Jonathan Dushoff
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jdushoff.bsky.social
Jonathan Dushoff
@jdushoff.bsky.social
1K followers 140 following 300 posts
Theoretical biologist, recreational mathematician, anti-fascist*.

* I had planned not to be political here, but when circumstances change, decisions sometimes have to change.
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jdushoff.bsky.social
joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/not-all-wa...

from @joshuasweitz.bsky.social
Screen grab from the substack post, focused on the bolded phrase: “I began to wonder whether the title was a hidden signal that this book was actually part of the war, with essayists carefully chosen to wage a battle against science, scientists, and institutions in need of a comeuppance so that higher education and science can get back to the classics (aka the good old days).”
October 9, 2025 at 2:55 AM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Working with @rowandurrant.bsky.social on ways to visualize the amino-acid table and better understand viral evolution.

We started with a two-by scheme for nucleotides (small square), where bond partners are horizontally adjacent and transition-connected nts are vertically adjacent.

1/8
A blackboard with a drawing in several colors of chalk showing 16 squares, some subdivided, with one-letter abbreviations for amino acids and other annotations. Above is a small white square divided in four, showing ATCG (clockwise from upper left). More description provided in the thread.
September 30, 2025 at 6:53 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
September 21, 2025 at 8:10 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
This cartoon from October 1953 reminds me of something. Or someone.
Peanuts cartoon strip Panel 1: Patty and Violet are smiling at Charlie Brown, who says "Go ahead! Make fun of me! You just wait. Panel 2: Charlie Brown shakes his fist in foreground, girls play in background. He says "Someday I'll get to be President, and then you'll all be sorry!" Panel 3: Girls say in unison: "I'll say we will!" Panel 4: Charlie Brown walks down the sidewalk saying "Somehow that didn't come out right."
September 15, 2025 at 1:38 AM
jdushoff.bsky.social
An "dynamic" workshop with an exciting group in a fun place!

docs.google.com/document/d/e...
A screenshot of a flyer with a picture of Muizenberg beach with changing sheds in the foreground and the Cape of Good Hope in the background; some text information similar to the information in the link; and logos from SACEMA and ICI3D.
September 8, 2025 at 3:20 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Mike Roswell made a poster, with weitz-group.bsky.social, based on a really cool result about SIR models. There's more work to be done here, too!

Poster at drive.google.com/file/d/1Wk5B..., and proof supplement at github.com/mikeroswell/...
Figure in the upper left-hand corner of the attached pdf. Text available there. It shows two very-similar frequency plots of case reproductive number, labeled respectively R0=2 and R0=8
September 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM
jdushoff.bsky.social
It was also a fun opportunity to develop some speculative ideas about pandemic threats. github.com/dushoff/dise...
Screenshot of a slide titled “Dynamic approaches”. It shows: a schematic diagram of an SEIR compartmental model with a dashed blue line from the I compartment to the line from S to E; a time-series plot titled SIR disease, N=100,000" with a blue deterministic and a red stochastic curve tracing an oscillating epidemic outbreak; and text bullets reading “Use dynamical mechanisms to tie things together” and “New infections are caused by infected people”.
August 26, 2025 at 8:13 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Had an excellent time at this bioAsia event. I had no idea how big a deal exosomes and other extracellulal vesicles were. It was also fun to be grouped, even temporarily, with Dr. Buzás and Dr. Ochiya.
A flyer advertising a symposium in Nangang, Taipei on 27 Jul 2025, with invited speakers Prof. Jonathan Dushoff Prof. Takahiro Ochiya, and Prof. Edit Buzás.
August 26, 2025 at 8:05 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Not sure why the picture didn't show from link. Here's a static version (from that source).
A water dispenser with a sign saying "CAUTION! 60°C" in big letters, with smaller text in English and Japanese.
August 24, 2025 at 8:22 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
This hyphen from #CIHR really upsets me. That's normal, right?
Screenshot of proposal instructions, reading: __Your research proposal should stand-alone__ (i.e., it should contain a complete description of your project and all the information required to support your research plan, without any hyperlinks) The page limits for a research proposal are:
August 24, 2025 at 3:52 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Help me out here. @matloff.bsky.social is an obviously accomplished human with a big reputation. I feel like I must be missing something. I am not even sure whether he thinks the answer he already gave is “yes” or “no”. bsky.app/profile/matl...
A screenshot of the linked conversation, focusing on the part where Jonathan Dushoff asks twice for the name of an expert who is against MMR, and Norm Matloff (你有冇諗清楚呀?)‬'s reponses.
August 23, 2025 at 10:19 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
My statistical philosophy slides from the NCTS course on Infectious Disease modeling github.com/dushoff/stat...
A chart showing six qualitatively confidence intervals, compared to a zero point and positive and negative "cutoffs". The respective inferences about a hypothetical effect could be described as "Large and positive", "Positive", "Small and positive", "Small", "Not (large and positive", "Nothing ruled out", but the chart describes the top three as "Different" and the next three as "Not different".
August 20, 2025 at 2:18 AM
jdushoff.bsky.social
These numbers in fact came out in August 15, and helped Trump win. Which didn't stop him from complaining about, um, something, at the time as well.
A social meda post from @realDonaldTrump: In my opinion today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad --- Just like when they had three great days around the 2024 Presidential Election, and then, those numbers were "taken away" on November 15, 2024, right after the Election, when the Jobs Numbers were massively revised DOWNWAR, making a correction of over 818,000 Jobs --- A TOTAL SCAM. Jerome "Too Late" Powell is no better! But, the good news is, our Country is doing GREAT!
August 2, 2025 at 7:30 AM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Modeling effects of population heterogeneity on disease spread. #OpenAccess in JTB, with Jeremy Harris , Esther Gallmeier, @beckettstephen.bsky.social and
@joshuasweitz.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...
Figure 5 from the linked paper. It has four panels, and kind of looks nice, and is best described by the paper text and figure caption.
August 1, 2025 at 2:13 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
My dynamical modeling slides from the NCTS course on Infectious Disease modeling github.com/dushoff/dise...
A graph of HIV prevalence vs. Year, showing prevalence increasing rapidly from 1990-1998, then slowly until 2010. A curve follows closely the increasing portion, then shoots off the top of the graph. Text at the top reads R0=5.66
July 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Very impressed by the students at our workshop on Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of Infectious Diseases at the the National Center for Theoretical Science at National Taiwan University last week. dushoff.github.io/Planning/nts...
A screenshot of the linked document, showing the workshop title (English and Chinese), an NCTS logo, and some artistic, unconnected gears.
July 28, 2025 at 2:14 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Sure. Except that I'm not early, you don't know whether the organizer is going to let me in or not, and writing "Hey Jonathan!" with an exclamation point and no comma definitely looks like you're yelling at me, whereas "Hey, Jonathan" (with or without "!") would look like a greeting.
Image from Microsoft Teams with the message: Hey Jonathan! You're early. The organizer will let you in when the meeting starts.
May 28, 2025 at 2:42 AM
jdushoff.bsky.social
This is the coolest thing ever. I honestly think that they should #DissolveThePremierLeague just to preserve this pattern. #FibonacciForever.

