Here @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social puts in the hard work to demolish the latest lab leak Op Ed in NYT. Just because people want a 'mad scientist' 'China=evil' narrative to be true, just saying it over & over again don't make it so. 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

Timely reminder re. the truth behind these attacks. No, Dr. Fauci did not fund GoF research in Wuhan. No, the work we did in China not have caused COVID-19. Yes, as @gostin.bsky.social points out, this work is considered an important goal for pandemic prevention. www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...

Opinion | Scapegoating Fauci Won't Protect Us From the Next Pandemic

It's time to replace partisan grandstanding with evidence-based inquiry

medpagetoday.com

Seems lab leak-sympathetic Relman needs to use Signal to have a conversation with a fellow scientist. This is the exact thing the lab leakers have been attacking me and others they call zoonati about & implying some sort of cover-up. Just shows what a non-story this whole thing really is...

Zach Hensel@zachhensel.bsky.social · 6d ago

It's particularly short-sighted for Relman to fall for cherry picking Fauci's diaries for conspiracy theories like this. The only reason Relman isn't near the center of conspiracy theories is because his just-asking-questions schtick is useful. Otherwise congressional hearings would be about this.

Tour-de-force debunk of FBI agent Bannan’s BS on the lab leak. So easy for people to post paranoid ramblings based on the hundreds of other lab leak conspiracies, but such hard work to go through all the inaccuracies and lay them out, with receipts, as @zachhensel.bsky.social has done so well here.

Zach Hensel@zachhensel.bsky.social · last wk.

I have a post on @pubpeer.com up now that details most of the factual errors in this article: pubpeer.com/publications... My post is limited to the factual scientific content and doesn't critique the author's opinions or comments on sources beyond scientific manuscripts.

Unbelievable how erstwhile good scientists believe debunked conspiracies because they can’t get over the idea that China = bad. Relman is a true believer in this as well as the prob BS microwave/sound wave attacks. He’s prob half way there on the Jewish laser beams too after a couple of drinks!

Zach Hensel@zachhensel.bsky.social · 6d ago

Absolutely wild example of "data not shown" here from someone chiding others for their overconfidence.

They can’t admit the real reason they prefer to post on X

Nobody Wants to Admit Nine Cans of Ravioli

ALT: Nobody Wants to Admit Nine Cans of Ravioli

static.klipy.com

Walker Bragman@walkerbragman.bsky.social · last wk.

Joe Biden’s former COVID czar Ashish Jha says he tried BlueSky but the misinformation and vitriol was worse than on X.

Come on, folks. Your chance to get you voice heard. It’s comment time! (until October 13th)

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 7d ago

The NIH just released a proposal that will apparently hide peer reviewers’ impact scores and percentiles from the research team, their institution, and NIH program officers. All the better to obscure how funding decisions will be made primarily via political review, I’m guessing.

Actually, the fact that more media vitriol was cast onto an academic than is being cast on the rapists in the Epstein Files (many of whom are ACTIVE academics) is EGREGIOUS. No one should be driven to their death in this way—even if every accusation were true—over academic misconduct.

I have so . much . contempt for all the people who jumped on the Arday story, while never having heard of him until a few days ago, just to signal their opposition to EDI/DEI Such a sad story -- human beings are more than tokens

The lab leak theory is not a strict scientific theory, but mostly a narrative of different allegations Rand Paul is not only falsely accusing Fauci of creating SARS-CoV-2, he is endorsing a very stupid version of the origin theory that has incredibly strong evidence against it. Let me illustrate:

New story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social at Science on K award changes. www.science.org/content/arti... 1/13

The NIH just released a proposal that will apparently hide peer reviewers’ impact scores and percentiles from the research team, their institution, and NIH program officers. All the better to obscure how funding decisions will be made primarily via political review, I’m guessing.

2 honorable choices. She can resign or resist from the inside until she’s fired. She knew she was signing up for this. We’ll see.

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦@helenbranswell.bsky.social · last wk.

#CDC 's new director clearly has been sworn in. Erica Schwartz is now listed on CDC's website as the director. First big challenge for Schwartz: how she responds to this week's executive order on reducing recommended childhood vaccines & the call to break up MMR vax. www.cdc.gov/about/leader...

Okay Clacton. Let’s go.

Honestly, @flodebarre.eurosky.social has singlehandedly done more to correct the record on the many falsehoods motivated actors and conspiracy theorists have set in the world that the world's journalists combined; who instead were often overeager to amplify, rather than verify, these stories.

Flo Débarre@flodebarre.eurosky.social · last wk.

Prior to Fauci's hearing, Rand Paul released emails from 2021 that revived a conspiracy theory alleging that the genetic sequence of RaTG13 (once SARS-CoV-2's closest relative) had been altered. I wrote up what used to be a Twitter thread and updated it with new information: ⬇️ #covidorigin

she truly has. stellar work!

