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Tara C. Smith

@aetiology.bsky.social
34K followers 3K following 6.5K posts

Collector of social media sites. Infectious disease epidemiologist. Writes about vaccine hesitancy, science misinfo, zombies. Probably somewhere on a trail. Views own etc.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Tara C. Smith
Amy Diehl, Ph.D. @amydiehl.bsky.social · 2h
Study of 10,000 faculty finds women leave academia because they feel pushed out, not pulled toward another opportunity. Analysis of 6,615 comments showed a gender gap of feeling devalued: 41% of women vs 18% of men. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
For women academics, feeling devalued can be a fatal career blow
Thousands shared their stories for a new study of faculty attrition
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Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
'Exactly 50 years ago on Sunday, Dr. Piot and two others became the first people to get a look at the culprit: a large, spindly virus that would turn out to be among the most terrifying pathogens nature can produce.' www.nytimes.com/2026/10/12/u...
nytimes.com
He Helped Discover Ebola 50 Years Ago. He’s Still Worried.
In an interview, Dr. Peter Piot recalled when he first saw the spindly virus under a microscope and reflected on a five-decade career spent fighting two deadly pathogens.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Where were folks like you in third grade? 😀
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
It was! Luckily my teacher was totally into it but other kids, less so.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
But also in kindergarten I realized I had no idea how to carry on normal chit chat. My (super extroverted) cousin was in the same class and it boggled my mind how she just knew what to say/ask to others.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Third grade. My uncle worked as a meat inspector and got me a pig brain and heart to take in for show & tell. Which I transported in my Holly Hobby lunchbox as one does. Apparently that wasn't a normal thing for an 8 year old to be interested in.
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Dr. Tom Frieden @drtomfrieden.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
CDC just closed offices in Angola and South Sudan. Zimbabwe is next; a dozen more may follow. CDC staff overseas support countries to find outbreaks early and stop them before they reach us. Decisions have consequences. Lives will be lost, including American lives. bit.ly/4B5n6uG
beckershospitalreview.com
CDC closes 2 offices in Africa as Trump ties health aid to deals: Politico
CDC closes offices Africa as State Department ties foreign health aid to country-specific agreements under the Trump administration.
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Jonathan Wosen @jonathanwosen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Helen Branswell has been a shining example of truth-telling, decency, and rationality at a time when those qualities are in desperately short supply. We're all going to miss her at @statnews.com so much, and I know many others will, too. www.statnews.com/2026/10/13/h...
statnews.com
Helen Branswell, whose reporting on infectious diseases and public health drew acclaim, dies at 69
Helen Branswell, STAT's infectious disease reporter who earned the respect of experts and public health officials with her accessible, prescient dispatches, has died at age 69.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 13/10/2026
I don't use GenAI because I want to be capable of doing my work. I want my work to be my work. I want my successes to be *my* successes. And I want to do the work that I can only do if I don't have GenAI getting in my way. Each author and intellectual should have this conversation with themselves.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Sherri Tenpenny made about $250k teaching just one antivax online course.
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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Important Context has a new story published in partnership with @theguardian.com. Anti-vaxxers, including Robert Kennedy Jr.’s former group, Children’s Health Defense, have been going after doctors professionally to cast doubt on measles deaths. www.importantcontext.news/anti-vaxxers...
importantcontext.news
Anti-Vaxxers Target Doctors to Deny Measles Deaths in Widening Outbreak
Children’s Health Defense boasts that it sparked malpractice inquiries into two doctors who treated deceased unvaccinated measles patients.
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Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Some people really love Gillis and I’m still formulating why (not because he’s funny) but I think it’s because they think he’s some sort of truth teller in a Woke world. “No one else is saying women are whores for their clothing choice” is just not true tho. Scumbags say it all the time
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Kevin Ault @kevinault.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Thanks to @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social for pointing out the misinformation about COVID vaccines currently on the CDC's website. I am highlighting the pregnancy and lactation changes here. We have hundreds of studies to answer about the safety and effectiveness - #MedSky + #ObGynSky + #ReproSky.
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Isabel, booonyavirus wonk @isabelott.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Hey, this is that “study” that was previously cancelled after outcry at how monstrously unethical it was. It’s sentencing the poorest kids on earth to die of completely preventable liver cancer for white antivaxxers’ curiosity. How a medical doctor could co-sign this atrocity is beyond me.
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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
This isn’t a “controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr,” this is “playing with the lives of vulnerable infants in a developing nation, which is being pushed by malicious grifters who couldn’t care less about the innocent lives they hurt.”
theguardian.com
Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bissau
Recommended dose of hepatitis B vaccine will be withheld from thousands of newborns by Danish researchers
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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“The children who are randomly selected not to receive the birth dose of the vaccine, those who “lost the lottery”, face in their earliest days the risk of contracting hepatitis B, which can cause irreversible lifelong damage.” No words. I am speechless. This violates all ethical boundaries.
theguardian.com
Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bissau
Recommended dose of hepatitis B vaccine will be withheld from thousands of newborns by Danish researchers
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Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Discussed here
sciencebasedmedicine.org
Jay Bhattacharya, October 2020: “Let People Face the Risk of the Disease.”
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya sought to spread a deadly pathogen. Does he belong in the HHS Hall of Heroes with legends who tried to contain them?
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Big Bird Sings 'One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other'
Alt: Big Bird Sings 'One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other'
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Any additions besides Bhattacharya?
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Anyone seen who is included in Kennedy's "dissident scientist hall of fame?"
RFK Jr. announces that HHS has created a new “Hall of Heroes” honoring dissident scientists who stood up against outside forces and ultimately were proven right.

