#brain-drain — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #brain-drain, aggregated by home.social.
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"das deutsche wm fußball team fährt einen sieg ein und einigen fans fällt nichts besseres ein, als sich ins auto zu setzen und zu hupen.
muss man erstmal drauf kommen!"
Grüße von einem Bekannten aus den Quadraten #Mannheim
Ihm ist das hier auch zu doof, zieht diesen Monat noch weg.
#Braindrain #Autostadt #GescheiterteKommune #Autoterror #Lärm #Lärmschutz #MotorisierteGewalt @mannheim -
China continues to attract top level AI talent from the U.S. ....
- OpenAI researcher now chief AI scientist at Tencent
- Google DeepMind researcher moves to Alibaba
- VP of Research at Google DeepMind moves to ByteDance
- Meta AI Researcher moves to Chinese startup Moonshot and creates Kimi AI model https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/05/china-may-move-toward-us-path-on-ai-as-firms-poach-employees.html #AI #China #BrainDrain #AITalent #AGI #Tencent #Alibaba #ByteDance #SiliconValley #FrontierModels #FrontierAI -
China continues to attract top level AI talent from the U.S. ....
- OpenAI researcher now chief AI scientist at Tencent
- Google DeepMind researcher moves to Alibaba
- VP of Research at Google DeepMind moves to ByteDance
- Meta AI Researcher moves to Chinese startup Moonshot and creates Kimi AI model https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/05/china-may-move-toward-us-path-on-ai-as-firms-poach-employees.html #AI #China #BrainDrain #AITalent #AGI #Tencent #Alibaba #ByteDance #SiliconValley #FrontierModels #FrontierAI -
Thats what Ive been learning. Saw that writing on the wall a year ago if not earlier.
Of course the SaaS dealers were dumping tokens at probably 10% of what they cost. Thats the #venturecapitalist playbook. Get people hooked, raise rates to stupid costs cause you can, watch people suffer with #LLM induced #braindrain
Ive been putting together tooling that allows local LLM operation. Its slower right now, but it runs on my machines and does a decent job.
I knew companies would set up their own LLM racks. And as a senior systems engineer, im learning exactly that with cost and performance in mind.
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Thats what Ive been learning. Saw that writing on the wall a year ago if not earlier.
Of course the SaaS dealers were dumping tokens at probably 10% of what they cost. Thats the #venturecapitalist playbook. Get people hooked, raise rates to stupid costs cause you can, watch people suffer with #LLM induced #braindrain
Ive been putting together tooling that allows local LLM operation. Its slower right now, but it runs on my machines and does a decent job.
I knew companies would set up their own LLM racks. And as a senior systems engineer, im learning exactly that with cost and performance in mind.
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Many US #health agencies are operating with interim heads.
Among the vacant positions are the director of the #InfectiousDisease agency; #SurgeonGeneral; head of the Food & Drug Administration [#FDA]; deputy health secretary; & head of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention [#CDC] — a leadership vacuum that observers say is unprecedented.
#Trump #nationalism #BrainDrain #medicine #science #research #PublicHealth #NIAID #WHO
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Many US #health agencies are operating with interim heads.
Among the vacant positions are the director of the #InfectiousDisease agency; #SurgeonGeneral; head of the Food & Drug Administration [#FDA]; deputy health secretary; & head of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention [#CDC] — a leadership vacuum that observers say is unprecedented.
#Trump #nationalism #BrainDrain #medicine #science #research #PublicHealth #NIAID #WHO
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The #Trump admin issued the directive stopping individuals at the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases [#NIAID] from communicating with the #WHO.
The federal #health subagency was led for decades by Dr. #AnthonyFauci & oversaw developing treatments for #PublicHealth emergencies including #HIV / #AIDs & #COVID19.
#nationalism #BrainDrain #medicine #science #research #global #virus #InfectiousDisease
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The #Trump admin issued the directive stopping individuals at the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases [#NIAID] from communicating with the #WHO.
The federal #health subagency was led for decades by Dr. #AnthonyFauci & oversaw developing treatments for #PublicHealth emergencies including #HIV / #AIDs & #COVID19.
