Kristian G. Andersen

@kgandersen.bsky.social

2224

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Infectious diseases & genomics. Immunologist in (voluntary) exile. Minimal sarcasm. Fierce HOA (Hater of Acronyms).

Posts Replies Media

Really good 15 min TWiV episode with Paul Offit outlining how false and irresponsible the recent lab leak nonsense from @nytimes.com is. I for one appreciate the brevity - there really is nothing more to it. If you're interested in the topic, give it a listen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukv9...

Beyond the Noise #40: Lab leak maniawww.youtube.com In this episode Dr. Offit asks, why did the New York Times publish an op-ed supporting the lab leak theory when all evidence supports a zoonotic spillover?Sh...

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American academic freedom is in peril Academics researching online misinformation in the US are learning a hard lesson: Academic freedom cannot be taken for granted. They face a concerted effort—including by members of Congress— www.science.org/doi/... 1/4

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Yesterday, I shared this same Canada Day thread on Bluesky, Threads, and X. Here's what I found. 🧵

“Canada is such a northern country, don’t we want a little global warming?” I often hear. In a nutshell, NO. We’re warming 2x faster than the rest of the world, driving extreme heat, flood, and sea level rise we are not prepared for. The wildfire season started in Feb this year. Feb! #canadaday

Canada’s Changing Climate Reportchangingclimate.ca

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Grants, jobs, tenure, awards: Preprints can help your career, at every stage from PhD to HHMI PI. rdcu.be/dMwrY

Preprints as tools to advance careersrdcu.be Nature Reviews Cancer - The practice of posting preprint manuscripts on servers such as bioRxiv has become increasingly common. In this Comment, Hindle and Sever explore the utility of preprints...

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"I think she believes it and that's fine … it's interesting to me that there are a lot of people who are in many ways brilliant scientists who become conspiracy theorists. Even the brightest of scientists are not immune to being conspiracy theorists and I think that's what's going on with her"

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"The Lab Theory and The Complicit Media" Wild how we got here, isn't it? sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-lab-leak...

The Lab Leak Theory and the Complicit Mediasciencebasedmedicine.org How the media's need for tales of intrigue and villains fosters the political weaponization of uncertainty

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Our NEJM piece today on academic freedom, and why institutions cannot remain silent, such as when lives are potentially at stake, as occurred with Covid. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

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Powerful defense of Dr. Athony Fauci by Richard Horton in The Lancet: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... “why is the international scientific community so quiet? ... The answer is self-censorship"

Offline: In defence of Dr Fauciwww.thelancet.com “Is this what we have become? Is this what we have devolved into?” US Congressman Kweisi Mfume was reacting to comments from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene at a hearing of the Select Subcommitt...

Gretchen and Gavin entered the room.

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The Lab Leak Theory and the Complicit Media: How the media’s need for tales of intrigue and villains fosters the political weaponization of uncertainty. sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-lab-leak...

The Lab Leak Theory and the Complicit Mediasciencebasedmedicine.org How the media's need for tales of intrigue and villains fosters the political weaponization of uncertainty

We have had some delays, but quick update as the wave did indeed come in right as expected. This translates to *a lot* of infections in San Diego at the moment, so please keep this in mind. Primarily driven by KP.2 and similar, but KP.3 will add to this shortly, so it'll be high for a while.

Quick update on the COVID-19 situation here in San Diego: 1️⃣ Currently low levels, based on wastewater. 2️⃣ However, I expect this to change in a few weeks. A few comments 👇🧵

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"...if this outbreak were playing out in another country [read China], U.S. officials would be calling the response unacceptable." www.statnews.com/2024/06/26/b...

Three months into bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows, experts see deep-rooted problems in responsewww.statnews.com Three months into the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows, experts see deep-rooted problems in the government's response.

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A huge study of #LongCovid in South Korea and Japan shows a pronounced increase of Guillain-Barré syndrome, cognitive deficit, insomnia, anxiety disorder, encephalitis, ischemic stroke and mood disorder. Reduced by vaccination nature.com/articles/s41...

Short- and long-term neuropsychiatric outcomes in long COVID in South Korea and Japan - Nature Human Behaviournature.com Using propensity score matching, Kim et al. find evidence of higher short- and long-term risk of adverse neuropsychiatric outcomes in Korean and Japanese cohorts of individuals infected with SARS-CoV-...

