catieoldenburg.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

“People will die,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”

submitted 22 hours ago • 1 comment

This is devastating. Not only for the mothers and children losing funding for those currently on lifesaving treatment, but also the many infants that will likely become HIV infected that otherwise would have been prevented through the availability of standard perinatal HIV prevention

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Actually, a measles outbreak IS an unusual occurrence. Especially in a country like the US, which had eliminated the disease thanks to vaccination until recently. It's so unusual that most physicians in the U.S. have NEVER seen a case! www.nbcnews.com/now/video/-i...

submitted 2 days ago • 41 comments

Make a huge mistake. Then make a false claim about how you fixed it. They did it for PEPFAR. Now Ebola. I follow this particular topic VERY closely, so here's what really happened and why this isn't true AT ALL...🧵

submitted 2 days ago • 206 comments

As a grant reviewer and journal editor I will want to see SABV recognized by work and will bash grants and desk reject papers that only include males without justification, as I have always done. Peer reviewers can still require rigorous science, which includes the examination of sex differences.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

It’s an important time to develop a strong sense of your own values & integrity & lean into how you practice them Institutional leaders capitulating says a lot about institutions & those leaders, not about how we best proceed & so grateful for institutional leaders who continue to lead on the good

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

People with doctorates are the most liberal and progressive. The entire mission of destroying academia is to eliminate entire voting demographics. They explicitly spell this out. Shutting down PhD programs isn't an accident, it's the goal.

submitted 6 days ago • 42 comments

Distressing on many levels… “A junior specialist … told by NIH in Jan. that [they were] funding [his div sup]. But on 2/5 he … received a follow-up email that said, “I regret to have to inform you that NIH has instructed us not to issue any [div sup] that are pending." He lost funding”

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

R01s that should be getting NOAs now likely went through council in Sept/Oct. The FR debacle is devastating but it’s not only that that’s holding up the system - this is terrifying.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

For those keeping track, we are now at 2 weeks with no new R01s funded. Still only 18 new ("01") grants are fellowships/Ks, a few admin supplements, one R35, and one R03. Same 2-week period in 2024: 143 new grants were awarded and 41 R01s. Devastating.

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

This is an excellent read and something we were just talking about in faculty meeting.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Reductions in PhD admissions is a big deal. This directly impacts people’s lives. I’d imagine every admissions committee for biomedical PhD programs in the country is talking about how to navigate this.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Every vaccine already requires informed consent by law. This is pure antivaxx disinformation, now coming from the CDC.

submitted 7 days ago • 24 comments

Goodnight friends ❤️ Get some sleep. Every day, I give up for twenty minutes but decide to push through on the twenty-first. Survival is a ritual, a ceremony, and a practice. Rudy Francisco, Excuse Me as I Kiss the Sky

submitted 8 days ago • 15 comments

The U.S. Is Cutting Off Foreign Aid. My Youngest Patients Are Paying the Price Powerful piece by the inspiring Dr Jen Furin time.com/7258248/us-f...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

11 short years ago, public health was revered. People understood that infectious diseases could and should be prevented. EIS officers were named "Person of the Year" instead of an entire cohort laid off, while the country fights measles and bird flu crossover. Ignorance will be the death of us.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

This is another sad day for our country and the values we should be upholding to lift up the health and wellbeing of Americans and those around the world.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

If you'd asked me a year ago, I might have said "arbitrary and capricious" sounded like fun. Live and learn. Today, "the rule of law" sounds a lot more appealing- and better for health research. www.statnews.com/2025/02/10/n...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

According to this NYT article, calls to congress have gone up from 40 per second to 1600, a 3900% increase. Please keep your foot on the pedal folks - keep calling, tell them no one voted for Musk and we DON'T WANT RFK!!! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...

submitted 19 days ago • 17 comments

My #Yale colleague Harlan Krumholz explains why the cuts to indirect costs are a disaster for biomedical research in the United States. Want to do something about it? I'll list those who have to hear from us below. Share, recruit friends and family to help. 1/ www.statnews.com/2025/02/08/n....

submitted 19 days ago • 24 comments

Under fascism, no one is safe. Universities stayed quiet as the admin targeted DEI & foreign aid, censored research, etc. Now, they face devastating cuts to indirect cost rates, threatening research & operations. Silence won’t protect institutions. It won’t protect people; it never does.

submitted 20 days ago • 358 comments

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

submitted 20 days ago • 270 comments

They capped the NIH indirect cost. This isn't a surprise — they very literally said they would do this last year. That our institutions didn't have a plan and seem unequipped to fight back is... disappointing.