#nationalism #BrainDrain #medicine #science #research #global #virus #InfectiousDisease
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#Trump admin shutting key #US researchers out of #global #virus response talks, documents & sources reveal
Key officials responsible for leading US #research on #InfectiousDisease threats have been #barred from speaking directly with the #WorldHealthOrganization [#WHO] — effectively shutting some of them out of the global discussions on virus #outbreaks, according to documents & multiple sources.
#nationalism #BrainDrain #medicine #science #health #PublicHealth #NIAID
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/25/politics/global-virus-response-trump-administration -
#Trump admin shutting key #US researchers out of #global #virus response talks, documents & sources reveal
Key officials responsible for leading US #research on #InfectiousDisease threats have been #barred from speaking directly with the #WorldHealthOrganization [#WHO] — effectively shutting some of them out of the global discussions on virus #outbreaks, according to documents & multiple sources.
#nationalism #BrainDrain #medicine #science #health #PublicHealth #NIAID
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/25/politics/global-virus-response-trump-administration -
Brain Drain @ OpenAI continues.
Andrej Karpathy a founding member of OpenAI is joining Anthropic and will focus on building out Anthropic's pretraining research .... https://www.axios.com/2026/05/19/anthropic-openai-karpathy-andrej-claude #AI #Karpathy #Anthropic #OpenAI #BrainDrain #Pretraining #Claude #LLMs #FrontierAI
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Brain Drain @ OpenAI continues.
Andrej Karpathy a founding member of OpenAI is joining Anthropic and will focus on building out Anthropic's pretraining research .... https://www.axios.com/2026/05/19/anthropic-openai-karpathy-andrej-claude #AI #Karpathy #Anthropic #OpenAI #BrainDrain #Pretraining #Claude #LLMs #FrontierAI
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Pakistan raised Sualeh Asif. MIT and Silicon Valley kept him. Now he is a billionaire behind a $60B AI deal. His talent came from Karachi. The patents, jobs, and wealth went elsewhere. That is brain drain. Fix the system, not the people. #Pakistan #BrainDrain #AIStartups thedissidentvoice.org/2026/05/cursor-spacex-and-pakistans-brain-drain/
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Trump Slashed #Science Funding. Now the #US Could Face a Costly #BrainDrain.
The White House’s continued attacks on #academia and its funding cuts to scientific research have provided an opening for other countries to poach the type of researchers and #scientists who have helped make #America the world’s leader in medical and technology breakthroughs. That brain drain could be very costly for the U.S. economy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/business/dealbook/trump-brain-drain-academia.html
https://archive.ph/AcSbc -
Trump Slashed #Science Funding. Now the #US Could Face a Costly #BrainDrain.
The White House’s continued attacks on #academia and its funding cuts to scientific research have provided an opening for other countries to poach the type of researchers and #scientists who have helped make #America the world’s leader in medical and technology breakthroughs. That brain drain could be very costly for the U.S. economy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/business/dealbook/trump-brain-drain-academia.html
https://archive.ph/AcSbc -
Get Ready for More Brain-Scanning Consumer Gadgets
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Get Ready for More Brain-Scanning Consumer Gadgets
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"The first thing fascists come for are the intellectuals."
Yeah, that was me... years ago actually. But let's look at this from a different perspective.
The world embraces #BrainDrain from the #US. Now there will be even more jobs for true blue Americans, as the ones who know a thing or two about a thing or two eye property in France, Germany and the Nordics.
'More Destruction of Science': Trump Fires Every Member of US National Science Board | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-fires-national-science-board -
"The first thing fascists come for are the intellectuals."
Yeah, that was me... years ago actually. But let's look at this from a different perspective.
The world embraces #BrainDrain from the #US. Now there will be even more jobs for true blue Americans, as the ones who know a thing or two about a thing or two eye property in France, Germany and the Nordics.
