#epidemiology — Public Fediverse posts

Avoiding areas thought to be disease hotspots may actually make outbreaks worse if local case reporting is incomplete. New research involving #WorldPop scientists reveals how travel behaviour can distort health data and hide disease risks, especially in rural areas. Better local reporting could save lives.

https://www.worldpop.org/blog/why-staying-away-from-infection-hotspots-can-backfire/

#GlobalHealth #PublicHealth #Epidemiology #GeoHealth #DiseaseSurveillance

What is the future of nutritional epidemiology?

Open Access
doi.org/10.59717/j.x...

#Nutrition #Diet #Epidemiology #health #aging #food

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:uqeu4u5bjwieganft5z42pkk/post/3muuetkyaas2m

Challenges, advances and futur...

Researchers have identified a new set of rapidly spreading genetic variants in malaria parasites that significantly reduce their susceptibility to the most common front-line antimalarial treatments.
#Genetics #Genomics #Parasitology #Pharmacology #Epidemiology #InfectiousDiseases #PublicHealth #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/gen08172601.html

New paper out in @[email protected]

Children born during the pandemic were exposed to a lesser degree to respiratory infections, we have investigated what happened to them.

#episky #idsky #publichealth #epidemiology

Post-pandemic respiratory infe...

Echinococcus multilocularis, commonly known as the fox tapeworm, is a zoonotic parasite recently established in the Pacific Northwest that causes a severe, potentially fatal disease known as alveolar echinococcosis in humans and other accidental hosts.
#Parasitology #VeterinaryPathology #Epidemiology #ZoonoticDiseaseDynamics
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/06/vet06302601.html

Toxoplasmosis is a widespread parasitic infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii, which affects approximately one-third of the global population and can cause severe ocular and neurological damage.
#Parasitology #Ophthalmology #Epidemiology #PublicHealth #Cats #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/06/epi06252601.html

A Path to Impact: Careers in Population Health https://www.byteseu.com/2101986/ #AssistantDeanOfEducationAndProfessorOfGlobalHealthUnm #epidemiology #Health #HealthEducation #LauraBNellums #NewMexico #PopHealthUnm #PopulationHealthCareers #Research #SarahBlake #UNMCollegeOfPopulationHealth #UNMCOPH #UNMPublicHealth

State-level #abortion bans have inadvertently degraded the quality of medical care for miscarriages, driving a reduction in evidence-based clinical interventions.
#Obstetrics #Gynecology #PublicHealth #ReproductiveMedicine #Epidemiology #Medical #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/05/med05182601.html

We Now Know How Many People the CDC Is Monitoring for Hantavirus

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/how-many-people-cdc-is-monitoring-for-hantavirus/

Parasitology is the scientific study of parasites, their hosts, and the intricate biochemical, physiological, and ecological relationships between them.
#Parasitology #Biology #Ecology #Epidemiology #Medical #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/05/cat05032602.html

#Epidemiology of #HMPV and Other Respiratory Viral #Infections Among #Outpatients, 2016–2022, https://etidiohnew.blogspot.com/2026/03/epidemiology-of-hmpv-and-other.html

#Antibiotic treatments can alter the composition and diversity of the #bacterial community in the #gastrointestinal tract, known as the gut microbiome, with measurable disruptions persisting for four to eight years after a single course of treatment.
#Epidemiology #Microbiology #Pharmaceutical #Medical #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/mcb03112601.html

Interesting paper about the impact of missed cases on the accuracy of screening tools, likely of interest beyond autism research and practice communities.

I enjoyed in particular, that "[t]he strengths and benefits of blending epidemiology and psychometric perspectives to identify screening tools that are weaker than expected are discussed."

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpas0001445

#Psychometrics #PsychometricEpidemiology #Epidemiology

Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)

I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.

I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.

The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.

To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.

I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.

Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.

ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.

Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.

However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.

Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.

Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.

It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.

Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.

Human-to-primate transmission (Parasitology 🧬)

Human-to-primate transmission is a seldom-remarked epidemiologic vector. It is by definition a cross-species transmission vector.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-to-primate_transmission

#HumanToPrimateTransmission #Serology #Zoonoses #Epidemiology #Parasitology #PublicHealth

Preparing for the Next Pandemic https://hackaday.com/2025/05/02/preparing-for-the-next-pandemic/ #infectiousdiseases #contacttracing #MedicalHacks #epidemiology #medicine #pandemic #birdflu #Disease #flu

Preparing for the Next Pandemic - While the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t an experience anyone wants to repeat, infection... - https://hackaday.com/2025/05/02/preparing-for-the-next-pandemic/ #infectiousdiseases #contacttracing #medicalhacks #epidemiology #medicine #pandemic #birdflu #disease #flu

