I found out that the Netherlands has been running a Covid-19 infection survey continuously since October 2020!

Let’s have a look!

1/

I have been thinking recently about communication styles, particularly between autistic and neurotypical people, because I see a lot of videos from autistic people in my social media about how NTs frequently interpret them as rude or sarcastic due to a flat tone of voice or what they say. 1/

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

Inaugural recording @lshtm.bsky.social now online.

Thanks to collaborators across years & around world who made it possible.

Thanks to participants who have taken part in all our studies.

Most importantly love & thanks to @sarahvmarks.bsky.social who has supported me through good times & bad.

Now peer reviewed! "Probability of Extinction and Peak Time for Multi-Type Epidemics with Application to COVID-19 Variants of Concern" - we find a mathematically tractable approximation for the distribution of times to die out / peak for new COVID variants.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I really wish people would be clear what they mean when they say things like "lockdowns work" or "NPIs don't work". It is pretty clear, I think, that stopping people from seeing each other reduces cases of an infectious disease during that measure. In that sense they have the effect we expect. 1/2

On International Women's day, maybe a good time to highlight the UK's current chief scientist who was also particularly inspirational during COVID.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

When I become King all boundaries will be fixed & the NHS will be forced to follow administrative structures. Any organisation trying to create a new set of geographies for its own ends will be abolished. Milton Keynes will be placed in the South East and Glossop in Derbyshire and that will be that.

Are you London ID trainee post-PhD & interested in an ACL. May be able to create posts in 2025. Opportunities in Syphilis & STIs (UK & Global), Group A Strep (Global), Leishmaniasis & NTDs. If interested get in touch. @gpollara.bsky.social @drneilstone.bsky.social @thushan-desilva.bsky.social

This is a very big problem, that we need to discuss...
As a non-native English speaker I find AI tools help a lot in making my writing sound much more like proper English.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

ICYMI our paper from earlier this year where we used census data to estimate a household contact matrix for Aotearoa New Zealand.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

UKHSA hiring a Deputy Director of Modelling: www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...

#TropMed24 @dndi.bsky.social Sleeping sickness trials are amazing.

Original NECT RCT www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Fexinidazole RCT & paediatric studies
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Now acoziborole 1 dose treatment!!
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
2/n

The UK government has ambitious plans for a National Data Library, and a lot of the important technical choices remain to be made.

Together with Wellcome, ESRC is running a Technical White Paper challenge to invite proposals for how to make it work best - more below!

wellcome.org/what-we-do/o...

Pleased to share this preprint on Yaws transmission dynamics following mass azithromycin administration, led by Amber Barton www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Following MDA campaign, we sequenced >half of infections, showing recrudescence driven by existing lineages & persistence linked to key SNPs.

Obligatory "dipping my toes in BlueSky" post *waves at everyone* 👋