'More Destruction of Science': Trump Fires Every Member of US National Science Board | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-fires-national-science-board -
RE: https://flipboard.com/@npr/politics-v8m4p3ukz/-/a-lyLNjQfRQJKEoDaSRVJTpw%3Aa%3A3195441-%2F0
Do U.S. voters realize the scale and cost of the 47th #POTUS's *drastic* #immigration "slow-walking"?
This backlog is bigger than ALL FOUR YEARS of the 45th POTUS's term.
It's stopped TONS of #science by removing work authorization from LOADS of #scientists who were ALREADY LEGALLY WORKING HERE FOR YEARS (e.g., when graduating Ph.D. #students or #postdocs have to transition to an H-1B #visa when OPT expires).
We had to halt multiple #decisionScience projects when a Research Project Manager completed their doctorate. Why? Because #USCIS simply isn't processing certain #OPT applications — and #H1B processing is much slower than normal times. In the past year, the #UnitedStates multiplied this loss of #innovation and #productivity by HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS! And with no detectable benefit to #security, etc.
Naturally, the highest-skilled foreign nationals are taking their skills to other countries, contributing to further #brainDrain from the #USA.
Incredible waste and inefficiency.
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RE: https://flipboard.com/@npr/politics-v8m4p3ukz/-/a-lyLNjQfRQJKEoDaSRVJTpw%3Aa%3A3195441-%2F0
Do U.S. voters realize the scale and cost of the 47th #POTUS's *drastic* #immigration "slow-walking"?
This backlog is bigger than ALL FOUR YEARS of the 45th POTUS's term.
It's stopped TONS of #science by removing work authorization from LOADS of #scientists who were ALREADY LEGALLY WORKING HERE FOR YEARS (e.g., when graduating Ph.D. #students or #postdocs have to transition to an H-1B #visa when OPT expires).
We had to halt multiple #decisionScience projects when a Research Project Manager completed their doctorate. Why? Because #USCIS simply isn't processing certain #OPT applications — and #H1B processing is much slower than normal times. In the past year, the #UnitedStates multiplied this loss of #innovation and #productivity by HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS! And with no detectable benefit to #security, etc.
Naturally, the highest-skilled foreign nationals are taking their skills to other countries, contributing to further #brainDrain from the #USA.
Incredible waste and inefficiency.
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This is one ugly face of #BrainDrain - a developer, part of the GNOME project, writes about how he wants to leave the US, what blocked and blocks this and what this will mean for a large number of projects he's involved in.
Nobody wins here. I hope he and his family is safe and he can find ways to make ends meet. I also hope the projects get by without him. But the "sole maintainer" list is pretty impressive - the sad fact is, that finding a new maintainer will be hard.
https://blogs.gnome.org/chergert/2026/02/06/mid-life-transitions/
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This is one ugly face of #BrainDrain - a developer, part of the GNOME project, writes about how he wants to leave the US, what blocked and blocks this and what this will mean for a large number of projects he's involved in.
Nobody wins here. I hope he and his family is safe and he can find ways to make ends meet. I also hope the projects get by without him. But the "sole maintainer" list is pretty impressive - the sad fact is, that finding a new maintainer will be hard.
https://blogs.gnome.org/chergert/2026/02/06/mid-life-transitions/
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"Trump Slashed Science Funding. Now the U.S. Could Face a Costly Brain Drain."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/business/dealbook/trump-brain-drain-academia.html"Last month, the Partnership for Public Service…estimated that 95,000 employees had departed federal science agencies from September 2024 to December 2025…To the rest of the world, the Trump administration’s cuts to science seem like an unbidden gift…Several are making sizable investments to attract American talent."
#BrainDrain #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
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"Trump Slashed Science Funding. Now the U.S. Could Face a Costly Brain Drain."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/business/dealbook/trump-brain-drain-academia.html"Last month, the Partnership for Public Service…estimated that 95,000 employees had departed federal science agencies from September 2024 to December 2025…To the rest of the world, the Trump administration’s cuts to science seem like an unbidden gift…Several are making sizable investments to attract American talent."
