💉 Vaccines against Pneumococcal disease are expensive to provide long-term where they're needed most. 🆕 long-term @lshtm.bsky.social research confirms that two-doses of PCVs are as effective as three, helping countries address the vaccine "funding gap" & continue to save lives. 👉 bit.ly/4v6CwLj

Some past published examples of incubation periods (IP) of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases. Note that the extremes of 6+ weeks (42+ days) are the exception, not the rule.

1/5 🌍 Real-world outbreak analytics training, now open for July 2026 · 55 participants last cohort · 31 countries 🗓️ Tue & Wed AM/PM sessions 💰 50% off for LMIC applicants (deadline 6 Jun) ❓ Got questions? We're hosting a drop-in Q&A next Tuesday — details below 👇

When there's a new outbreak, yes there's always the possibility of a major pandemic and that puts some weight on the need for a fast, cooperative and effective public health response but really the immediate, foreseeable consequences of the outbreak should be the focus and are reason enough to act.

A key question now is whether this is part of the initial cluster likely spawned by the index case, or potentially a third generation case. Based on what's known about the incubation period/serial interval, I estimate that there is a 74% chance that this a third gen case: github.com/bquilty25/ho...

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo ago

Canada confirms first hantavirus case in isolation in British Columbia

It would be beneficial if prominent public health voices could avoid solely framing outbreak risks through the lens of whether they should be something for people in high-income countries to "worry about" or not.

How have social contact patterns changed since the #COVID-19 pandemic? In this cross-sectional survey, Lucy Goodfellow & colleagues collect information on social contacts of over 13,000 people in the UK post-pandemic, including social mixing by ethnic & socioeconomic groups🧪 #MedSky plos.io/4nmJyck

Social contact patterns in the United Kingdom following the COVID-19 pandemic: The Reconnect cross-sectional survey

In a cross-sectional survey, Lucy Goodfellow and colleagues collect information from over 13,000 people on demographics and their social contacts after the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.

plos.io

This Perspective by Joël Mossong discusses findings from the Reconnect study, highlighting the importance of understanding social contacts & how they have evolved for infectious disease modeling, & the need to consider ethnic & socioeconomic backgrounds🧪 #MedSky #COVID-19 plos.io/42CQPLI

PLOS Medicine@plosmedicine.org · 3mo ago

How have social contact patterns changed since the #COVID-19 pandemic? In this cross-sectional survey, Lucy Goodfellow & colleagues collect information on social contacts of over 13,000 people in the UK post-pandemic, including social mixing by ethnic & socioeconomic groups🧪 #MedSky plos.io/4nmJyck

A great Perspective piece from @joelmossong.bsky.social on the evolution of social contact surveys, from the POLYMOD study he led in 2008 (which became the template for all others), to CoMix during the pandemic, and now on to Reconnect: journals.plos.org/plosmedicine...

Billy Quilty@bquilty.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How have UK social contact patterns changed post-pandemic? How assortative are they by age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status? Pleased to share our new @plosmedicine.org paper, jointly led by @lucygoodfellow.bsky.social and myself, with @kevinvzandvoort.bsky.social and John Edmunds. #IDSky

How have UK social contact patterns changed post-pandemic? How assortative are they by age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status? Pleased to share our new @plosmedicine.org paper, jointly led by @lucygoodfellow.bsky.social and myself, with @kevinvzandvoort.bsky.social and John Edmunds. #IDSky

The current online dichotomy between "it's the next pandemic, panic" and "it's not, nothing to worry about" hides a wide spectrum of possible intermediate trajectories that would still present a real challenge if they played out.

It is

Big missed opportunity if this isn't happening

talkie-lm.com/chat

Not a fan of public health influencers promoting their outbreak 'scoops' and 'exclusives' very shortly before the official announcement would have been made anyway. Leaking fragments and out-of-context snippets of routine reports aren't doing anyone a public service.

A useful concept in outbreaks is the "reasonable worst case", which is not the worst that can happen but is significantly worse than the current trajectory. The current trajectory is that this is a very distressing situation for those involved that we can take meaningful steps to avoid in future. >

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo ago

Third Briton has suspected hantavirus linked to cruise ship outbreak

The “husband” (deceased, but red instead of black, as in the legend) seems to consist of two people.

