Ben Pierce

@benfpiercephd.bsky.social

178

Followers

119

Following

123

Posts

Health, science, vaccines, research, covid origins. Working in NHS as Head of Data Analytics and Partnerships. All views/opinions are my own.

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

FDA found infectious H5N1 at relatively high titers in bulk raw milk from 4 states with known infected herds. Pasteurization inactivates H5N1. Do NOT drink raw milk!!! www.fda.gov/media/179708...

www.fda.gov

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

Joe Biden was born closer to Lincoln's inauguration than to the present day.

Recommended reading for the COVID subcommittee, who claimed Fauci overpromised on vaccines, when actually "[Fauci] had incurred the president’s wrath by remarking that the vaccines under development might not provide long-lasting immunity." www.nytimes.com/2024/06/14/u...

Fauci Speaks His Mind on Trump’s Rages and Their ‘Complicated’ Relationshipwww.nytimes.com In a new book, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci recounts a career advising seven presidents. The chapter about Donald J. Trump is titled “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not.”

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

Perfect summation. If you can’t get your own papers published, write unreviewed opinion articles and claim that real scientific studies are fraudulent.

This is an excellent description of the editorial failure behind The NY Times' decision to run Alina Chan's lab leak article. What's the value proposition to the readership of presenting a one-sided argument that most scientists find lacking? Did no editor bother to ask that question?

One must question the anti-science arguments of Chan, who consistently blames virologists, even for....faults in her own arguments.

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

You may have opinions on COVID19 origins, but Eddie Holmes brings the evidence. He's one of the world's top scientists working on viral emergence. This is worth, actually required, reading for anyone interested in the subject. There will be a quiz afterwards. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

The Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 | Annual Reviewswww.annualreviews.org The origin of SARS-CoV-2 has evoked heated debate and strong accusations, yet seemingly little resolution. I review the scientific evidence on the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and its subsequent spread throug...

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

*JUST LAUNCHED* Mega KidLit Feed w/fellow admins @boringstorybook.com & @charlenedraws.bsky.social! One feed pulls in hashtagged posts from moderated #kidlit Lists from multiple users in community. Browse Feed here More info & how to post to Feed Feel free to share graphic on other platforms! 🧵👇🏼

A week ago, I made the jump: "X uninstalled", at least on my phone. Great decision and certainly more time for other things. 👍

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

Thank you to the New York Times for publishing my Letter to the Editor about Alina Chan's guest essay on the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/o...

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

Reply to

Gregg Gonsalves

On the origins of SARSCOV2, @zey.bsky.social is wrong on the science. The preponderance of the evidence does suggest a zoonotic origin. The support for a lab leak is incredibly weak (see @kgandersen.bsky.social's thread earlier this week). Lab leak origin possible, sure but not so likely. 4/

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

On the day of Dr. Fauci's testimony, @nytimes.com decides to run a deeply unethical OpEd with snazzy graphics and snappy headlines about the Lab Leak. The article itself contains multiple falsehoods and deep mischaracterizations. Let's take every point in turn 👇🧵 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Opinion | Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Pointswww.nytimes.com The world must not continue to bear the intolerable risks of research with the potential to cause pandemics.

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

If you're interesting in the #H5N1 outbreak in cattle in the US, please have a look at our preliminary analyses just posted. Part 1 of 2: virological.org/t/preliminar...

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

Preliminary report on genomic epidemiology of the 2024 H5N1 influenza A virus outbreak in U.S. cattle. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this and, of course, first and foremost the data producers and those involved in the response. virological.org/t/preliminar...

Preliminary report on genomic epidemiology of the 2024 H5N1 influenza A virus outbreak in U.S. cattle (Part 1 of 2)virological.org Due to length constraints on virological.org posts, we are splitting this report into two parts that should be read as a single report. This is Part 1, containing Background, Data, Methods, and Findi...

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

"The Select Subcommittee is committed to ensuring conflicts of interest, government intervention, and political biases will never again inappropriately influence the peer review process" I couldn't have said it better myself. But it's not what they think it is. oversight.house.gov/release/hear...

Hearing Wrap Up: Americans Witnessed a Breakdown of Scientific Debate During COVID-19 - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountabilityoversight.house.gov United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

I am excited to share my new pre-print assessing cell entry for the entire merbecovirus subgenus! Here is the link: tinyurl.com/36nbtjmm A quick summary of the findings: (1/4)

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

🧪 Long overdue www.science.org/content/arti...

