It has been a vibes-based consensus that the lab leak theory has been unduly suppressed by a press keen to promote a preferred "zoonotic" narrative. I looked at COVID-19 origin online news media coverage from 2020-2026 and analysed headline coverage on endorsement lean. Read my investigation 🔽

Philipp Markolin@philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 3w ago

In 2026, there is no longer any lab leak hypothesis you can state consistently with the available evidence. Despite this, it has been the dominant media narrative for six years. Read my new data-driven investigation: www.protagonist-science.com/p/biased-med...

Last week, David Relman published an Opinion in The Guardian about the origin of COVID-19, NIH and Anthony Fauci. I had some comments about it... so I wrote a blog post. ⬇️ #covidorigin 🧪

On Relman’s Opinion in The Guardian

In a recent Opinion piece in The Guardian, David Relman discusses the origin of COVID-19 in the context of the Fauci hearing before Rand Paul's committee. The text overlooks scientific evidence, engag...

pandemonium.hypotheses.org

Es ist ein kurioses Phänomen: Menschen mit einer Krebsdiagnose in der Vorgeschichte entwicklen seltener Alzheimer, und umgekehrt erkranken Alzheimer-Patienten weniger häufig an Krebs. Ein Verständnis dieser 'inversen' Beziehung könnte neue Ansätze für Therapien liefern. www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft...

Schützt Krebs vor Alzheimer? Und Alzheimer vor Krebs? Die Geschichte einer rätselhaften Entdeckung.

Forscher sind auf einen rätselhaften Zusammenhang gestossen – Menschen mit Krebs scheinen seltener an Demenz zu erkranken – und umgekehrt. Nun suchen sie nach einer Erklärung.

nzz.ch

Der Begriff Asperger-Syndrom hat seine Wurzeln in der NS-Zeit. Ist es angebracht, ihn weiterhin zu verwenden? Darüber und über andere aktuelle Themen habe ich mit der Philosophin Francesca Brencio gesprochen. Danke @ipazia76.bsky.social für das spannende Gespräch! @woz.ch www.woz.ch/2633/neurolo...

Neurologie: «Hier geht es um mehr als nur das Gehirn»

Das Asperger-Syndrom als psychiatrische Diagnose stammt aus der Nazizeit. Sollten wir sie überhaupt noch verwenden?

woz.ch

August is #WomenInTranslation month, #WITMonth, and I love a book stack. Here are the books I read by women writers translated into English between last August and this one. Titles, authors and translators follow in comments.

In 2026, there is no longer any lab leak hypothesis you can state consistently with the available evidence. Despite this, it has been the dominant media narrative for six years. Read my new data-driven investigation: www.protagonist-science.com/p/biased-med...

Biased media coverage and the lab leak theory

Gain-of-function fearmongering and blame gets the glitzy NYT visual treatment as Republicans weaponize the lab leak theory again in attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci

protagonist-science.com

Arday "was eagerly elevated as a symbol, ruthlessly scrutinized as an anomaly, and callously discarded as a liability. His rise and fall expose the moral bankruptcy of a system that wants the appearance of racial progress without the work of structural change." paulddf.substack.com/p/who-killed...

Who Killed Jason Arday?

Earlier this afternoon, my oldest boyhood friend, a distinguished international lawyer who received his doctorate at Cambridge, called me to share the tragic news that Jason Arday, the Black British a...

paulddf.substack.com

Maybe Jason Arday’s death can offer us lessons in not rushing to glib judgements; in not joining the unthinking pack; and – above all - in keeping a sense of proportion and plain humanity. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Jason Arday was a victim of the worst kind of media pile-on

The former Cambridge professor suffered a relentless campaign of coverage against him. His death should teach us an important lesson about keeping a s...

prospectmagazine.co.uk

“If we are to protect our planet and the people who call it home, we must turn the tide on climate denial by preparing for a hotter future and embracing net zero like never before.” 👍 Sadiq Khan www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This burning summer is the proof: the voices of climate denial aren’t just delusional, they’re deadly | Sadiq Khan

Look at our blazing forests and parched cities. Green policies aren’t a ‘luxury’, and we can’t burn more oil and gas. People need the truth, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

theguardian.com

“The climate emergency kills,” he said on Monday. “And that’s why it’s not enough to address the consequences, which we do; what we have to do is reduce its causes, anticipate its effects, and, consequently, better prepare our country to protect people’s lives.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Climate change kills’: Pedro Sánchez speaks plain truth to Spain’s deniers

PM has long history of speaking out on realities of global heating but political opponents remain unnmoved

theguardian.com

Today’s column is on the quiet shift from a society where one’s economic standing was mainly determined by income, to one where wealth does more of the talking. This changes incentives, status, beliefs in fairness, and imo helps explain why many feel the system is broken www.ft.com/content/6a35...

We’ve moved from income world to wealth world

Passive wealth gains increasingly matter more than earnings for one’s standing in society

ft.com

Given the recent COVID-19 origins revival and Fauci witchhunt, just a reminder that I have written a book that answers to the best of our knowledge the question; and dismantles the many disinformation campaigns around the various lab leak narratives. Free access: open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

Lab Leak Fever

The COVID-19 Origin Theory that Sabotaged Science and Society

open.substack.com

I will be following Anthony Fauci's hearing today, and I will post comments in this thread with the hashtag #faucihearing. Feel free to mute it! ▫️1/🧵 www.hsgac.senate.gov

New in Trends in Cognitive Sciences: misinformation isn't just about false beliefs. Led by Ullrich Ecker & co=authors Emily Spearing & Renee DiResta our piece argues the bigger threat is indirect—the erosion of shared epistemic standards doi.org/10.1016/j.ti... 🧵 1/10

Misinformation as strategy: Epistemic consequences and the undermining of shared truth

Misinformation influences cognition—shaping memory, beliefs, attitudes, reasoning, and decision-making. While intentionally disseminated misinformatio…

doi.org

Nearly 4,000 academic posts in social sciences, humanities and the arts have been axed in one year alone. In the 12 months to December 2024, just under 3,000 social sciences, 820 humanities and 240 arts jobs went. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

theguardian.com

online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...

In der Long Covid Community brodelt es. Warum die aktuellen Grabenkämpfe weder dieser komplexen Erkrankung noch den Betroffenen gerecht werden. Mein Artikel in der @woz.ch www.woz.ch/!WXQ6B2MJSGB2

Long Covid: Crashkompetenz ist entscheidend

Pacing oder Brain-Retraining? Die aktuellen Grabenkämpfe um die «richtige» Behandlung von Long Covid werden weder der komplexen Erkrankung noch den Betroffenen gerecht.

woz.ch

🔴⚠️🌡️🌊The unprecedented #heatwave over #Europe is bringing its effects also to the Mediterranean Sea. In the last few days the #Copernicus Sea Surface Temperature has rapidly increased and the latest anomaly data exceed 8°C ⬇️SST daily anomaly on 27 June 2026 #climateemergency

So I build something fun for my book website. An interactive chronology with 330+ events that influenced the pandemic origin discourse; both scientific papers and disinformation campaigns. Check it out: www.lab-leak-fever.com/interactive-...

Philipp Markolin@philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 2mo ago

Ever wonder how the lab leak narrative ended up dominating origin discourse and public imagination despite being false? I plotted most key moments; papers, news articles, viral tweets, political statements on one interactive map. Watch the narrative actually form. 🧵 youtu.be/F2WANnGq6EI

I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇

Meeresforscher Andrew Sweetman macht einen sensationellen Fund. Dafür wird er von Naturschützern bejubelt – und von Bergbaufirmen diffamiert. @eis.bsky.social hat Sweetman besucht.

Das Rätsel um den dunklen Sauer­stoff aus der Tiefsee

Meeresforscher Andrew Sweetman stellte eine These auf, die sein Leben veränderte.

republik.ch

This is such a moving piece. If your interested in #Ebola — the damage it causes, the trauma families and communities and responders face during and after an outbreak — please read it. www.statnews.com/2026/05/20/e...

I saw Ebola as both doctor and patient. I wish people cared more about the Africans I worked alongside

“As another Ebola outbreak unfolds, we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past,” writes Krutika Kuppalli.

statnews.com

The contrast between the number of media requests I got when rich people on a cruise were facing a deadly, but contained outbreak versus now that some of the poorest people in the world are facing a deadly and devastating epidemic is just so so stark and it just really annoys the hell out of me.

Here is a brief thread on this preprint from @virusesimmunity.bsky.social's group studying a volunteer cohort of people with self-reported "post-vaccination syndrome", recently covered in the NYT. I think there are a few reasons to be skeptical of the headline takeaways of this preprint.

Important thread. "Science suffers a dramatic disadvantage when it comes to storytelling because it is bound by fact. Evidence is slow. It is also often nuanced, jargoned and hard to explain to non-experts. It demands caveats." We science journalists have to be more creative in how we tell stories.

Philipp Markolin@philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 4mo ago

New deep dive from me into the anti-science movement, it's structure, tactics, and impact on science and society. Some data analysis, unique testimonies, new infographics and also a first attempt at outlining broadly-agreed upon actions how to fight back. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

New deep dive from me into the anti-science movement, it's structure, tactics, and impact on science and society. Some data analysis, unique testimonies, new infographics and also a first attempt at outlining broadly-agreed upon actions how to fight back. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

We need to talk about the anti-science movement

6 lessons scientists under siege learned the hard way, and how we all can fight back

open.substack.com

Dr. David Morens - who is 78 years old and served his country for nearly 50 years - used Gmail, which he shouldn't have done. However, "[he] was stripped and handcuffed [by] a half-dozen federal agents carrying guns and wearing tactical gear [..] and jailed". www.science.org/content/arti...

Guns and bulletproof vests: How federal agents arrested Fauci aide

David Morens, 78, was stripped and handcuffed for email violations

science.org

To be clear about what just happened: The Trump administration sent armed FBI agents to abduct a 78-year-old doctor and former federal public health worker from his home and stripped him because the brainwashed right-wing base, hopped up on a literal conspiracy theory, wants scalps.

How big AG contributes to climate change denial and delay: changingmarkets.org/report/the-n...

The New Merchants of Doubt: How Big Meat and Dairy Avoid Climate Action • Changing Markets

Landmark investigation of 22 meat and dairy companies reveals how the industry mirrors Big Tobacco tactics to distract, delay and derail climate action.

changingmarkets.org

Congratulations to @theresluethi.bsky.social for her prize in the Science category at the Swiss Press Awards! She won it for her article exploring the (undue) success of COVID lab-leak hypotheses in the media and public sphere Her article: www.tagesanzeiger.ch/covid-warum-... #covidorigin 🧪

Corona geht wieder viral (Swiss Press Science 2026, von Theres Luethi) - Swiss Press Award

In meinem Artikel gehe ich der Frage nach dem Ursprung der Covid-19-Pandemie nach: Ist das Virus aus einem Labor in China entwichen? Oder steht die Herkunft im Zusammenhang mit dem Wildtierhandel? Zie...

swisspressaward.ch