Heather Battles

Important paper. Schools are high-risk environments for respiratory disease transmission MAINLY because classrooms are underventilated. This problem has a workable solution - it just needs political will. Air quality is as important as water quality for public health. MT @martinmckee.bsky.social

And, for anyone like me who is a New Zealander living overseas, if you have been back to NZ at any point in the last 3 years, you are eligible to enrol and vote in this election

(the extension of this provision to 6 years was for the 2023 election *only*)

More than half of mpox patients in 2022 outbreak experienced lasting physical effects: Study Many mpox patients affected during the 2022 outbreak may have experienced physical effects more than a year later, a new study published Monday finds.

More than half of mpox patients in 2022 outbreak experienced lasting physical effects: Study

abcnews.go.com/Health/half-...

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵

Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...

Alice Wong, disability activist and luminary, dies at 51 - The Sick Times Alice Wong platformed and uplifted people with Long COVID in her final chapter as a lifelong disability advocate and storyteller.

Here is an obituary for Alice Wong from The Sick Times, a publication aligned with disability rights and disability activism, if you are looking for an alternative to reading the nyt one: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...

Wild form of polio found in German sewage sample, health institute says

Canada loses measles elimination status — as does the entire Americas region Canada has formally lost its measles elimination status, the country’s public health agency announced, triggering the loss of that status throughout all of the Americas.

As expected, Canada has lost its measles-free status because of the long-running outbreak there. With it goes the #measles elimination status of the entire zone of the Americas, the only division of the #WHO to ever have achieved measles elimination. www.statnews.com/2025/11/10/m...

Those are AMAZING! 😍

Less than one month until #ASHB2025 in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland! 💀🦷👣🗣🦧🐒🔬🩻🧬⚰️🪦
@aushumanbiology.bsky.social

'Alarming gaps': WHO warns NZ to urgently close measles vaccination gap among Māori and Pacific communities The World Health Organisation has warned New Zealand to urgently close the "alarming gaps" in measles immunisation for the most at-risk communities.

'Alarming gaps': WHO warns NZ to urgently close measles vaccination gap among Māori and Pacific communities

Hospitals, clinics not equipped for measles outbreak - general practitioner Immunisation Advisory Centre senior adviser Mamaeroa David warns waiting times at hospitals are 3-4 weeks.

Hospitals, clinics not equipped for measles outbreak - general practitioner

More measles cases confirmed in multiple regions Three new cases of measles have been reported in the Manawatū and Nelson today, including two children.

More measles cases confirmed in multiple regions

REMINDERS:

*Abstracts for the 2025 conference are due at 11:59pm NZDT Monday 13/10
*Discounted early bird registration also ends at 11:59pm NZDT Monday 13/10
*Regular price registration closes Monday 20/10

Abstract submission and registration here: www.australasianhumanbiology.com/conferences....

When I get asked to write commentaries, it's not usually a good sign - it's because an infectious disease I study historically is relevant again.

Conference registration and abstract submission are now open for our 2025 Conference in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland! Learn more at www.australasianhumanbiology.com/conferences....

Marsden Fund says it was given only a day's notice of further funding cuts The Marsden Fund is among three contestable funds to lose millions to help set up the new Institute for Advanced Technology.

"The government has made it clear on several occasions that we want publicly funded research to focus on solving real world problems that can be commercialised". What a grim sentence.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Data on the cuts to the Marsden Fund reported by RNZ this morning

🚨 JOB APPLICATION 🚨

The University of Western Australia is looking for a Lecturer in Biological Anthropology

Deadline for applying: August 29th

More information on the link below 👇

external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/en/job/52090...

🚨 JOB APPLICATION 🚨

The University of Western Australia is looking for an Associate Professor in Biological Anthropology

Deadline for applying: August 22nd

More information on the link below 👇

external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/en/job/52090...

And it's not just in the US - I imagine Wenner Gren would be getting more applications from international researchers as our funding is cut too (New Zealand recently made major science cuts, and eliminated the humanities + social sciences panels from our national research grants body).

At our most recent application deadline, the Foundation received a 40 percent increase in proposals for our core programs, and we anticipate that demand will continue to dramatically increase in the months ahead. Without immediate action, we face funding rates of less than 9 percent for Dissertation Fieldwork and Post-PhD Research Grants, and as low as 7 percent for our Hunt and Fejos Postdoctoral Fellowships. We are also facing possible reductions across our entire range of program areas including conferences, workshops, and community engagement. The consequences are stark: a narrower, less diverse, less adventurous field, with brilliant projects left unfunded, scholars left unsupported, and doctoral students stalled in their progress towards their degree

Wenner Gren is closing Sapiens because, among other things, they anticipate being able to fund fewer than 10% of their applications... at the same time as other funding sources from the federal government are being destroyed. This funding environment is an existential crisis for anthropology 🏺🧪

Awful.

Scientists could be accidentally damaging fossils with a method we thought was safe

A common scanning method used to create ‘virtual copies’ of precious fossils could be erasing some of the crucial information held within.

Pleased with this generous review of my book by Heather Battles @anthroetc.bsky.social in Medical History: "Barr’s historical work can thus contribute to wider inter-and trans-disciplinary conversations about the design and implementation of public health responses" www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Chimps develop fashion trend by shoving grass in their ears — and in their butts Chimpanzees are running around with grass in their ears and butts at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia. This is the second time a bizarre fad-like behavior has gripped the sanctuary's chimps...

The grass-in-ear trend is now a grass-in-butt trend. 🤣

www.livescience.com/animals/land...

Drone footage reveals orcas using tools in a stunning first | CNN Orcas were spotted using kelp as a grooming tool on each other, the first known use of tools among cetaceans for something other than hunting prey.

"They found that the southern resident orcas — a distinct population of killer whales — were detaching strands of bull kelp from the seafloor to roll between their bodies in a behavior the scientists dubbed “allokelping.”"

edition.cnn.com/2025/06/23/s...

Census to be scrapped from 2030, replaced with administrative data and annual surveys The traditional Census will be replaced with a combination of government data and smaller annual surveys.

The NZ Census is no more: www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

"At Macquarie, ancient history and archaeology, creative arts, politics and international relations and the school of sociology would all lose up to, or more than, half of their FTE staff."