‘Lab-leak’ proponents at Rutgers accused of defaming and intimidating COVID-19 origin researcherswww.science.org Letter by 12 COVID-19 scientists says social media attacks violate university policy and could incite physical harm

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

That feeling when you think you're Big on Twitter, but then stumble into the real world. Meanwhile: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

"We hope this sends a broader message that defamatory attacks on scientists go beyond the bounds of protected speech and have consequences" Scientific discourse is a key, integral, part of science, however, falsely calling experts "frauds" and worse is not. www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/o...

Opinion | A Slap Shot Against Climate Denialwww.nytimes.com A jury rules that defamatory attacks on climate scientists have consequences.

I couldn’t recommend this book enough, from Dali Yang. #covidorigins #originsofcovid #virology #scicomm #science

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

First large(ish) polling of scientists on the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic - from a heavy "existential risks" / EA leaning organization. Median belief among polled scientists of zoonosis being the cause: 90%. gcrinstitute.org/covid-origin/ IMO, the scientific evidence is entirely one-sided.

Respect should be given to Editors, but I suspect some could stem from frustration of rules on submitting yrs of work to only 1 journal at a time, waiting months for peer review, being given 1 month to respond, and 24 hrs for proofs. And uni admin. 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Earning respect and trustwww.science.org Respect for, and trust in, science may be at an all-time low. In the United States, a 2023 Pew Research poll showed that only 57% of the population believed science has had a positive impact on societ...

Some #scicomm: I have seen the statement “75% of emerging pathogens are zoonotic” several times in media articles during the pandemic, often related to #covidorigins. My Q: where did this stat come from? If true, where does the other 25% originate? An explainer 1/n 🧪

Calling virologists / #virosky : There is a statement, in many papers, that reads: "~75% of new/emerging disease is caused by zoonotic viruses." Anyone know where this comes from? And...what can be the cause of the remaining ~25% new disease? Asking for a friend 😉

Sometimes it's personal. WNV took my grandfather, and I support any/all efforts to track it down and stop its spread. Great research here👇🧬🧪 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38271294/

West Nile virus spread in Europe: Phylogeographic pattern analysis and key drivers - PubMedpubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Our results suggest that-in addition to ecological conditions favouring bird- and mosquito- presence-agricultural land use may be a significant driver of WNV emergence and spread. Our study also ident...

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

It’s not a smoking gun for anything except further evidence that Nicholas Wade, a man who previously published a book claiming that intelligence and economic success is genetically linked to race, is completely ignorant about molecular biology and genetics.

Advocates for a lab leak are once again saying that the lab in Wuhan... did virology work? Walk me through this one, I can't see how this is a smoking gun. @angierasmussen.bsky.social @kgandersen.bsky.social @eddieholmes.bsky.social www.city-journal.org/article/new-...

The Story of the Decadewww.city-journal.org The materials strengthen—perhaps conclusively—the lab-leak hypothesis of Covid-19’s origins.

Oh my. Not really surprised that FPOTUS reordered fentanyl that was previously returned, and no receipts in book for fentanyl, ketamine, AND morphine at the 2019 WH 😵‍💫

So there were concerns about the fact that the Trump White House was spending unprecedented sums on prescription medications, so redacted White House pharmacy records were released, and just... holy fucking shit

Couple of really interesting papers showing cross species transmission of CoVs isn't a barrier that inhibits evo. Bats are oversampled - we'll very likely see another pandemic if we don't support biodiversity 🧪🧬📈 ➡️ academic.oup.com/ve/article/1... ➡️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The coevolutionary mosaic of bat betacoronavirus emergence riskacademic.oup.com Abstract. Pathogen evolution is one of the least predictable components of disease emergence, particularly in nature. Here, building on principles established b

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

🦇🧪🦠 Can we take clues from the way coevolution works to think about the where new viruses may emerge? Norma Forero (from my group!) says yes! With @viralemergence.bsky.social, we looked at betacoronaviruses in bats, and the paper is now out in Virus Evolution: academic.oup.com/ve/article/1...

Oh great, bluesky has this stuff now as well.

It’s coming. www.city-journal.org/article/new-...

The Story of the Decadewww.city-journal.org The materials strengthen—perhaps conclusively—the lab-leak hypothesis of Covid-19’s origins.

Reposted by

Ben Pierce

Thoughts on the first self-amplifying mRNA vaccine: www.science.org/content/blog...