#BrainDrain #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
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Popular ‘healthy food’ was actually linked to faster brain decline, surprising experts
Talk about a brain drain. Several diets have been shown to have brain-boosting effects, from the Mediterranean diet’s gut-brain connectio…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanDiet #braindrain #braintissue #Cognitivedecline #DASHdiet #Foods #healthydiet #Mediterranean #minddiet
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2577586/popular-healthy-food-was-actually-linked-to-faster-brain-decline-surprising-experts-2/ -
Popular ‘healthy food’ was actually linked to faster brain decline, surprising experts
Talk about a brain drain. Several diets have been shown to have brain-boosting effects, from the Mediterranean diet’s gut-brain connectio…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanDiet #braindrain #braintissue #Cognitivedecline #DASHdiet #Foods #healthydiet #Mediterranean #minddiet
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2577586/popular-healthy-food-was-actually-linked-to-faster-brain-decline-surprising-experts-2/ -
Popular ‘healthy food’ was actually linked to faster brain decline, surprising experts https://www.diningandcooking.com/2577586/popular-healthy-food-was-actually-linked-to-faster-brain-decline-surprising-experts-2/ #BrainDrain #BrainTissue #CognitiveDecline #DASHDiet #Foods #HealthyDiet #Mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #MindDiet
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Popular ‘healthy food’ was actually linked to faster brain decline, surprising experts https://www.diningandcooking.com/2577586/popular-healthy-food-was-actually-linked-to-faster-brain-decline-surprising-experts-2/ #BrainDrain #BrainTissue #CognitiveDecline #DASHDiet #Foods #HealthyDiet #Mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #MindDiet
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Released 37 years ago today
Brain Drain, the eleventh studio album the Ramones, featuring the opening track I Believe In Miracles#punk #punks #punkrock #ramones #braindrain #history #punkrockhistory #otd
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Released 37 years ago today
Brain Drain, the eleventh studio album the Ramones, featuring the opening track I Believe In Miracles#punk #punks #punkrock #ramones #braindrain #history #punkrockhistory #otd
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37 years ago today
Brain Drain is the eleventh studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones, released on this day in 1989 includes the singles "Pet Sematary" and "I Believe in Miracles"#punk #punks #punkrock #ramones #braindrain #history #punkrockhistory #otd
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37 years ago today
Brain Drain is the eleventh studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones, released on this day in 1989 includes the singles "Pet Sematary" and "I Believe in Miracles"#punk #punks #punkrock #ramones #braindrain #history #punkrockhistory #otd
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CW: 🔞 mind control, cursed, references AI but not AI generated
good news! someone wants to drain your brain and have your mind under his total control.
bad news. it's Sam Altman :(
#MindControl #BrainDrain #cursed #OpenAI #SamAltman #AI #ChatGPT #kink #nsfw
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#usa #israel #iran : #warofaggression / #domesticpolicy
„[P]roblems that are … existential for Israel — its growing international #isolation, its #braindrain & economic woes, its tremendous domestic #polarization, its creeping annexation of the West#Bank, #Gaza’s instability, #Hamas’s future — all sit on the back burner. Victory over Iran would no doubt transform the country’s security prospects (…) But it will not be enough to mend the country’s deepest #divisions.“
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#usa #israel #iran : #warofaggression / #domesticpolicy
„[P]roblems that are … existential for Israel — its growing international #isolation, its #braindrain & economic woes, its tremendous domestic #polarization, its creeping annexation of the West#Bank, #Gaza’s instability, #Hamas’s future — all sit on the back burner. Victory over Iran would no doubt transform the country’s security prospects (…) But it will not be enough to mend the country’s deepest #divisions.“
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Your phone is eating your brain's RAM even when it's completely turned off. In Ep 5 of Antisocial Scientists, we tackle the "brain drain" effect, how your phone pushes you into lazy System 1 thinking , and why a smartwatch is basically "the vape of the smoking world".
Listen here: https://batcamp.org/podcast/incel-lular-attention/ -
Your phone is eating your brain's RAM even when it's completely turned off. In Ep 5 of Antisocial Scientists, we tackle the "brain drain" effect, how your phone pushes you into lazy System 1 thinking , and why a smartwatch is basically "the vape of the smoking world".
