Caleb Hellerman
@calebhell
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Producer, reporter, writer & filmmaker with a love of science and a weak spot for scary emerging diseases. Psychedelic documentarian. Was a homeschooling dad.
Joined September 2008
A programming note: our film "Ending HIV in America" is getting its premiere on NOVA this Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 9pm ET/8C on PBS. Also available for streaming at pbs-dot-org-slash-nova and via the PBS Video app. @TangledBankHHMI @reddotreporting.
pbs.org
Science has made extraordinary progress against HIV. Can innovative drugs and therapies finally end it?
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Quite the resignation letter.
My resignation letter from CDC. Dear Dr. Houry,. I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business.
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I know it's April Fool's Day, but is CDC actually eliminating HIV surveillance completely? Along with most or all of its programs to combat HIV?.
BREAKING: Layoffs have "started in earnest at CDC," an agency officer tells me. Jono Mermin, the head of National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, is being reassigned to a different position. They are laying off full branches, "that way they can avoid
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Here's a thread detailing many of the devastating cuts to pandemic preparedness and antiviral drug research that were just announced. It is stupefying, inconceivable, pick your adjective, that we would kneecap our knowledge, our top researchers and our national health this way.
I’m not going to be able to tell you about the consequences of EVERY lost grant, but I’m going to try. Let’s start with the Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) program for pathogens of pandemic concern! It just got unceremonially shitcanned.
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Pretty mind-boggling detail.
An article published as part of APA's 2025 Trends Report discusses psychedelics research, including an MGH study of psilocybin in TRD that saw the team screen 700 patients without a single one meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria.
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Thanks to @tgof137 for this summary of the latest report on #COVID and its origins. I am more inclined than he is to think the virus originated in a lab, but he rightly points out that evidence is wholly inconclusive and we've learned almost nothing new for 3 years.
@SamLeeming @tgof137 @SamLeeming Halo! here is your unroll: Share this if you think it's interesting. 🤖.
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Is @VivekGRamaswamy blaming FDA for the track record of the company he founded?.
The top problem with FDA is the agency’s reckless disregard for the impact of its daily decisions on the cost of new innovation. FDA’s day-to-day decisions include not just the final drug approval decisions that grab headlines, but their micromanagement of every single step of.
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Anyone else having trouble w/MA Health Connector? Please dm me. I've been trying since Nov. 1 to shop plans but the website crashes every time. We are seven calls in with customer "assistance" and zero help. I can't be the only one - feels like a story.
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RT @MassDPH: Need sexual and reproductive health services? Get connected to care. Find services near you at https:….
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I really appreciate people who take the time to pull citations and write a thoughtful post to counter misleading shorthand claims about vaccines (or anything else). The convo can be exhausting but it's important to engage.
@newstart_2024 Based on the available scientific evidence, there are several inaccuracies and misleading claims in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s statements about the DTP vaccine:. 1. The DTP vaccine has not been banned in the US. It was replaced by the DTaP vaccine in the 1990s, which has a lower.
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Now here's one of the most interesting psychedelic narratives I've read, from @SohrabAhmari in Compact.
compactmag.com
Long ago, the tribal wise men of Amazonia made an astonishing discovery.
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Example of the minimalist approach that will be popular in wake of FDA MDMA decision. Single-dose psilocybin "with psychological support." What does "support" actually entail? Talk therapy before or after? Quiet trip-sitting? etc. Doesn't say.
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Question to anyone w/insight: why tf would anyone create this complicated and dangerous concoction rather than just sell chocolate w/regular ground-up psilocybin mushrooms? It can't be easier or cheaper, can it?.
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. when you look at results of testing, which found these ingredients: acetylpsilocin (a synthetic version, I think), pregabalin, kavalactones (from kava plant) and muscimol.
cdc.gov
Information about an investigation into severe illness potentially associated with consuming Diamond
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Just saw this one. here’s the result of continued criminalization. Though this article is a bit of a mess, focused on psilocin which I seriously doubt is the cause of these 160 reported illnesses and 2 potential deaths….
nytimes.com
More than 150 people were sickened from products sold at smoke and vape shops, providing evidence of the lax regulation of new food items.
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RT @pulitzercenter: "The silica rule is 30 years overdue, and this administration has implemented it.". Coal dust containing silica increas….
pulitzercenter.org
A human takes on average 20,000 breaths per day. Imagine each breath heavy and tight from a career underground working a seam for coal or valuable minerals, a constant reminder of what you sacrific...
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Yikes.
This is being presented like it’s a triumph for flu surveillance, but I don’t think I would brag that the CDC and Missouri DHSS have known it was H5Nx for at least a week, probably longer, and waited to disclose this publicly until a Friday night.
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This could be a great project but re: "It's time to. begin the precision design of mood, cognition and perception". hope this team incorporates a dose of humility.
1/ We're thrilled to announce we've received both FDA & EMA approval to begin human trials in the development of our neurotech platform for designing altered states. It’s time to move beyond “psychedelics” and begin the precision design of mood, cognition, and perception. (1/9).
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When a rural county screened for HIV, several people tested positive for the virus. So why did they report zero cases to the state? Our series “Public Health, Public Trust” continues w/@wvpublic, thanks to @pulitzercenter.
wvpublic.org
Among U.S. states, West Virginia ranks 18th in the rate of new HIV infections. But it may be an incomplete picture, especially in rural communities, where some health officials worry that cases are...
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The news of @stevesilberman’s death is a punch to the gut. Steve was a brilliant writer and a kind, generous man, burning with curiosity and humanity. I barely knew him personally, but my sense of loss is heavy. Sending love to all his friends and loved ones.
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The 5th piece in our series, “Public Health, Public Trust” @pulitzercenter @wvpublic.
Before a new MSHA rule to limit miner's exposure to silica dust could take full effect, opponents threw up a new roadblock.
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