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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · 21d

A painting I made as appreciation for all the work our public health labs do! With a subtle nod to genomics as a part of that ☺️

#publichealth #art #watercolor

A slightly abstract painting of a pair of women wearing blue lab coats working in the laboratory with the the shape of a DNA helix between them.

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Reposted by Kelsey Florek

Bill Hanage @billhanage.bsky.social · May 22

It is certainly reasonable to question exactly how helpful covid boosters are for younger people, but the new FDA policy goes beyond that...

hsph.harvard.edu/news/new-cov...

New COVID vaccine policy limits choice, could raise risk for younger groups | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Bill Hanage discusses the implications of a new FDA policy that will limit the COVID-19 vaccine to people over age 65 and those with certain medical conditions.

hsph.harvard.edu

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · May 12

I am very excited to share that we have a publication describing the State Public Health Bioinformatics (StaPH-B) Docker container project!! 🧬🖥️ Amazing work by the community and a special thanks to the co-authors who keep this project going!!

#Bioinformatics #StaPH-B

wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

Advantages of Software Containerization in Public Health Infectious Disease Genomic Surveillance

Software Containerization in Disease Surveillance

wwwnc.cdc.gov

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · May 5

Just finished a proof-of-concept using an LLM (Anthropic Claude) to connect genomic metadata fields from an internal LIMS system to NCBI's BioSample and SRA submission templates.

A fantastic collaboration between Cal Poly, AWS, DCLS, and WSLH!
aws.amazon.com/blogs/public...
#bioinformatics

Leveraging generative AI to accelerate public health genomics data standardization | Amazon Web Services

In this post, we discuss the AI Genomic Schema Harmonizer, a generative AI–powered application that revolutionizes how laboratories prepare genomic data for submission to public repositories.

aws.amazon.com

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · May 3

Saturday Morning Owl Painting

#art #watercolor #owl

Watercolor painting of an owl with a variety of red and brown tones in a loose style

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Apr 16

It's been a bit since I've had the emotional bandwidth to be creative but it felt good to paint this

#art #watercolor

A watercolor portrait of an older man with grey hair and beard feeding a seagull

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Mar 28

Did all the disks fail at the same time? I've heard of that happening...

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Reposted by Kelsey Florek

Duncan MacCannell @drm.bsky.social · Mar 26

arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

RFK Jr. claws back $11.4B in CDC funding amid wave of top-level departures

The funding went to state health departments for COVID-19 responses.

arstechnica.com

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Mar 24

"Build a Bioinformatician"

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Mar 24

The Rocinante
"A legitimate salvage"

Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Mar 24

This has been a fantastic workshop. Great takes and participation from everyone!

Christin Hanigan @chanigan.bsky.social · Mar 24

Fun way to kick off @aphl.org #IDLabCon with the next steps for next generation sequencing pre conference workshop! Thanks @drkfo.bsky.social @k-florek.net and Dan Evans for speaking!

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Mar 20

It's rubbish how the dismantling of our education system is treated like an everyday bullet point 🤬🤬🤬

NBC News

Trump targets Education Department and Steve Kornacki's NCAA picks: Morning Rundown

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to close the Education Department, which he has long pledged to dismantle.

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Feb 28

Big thanks to @torstenseemann.bsky.social for hosting me at the Centre for Pathogen Genomics. It was lovely to meet everyone and see the awesome binfo work happening in Asia-Pacific!

#Austrakka #Bioinformatics #PublicHealth

Dr. Torsten Seemann and Dr. Kelsey Florek standing in front of a seated audience next to a presentation slide displaying the title "Building Resilient Public Health Genomic Systems with Data Lakes and Automation".

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Reposted by Kelsey Florek

Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · Feb 28

🎤 Ask us anything! 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋
In honor of reaching 100K (❣️) followers, we are holding an AMA right now!
This is an #AltGov tradition and since we stand on the shoulders of our AltGov fam, we have gathered our team and are happy to take questions in the responses.
⚠️ We do not give medical or legal advice.

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Reposted by Kelsey Florek

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Feb 14

Make no mistake. This is an all-out attack on health in America.

Not only is the EIS vital to controlling infectious disease; it was where a remarkably high fraction of our public health leaders received formative training and experience.

www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...

CDC cuts expected to devastate Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health

Members of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service were warned Friday that many of them were about to be fired

www.statnews.com

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Feb 4

Book burning is book burning whether it's digital or physical

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Reposted by Kelsey Florek

Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · Feb 3

ASM is an embarrassment - plain and simple. Just disgraceful.

@vscooper.micropopbio.org, will we see more courageous leadership this summer? If there's anything left by then, it's going to be necessary, I'm sad to say.

BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · Feb 3

I'm gonna say the quiet part aloud. Sadly there are many in scientific, academic & healthcare ranks as well as in the leadership of professional societies who support the purge of DEI.
The failure to peak out forcefully and rush to comply by some is unsurprising.
www.statnews.com/2025/02/03/t...

Removal of DEI content from a microbiology group’s website shows reach of Trump executive orders

The professional society for microbiologists stripped content about Black, female, and LGBTQ scientists from its website

www.statnews.com

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Feb 3

Crow friends are the best!

A crow standing on a stump with cat kibble looking at the camera.

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Jan 31

"Shock and awe" was the strategy from the start. Its goal, create confusion and paralysis. Pick issues and fight them, coordinate and resist. Write senators and representatives and donate to organizations taking action if you can.

Jennifer Walter, Swiss Sociologist @itsjenniferwalter.bsky.social · Jan 22

As a Sociologist, I need to tell you

the chaos cascade (200+ exec orders) isn't dysfunction — it's disaster capitalism's playbook. your confusion = their strategy.

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Reposted by Kelsey Florek

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jan 27

Withdrawing US funding from the World Health Organization is a potential disaster for public health worldwide, due to the impact it will have on the important work the WHO does. Preventing the CDC from even *talking* with WHO personnel is a step much farther toward undermining global health & safety

CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of an extended withdrawal

U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately. The surprise decision is focused on the U.S.

apnews.com

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Jan 23

Thanks 😊
I'm hanging in there, I hope you are doing ok!

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Jan 23

Amongst sailors, the swallow represents a hope of returning home. Perched on a sunflower of warmth and joy it is a symbol of hope. That we can return from the insanity that has begun.

#watercolor #swallow #art #painting

A watercolor painting of a blue swallow perched on a sunflower with another in the background.

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Jan 17

It's Friday afternoon, it's 18 F outside, I'm in the basement with a space heater, it's dark, and I don't have any more meetings today...

It's time to code!

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Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Jan 17

As one of the faculty helping with this program I am really excited for the content that is being put together for this program!

I wish something like this existed when I was starting in public health

Duncan MacCannell @drm.bsky.social · Jan 17

Are you an early- to mid-career bioinformatician working in the US Public Health system?

A reminder that the inaugural Bioinformatics Leadership Program is accepting applications and nominations through February 14, 2025. 🧬🖥️ #publichealth #bioinformatics

www.aphl.org/Materials/ID...

www.aphl.org

Kelsey Florek @k-florek.net · Jan 17

bsky.app/profile/carl...

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Jan 12

This afternoon I got out in the water with my beloved Barrow's goldeneyes. I've got far too many frames to sort through, but here's one I was really happy with. 🪶

A pelagic duck with a brown head, orange bill, and bright yellow eye flies low over the blue water.

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