I was invited to do a short interview on “Why Do We Say ‘I’m Not Sick’ When We’re Really Sick” with 1013 Main Street, a broadcast in Seoul, Korea. The program is hosted by Ahn Junghyun, who was the former presenter for the Pyeongchang Olympic Bidding Committee and the main host for the B20 Seoul Summit [...]

Health officials in China reported Tuesday that four more people had developed H7N9 avian influenza, bringing to seven the total number who have been infected with this particular strain, which has never been seen before in humans. So far two men, aged 87 and 27, have died—both in Shanghai.   Although H7N9 has not been [...]

A highly controversial research paper on bird flu was released today by the journal Nature. It shows that a particularly troublesome strain of avian influenza, designated H5N1, which has been worrying public health officials for more than a decade, has the potential to become a human pandemic. In other words, H5N1 bird flu, which so [...]

NEW YORK—Sparks flew Thursday night at a New York Academy of Sciences panel discussion about whether or not certain recent research into the H5N1 avian flu virus has created a major biosecurity threat and what, if anything, to do about it. The research in question comes from the labs of Ron Fouchier at the Erasmus [...]

A controversy over whether the U.S. government should allow details of a deadly new flu strain to be published in scientific journals has recently caught fire in the media. But I first heard the news of the mutated virus months ago in Malta at the European Scientific Working group on Influenza (ESWI) meeting. The morning [...]

MALTA—Efforts to create a universal flu vaccine, one that would do away with the annual reformulations, is a hot topic these days in the infectious disease community. But in the bigger picture of reducing flu transmission—and reducing the thousands of deaths it causes in the U.S. each year—there is a big leap forward that could [...]

The note on the receptionist’s desk at my doctor’s office was quite emphatic: there was no vaccine to give, either for the H1N1 swine flu or the seasonal variety. If I wanted to yell and scream, the note advised, I should call my congressman, rather than give the staff an earful. Several explanations can account [...]

A particular drum I like to beat, is about science communicators learning how to use images effectively. Give your blog post illustration some thought. Don’t just stick any old candied cherry on the top of your post: make sure it’s the right maraschino cherry. Then add sprinkles. If you are having trouble finding good images [...]