Melanie Matheu, PhD

“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST). For USAID personnel currently posted outside the United States, the Agency, in coordination with missions and the Department of State, is currently preparing a plan, in accordance with all applicable requirements and laws, under which the Agency would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days and provide for the termination of PSC and ISC contracts that are not determined to be essential. The Agency will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons. For example, the Agency will consider exceptions based on the timing of dependents’ school term, personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons. Further guidance on how to request an exception will be forthcoming. Thank you for your service”

USAID’s website has been deleted, all that is left is a note saying all personnel are now on administrative leave and personnel outside the US are to be brought home. Completely illegal, no act of congress or even executive order was signed to dismantle the agency

Infectious Disease Roundup: 2/4/2025 Respiratory virus infection remains high in the US, Tuberculosis is on the rise, 4 measles cases in Texas, and a novel virus reported in Alabama shrews- similar viruses have 70% fatality rate

Infectious disease doesn't disappear just because some silenced our federal health agencies. Here's my 2/4/2025 infectious disease round up.

February 1st Has Come and Gone, US Science Remains Censored Remember what happened last time we tried to ignore Scientists? The problems don't disappear, they kill Americans.

What happens when scientists are censored? People die.

New Substack post on the status of censorship of United States Scientists "February 1st Has Come and Gone, US Science Remains Censored"

The results will only be as good as the quality of the data. Given that we don't seem to believe in fact checking anymore I'm not sure this will be a useful tool for anyone doing serious research. Data quality matters.

Infectious Disease Roundup: 2/2/2025 Second Largest US Egg producer hit with H5N1, Probable Human H5N1 case in Delaware, Clade Ib MPOX spreading in DRC and a new case in the UK, Polio Detected in wastewater of several EU countries...

Infectious Disease Roundup: 2/2/2025.

Probable human case of H5N1 in Delaware. Egg prices high forever? More deadly, highly contageous Clade Ib MPOX continues to spread (14% pediatric patients in recent outbreak), and more fun topics.

The National Embarrassment: RFK Jr The dark side of scientific history is that it has been use by bigots to justify racial discrimination, eugenics, and gas chambers. RFK Jr is trying to bring that back.

Read more about the REAL science behind some of RFK Jr's statements today:

The National Embarrassment: RFK Jr

Meta Lawyer Lemley Quits AI Case Citing Zuckerberg 'Descent' (1) California attorney Mark Lemley dropped Meta Platforms Inc. as a client in a high-profile copyright case because of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness,” the Sta...

"California attorney Mark Lemley dropped Meta Platforms Inc. as a client in a high-profile copyright case because of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness,” the Stanford University professor said on LinkedIn."

It was obviously a ridiculous number and lie from the WH Press Secretary the second she said it.

Tests identify H5N9 avian flu at California duck farm

As an Immunologist who has studied Influenza I was worried about H5N1, I am horrified re: H5N9.

Our population has no pre-existing immunity.

I repeat, we have NO PRE-EXISTING immunity to H5N9.

(we have a little with H5N1 via H1N1 vaccines & infections)

www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influe...

Vaccines are life saving. The individual & public health benefit outweighs the risk more than nearly any other approved drug/med procedure.

Example: Tylenol is responsible for more deaths & hospitalizations than all vaccines combined.

#RFKJr made $Ms off of telling people otherwise.

Vaccines are life saving. Side effects in vaccines are minimal. The individual & public health benefit outweighs the risk more than nearly any other approved drug or medical procedure.

Example: Tylenol is responsible for more deaths and hospitalizations than all vaccines combined ever have been.

...was wildly unfounded.

The human population has NEVER developed herd immunity to ANY coronavirus.

This put millions of Americans who listened to him at risk.

You didn't need a PhD or MD to know this at the time, a simple google search would have sufficed.

He should stay in surgery.

Makary will always be synonymous with Malarkey for me.

I've spent decades in this field, I taught med students like him who thought surgery rules all and couldn't remember the basics of Immunology.

