Some personal news, as they say:
I’ve been a senior writer at @WIRED since 2020 (and part-time for 3 years before that), leading Covid coverage and writing about public health, AMR, fungi, food and ag, med history and health policy.
I was laid off Monday alongside ~20 colleagues. WIRED is blessed with sharp, smart, clever, compassionate people. It was a joy to be among them and a privilege to work on the US science team: @KaraPlatoni, @mrMattSimon, @raminskibba, @emilylmullin, @GregoryJBarber.

In the year since the Dobbs decision, we've seen grave restrictions on abortion and pregnancy care. But it's had subtler effects too: Med students and residents are avoiding red states where they can't fully study and may be at personal risk. (Thread)
wired.com/story/states-w… Becoming a doctor takes 10+ years of school and training, and the Dobbs decision is just one year old. But multiple surveys already show a tilt away from states with bans, because they don't allow new ob-gyns to learn abortion and miscarriage care.

Tonight, teaching my undergrads about writing opinion pieces about science and the genre constrictions of the op-ed form, I explained how this is not unlike the form demands of sonnets and recited "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" from memory, and am not at all ashamed. Was kind of funny actually how when I asked "Does anyone know what a sonnet is?" they all looked blank, but as soon as I started in on "Shall I compare thee" they smiled because they knew they knew it somehow.

It's already known that breathing wildfire smoke is bad for us. But new research shows smoke may be dangerous not just for ash and small particulates, but because it carries viable fungi that can cause grave infections. Me, cheery as always, in @WIRED: wired.com/story/wildfire… @WIRED I should probably say that this story is an outgrowth (hah) of my obsession with fungi; past stories include Valley fever vaccine, coffee rust, aspergillosis (and tulips), mucormycosis, chytrid fungi, and this monster @sciam cover story last year: scientificamerican.com/article/deadly…

Good news: The rate at which new monkeypox cases are occurring in the US is slowing down.
Less good: It's not yet clear which actions have made this happen — and determining that will make a difference to the course of the outbreak from now. Me at @WIRED: wired.com/story/monkeypo… A little more detail: The most likely explanation is ferocious activity and commitment by gay, bisexual and adjacent men organizing to combat this — but that observation contains a challenge, because behavior change regarding sex is difficult to sustain longterm.

Announcement by the CDC and the WHO that enough poliovirus has been found circulating in NY, with enough genetic changes, to cause the US to be added to the list of countries with active circulation of vaccine-derived virus. A remarkable, disturbing moment. The other countries on the list are overwhelmingly developing economies; the only other rich nations on it are Israel and the UK. (At least one US isolate has genetic links to one found in Israel.) List is on this page: polioeradication.org/where-we-work/…

Announcing! The fall season of the @EmoryCSHH @emorycollege Author Q&A Series:
- 27 Sept, 7 ET: @rachelegross, "Vagina Obscura"
- 27 Oct, 7 ET: @jimdowns1, "Maladies of Empire"
- 29 Nov, 7 ET: @thrasherxy, "The Viral Underclass"
RSVP for links here: humanhealth.emory.edu/events/living-… This is the 3rd year of the Author Q&A Series, co-sponsored by the @GaCntr4TheBook (thank you!). We've hosted @ejwillingham, @jo44atWID, @EmilyAnthes @geoffmanaugh and @nicolatwilley, @debmackenzie1, @PerriKlass, @chelseawald, @liviecampbell, @daisyhernandez, @QuaveEthnobot.

I have a story to share — my first in-print (but online now!) long feature for @WIRED — about an episode in the Covid pandemic just one year ago, which has been swamped by more recent events and yet is so important. Lo, a thread. 🧵 wired.com/story/province… This time last year, we had had vaccines since December, and in May, the CDC said vaxxed people were safe to take off their masks, face to face and indoors. Provincetown, MA, summer capital of queer America, revved up to recover from the loss of tourism in 2020.

20 years ago today, a FL press conference revealed a man had died of inhaled anthrax, the first signal of a stunning bioterror attack. At @WIRED I talk to veterans of that investigation and uncover what gaps remain in our preparations for disasters.
wired.com/story/20-years… A little thread: They have mostly faded behind the memory of 9/11, but the anthrax attacks 3 weeks later (of which photo editor Bob Stevens of Florida was the first recognized victim) profoundly destabilized the US, revealing how gaps in preparedness made us vulnerable.

@WillOremus I don’t want to sound jaded but I probably will: To those of us outside the Acela corridor, this is an old, familiar problem. NY-DC media culture not only cannot imagine living anywhere else, it assumes that anyone who volunteered to do so is definitionally not competitive. @WillOremus This value judgment lies at the foundation of the years-long fetish for diner stories. Parachuting into a foreign place (incl. within your own country) is a rational act if you believe that the people who live/work there can't possibly share your skill or discernment.

Hello, I have news!
For 18 mos, I’ve been a part-time “Covid correspondent” for @WIRED @WIREDScience.

Extremely thrilled to say I'm now joining the @WIRED staff as senior writer for health, expanding my beat to all aspects of public health, global health, medicine and disease. I could not imagine a better landing than working for science editor @KaraPlatoni, with the outstanding team @jetjocko, @mrMattSimon, @GregoryJBarber, under the leadership of @glichfield, @Mstreshinsky, @sarahfallon, @brbarrett, at a time of great change and promise for @WIRED.

I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, because I started writing about 1918 in 1998*, and read Alfred Crosby, whose amazing book Epidemic and Peace, 1918 (later reworked as America’s Forgotten Pandemic) documented the hole in collective memory that 1918 had fallen into. 1/x

https://twitter.com/marynmck/status/1260954171953549315

*when I went to the Norwegian Arctic with a research crew (headed by Canada's recently former Minister of Science) hoping to dig up victims' bodies from the permafrost.
They were not successful.
Yes, this was a long time ago. 2/x

This might turn out to be a thread.
The @BostonGlobe reports that crafters are sewing masks for hospitals. In NYC, @CSiriano, @PariPassu and other ateliers have stepped up.
This is wonderful and they deserve praise. It also cannot be sufficient, and it should not be necessary 1/x I have been writing about pandemic potential and societal disruption and supply chains for, ugh, a long time. (A few links at end in case anyone cares.) Short version:
We cannot GoFundMe our way out of this.
Pandemic response requires government-scale action. 2/x

Following @jayrosen_nyu and @froomkin’s comments earlier, a plea.

NEWSROOMS: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CENTER YOUR HEALTH AND SCIENCE WRITERS ON #COVID19.
If they're too busy to do all the stories, at least run your copy by them.

Your mistakes are misleading the public. Thread: Just in the past few days, I've seen:
- a features writer claim that the coronavirus accomplishes airborne transmission (evidence does not support)
- a GA writer claim US cases are "pouring in" (terrible phrasing, and confuses rising case count and increased test results)