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matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Matt Healy
@matthewdhealy.bsky.social
410 followers 610 following 1.8K posts
Techbio, Virology, Drug Discovery, Data, Midwest, Engineering, NLP, science, theology, history of science

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6439-5038
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matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Matt Healy @matthewdhealy.bsky.social · Jun 27
The meaning of my new profile image:

“Not just a poetic metaphor but scientific fact: the carbon in our cells, the calcium in our bones, and even the gold in our rings were all forged in stars that exploded long before our solar system formed. We don’t just come from the stars. We ARE stardust.”
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Iowa River winter scene Iowa River winter scene Iowa River winter scene Iowa River winter scene
December 18, 2025 at 6:43 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Matthew Healy December 17, 2022. Matthew @MatthewDavidH I've said over and over that masks, ventilation, HEPA filters, and vaccine boosters are HOW TO GET what everybody says they want. Jon Levy @jonlevyBU. 2m While we are at it, can we acknowledge that calling for masks in schools for a few weeks is NOT the same as asking to close the schools? Everything is so polarized that we cannot operate in shades of grey, which is where we need to operate during a pandemic. Show this thread 12:57 PM Dec 17, 2022 ...
December 18, 2025 at 6:02 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Enveda, where I was one of the first employees, puts ANOTHER molecule into the clinic. I think this is the first AI-centric startup to put two molecules into human volunteers:

finance.yahoo.com/news/enveda-...
Enveda Announces US FDA IND Clearance and First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Trial of ENV-308, a First-in-Class Oral Therapy for Obesity; Appoints Nadeem Sarwar, Ph.D., MPharm, MPhil, to Lead Metabolic Di...
BOULDER, Colo., December 17, 2025--Enveda, a clinical-stage biotech company pioneering the discovery and development of a new generation of small-molecule drugs derived from life’s chemistry, today an...
finance.yahoo.com
December 18, 2025 at 4:29 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
A painterly composite image combining healthcare, data, and symbolic elements. At center, an elderly male patient sits on a hospital bed while a physician and a nurse stand close, engaged attentively with him. To the right, a person sits at a laptop displaying charts and a spreadsheet, focused on data analysis. Surrounding and partially overlaid are scientific plots and graphs, including dose–response curves and scatter plots, integrated into the background. Above the figures appear several symbols: a Christian cross, an Islamic crescent with star, a Star of David, a yin-yang symbol, and a stylized DNA double helix. The overall image has a soft painted texture, visually unifying human care, scientific evidence, analytical work, and multiple religious traditions into a single scene.
December 18, 2025 at 3:51 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Secondary sources and AI models are discovery and collation tools.
Primary sources and my own brain are reasoning tools.
December 18, 2025 at 2:04 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
DEMS appear to be better for the economy than the GOP.

Don’t take my word for it!

Spend 15 minutes on the website where you manage your IRA or 401(k), these websites all have oodles of research tools. Look at multiple economic indicators under DEM vs. GOP presidents over the past century.
DEMS appear to be better for the economy than the GOP. Don’t take my word for it! Spend 15 minutes on the website where you manage your IRA or 401(k), these websites all have oodles of research tools. Look at multiple economic indicators under Democratic vs. Republican presidents over the past century. Who controls Congress doesn't seem to matter as much: for some reason, the correlation is with the Presidential party. This correlation is very strong and durable: growth, jobs, and markets have tend to do better under Democratic administrations. Whatever the cause (and reasonable people can debate that), the data do not support the claim that Republican Presidents are generally “better for the economy” or more “pro-business.” And remember: the business community employs lots of economists. If there were credible evidence that these durable correlations are misleading and that GOP leadership is actually better for business, they would certainly have wanted to show that to the world. They haven't.
December 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
From a long NY Times article
From NY Times: In his first two decades of business, we found that Epstein was less a financial genius than a prodigious manipulator and liar. Abundant conspiracy theories hold that Epstein worked for spy services or ran a lucrative blackmail operation, but we found a more prosaic explanation for how he built a fortune. A relentless scammer, he abused expense accounts, engineered inside deals and demonstrated a remarkable knack for separating seemingly sophisticated investors and businessmen from their money. He started small, testing his tactics and seeing what he could get away with. His early successes laid the foundation for more ambitious ploys down the road. Again and again, he proved willing to operate on the edge of criminality and burn bridges in his pursuit of wealth and power.
December 16, 2025 at 8:44 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Be skeptical of claims that Trump “stole” the 2024 election in the literal, technical sense.

