Melanie Matheu, PhD

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

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"

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.

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

"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."

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.

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"

#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...

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...

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:

Good leadership listens to experts.

Fellow #founders, let's make this article age poorly. Follow me here, more coming soon on how we're going to keep good tech alive and thriving.

While I deeply appreciate the concern & agree with the authors, the entire US Health & Human Services, which includes the agencies that would spearhead the effort is currently shutdown. Please write more about the devastating consequences of that @financialtimes.com

Thanks for stepping in to fill this role.

Today I started to build a library of interesting and brilliant accounts to follow. I would like to direct my followers to one of the most important and perhaps underrated people I have found on BlueSky: @sherifink.bsky.social

As a 'quad-demic' rages & we have the highest wastewater readings for Influenza, RSV, & Norovirus in the last 2 years, I would like to revisit the attempt to tell people that increased infection rates were due to 'Immunity Debt'. The evidence never supported it. lilscience.substack.com/cp/155699252

Infectious disease roundup for the week just posted on Substack. Link is in my bio.

Viruses can cause cancer, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus demonstrates many of the same properties and activities of cancer causing viruses. Will we find a link between increased rates of #cancer and #COVID? Here I provide a brief review of what we know so far: lilscience.substack.com/p/long-covid...

I remember my first tweet in 2007. It was a good idea then and BlueSky is a good idea now. Looking forward to engaging in the public square again.