Philipp Markolin@philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · last wk.

Honestly, @flodebarre.eurosky.social has singlehandedly done more to correct the record on the many falsehoods motivated actors and conspiracy theorists have set in the world that the world's journalists combined; who instead were often overeager to amplify, rather than verify, these stories.

Hear! Hear! The academies, universities, major law firms, & of course all the tech companies either bent the knee & kowtowed, or were already on board. So much damage done…

Walker Bragman@walkerbragman.bsky.social · last wk.

We’re going to have to look critically at the failure of institutions in the face of fascism.

Prior to Fauci's hearing, Rand Paul released emails from 2021 that revived a conspiracy theory alleging that the genetic sequence of RaTG13 (once SARS-CoV-2's closest relative) had been altered. I wrote up what used to be a Twitter thread and updated it with new information: ⬇️ #covidorigin

Yu’s table 3.2

In 2021, leakers tried, and failed, to reproduce a table of identities between SARS-like coronaviruses that was presented in a 2019 MSc thesis from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. They concluded that...

pandemonium.hypotheses.org

News for people keeping track of whether Steven Quay will be the next NIAID director — everything after “business plan” in his company’s latest quarterly report is newly added. Seems like something they should’ve disclosed long ago?

Alina Chan is a total fantasist. I cut off the rest of this screed.

Quay was not that prominent during Covid, so people may not realize how abysmally stupid his lab leak scenarios were and how incompetent he is. In late 2024, he revived the claim that SARS-CoV-2 had been designed after HIV -- a claim fully debunked in early 2020 ▫️1/7🧵 zenodo.org/records/1455...

Flo Débarre@flodebarre.eurosky.social · 2w ago

Steven Quay, in line to be NIAID director, is not just any lab leaker. He is of the type of leakers who still talk about "HIV inserts". He has deleted his tweets from 2021-2025, so here are some screenshots to give you an idea of who Quay is: ▫️1/🧵 #covidorigin #quayniaid

Some disturbing trends. We've seen the "pureblood" MAGA craze, now taken to a new level w/ people refusing blood from COVID vaccinees. So sad to see people end up going outside of normal medical lanes based on conspiracy theories www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/mor...

More people requesting ‘unvaccinated’ blood for themselves or their children

cidrap.umn.edu

Video is an in-yer-face summary of why they're harassing Fauci. Highly recommended. H/t @atomskssanakan.bsky.social. I'm only 1/3rd way in & learning some shockers, e.g. Martin Kulldorff (now US govt vaccine advisor) posted guillotine images targeting 'experts' & HHS (see below)

Atomsk's Sanakan@atomskssanakan.bsky.social · 2w ago

Some videos debunking misinformation about Fauci from Dave Farina / @joho.bsky.social , @potholer54.bsky.social (a.k.a. Peter Hadfield,) and @debunk-the-funk.bsky.social (Dan Wilson): www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWxq... www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Xg... www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9pS...

The fact that the next likely head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is giving interviews to Paul Thacker is really not a good sign. Thacker has been a big spreader of misinformation about COVID vaccines and the virus. His access to this administration is troubling.

Takes 1 minute to sign - please get on board!!

Colette Delawalla, PhD@cdelawalla.bsky.social · 2w ago

OK FOLKS! We all know the Fauci hearing was meant to intimidate scientists…holding him in contempt of court was a HUGE BAD PRECEDENT. So, we are yelling. @standupforscience.net SIGN OUT PETITION TO SENATE TO REVERSE HOLDING DR FAUCI IN CONTEMPT: zurl.co/SLjT8

Damage control on aisle 1

Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · 2w ago

Here is Jay celebrating his AI avatar at the CDC. In the upper left hand corner, the monitor is showing footage from the memorial service for David Rose the police officer who was killed at the shooting there last year by a man who believed crazy things about covid vaccines.

@walkerbragman.bsky.social lifts the lid on yet another thinly veiled grift. Jha switched to “lab leak” then basically monetized it. Myself & other covid scientists have been falsely accused of this but here’s the WH COVID guy showing you how it’s done!!

Walker Bragman@walkerbragman.bsky.social · 2w ago

NEW: Last month, Biden’s former White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha offered his public support for the COVID lab leak origin story. He first endorsed the unproven narrative in February 2025, but his recent comments come amid escalating GOP attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Who is the greater narcissist: The guy who writes about events celebrating him in a private journal at the end of the day, or the guy tweeting about himself parading with a muscular cut-out while ignoring the memorial service for a shot officer in the background?

Adrian Egli@adrian7745.bsky.social · 2w ago

Gets even worse no thanks to Dept of Ed Sec. Linda "A1 steak sauce" McMahon and her ties to WWE! 🤮 Archive: archive.ph/OVMDR xcancel: xcancel.com/DrJBhattacha...