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

"Trump's actions must be called out for the damage they are doing" @thelancet.bsky.social www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

submitted 21 days ago • 11 comments

“It’s a very unsettling moment for science:" Prestigious #NIH grant program meant to support PhD students from marginalized backgrounds is shelved to comply with the anti-DEI policy of the Trump administration. @usha.bsky.social & @aniloza.bsky.social report. www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/t...

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

Um, guys... NIH indirect costs were just capped at 15% Until now, they've been ~50-70% ie for every $1 from NIH funding, the university gets another $0.50-0.70 to keep on the💡 Will devastate Universities & Med Centers h/t @surtlab.bsky.social @prasad.bsky.social

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

This is very bad. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Speechless. Currently in the hospital as the Pediatric Infectious Disease Attending & access to vital info is limited. My duty to each child that I take care of is to have to most up to date information - in order to provide the best possible care. This is unacceptable www.npr.org/sections/sho...

submitted 28 days ago • 12 comments

Jan 31-last day to enroll in the TRASE training on principles of reproducible research in aging & social science. IMO these skills and thinking are sorely lacking in most current training programs. Understanding of the importance has advanced rapidly in the past 25 years but training lags. #EpiSky

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

I am gutted. Now NIH PREP websites have now gone dark. www.nigms.nih.gov/training/PREP. PREP is a training program for folks to engage in research and educational/professional enrichment prior to applying PhD programs. These programs seek to build confidence in folks to be scientific leaders.

submitted 30 days ago • 3 comments

Don't wait for your institution to speak for you. Speak up, speak now, be loud.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

A federal policy of "save tik tok, but gut the National Institutes of Health" seems unwise. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/t... www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Trump is going after HHS-funded scientists and, by default, Universities, many of which can’t function sufficiently without federal grant money. I can’t quite push aside the knowledge that fascist regimes often go after academics and intellectuals first.

submitted 32 days ago • 24 comments

I saw a license plate today that read “Vax Bad” and all I can think is how lucky we are (for now) in this country that we seem to have forgotten what it means to have children die of vaccine-preventable disease. Vaccines are very, very good. I fear for our children in the coming years.

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

Take 3 mins to watch Dr Chris Beyrer—who directs the Duke institute where I work—explain why Trump’s freeze on HIV treatment worldwide is so alarming PEPFAR supports HIV treatment for >20 million people, including almost 600,000 children. Freezing treatment is catastrophic youtu.be/JJWJ_p-z7Z4?...

submitted 33 days ago • 2 comments

"Health disparities research" is a field of study where researchers look at how things like race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status can influence health outcomes. Now any gov't website about this says "page not found". This is a dystopia that I did not imagine that we'd be living through.

submitted 34 days ago • 33 comments

Pro Tip : Health departments in the US are still reporting on outbreaks in individual states. While this may vary based on the political leadership in your state, your state's department of health website is still a valuable resource to stay updated on local outbreaks that could directly affect you.

submitted 34 days ago • 3 comments

This is crucial. #NIH #episky #medsky

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment

I’m super excited to dive into this, and thinking about using it in my spring class (epi methods 3). Is anyone else reading this? #EpiSky #epidemiology

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

A global stop-work order on foreign aid will cost many, many lives if kept in place. As written, it halts ALL ongoing humanitarian relief activities, except food aid, in places like Syria, Sudan, Gaza. Also halts all global health programs. What this will mean in human terms: 🧵 t.co/1nCjZFfBdS

submitted 34 days ago • 8 comments

Scientific advancements aside, this is economically irresponsible Every $1 spent by NIH generates $2.46 For example, in 2023, $47B in NIH spending generated ~$93B Halting NIH spending will LOSE the US a lot of money (and talent)

submitted 37 days ago • 61 comments

My NIH study section that was to meet tomorrow was one of those canceled. This represents many months of work by the applicants and by the NIH staff and reviewers. Devastating is the correct word.

submitted 36 days ago • 107 comments