From iflscience.com/fibonacci-se...
A list of English Premier League title winners (clubs). The list is sorted numerically, from Blackburn with 1 win to Man U with 13, and forms a perfect Fibonacci sequence.
April 30, 2025 at 3:41 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
Getting excited about #MMED2025. We are unfortunately not able to accept open applications this year, but hope to resume that for next year. Materials online at www.ici3d.org/MMED/
A photo of a False Bay beach with multi-colored changing sheds in the foreground and mountains in the background. The text reads: MMED 2025 Clinic on the Meaningful Modelling of Epidemiological Data 16-27 June Muizenberg, South Africa MMED is a 2‐week clinic on data‐driven, dynamical models of disease spread and the application of these models to answer public health questions Unfortunately, this year we are unable to accept any applications as the clinic is already at capacity, but we hope to welcome applications in future editions Learn more, stay up to date and view material at https://www.ici3d.org/MMED/
April 25, 2025 at 5:38 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
In the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: "Better that 100 innocents be punished than that a narcissist lose face with the 'Cool Dictator'".
Screenshot of a tweet from @WhiteHouse, reading: SATURDAY WORDS OF WISDOM ✨ If he tattoos like MS-13, beats women like MS-13, and tramples the law like MS-13—THEN HE’S PROBABLY MS-13.
April 21, 2025 at 8:56 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
We expect -- and the law requires -- all cabinet secretaries to demonstrate their eligibility every day that they serve their country. This includes putting their duty above their personal beliefs, and their loyalty to the Republic above their loyalty to the president.
April 16, 2025 at 1:28 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
No protests above the fold at #NYTimes!
Screenshot of the top of the New York Times web site for the morning of Sun 6 Apr. There is a large photo of Trump in front of the White House holding up a fist, and headlines that all focus on tariffs. The top headline reads "U.S. Tariffs Will Wound Free Trade, but the Blow May Not Be Fatal".
April 6, 2025 at 1:30 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
I'm not a Christian, and I don't agree with most of this*, but I thought it was interesting enough to post.

It would be interesting to get perspectives from supporters and detractors of Trump who see things through a Christian lens.
Apparently a picture of a flyer. At top is a medieval-looking picture with a king-looking person in the center and a spirit in the clouds above him. There are also some other people, trees, a bird, and some less-clear objects. The picture credit reads "Image licensed by Wellcome Images". The title below reads "Wake up, Christians!" The main text reads: Trump is the literal antiChrist. The. Literal. AntiChrist. When he was asked, “is that your Bible”, he answered, “it’s a Bible”. It was burning his hand, through his glove!, and preventing him from lying about it. Ask yourself: why does a man who literally flaunts all seven of the deadly sins have so many Christian followers? Because he’s targeting Christians! Because subverting Christians is his main goal. He is using your pride, your hatred, your Original Sin against you. Christendom needs to stand against the antiChrist. Christians will be the salvation of the world. Or not. Ask yourself: does Trump remind you of Jesus? Jesus is love, patience, forgiveness. The more influential Jesus became, the more humble he became! Remind you of anyone? In reverse?? The antiChrist! Wake the “hell” up. Before we literally cede victory to the forces of Hell!
March 23, 2025 at 9:31 PM
jdushoff.bsky.social
I have a very nice Phillies cap in Hebrew. Last summer, I was like, "Of course I'm going to wear it: MAGA doesn't own the idea of red hats; people who think all Jews are anti-Palestinian can kiss my tuchus; and so can the hard-core anti-Semites."

Now, it all hits different. #ThanksClownStick
March 20, 2025 at 2:27 AM
jdushoff.bsky.social
The notice at the top hits different now. #ScaryTimes
The upper left-hand corner of the PubMed web site. The notice has a small US-flag icon and text beginning "An official website of the United States government"
March 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM