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 2d

On top of everything else, this too should be non-negotiable; when the government does re-open, follow the law and pay furloughed federal workers what they are due.

🎁
wapo.st/47dbJEe

Furloughed workers not guaranteed back pay after shutdown, OMB claims

Federal workers may not be entitled to back pay after the government shutdown ends, the Trump administration’s budget office wrote in a new draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, ratcheting up te...

wapo.st

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Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Joshua S. Weitz, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 2 more Kim L. Scheppele, Joshua S. Weitz, Rosemary A. Joyce, David Rosnick, Manisha Sinha

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 2d

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Reposted by Joshua S. Weitz

Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 2d

Let me be clear: backpay for these workers is required under a federal law I wrote with former Senator Cardin — which Trump signed — during the last Trump shutdown.

This is just more fear mongering from a president who wants a blank check for lawlessness. It won't work.

Federal workers not entitled to back pay after shutdown, budget office claims

www.washingtonpost.com

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