This week, Threads finally launched its long-awaited search function. You can finally search the platform for your favorite topic… unless that topic is COVID or vaccines.

The NIH was going to invest $150 million into improving health communication to the public — a desperately needed investment after the communication failures of the pandemic. Now, likely due to political pressure, that funding has been cancelled.

A quick summer update — COVID levels are starting trend back up again, and there’s a new variant to watch.

Over the weekend, a vaccine brawl took place. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—presidential candidate and longtime spreader of old, tired vaccine rumors— had a conversation with Joe Rogan on his podcast. The conversation bled onto social media in which Rogan ultimately challenged Dr. Peter Hotez—a Nobel Prize-nominated vaccine scientist—to debate RFK Jr. about vaccine rumors that have already been addressed dozens of times. Dr. Hotez declined. Here’s why that was the right call…

You may recall Florida’s vaccine analysis which claimed that mRNA vaccines are associated with increased risk of cardiac death in young men. This week, the Tampa Bay Times shared earlier, unpublished drafts of that analysis. Those earlier drafts tell a dramatically different story…

If I had a nickel for every time someone has accusingly asked me “who funds you??”, I wouldn’t have enough money to buy a box of pipette tips, because research is expensive and requires funding to do much of anything.