Dr. Catherine Herzog (PhD MPH)

In voting to eliminate the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, ACIP ignored decades of evidence confirming its strong safety profile and effectiveness. Its decision will result in more hepatitis B infections and more people with chronic liver disease.

I think a lot of people still aren't used to the idea of a federal government that lies openly, nakedly and as a matter of course.

I am so deeply sorry. This is all so horrible.

Love it! Have fun!

In light of today’s conversation on academic accommodations, I’m going to revive a thread lost to time when I deleted my Twitter profile.

It’s about a bunch of academic accommodations that instructors can offer in lieu of an extension on an assignment. 🧵

Opinion | My Father Died of Hepatitis B Before the Vaccine. We Must Not Go Back.

This is the most important op-ed you'll read this week. The Trump administration is about to get rid of the birth-dose of hepatitis B vaccine. That is a deadly choice for many families. @helenouyang.bsky.social tells her story. Now call your member of Congress. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...

BREAKING NEWS: Baby otter gets tickled!

What are you grateful for?

My short list includes:
My health.
The ability to have a job that I love.
My kids, parents, husband being together this holiday.
The fact that I know there are LOTS of people trying to do good in the world.
The fact that the world keeps turning. 🙏

Frikkin amazing stuff.

CDC moves to end telework for employees, including those with medical needs The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ended full-time telework agreements for reasonable accommodations, employees say.

“It’s the latest decision in a head-spinning saga that federal workers with disabilities and temporary health needs say has hindered their job performance and weakened their faith that the federal government is a place for them.”

What’s the most significant advice you received from a teacher?

I had a Geology prof who always said “have strong opinions, loosely held”

Be passionate, assess alternatives with conviction, take sides. But don’t fall so in love with your opinions that you can’t change them with better data.

i must admit, watching RFK Jr. burn down all those years of hard work on CDC's website for nothing has not been great for my mental health

Ethiopia confirms first outbreak of Marburg virus disease Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health has confirmed an outbreak of Marburg virus disease in the South Ethiopia Region, the first of its kind in the country, following laboratory testing of samples from a clus...

The deadly fever in Ethiopia has been identified as Marburg disease.
It’s the first time a Marburg outbreak has been identified in Ethiopia.
#IDsky 🧪

www.afro.who.int/countries/et...

I have GOT to know someone with a need for this

Aurorasaurus - Reporting Auroras from the Ground Up Friends, see my real-time #aurora report on the aurorasaurus.org map! Follow us on www.facebook.com/aurorasaurus.org. Reporting #northernlights and #citizenscience from the ground up since 2012!

Submit them to Aurorasaurus!!! They're an NSF funded project out of University of New Mexico that takes crowdsourced aurora observations for research purposes:
www.aurorasaurus.org

Things that are easy to do & be, but require effort & energy to prevent:
🖤 Angry
🖤 Violent
🖤 Overweight
🖤 Mean
🖤 Scared
🖤 Hateful
🖤 Misled

Teen Breaks Down In Tears While Pleading With City Council To Do Something About ICE Raids

Utterly heartbreaking.

Every time you capitulate to a bully, they'll come back at you twice as brutally.

If you didn't learn this life lesson in third grade, GTFO of the US Senate.

spoke with the executive director of my local food bank today and got this really incredible line: "if you donate 1 can of green beans, we can give away 1 can of green beans. but if you donate a dollar, we can give away 6 cans of green beans"

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...

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

A year ago today, we had a really terrible election night, and because I know how people fall into despair I sat down at 11pm and wondered what I could tell you. I told you:

Americans need to understand that being a citizen in a democracy is an active position, not passive. We must fight for it all the time else it can be taken away. As is happening right now. It’s not some magical thing done by someone else, it’s us.

Fredston Lab: Postdoctoral Scholar University of California, Santa Cruz is hiring. Apply now!

POSTDOC JOB AD: I'm hiring a Bayesian ecologist to build a (IMO, extremely fun) model of humpback whale spatiotemporal dynamics in California

2-year position starting fall 2026. in-person in Santa Cruz; collab w with Mevin Hooten's lab at UT Austin.

ask me Qs or apply: recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF02003

At least 27 states turned over sensitive data about food stamp recipients to USDA Democratic-led states secured a legal victory to keep the personal data of food recipients out of the federal government's reach. But NPR's reporting shows that millions of records on Americans have a...

At least 27 states shared sensitive food stamp data with USDA

www.npr.org/2025/10/16/n...

Government shutdown means many CDC experts are skipping a pivotal meeting on infectious disease An annual conference about infectious diseases is seeing a dramatic attendance decline, in part because Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts can’t participate.

Just another normal HHS week: CDC researchers cannot present work at an annual Infectious Disease conference in (checks notes) Atlanta. As a CDC researcher put it:

“It appears to me that HHS’s goal is to prevent the dissemination of scientific information. It’s insane.”

apnews.com/article/infe...

So he ignored the approval process. Imagine that. Tear it down

Millions across all 50 US states march in No Kings protests against Trump Crowds of Americans, many in costumes, aligned behind message that US is sliding into authoritarianism

Top story when you go to The Guardian this AM. Which it is not when you go to the Washington Post or the NY Times. Apt language here, whereas WaPo describes the day as an airing of grievances as though we are a bunch of whining George Costanzas, not a vast public fearful of losing everything.

In a coordinated move, multiple federal agencies joined BlueSky yesterday and turned to trolling the opposition. Our Assessment on Democratic Decline warns of this autocratic practice: attacking the free press and narrowing the space in which factual reporting can safely operate without retaliation.