Practical, Innovative, Hyper-focused on saving lives. Immunologist, Virologist, Pandemic Nemesis. Posts are mine.

Washington, DC
Joined January 2017
Rick Bright retweeted
There is something really concerning (and disappointing) going on in the US right now. A dangerous and preventable situation. Let me explain. nextstrain.org/avian-flu/h5n… 1/
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Rick Bright retweeted
Advice I give to my colleagues in government is the same sage advice given to me by Dr Deb Houry. Define your red line and stick to it. Your credibility, the health of the people you serve, and your mental health depend on it.
NEW: When Demetre Daskalakis quit @CDCgov last year to protest RFK Jr.’s vaccine policies, he had wrestled for months with a harder question: Could he do more to protect public health by staying inside? My story. 1/3 washingtonpost.com/politics/…
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So H5N1 is spreading cow-to-cow amongst Washington, Utah, and Idaho. This spread is not via the wild birds!
A/Washington/198/2026 | 10/12/26 H5 1704 1702 A/dairy cow/Idaho/09066-001/2026 | 6/14/26 1701 A/dairy cow/Texas/09479-014/2026 | 6/23/26 A/dairy cow/Texas/09479-014/2026 | 6/23/26 A/dairy cow/Utah/10874-001/2026 | 7/29/26 A/dairy cow/Idaho/10557-001/2026 | 7/20/26
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Rick Bright retweeted
The perfect petri dish for the next pandemic
Here’s something you should know about minks: They have lungs and airways remarkably similar on a cellular level to those of people. They’ve spread flus and infected humans before with COVID-19. Right now, bird flu is spreading on a Utah farm filled with thousands of them… 🧵
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Rick Bright retweeted
The DRC's 🇨🇩 Ebola outbreak has passed 9,704 confirmed cases and 4,687 deaths. It's the largest Ebola outbreak the country has ever recorded. It has now reached Kenya 🇰🇪and Nigeria🇳🇬. There is no approved vaccine or treatment for this species. The first vaccine trial started on Friday.
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Rick Bright retweeted
Calley Means arranged a phone call that helped clinch Kennedy's endorsement of Trump and laid the groundwork for MAHA. Means cheered the administration on Big Food even as it betrayed promises on Big Pharma. Some accused the administration of a "bait and switch" that misdirected energy on COVID vaccines to ultra-processed foods. Now even the ultra-processed foods policy chief has resigned.
I am resigning from the White House with tremendous respect for President Trump and Bobby Kennedy. They laid out a vision of combatting the entrenched, dark forces in DC that profit from Americans getting sick. More policy and cultural change has happened around these goals in the past 2 years than any time in history - and I know this movement is just getting started. It was an honor to advocate for MAHA moms in the administration and steer policies like Dietary Guidelines reform, psychedelic reform, removing soda from SNAP, removing food dyes, GRAS reform, and overhauling government food procurement.
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"A six-month Vanity Fair investigation raises questions about whether Means has embellished his personal story." Seems like an excellent day to re-up my @VanityFair profile of @calleymeans: vanityfair.com/news/story/ca….
I am resigning from the White House with tremendous respect for President Trump and Bobby Kennedy. They laid out a vision of combatting the entrenched, dark forces in DC that profit from Americans getting sick. More policy and cultural change has happened around these goals in the past 2 years than any time in history - and I know this movement is just getting started. It was an honor to advocate for MAHA moms in the administration and steer policies like Dietary Guidelines reform, psychedelic reform, removing soda from SNAP, removing food dyes, GRAS reform, and overhauling government food procurement.
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Rick Bright retweeted
This staggeringly arrogant reply by non doctor "wellness" crank Calley Means in response to an actual doctor warning against his irresponsible promotion of raw milk for kids "We'll take it from here" he said as he joined RFK Jr's circus as an adviser Today, Calley Means quit
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Rick Bright retweeted
California & Washington asked the CDC for help validating a high-throughput measles test. Via @apoorva_nyc, the CDC said it had “other competing priorities” and could not dedicate time to making a high-volume test available to state labs. 🎁 nytimes.com/2026/10/21/healt…
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NEW: how a global ethics outcry, @EnergyCommerce demand for answers, resignations from a Danish ethics board, sustained reporting from @RollingStone + other news outlets, ended @SecKennedy's plan to fund 1 of most controversial clinical trials in memory rollingstone.com/politics/po…
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BREAKING: controversial hep B vax clinical trial in Guinea-Bissau, funded by CDC $$ + marred by ethics failings @RollingStone exposed in 4 detailed stories, w/ internal CDC records, will not move forward, one of the Danish researchers announced today: linkedin.com/pulse/missed-op…
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Rick Bright retweeted
study by Danish researchers, called unethical by @WHO @DrPaulOffit others, had been halted by 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸. SDU health sciences dean Jacob Grauslund confirms: he gave researchers go-ahead 4 study today: rollingstone.com/politics/po… /2
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Rick Bright retweeted
SCOOP 🚨in @RollingStone 🧵👇 @CDCgov has set aside new $1.6M for controversial hepatitis B vax clinical trial in Guinea-Bissau, revived by politicos in CDC director's office. Despite plague/Ebola fears, the $ is being pulled from CDC global health security funds. The /1
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There is no basis to assume the strain is antibiotic-susceptible. There also is no basis to assume the strain is human-immune-response-susceptible. The death of a treated and previously vaccinated bioweapons-agents researcher argues against those assumptions.
“Russian authorities have surely sequenced the Irkutsk pathogen, but refuse to identify it," he continued. "Physical lockdown indicates it cannot be controlled with prophylactic antibiotics, implying engineered pan-resistance or that it isn't plague at all." thedailybeast.com/top-scient…
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Replying to @RandPaul
There is no basis to assume the strain is antibiotic-susceptible. There also is no basis to assume the strain is human-immune-response-susceptible. The death of a treated and previously vaccinated bioweapons-agents researcher argues against those assumptions.
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Rick Bright retweeted
If you want some insight into why H1N1 is increasing early in USA this year, try excellent Bloom Lab paper below Describes rising star D.3.1.1 (already popular D.3.1 plus HA1: R113K, A139D, E283K, K302E) H3N2 (K) also innovating Site D @famulare_mike pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article…
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