⚠️ Retweeting this only to say: ⚠️ This infographic in this blog post is being shared widely, falsely attributed to WHO - it is AI slop of the highest degree, and contains wrong, unevidenced and nonsensical information, and should not be shared further. Check your sources people.

Jeremy Faust, MD@jeremyfaust.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Breaking News, first on Inside Medicine. A hospitalized flight attendant who worked a KLM flight that carried a cruise ship passenger who subsequently died of Andes hantavirus has tested (-) for the virus. If the flight attendant had tested (+), it would've been an escalation in this story.

The dozens of passengers, including the wife of a Dutch man who died, left the cruise ship during a stop at the British territory, the Dutch foreign ministry said on Thursday. n.pr/3QRhnq0

About 40 passengers previously left ship hit by Hantavirus at island of St. Helena

The dozens of passengers, including the wife of a Dutch man who died, left the cruise ship during a stop at the British territory, the Dutch foreign ministry said on Thursday.

n.pr

This is woefully inadequate. This has no effect on my monthly repayments, which are currently over 500 Euros a month (Plan 2 plus Postgrad). That's money going to service a loan that will never get repaid, rather than saving for a house or retirement.

Best for Britain@bestforbritain.org · 4mo ago

Are you happy about this? 🤔 Interest on Plan 2 and 3 student loans will be capped at 6%, instead of RPI+3%.

AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations Leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations

Leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases

newscientist.com

It's hard to see it going any other way at this point. I expect there will be a moment soon like in March 2020 when even the Tories realised that we would need to intervene drastically in the economy (with furlough) or there would be complete meltdown. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

‘A feedback loop with no brake’: how an AI doomsday report shook US markets

Shares in Uber, Mastercard and American Express fall on back of apocalypse scenario posted on Substack

theguardian.com

Education Secretary defends freezing the repayment threshold for student loans in England. Ridiculous plan to align repayment threshold with minimum wage. Graduates pay tax+repayment at marginal rate of 37%, higher than capital gains tax rate for the super rich. Abolish uni fees. Write-off debt.

Student loans: Phillipson says freeze will cost average graduate £8 a month

Some graduates in England say

bbc.co.uk

Whether or not interest is capped at RPI, or thresholds are unfrozen, middle earning graduates will continue to be squeezed the most while the richest pay less.

Step 1: Insert bacteria ("Wolbachia") into mosquitoes. Step 2: Release mosquitoes. Step 3: Watch Dengue rates plummet. Phenomenal results from Singapore. Link: tinyurl.com/59c9t67u, by Lim et al.

It’s a mistake to dismiss AI as just slop, or a bubble that will pop and fade away - it will likely be revolutionary, but we're on a dark path leaving its future entirely in the hands of private corporations with zero regulation. AI needs to be regulated and the benefits democratised ASAP.

AI poses unprecedented threats. Congress must act now | Bernie Sanders

Despite the speed at which it is progressing, AI is getting far too little discussion in Congress, the media and within the general population. That has got to change

theguardian.com

Wow. www.reddit.com/r/singularit...

From the singularity community on Reddit: Genie 3 turns Veo 3 generated drone shot into an interactive world you can take control mid-flight

Explore this post and more from the singularity community

reddit.com

I'm taking part in this webinar on Friday to discuss my experience in #SciComm as an ECR during the Covid-19 pandemic - should be a really interesting conversation! Sign up below:

Elsevier Researcher Academy@researcheracad.bsky.social · last yr.

On July 11th at 12pm UTC, join @researcheracad.bsky.social and @senseaboutsci.bsky.social for a webinar addressing how early career researchers can respond to opposition, misrepresentation, and harassment. Register now: http://spkl.io/63321A6PJV #AcademicSky #PhDSky #SciComm

For better or worse (and there's lots of arguments for both) the genie is out of the bottle - it's here to stay, and that means we should be trying to maximise it's usefulness to society, and at the same time, trying to minimise harms. This is just wishing it away.

‘Nobody wants a robot to read them a story!’ The creatives and academics rejecting AI – at work and at home

Is artificial intelligence coming for everyone’s jobs? Not if this lot have anything to do with it

theguardian.com

Great to see @christophraser.bsky.social discuss daily contact testing as a way of reducing quarantine burden at the UK Covid Inquiry. However, it is disappointing this is the only mention of this policy in the entire 12 days of the Test, Trace, and Isolate Module.