Listen here: https://batcamp.org/podcast/incel-lular-attention/ -
Hey, smart US people!
Come to Finland, get a tax break.
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So a government cancels research grants, slashes science budgets, restrict inflow of talented immigrants and what do you get?
A brain drain.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/19/trump-science-funding-cuts
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So a government cancels research grants, slashes science budgets, restrict inflow of talented immigrants and what do you get?
A brain drain.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/19/trump-science-funding-cuts
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France is attracting top US researchers by promising greater academic freedom after grant issues in the US.
🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00405-2
#AcademicFreedom #ResearchMobility #BrainDrain #SciencePolicy #France
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"Inconvenient truths need inconvenient truth-tellers. That is why the second Trump administration has worked hard to demean, discredit and even dismiss scientists. The bitter fruits of Trump’s war on science are plain to see. More than 10,000 workers with PhDs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and health left the federal workforce last year through firings, retirement and quitting. That is roughly three times the losses that happened in the final year of the Biden administration, recent analysis in the journal Science shows.
There were some new hires but across 14 agencies operating in sectors like health, weather and environment, the overall picture was a net exodus of more than 4,000 highly trained workers. That shrinking hinterland of scientific expertise is evident in recent pronouncements: the repeal of the “endangerment” ruling that greenhouse gases threaten human health, which underpins climate legislation; the downgrading of pandemic preparedness research by the health agency tasked with responding to infectious diseases; and the refusal by regulators this month to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine.
The decisions seem grounded less in science and more in Maga talking points, such as the imagined climate scam and the fiction that children receive too many vaccines. The result? US researchers are fleeing abroad in a reverse brain drain; pharma companies are publicly questioning future investments in the country; and the US now boasts the highest number of reported measles cases since the disease was eliminated in the country in 2000. When it comes to science, the White House could not have crafted a more effective America Last policy."
https://www.ft.com/content/853db09a-312b-466e-940e-9680ca31daa6
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"Inconvenient truths need inconvenient truth-tellers. That is why the second Trump administration has worked hard to demean, discredit and even dismiss scientists. The bitter fruits of Trump’s war on science are plain to see. More than 10,000 workers with PhDs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and health left the federal workforce last year through firings, retirement and quitting. That is roughly three times the losses that happened in the final year of the Biden administration, recent analysis in the journal Science shows.
There were some new hires but across 14 agencies operating in sectors like health, weather and environment, the overall picture was a net exodus of more than 4,000 highly trained workers. That shrinking hinterland of scientific expertise is evident in recent pronouncements: the repeal of the “endangerment” ruling that greenhouse gases threaten human health, which underpins climate legislation; the downgrading of pandemic preparedness research by the health agency tasked with responding to infectious diseases; and the refusal by regulators this month to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine.
The decisions seem grounded less in science and more in Maga talking points, such as the imagined climate scam and the fiction that children receive too many vaccines. The result? US researchers are fleeing abroad in a reverse brain drain; pharma companies are publicly questioning future investments in the country; and the US now boasts the highest number of reported measles cases since the disease was eliminated in the country in 2000. When it comes to science, the White House could not have crafted a more effective America Last policy."
https://www.ft.com/content/853db09a-312b-466e-940e-9680ca31daa6
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@jeneralist
We shall need a different model then.
Which might include States (eg those of Europe) not buying vaccines, but developing them and owning the result.
Perhaps some clever Americans might like to come and help. -
@jeneralist
We shall need a different model then.
Which might include States (eg those of Europe) not buying vaccines, but developing them and owning the result.
Perhaps some clever Americans might like to come and help. -
Commission for Doogin_Noogin on Discord feat his pal Nathan, he's hypnotising him oh no! Evil evil bunny and wolf mammal
#spaceRARt #whiterabbit #hypnosis #hypnotize #wolf #rainbow #braindrain -
Rethinking human resources for malaria control and elimination in Africa
The comprehensive policy review by Halima Mwenesi and colleagues “Rethinking human resources and capacity building needs for malaria control and elimination in Africa” argues that the stagnation in global malaria progress is fundamentally a human resources crisis rather than solely a biological or technical failure.