His incredibly dangerous claim in 2021 that you could develop herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2...

Don't forget Elon didn't invent any of the tech in his companies which were built with the government grants he's trying to get canceled.

Without homegrown competition, Americans will keep waking up to DeepSeek events.

Fund our #science, fund our #research, and fund our #smallbusiness

EU medicines agency quits X, moves to Bluesky The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Monday it would no longer post on X and would use rival Bluesky instead, becoming the latest organisation to quit a social media platform that some have criticised for its content.

I left Twitter years ago. I don't think much of it will exist by this time next year.

Reminder

No one in history has blown $44B faster than Elon Musk while seemingly trying not to.

Trump put him in charge of US Gov Efficiency. 😅

Has anyone ever blown $44B faster than Elon Musk?

(while ostensibly trying not to)

Probably not.

Good, now let's let him try to make our government more efficient.

It's farcical that #RFKJr was nominated at all.

Someone who has directly profited for decades attacking sound science with pseudoscience and is directly linked causing a deadly measles outbreak should never be in charge of HHS, this is a waste of everyone's time.

Please call and write to your senators and remind them that it doesn't matter what #RFKJr says in his hearings.

Relying on "his word" against a multi-decade track record of attacking life-saving vaccines among other atrocities is utter nonsense. You don't take people like that "at their word"

I am so sorry. I have written those.

10 Things to Know About Medicaid | KFF Medicaid is the primary program providing comprehensive coverage of health care and long-term services and supports to more than 90 million low-income people in the United States. In 2023, Medicaid pr...

The portals for the primary form of #healthcare for 90 Million Americans were just locked down. #medicaid

About 90 Million Americans are on Medicaid

10 Things to Know About Medicaid | KFF Medicaid is the primary program providing comprehensive coverage of health care and long-term services and supports to more than 90 million low-income people in the United States. In 2023, Medicaid programs are facing new challenges and millions of enrollees are at risk of losing coverage as states unwind the continuous enrollment provision that was put in place early in the pandemic to ensure stable coverage.

#Medicaid is down in all 50 States.

Medicaid is the primary program providing health care coverage and long-term services supporting more than 90 million low-income people, covering between 10-34% of each State's population.

Read more about Medicaid here
www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...

Identity politics was turned against Science and Scientists which resulted in millions of Americans dying or being permanently disabled, and significantly disrupting our economy. I'd be happy to pen a rebuttal since all of the American Scientists that work under the umbrella of HHS can not.

Meanwhile the National Cancer Institute remains shut down and all of it's grants from funding student researchers in cancer to large clinical trials are in limbo and may not be funded.

Would someone in the #Biotech or #Medtech community like to explain to Alexa Lardieri and the Daily Mail that this would not be the "Worlds First Cancer Vaccine" and perhaps remind them that the current nominee to oversee HHS has made millions being radically against all vaccines?

I am currently working on a piece about #MarburgVirus in the US in 10 years. If our CDC remains kneecapped and the WHO withdraw is completed I may have to move my timeline up.

This is correct. Infectious disease is just a plane flight away. Stopping widespread destruction to human life (and yes economies if that's your number one) is now a global team effort.

The #WHO is the organization that contains, isolates, and identifies pathogens.

Human case of avian flu detected in England UKHSA confirms rare case of bird flu (H5N1) in the West Midlands region.

The UK has reported it's first human case of H5N1. The person had extensive contact with a large number of infected birds on a farm. Threat to the general public remains low.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Infectious Disease Roundup: 1/26/2025 An overview of infectious disease outbreaks in the United States and globally. January 26th, 2025: Tuberculosis, Norovirus, Chronic Wasting Disease, H5N1, Marburg Virus, et al.

The United States Health and Human Services remains in a communications embargo. We are in the middle of a 'quad-demic'. There have been intermittent instances of highly pathogenic H5N1 infecting people (gaining mutations that would enable person to person spread). I will keep posting updates here: