Tim Strabala

Principal Scientist - New Organisms, Environmental Protection Authority

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

The belief that rejecting decades of evidence makes you a critical thinker may be one of the strangest intellectual inversions of the social media age.

We have confused distrust with intelligence, contrarianism with skepticism, and confidence with expertise.

[Miilato @litteralyme0]

Growing up hearing “Wikipedia isn't a valid source” and then entering a workplace where people say “just ask ChatGPT” is a surprisingly strange timeline

[Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600]

One of the best cartoons in ages! Thank you @BillBramhall!

[Aditya @adityadotdev]

The evolution of trash icon

[Tim Strabala @TimStrabala]

😆

[Spill The Memes @SpillTheMemes]

😂

[Nicky Bay @singaporemacro]

This is the Sunburst Candy Spider from Thailand. Not AI (sucks to have to declare this). Very real and had been on my wish list for a long time.

The taxonomic placement is unclear, so we are leaving it at Cyrtarachninae.

[Nicky Bay @singaporemacro]

A collection of pretty stag beetles that fight with their mandibles. I had one grasping my lens before. They are ridiculously strong!

https://t.co/dN0j1kWryp

[Prof Alison Van Eenennaam (@BioBeef) @BioBeef]

How gene editing is changing the meat in our diet, from fast-growing fish to heat-tolerant cows https://t.co/9z8EVMcUZE

[Nicky Bay @singaporemacro]

Bug's eye views of a bluish shore pit viper.

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

Undermining scientific bodies doesn’t “fix” them - it destabilizes them.

Mixed messages don’t “empower choice” - they fuel chaos.

Once trust in data collapses, it’s almost impossible to rebuild.

If it can happen in the U.S., it can happen anywhere.

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

RFK Jr. just faced the Senate.
It wasn’t pretty.

A hearing meant to explain his overhaul of U.S. health policy turned into a bipartisan roasting.

He fired the entire CDC vaccine advisory panel.
He sacked the CDC director.
He canceled $500M in vaccine contracts.

His defense? “Absolutely necessary.”
Senators called it reckless.

Access to COVID boosters is now restricted.
Families are confused. States are scrambling.

Kennedy insists there’s “no deliberate limit.”
Reality: millions suddenly unsure if they can get a shot.

He cast doubt on the U.S. COVID death toll:
“I don’t think anybody knows.”

Translation: the Health Secretary doesn’t trust the data his own department manages.

Then came the contradictions.

Kennedy: “Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for Operation Warp Speed.”

Minutes later: “America had the worst pandemic response in the world.”

Pick one. You can’t have both.

Fact-checkers flagged multiple false or misleading claims:

❌ Downplaying vaccine lives saved
❌ Mischaracterizing booster availability
❌ Undermining core CDC data

This wasn’t reform. It was confusion.

Democrats and Republicans united - for once.
Elizabeth Warren. Bill Cassidy. Raphael Warnock. John Barrasso.

Different parties, same message: his actions erode trust.

Several senators went further:
→ “Hazard to public health.”
→ “Resign.”

When you lose both sides of the aisle, the problem isn’t partisanship. It’s you.

And the viral moment?
Not policy. Not science.

His heavy breathing - mocked as “Darth Vader” -overshadowed the testimony.

A distraction symbolizing a bigger truth: chaos has replaced clarity.

Bottom line: Kennedy promised to fix public health. Instead, he’s dismantling institutions, spreading confusion, and losing allies fast.

The Senate hearing made one thing clear:
Trust is collapsing.

When a health leader dismantles institutions, sidelines experts, and spreads confusion, the damage goes beyond one country. It erodes public trust everywhere.

The lesson for others:

Undermining scientific bodies doesn’t “fix” them - it destabilizes them.

Mixed messages don’t “empower choice” - they fuel chaos.

Once trust in data collapses, it’s almost impossible to rebuild.

If it can happen in the U.S., it can happen anywhere.
Public health depends on clarity, not chaos.

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

The problem isn’t that people don’t know.

It’s that they trust people who don’t know - as long as they sound confident.

Listen to me on this one, please: 🧵👇1/

[Tim Strabala @TimStrabala]

Everyone on earth needs to read this. 👇

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

i heard a MAHA woman complain that most of the vaccines for babies are for diseases she’s never even heard of.
yeah. do you know why you’ve never heard of them?

[Prof Alison Van Eenennaam (@BioBeef) @BioBeef]

🚨 The FDA recently approved the first gene-edited pigs for human consumption. Will these pigs, designed to resist a deadly virus, reshape the future of livestock farming? 🧬🐖 https://t.co/v6a3Q9yfr4 via @foodtank

[Tim Strabala @TimStrabala]

Very interesting! Argentina is a leader in gene editing.

[Prof Alison Van Eenennaam (@BioBeef) @BioBeef]

World’s first gene-edited horses are shaking up the genteel sport of polo https://t.co/DUsVTbw7G9

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Sen. Bill Cassidy: "Do you agree with me that President Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed?"

RFK: "Absolutely."

Sen. Bill Cassidy: "But you just told Sen. Bennet that the Covid vaccine killed more people than Covid?"

[Tim Strabala @TimStrabala]

I’d like to be a glow worm
A glow worm’s never glum
Its awfully hard to be downcast
When the sun shines out your bum! 😆

[Nicky Bay @singaporemacro]

Of course, you'd wish for a blinking butt. Spotted from over 30m away.

[Tim Strabala @TimStrabala]

So cool…

[Ryan Phelan @Ryanphelan6]

My morning walk in the Marin Headlands

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

After years of Republicans talking about “freedom,” is there ONE Republican in Congress prepared to stand with Ukraine and democracy?

Or do they ALL agree with Trump that Vladimir Putin, a blood-thirsty dictator, is our ally in this horrific war that he started.

[Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600]

Humans being able to grow food at a faster rate than adding population is a marvelous achievement. We should all be grateful for technology and fertilizer. Life would be less comfortable otherwise. Source: https://t.co/d0OF8fsswo