The authors posit that the current workforce is insufficient in number and ill-equipped with the necessary skills to navigate the complex transition from malaria control to elimination.
It is a critical indictment of the status quo in malaria training and offers a roadmap for structural reform.
This article summarizes key points from the policy review and examines how The Geneva Learning Foundation’s peer learning-to-action model could be used by national programmes to transform the health workforce.
The mismatch between training and operational needs
The authors identify a severe imbalance in training priorities where capacity building has historically favored biomedical and basic sciences such as entomology and parasitology.
While essential, this focus has led to a neglect of operational, translational, and implementation sciences.
The report highlights that while the global community produces high-level scientists who understand the parasite, it fails to produce “translational scientists” who can bridge the gap between global guidelines and local realities.
This has resulted, they argue, in a workforce lacking the practical competencies to operationalize complex elimination strategies that require precision and adaptation.
The deficit in leadership and social sciences
A major finding is the specific deficit in so-called “soft skills” and social sciences which are increasingly critical as programs move toward elimination.
The authors argue that modern malaria control requires competencies in leadership, health diplomacy, anthropology, sociology, and political analysis.
Program managers currently lack the training to navigate complex political landscapes, mobilize domestic resources, or engage effectively with communities to sustain interventions.
The review emphasizes that understanding community behavior and social determinants is as critical as understanding vector behavior but this is rarely reflected in curricula.
Data illiteracy and the failure of surveillance
The paper identifies pervasive “data illiteracy” across the workforce.
Health workers collect vast amounts of data to satisfy donor reporting requirements but often lack the skills to interpret or use it for local decision-making.
This results in a “data-rich but information-poor” environment.
As countries move toward elimination, the need for real-time, granular surveillance becomes paramount.
The current workforce is unable to perform the rapid data analysis required to detect and respond to outbreaks at the sub-national level.
Fragmentation and lack of coordination
The review critiques the fragmentation of investments in training, capacity-building, and technical assistance driven by donor agendas.
It notes a lack of coordination among donors and agencies which leads to a proliferation of uncoordinated short courses and workshops that do not necessarily align with national strategic plans.
This fragmentation is exacerbated by a lack of data on the workforce itself.
Many countries lack a central registry of malaria personnel which makes it impossible to forecast needs, plan for attrition, or manage career pathways.
The call for structural transformation
The authors call for a radical shift toward “South-South” collaboration where African institutions take the lead in training.
They advocate for moving away from ad hoc workshops toward institutionalized, long-term capacity building.
Crucially, they recommend the use of digital platforms to democratize access to knowledge for mid-level and community-based cadres who are often excluded from elite fellowships.
How can learning science help transform malaria training investments into tangible health worker performance?
For a global health epidemiologist accustomed to viewing disease control through the lens of biological interventions and coverage rates, the human resource crisis described by Mwenesi and colleagues represents a “delivery failure” of validated tools.
The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) learning science model functions as a structural intervention designed to repair broken delivery mechanisms in global health and humanitarian response.
The following analysis translates the TGLF approach into terms recognizable to an epidemiologist or program manager who operates with the assumption that training is primarily about the transmission of technical knowledge.
Moving from passive transmission to implementation fidelity
Epidemiologists understand that a vaccine with high efficacy in a trial often has low effectiveness in the real world due to poor administration or cold chain failure.
Similarly, Mwenesi et al. identify that technical malaria guidelines fail because the “human infrastructure” cannot implement them.
Traditional training assumes that if you lecture health workers on a protocol, which is a transmission of information, they will execute it.
This is a “single-loop” assumption.
The TGLF model introduces an “implementation loop.”
Instead of merely receiving information, learners in the TGLF network must design a micro-project to apply the new guideline in their specific district, execute it, and report back on the results using their own local data.
This turns the workforce from passive recipients of protocols into active testers of implementation fidelity.
It directly addresses the “translational science” gap identified in the paper by forcing the learner to translate theory into practice immediately.
Sceptics often argue that this approach places an undue burden on an already overworked workforce.
However, the TGLF model embeds learning into the workflow itself.