A deadly, drug-resistant fungus that preys on the sick and old is continuing to spread in hospitals and senior care facilities across the country, killing more than 1 in 3 infected. Candida auris, a type of yeast that can cause life-threatening illness, was first identified in the U.S. in 2016 with 52 infections reported across the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of cases has more than doubled annually, hitting 4,514 in 2023, the latest year the CDC has data available. #PublicHealth #epidemiology #CAuris #FungusInfection #hospitals #NosocomialInfection

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-03-27/deadly-drug-resistant-fungus-cdc-calls-urgent-threat-is-spreading-in-hospitals

#COVID on the Floor Linked to Outbreaks on Two Hospital Wards https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/covid-floor-linked-outbreaks-two-hospital-wards-2024a1000jzp #InfectionControl #Epidemiology

Help! I got ranty again.

#angry #publicHealth #epidemiology #sociology #groupPsychology #language #communication #comms #PublicationEthics #intersectionality #OtherPeopleAreNotYou #cognitiveBias #CognitiveBiases #YouAreNotImmuneToPropaganda #YouCouldBeWrong #YouCanBeWrong #IcanBeWrong #AnyoneCanBeWrong

Research finds strong support for cell phone app-based contract tracing for COVID-19 in both the US and Europe across all population subgroups, irrespective of regional COVID-19 mortality rates.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32759102

#NICHDImpact #COVID19 #App #ContactTracing #Epidemiology #PublicHealth

This summer program is taught by some of the most wonderful faculty ⁦@YaleSPH‬⁩ has to offer. It’s a whirlwind introduction to mathematical modeling, decision science and cost effectiveness. A superb opportunity to learn from the best. #epidemiology #modeling #decisionscience #publicheath #epiverse https://ysph.yale.edu/school-of-public-health/continuing-education/public-health-modeling/

Have you ever had a weak positive test for West Nile #virus only to test negative on a subsequent test?

One recurring problem with #epidemiology of #flavivirus #InfectiousDisease is that antibody tests for one flavivirus happen to be highly crossreactive with other flaviviruses.

That is a problem addressed in:

"Co-Circulation of West Nile, Usutu, and Tick-Borne Encephalitis Viruses in the Same Area: A Great Challenge for Diagnostic and Blood and Organ Safety"
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/15/2/366
@virology

I don't know whether this applies to anyone else in the world other than me but I've found that I suppress my cough reflex in public these days. #COVID of course and that's a problem since respiratory transmission of any virus isn't optimal but as I understand it chronic suppression of a cough can be problematic for some people; #LadyWindermereSyndrome (to coin a hashtag potentially) https://radiopaedia.org/articles/lady-windermere-syndrome?lang=us I wonder whether this is happening...

#pulmonary #lung #epidemiology #respiratory

I don't know whether this applies to anyone else in the world other than me but I've found that I suppress my cough reflex in public these days. #COVID of course and that's a problem since respiratory transmission of any virus isn't optimal but as I understand it chronic suppression of a cough can be problematic for some people; #LadyWindermereSyndrome (to coin a hashtag potentially) https://radiopaedia.org/articles/lady-windermere-syndrome?lang=us I wonder whether this is happening...

#pulmonary #lung #epidemiology #respiratory

I don't know whether this applies to anyone else in the world other than me but I've found that I suppress my cough reflex in public these days. #COVID of course and that's a problem since respiratory transmission of any virus isn't optimal but as I understand it chronic suppression of a cough can be problematic for some people; #LadyWindermereSyndrome (to coin a hashtag potentially) https://radiopaedia.org/articles/lady-windermere-syndrome?lang=us I wonder whether this is happening...

#pulmonary #lung #epidemiology #respiratory

I don't know whether this applies to anyone else in the world other than me but I've found that I suppress my cough reflex in public these days. #COVID of course and that's a problem since respiratory transmission of any virus isn't optimal but as I understand it chronic suppression of a cough can be problematic for some people; #LadyWindermereSyndrome (to coin a hashtag potentially) https://radiopaedia.org/articles/lady-windermere-syndrome?lang=us I wonder whether this is happening...

#pulmonary #lung #epidemiology #respiratory

I trained as a child psychologist and statistician. I am a professor of #Epidemiology & #Psychiatry at #uOttawa, where I study #child and #adolescent #populationhealth and #mental_health.

I am also a #cancer patient #writing in the first person about the #end_of_life. Please subscribe at https://billgardner.substack.com/.

Oh hey… adding some hashtags to my timeline. My interests as a dull list: #chemistry #bioinformatics #ai #ml #Proteindesign #biologics #epidemiology #immunology #aviation #stem #proteinstructure #biomanufacturing #software #chemometrics #stemjobs #drugdiscovery #drugmanufacturing