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One last thing about the NYTimes' op-eds and the COVID lab leak. I am not suggesting that the authors "stay in their lane," but if you think you're an expert on everything, you're an expert on very little. 1/

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“At times, I am deeply disturbed about the state of our society,” Fauci writes near the end of his book. “We have seen complete fabrications become some people’s accepted reality". Never a truer statement.

'The resonances betwen the 2 greatest public-health crises of Fauci’s tenure at niaid are impossible to ignore. Both cases involve asympt. infection, a scramble for tests & treatments, public-information campaigns, & the search for a vaccine—miraculously fast for covid19, still unfulfilled for HIV'

Anthony Fauci’s Side of the Storywww.newyorker.com The former NIAID director has been both lauded and demonized for his work during the COVID pandemic, but his autobiography insists that his career needs to be seen whole to be understood.

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Excellent! We got John P. Moore and @gregggonsalves.bsky.social to do a critique of those awful pieces on COVID19 and lab leak. Let's just say, it is not flattering. sciencebasedmedicine.org/why-is-the-n...

Why is The New York Times now promoting an anti-science agenda?sciencebasedmedicine.org This essay stems from concerns about two editorials published in The New York Times recently. We felt that they were problematic in that the past is viewed through a blurred prism to produce revisioni...

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This needs to be seen in context of the wider orchestrated campaign to silence experts by trying to get their papers retracted and claiming they are fraudulent etc.

John Moore, virologist/immunologist from Cornell Weill Med in NYC and I take the NYTimes to task for two opinion pieces on #COVID earlier this month. Both pieces are examples of "science opinion", where non-experts weigh in on topics beyond their ken. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

“The New York Times” Is Failing Its Readers Badly on Covidwww.thenation.com A pair of shoddy opinion pieces proves that the paper is letting its audience down and undermining the fight to improve our knowledge of the virus.

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Got milk virus genomes? (or any H5N1?) Throw them at usher.bio and see where they land in per-segment trees of tens of thousands of public Influenza A H5N1 sequences!

UCSC UShER: Uploadusher.bio UCSC Genome Browser

This is such a critical and quick read, highlighting the dishonesty of @nytimes.com in platforming revisionist history, pseudoscience, and conspiratorial beliefs in their Opinion section. Expertise matters. NYTimes would do well to appreciate that fact when it comes to science opinion.

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1️⃣ What is the proximal origin of Mpox virus? 2️⃣ What factors drive emergence vs spread? 3️⃣ When and where? Immensely proud to be part of this work by a pan-Africa consortium established and led by Prof Happi and spearheaded by postdoc in the lab, Edyth Parker! Part 1: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Genomic epidemiology uncovers the timing and origin of the emergence of mpox in humanswww.medrxiv.org medRxiv - The Preprint Server for Health Sciences

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Anti-science aggression in the information age is confusing because we have a very linear understanding of how coordinated attacks work. We presume that one actor, group, or party is the organizing mastermind behind all activity. That is wrong Read: www.protagonist-science.com/p/shadows-of...

Shadows of the coming Dark Age for science in the USwww.protagonist-science.com Some analysis of the recent successful attacks on science and scientists; and a warning for democratic citizens

Since it appears that Senators across the isle care little about the scientific method, a good reminder about the rich body of (scientific) evidence as it pertains to "The Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2". Expertly summarized by @eddieholmes.bsky.social: 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...

Here's a gift link. I would encourage you to read it. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

The First Three Monthswww.theatlantic.com What I saw inside the government’s response to COVID-19

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The culture wars intestify, false narritives, attacks on facts, science and scientists. This is disgusting and is the cancel culture and sensureship, taking away freedoms these rightwing populists claim to be against. Very disturbing this.

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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?

"In supporting the project further, the university would have risked alienating conservative donors, Silicon Valley figures and members of Congress, who have threatened to stop all federal funding for disinformation research or cut back general support." Well, of course. wapo.st/4b05S3H

Stanford’s top disinformation research group collapses under pressurewapo.st The Stanford Internet Observatory provided real-time analysis on viral election falsehoods but has struggled amid attacks from conservatives.

I feel seen. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

My Encounter With the Fantasy-Industrial Complexwww.theatlantic.com Online conspiracy theorists turned me into “CIA Renee.”

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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...