Trump’s legal & moral unfitness for office is a separate issue from whether ballots were manipulated in Nov 2024. That's an extraordinary claim, and so far it has not been supported by credible evidence.
A quick note: be skeptical of claims that Trump “stole” the 2024 election in the literal, technical sense. Trump’s legal and moral unfitness for office is a separate issue from whether ballots were manipulated in November 2024. The latter is an extraordinary claim, and so far it has not been supported by credible evidence. If you wouldn’t accept anonymous intelligence-agency claims or unverifiable “forensic audits” when they favor Trump, you shouldn’t accept them when they favor Democrats either. Standards matter.
December 16, 2025 at 6:35 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
“I continue to be struck, as a social scientist, that it has become virtually impossible to write a survey question about immigration policy that is too harsh for white evangelicals to support.”

Robert P. Jones, “ICE and empty mangers”, Baptist News Global, December 15, 2025
December 16, 2025 at 4:28 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
This quote is a bit long, but I decided no partial quote can do it justice
This quote is a bit long, but I decided no partial quote can do it justice: “We are overdue for a new definition of postwar evangelicalism that reflects both what those fundamentalist men who resurrected the term in 1942 were trying to accomplish as well as the convictions of those who serve as some of Trump’s most faithful supporters. Here it is: I argue that post–World War II evangelicalism is best defined as a white, patriarchal, nationalist religious movement made up of Christians who seek power to transform American culture through conservative-leaning politics and free-market economics. Contemporary evangelicalism is the direct descendent of early twentieth-century fundamentalism, North and South. Both movements are distinct from Antebellum forms of Christianity. There is no multi-century evangelical throughline. When historians want to focus on everyday religious life in the twentieth century, and not the public and political efforts of evangelicals, we need to be specific. We can describe Pentecostal religious practices, or Southern Baptist congregational life, or splits among Presbyterians on questions of women’s ordination, or independent megachurches’ use of state-of-the-art technology, all without invoking evangelical. But when we do use the term evangelical in the modern American context, we need to recognize that we are referring to a religio-political coalition.” Matthew Avery Sutton, Redefining the History and Historiography on American Evangelicalism in the Era of the Religious Right, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 92, Issue 1, March 2024, Pages 37–60, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfae063
December 16, 2025 at 4:04 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
What's significant here is not the content as such; basically every medical society has been saying similar things in somewhat more restrained words for quite a while. What's new is that a paper owned by Rupert Murdoch is saying it:

nypost.com/2025/12/14/o...
RFK Jr.’s lunatic war on vaccines puts kids at risk
On Dec. 5, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices tossed the universal recommendation for hepatitis B vaccines for infants at birth.
nypost.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:50 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Australia's Prime Minister, in a press conference about the mass shooting:

"And this afternoon at 4 o’clock I will put on the agenda of the National Cabinet tougher gun laws."

Not just Thoughts and Prayers.
December 15, 2025 at 6:26 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Simple Nativity Scene in simulated needlepoint.
December 15, 2025 at 3:40 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Watching a student try to overturn a bad grade via politics is a good reminder:
standardized tests exist because institutions don’t fully trust other evaluations.
If grading becomes unreliable, expect SAT/MCAT/GRE weight to rise — not fall.
December 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Matt Healy
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
From the talk I learned about this excellent paper:

Morris JS. Tracking vaccine effectiveness in an evolving pandemic, countering misleading hot takes and epidemiologic fallacies. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Apr 8;194(4):898-907. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwae280. PMID: 39218423; PMCID: PMC11978612.
December 14, 2025 at 9:44 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
"Observational data are tricky to interpret properly"

GREAT TALK:

Morris, J. S. (2025, October 17). Seeing through epidemiologic fallacies: How statistics safeguards scientific communication in a polarized era [Lecture]. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Video at lnkd.in/eBnSxits
"Observational data are tricky to interpret properly. Nonrandom assignment to treatment introduces confounders, selection bias, and other methodological issues. Even highly intelligent and well-intentioned researchers can misinterpret observational data. In addition, individuals with hidden or explicit agendas may deliberately distort observational findings to promote particular narratives." Morris, J. S. (2025, October 17). Seeing through epidemiologic fallacies: How statistics safeguards scientific communication in a polarized era [Lecture]. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Video at https://lnkd.in/eBnSxits
December 14, 2025 at 9:17 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Excellent talk on a really important issue: how appropriate and informed use of statistics guards against errors and fallacies.

video at:

lnkd.in/eBnSxits

I verified that this link works even in an Incognito Browser.
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
December 14, 2025 at 7:52 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
I first encountered this in grad school...