This is not additional work but rather “learning-based work.”
Participants do not create hypothetical projects.
They identify a bottleneck they are currently facing, such as a specific pocket of malaria transmission, and use the learning cycle to address it.
This transforms the training from an external interruption into an operational support mechanism.
By embedding learning into the workflow, it operationalizes Mwenesi’s call for translational science.
It considers the daily struggle of the health worker as a form of structured scientific inquiry: they hypothesize a solution, test it, and report the results.
This is implementation as science.
Operationalizing data use for local decision-making
Mwenesi notes that health workers collect data but do not use it.
In the TGLF model, data is not something sent “up” to the ministry.
It is the raw material for peer support and feedback.
In a TGLF peer learning exercise, a district medical officer in Ghana shares their case management data to compare performance with a peer in Uganda.
They share because they want to, not because they are required to.
This creates a social incentive to understand and analyze one’s own data.
It builds the “data literacy” the authors call for not through abstract statistics courses but through the practical necessity of explaining one’s own performance to a colleague.
This process transforms data from a compliance burden into a tool for local problem-solving.
Is there a risk that peer learning will pool ignorance?
Is there a valid concern regarding the risk of “pooled ignorance” where peers might reinforce incorrect practices?
The TGLF model mitigates this through “structured emergence.”
The model does not dismiss expert knowledge but uses global guidelines as the “anchor” for local problem-solving.
In this system, a health worker cannot simply state an opinion.
They must submit an action plan that is peer-reviewed against a rubric derived from WHO guidelines.
This process ensures fidelity to technical standards while allowing for necessary local adaptation.
The aggregation of thousands of these peer-reviewed plans creates a new form of rigorous, practice-based evidence that complements expert guidance.
Scaling “soft skills” through structured peer review
The review calls for leadership and diplomacy skills but notes these are hard to teach in workshops.
The TGLF model builds these skills implicitly through its pedagogical structure.
When a participant submits an action plan, they must receive and respond to critical feedback from peers in other countries.
They must negotiate differing viewpoints and defend their technical choices.
This mimics the “health diplomacy” and leadership dynamics required in real-world program management.
Furthermore, because they must engage community stakeholders to implement their projects, they practice the anthropological and social engagement skills Mwenesi identifies as missing.
They learn leadership not by studying a theory of leadership but by leading a change initiative in their facility.
While some experts argue that soft skills require “hard contact” in physical spaces, TGLF results suggest that physical proximity often limits a worker to their known environment and existing biases.
The TGLF model introduces a form of “cosmopolitan localism.”
When a nurse in rural Nigeria must explain her challenge to a peer in urban India, she is forced to articulate her context with a clarity and diplomacy not required when speaking to a neighbor.
This defiance of distance fosters a quantum leap in communication capabilities.
Participants report that the skills learned in negotiating these digital, cross-cultural peer relationships directly translate to better engagement with their physical-world colleagues and community leaders.
Addressing the incentive structure and correcting expertise asymmetry
The paper critiques the “brain drain” and the reliance on experts from the Global North.
TGLF operationalizes the “South-South” collaboration recommended by the authors by creating a flat digital hierarchy.
In this model, the “expert” is not a visiting consultant from Geneva but a peer who has successfully solved the problem in their own context.
A nurse in Nigeria learns how to improve bed net usage from a nurse in Kenya who solved that exact refusal issue last month.
This actually results in greater interest, comprehension, and use of official guidelines.
It also validates local knowledge and creates the “critical mass of thinking professionals” that Mwenesi argues is essential for elimination.
It shifts the source of authority from external experts to the collective intelligence of the network.
Transforming the economy of per diem
A common critique of moving away from face-to-face training is the reliance of health workers on per diems for financial survival.
Mwenesi implies that the current system is unsustainable.
The TGLF model operates on the evidence that per diem-driven training often restricts access to a “training aristocracy” of recurrent participants while excluding the frontline workers who most need the knowledge.
TGLF replaces the financial incentive with a professional survival incentive.
In the Nigeria Immunization Collaborative, over 4,300 health workers participated without per diems.