Including scientists who challenged the narrative during COVID.

“We just launched in this building a Hall of Heroes.”

“It has all of these dissident scientists who were right and stood up for science, including some from COVID.”

“We have portraits of all of them.”

“And it’s to inspire the people in this building that if you’re told to do something that you know is wrong, don’t do it.”
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
My kids have measles, I can’t afford diesel, I lost my job, and my country just lost a war to Iran. But at least now I can watch firing squad executions on TV.
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Today I gave a talk at the NIH on "Virus Emergence & The Origin of Pandemics". I had a fun time presenting on five+ years of collaborative research and got a lot of great questions! The NIH Director even found time to tweet about it.. 💫 Slides for those interested: andersen-lab.com/files/2026.1...
Virus Emergence & The Origin of Pandemics
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It is unacceptable that public officials in charge of our health are not commenting on this. “Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment about the initiative. A spokesman for Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H. director, declined comment.”
nytimes.com
RFK Jr. Plans Vaccine Injury Initiative, Drawing Wary Eye From Experts
Vaccine safety experts say more research into the side effects would be welcome yet question whether the health secretary’s effort will be grounded in science.
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Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
People do not understand how men who are white supremacists can have wives who are women of color and I need folks to realize that those men see their wives as subordinate property and not equals. These men are foaming at the mouth to bring back quadroon balls.
Screencap from Invincible: "I do love your mother, but she's more like a pet to me."
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no, not that one @thatdosbox.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
From the MIT obituary: "She also proposed a software fix to prevent the error happening during a real mission, but she was overruled on the grounds that the highly trained astronauts were never going to make that same mistake. Yet during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, that’s exactly what happened"
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Nature @nature.com · 07/10/2026
None of this year's science Nobel Prizes have gone to women. The number of these prizes to go to women remains at 27 out of more than 600. See how many you can name in our quiz: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yep. Article mentions that because it includes tariffs.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Ioniq3 that we won't get.
engadget.com
Hyundai's all-electric hot hatch goes on sale in the UK, starting at around $25,000 - Engadget
Hyundai has no plans to bring the Ioniq 3 to the US, unfortunately.
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Mindy Weisberger @laminda.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
With spooky season upon us AND free shipping from @bookshop.org for Anti-Prime (Oct 6 & 7), now is a great time to nab a copy of my book Rise of the Zombie Bugs! You'll meet the victims of nature's tiniest neuroscientists—zombifying fungi, wasps, flies, viruses, worms 🧟‍♀️ bookshop.org/p/books/rise...
A book cover showing illustrations of fungally-zombified ants surrounding the title "Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind-Control" by Mindy Weisberger
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I also like the Niro but they're taking away that as an EV to make room for the EV3.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yeah. My Fit got smashed by a tree in 2021 so my current car is only 5 years old/70,000 miles. I generally drive mine into the ground so likely won't be looking for a bit.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
*Hyundai damn it
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I loved my Fit and would 100% buy a Bolt if I was in the market, but looks like I won't get the chance. Hyyndai's new EV hatchback also won't be sold in the US. All the shit I'd buy just goes to Europe.
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🇲🇽🕷️rustbelt rebel🕷️🇲🇽 @rustbeltrebel.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
And at least 50 pregnant people with measles infecting their babies. And at least two dying.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
You are a saint.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
YEP
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Right?
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Apparently so? Never heard of her until today.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I mean, I've read Kennedy's shit, The River, so many creationism and "intelligent design" books, all the HIV denial lit...what's one more beating over the head?
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Thanks!
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Kenya has reported its first case and death from Ebola in an individual who traveled to Kenya from the DRC. The ongoing outbreak in the DRC has killed 4000+ people and remains a threat for the region. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...
theguardian.com
Kenya confirms first Ebola case as virus ‘surges’ in DR Congo province
Health minister says 28 contacts identified after death of citizen who arrived from DRC on Saturday
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I had not heard of her until today and wowowow is she getting a lot of media attention for her ideas.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
aaah missed that yesterday.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not. Sounds pretty wacky.
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Catherynne M. Valente @catvalente.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I don’t care where you started out on the political spectrum If your kid comes out as trans & you don’t become a rainbow-clad, parade-cheering ally & rock-solid supportive girl/boy/enby dad/mom? You were never a parent at all You were a doll collector furious they didn’t stay in their packaging.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Right? If we can do this, why not add it to some beneficial E coli and send it out to folks with depression? Seems...not feasible to me but I haven't read the book.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Well then.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 06/10/2026
Hot news for the sea lion in my comments bothering everyone about how training data is fair use www.courthousenews.com/ai-training-...
courthousenews.com
AI training of copyrighted material not fair use: Third Circuit
Using someone else's "creative spark" to start a competing business runs afoul of copyright law, the panel found.
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
@dsky.bsky.social @ggronvall.bsky.social ?
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Tara C. Smith @aetiology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
OK so who's read Jacobsen's Biological War book? Cause I'm seeing all sorts of stuff being shared about she explains how the Russians spliced Y. pestis with a "euphoria gene" and "viral encephalitis" genes and that's the outbreak that's being "covered up" right now and just, what??
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