SONG OF THE ICHTHYOSAURUS

THERE’s a rustling in the rushes,
  There’s a flashing in the sea;
There’s a tearful Ichthyosaurus
  Swims hither mournfully!
I first encountered this in grad school... SONG OF THE ICHTHYOSAURUS THERE’s a rustling in the rushes,   There’s a flashing in the sea; There’s a tearful Ichthyosaurus   Swims hither mournfully! He weeps o’er the modern corruption,   Compared with the good old times, And don’t know what is the matter   With the Upper Jural limés! The hoary old Plesiosaurus   Does naught but quaff and roar; And the Pterodactylus lately   Flew drunk to his own front door! The Iguanodon of the Period   Grows worse with every stratum; He kisses the Ichthyosauresses   Whenever he can get at ’em! I feel a catastrophe coming,   This epoch will soon be done; And what will become of the Jura   If such goings-on go on? The groaning Ichthyosaurus   Turns suddenly chalky pale; He sighs from his steaming nostrils,   He writhes with his dying tail! In that selfsame hour and minute   Died the whole Saurian stem: The fossil-oil in their liquor   Soon put an end to them! And the poet found their story   Which here he doth indite, In the form of a petrified album-leaf   Upon a coprolite! Translator: Rossiter Worthington Raymond (1840–1918)
December 14, 2025 at 6:54 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Can somebody invent a MAGA-LITE that projects reality onto MAGA retinas?
December 14, 2025 at 5:27 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
News reports say FDA will put a Black Box Warning on mRNA COVID vaccines.

The VIRUS should get that Black Box Warning: it's killed millons.
December 14, 2025 at 4:32 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Libertarianism’s blind spot isn’t morality — it’s accounting.
Markets work best when costs and benefits stay with the decision-maker.

Modern infrastructure doesn’t work that way.

Freedom without responsibility scales into catastrophe.
Libertarianism’s blind spot isn’t morality — it’s accounting. Markets work best when costs and benefits stay with the decision-maker. Modern infrastructure doesn’t work that way. Rail networks, cloud platforms, health-care IT, AI deployment, financial plumbing — their failures spill outward. Profits are private; risks are shared. That’s called an externality. And when externalities dominate, “just let the market decide” stops being a philosophy and starts being a refusal to do the math. Freedom without responsibility scales into catastrophe.
December 13, 2025 at 7:34 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Conspiracy theories demand institutions that are powerful enough to hide everything, sloppy enough to betray themselves, and uniquely gifted at cover-ups history has never seen.
December 13, 2025 at 6:45 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Is this the most 2025 sentence imaginable?

"The debris from the East Wing of the White House was dumped in the middle of the public golf course in East Potomac Park, also known locally as Hains Point."

From a comment on electoral-vote.com today
Electoral-vote.com
Track the 2026 Senate election with a red/blue map of the US updated daily using the latest state polls.
electoral-vote.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:51 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Like the electoral-vote.com bloggers, I've never before posted about Nuzzi, because like them I'm not interested in the sex lives of people I don't know & don't want to know.
As an expert on Infectious Diseases, I'm deeply disgusted by what RFK Jr. is doing to public health, which IS killing people.
This is the very first time we have so much as mentioned Nuzzi's name on this site, and the reason is that we could not see the relevance of this story, even given the massive coverage it's gotten. Nuzzi has been an attention-seeker, and someone looking to gain wealth and fame through whatever path presents itself, for years. RFK Jr. is a sleazeball extraordinaire who has inherited the family habit of cheating on romantic partners left, right and center. Whatever he did or did not do with Nuzzi, he's done with many women who were not his wife. And speaking of that wife, Cheryl Hines, she has... accepted (?) his infidelities, we guess. By that we mean, she did not leave him, but she DID move to Washington, so she could keep an eye on him. We only provide this information so all readers are on the same page. We really don't care about the sex lives of any of these people, as that's their business, and they can swing in whatever way they want to swing. We do get some unpleasant she's-being-brainwashed vibes from Hines, but even if it was enough to be actionable, it's not like there's anything we could do about it. What we do deplore, however, is the public behavior of these people. RFK Jr.'s willingness to profit off of his loony, conspiratorial ideas about health, and his willingness to let people die in service of his MAHA agenda, are reprehensible. Hines' recent whiny book, in which she blames all of her problems on the Democrats, is not a great look either. And, of course, we disdain Nuzzi's unethical behavior in reporting on a political campaign in which she was personally involved with one of the candidates. We also disdain her lightning-quick move to cash in on the whole scandal, with an I'm-a-martyr book entitled American Canto that was published this week. In view of our less-than-warm feelings about Nuzzi's professional behavior, we most certainly feel some schadenfreude over the fact that the volume landed with an absolute thud. The publisher, Simon & Sch…
December 13, 2025 at 11:47 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
What strikes me about this passage in NY Times is the simple fact that I do not recognize a single name mentioned.
NY Times passage mentioning a number of "globally famous" bands of the 1990s, none of which I recognize.
December 13, 2025 at 11:20 AM