They did so because the program addressed the specific pain points of their daily work.
This filters the workforce for “positive deviants,” or those with high intrinsic motivation who are most likely to drive elimination efforts, rather than those primarily motivated by daily subsistence allowances.
A “surveillance system” for human resources and performance
Finally, the review notes the lack of registries and data on the workforce itself.
The TGLF digital network acts as a real-time sensor of workforce capacity.
By engaging thousands of health workers simultaneously, the platform generates data on who is active, what problems they are facing, and where their skills are deficient.
For an epidemiologist, this is equivalent to a surveillance system for human resources.
It provides the visibility needed to forecast gaps and target interventions precisely, replacing the “blind” proliferation of uncoordinated workshops with a data-driven approach to capacity building.
Regarding concerns that digital platforms fail in low-resource settings due to poor connectivity, TGLF utilizes a “cognitively quiet” design that functions on low-bandwidth connections and mobile devices.
This design respects the technological reality of the African context.
Data from the Teach to Reach program, which has engaged over 60,000 participants in remote, ongoing peer learning activities , demonstrates that when the technology is adapted to the user rather than the other way around, participation rates exceed those of physical workshops.
This scale allows for the identification of systemic patterns and workforce gaps that would be invisible in a smaller, face-to-face cohort.
Reference
Mwenesi, H., Mbogo, C., Casamitjana, N., Castro, M.C., Itoe, M.A., Okonofua, F., Tanner, M., 2022. Rethinking human resources and capacity building needs for malaria control and elimination in Africa. PLOS Glob Public Health 2, e0000210. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000210
Reda Sadki (2023). How do we reframe health performance management within complex adaptive systems?. Reda Sadki: Learning to make a difference. https://doi.org/10.59350/mx5qr-qet97
Reda Sadki (2024). Prioritizing the health and care workforce shortage: protect, invest, together. Reda Sadki: Learning to make a difference. https://doi.org/10.59350/zzqr4-9g482
Reda Sadki (2024). Protect, invest, together: strengthening health workforce through new learning models. Reda Sadki: Learning to make a difference. https://doi.org/10.59350/g24b4-7fj64
Reda Sadki (2024). What is double-loop learning in global health?. Reda Sadki: Learning to make a difference. https://doi.org/10.59350/s4xtw-b7274
Reda Sadki (2024). World Malaria Day 2024: We need new ways to support health workers leading change with local communities. Reda Sadki: Learning to make a difference. https://doi.org/10.59350/yrn1r-hpz62
#brainDrain #cosmopolitanLocalism #dataQualityAndUse #doubleLoopLearning #HalimaMwenesi #healthWorkerMotivation #healthWorkerPerformance #healthWorkforce #HRH #implementationScience #leadership #learningStrategy #learningBasedWork #localization #malaria #peerLearning #performance #softSkills #TeachToReach #translationalScience -
US grant applicants surge at prestigious European research agency, ERC.
The surge in demand could be another sign that a brain drain might be underway out of the US.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00362-w?utm_source=x&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nature&linkId=48226551 #Science #BrainDrain #Trump
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From Jan 7
Faculty at #TexasAM #University were told this week that roughly 200 courses in the #College of Arts & Sciences could be affected by a new system policy restricting classroom discussions of #race & #gender, the implementation of which has already led administrators to direct a #philosophy professor to remove #Plato readings from a core course.#law #AcademicFreedom #FirstAmendment #BrainDrain #education #FarRight #racism #sexism #heterosexism #USpol #idiocracy
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/07/texas-am-race-gender-courses/ -
#TexasAM Ends #WomensStudies & Overhauls Classes Over #Race & #Gender
[this on top of the bizarre ban on the #philosophy department from teaching #Plato — seriously]
New policies limiting the teaching of race & gender issues led administrators & professors to change hundreds of courses. #School leaders say the rules could hurt A&M’s reputation. [ya think?]
#BrainDrain #college #university #education #FarRight #extremism #racism #sexism #heterosexism #USpol #idiocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/us/texas-am-gender-ethnic-womens-studies-academic-freedom.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share