Kristian G. Andersen
@kgandersen.bsky.social
Infectious diseases & genomics. Immunologist in (voluntary) exile. Minimal sarcasm. Fierce HOA (Hater of Acronyms). Personal account - opinions expressed are my own and not those of my employer.
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.
Right Wing Celebrates Former Biden COVID Czar’s Embrace of Unproven COVID Origin Story
“It’s going to shift the Overton Window.”
importantcontext.news
"Paul Distorts Fauci’s Diary Entry About COVID-19 and Wet Market" www.factcheck.org/2026/07/paul...
Paul Distorts Fauci’s Diary Entry About COVID-19 and Wet Market - FactCheck.org
Sen. Rand Paul has pointed to a line in Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary to claim that the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases privately “knew” in January 2020 that t...
factcheck.org
"Accusing him of crimes and deception wasn’t enough; the release of the diary was meant to inflict public humiliation on him". Very good article and spot on. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Why MAGA Is So Obsessed With Fauci
In the aftermath of pandemics, people either try to forget them or find others to blame for them.
theatlantic.com
This is how the CDC honored Officer David Rose, killed a year ago in the domestic terror attack by a shooter who believed he'd been injured by a vaccine. Truly one of the most appalling things I have ever seen.
teabelly@teabelly.bsky.social · 2d agoToday at CDC they had a "celebration" for Jay. Someone heard the doge boys in IOD say “Welcome to the party” AT THE FUQING PLAQUE DEDICATION for the officer that died one year ago during CDC attack to someone. They’re all just having a big party...
Thx to @bmj.com for commissioning me & my inspirational colleague @boghuma.bsky.social to write this piece on Republicans' shameful show trial of Dr Fauci Sure, cursing at him & spouting kooky conspiracies got the MAGA base energized, but it will harm public health 1/5 www.bmj.com/content/394/...
Fauci’s Senate hearing riled up the MAGA base—but at the cost of damaging public health
The vilification of Anthony Fauci by Senate Republicans will erode trust in science, curtail international research collaborations, and deter scientists and health experts from entering public service...
bmj.com
CNN: One year after shooting, CDC workers say they still feel like targets By Brenda Goodman @brendagoodman.bsky.social @cnn.com cnn.it/4q38J5e
It is perhaps not surprising Katie Miller would turn to Fauci; the rest of America did, too. But her actions contrast with the intensity and speed at which Covid was politicized – and the extent to which Fauci would draw conservatives’ ire, even years later. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Why making Anthony Fauci the enemy will harm US public health for years
Republicans are trying to scapegoat the infectious disease expert, even as they have gutted healthcare amid outbreaks of measles, cyclosporiasis and Ebola
theguardian.com
They're really going all out. The less they find, the harder they look. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Exclusive | Senate Panel Says It Has Obtained Copy of Fauci’s Covid-Era Phone
Republicans in Congress have ramped up scrutiny of the retired government doctor, and one panel could vote on holding him in contempt on Thursday.
wsj.com
Absolutely shameful. Modern-day McCarthyism
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 4d agoBreaking news: A Senate committee voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he declined to answer questions under his Fifth Amendment right and accused the committee chairman, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), of trying to wrongly entrap him.
There are lots of ways to build a coalition to fight for public health. But a new collaborationist politics is sprouting up which excuses too much & pretends that MAHA is something other than it is: a movement built to destroy & built on lies by its founders. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Collaborating With the MAHA Movement Is a Terrible Idea
Some pundits are pushing a strategic alliance with parts of RFK Jr.’s base. Here’s why they’re wrong.
thenation.com
Exclusive: Sen. Rand Paul published Anthony Fauci's diary entries without redacting the names or medical details of over 20 people, including people with cancer, Ebola or HIV. www.notus.org/health-scien...
Rand Paul’s Fauci Diary Dump Exposed Peoples’ Medical Histories
The Republican senator’s office published over 20 individuals’ health information without redaction.
notus.org
Since this has been coming up again, just a reminder of what I actually said (in public, no less) back in early 2020. Here's just one example from: www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/sci....
One thing is to disagree on what is likely going to be true in future, however, it is a different thing entirely, to disagree on what we all know to be true of the past. See, COVID-19. See, climate change. I somehow doubt AI and/or social media will help in this discourse.
Today is the first Tuesday of the month, my (self-imposed) blog posting day -- I wrote about accusations of coverup and conspiracies, thrown without any evidence, in the context of the recent release of private documents by Rand Paul #covidorigin
Conspiracies and coverups
There is no evidence for a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2, so commenters default to meta-discourse and accuse scientists of coverups, for which there is no evidence either. So far, available data and scient...
pandemonium.hypotheses.org
Zach found this recording recently, and it's a crucial piece of evidence that thoroughly refutes a theory put forward by Alina Chan, DRASTIC, and even, according to what we read in Vanity Fair, the FBI. Check his thread! #covidorigin
Zach Hensel@zachhensel.bsky.social · last wk.It's a public webinar that Zhengli Shi delivered on March 9, 2020, before a global pandemic had been declared. In this clip from the talk, Shi delineates 4 sarbecovirus lineages. The 8 samples in "Lineage 4" are the ones in the figure most closely related to SARS-CoV-2.
"Scientists discovered and developed the COVID vaccines that brought the pandemic to an end. It’s the anti-vaxxers, not the scientific community, who should stand indicted in the light of 2026." This should be the conservative stance btw, from former Bush speech writer @davidfrum.bsky.social
Kristian G. Andersen@kgandersen.bsky.social · last wk."Trump’s record of dishonesty, callousness, and selfishness during the pandemic is a documented reality. The imputations against Fauci are mostly fantasies". www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
"Trump’s record of dishonesty, callousness, and selfishness during the pandemic is a documented reality. The imputations against Fauci are mostly fantasies". www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Anthony Fauci Is Not the Villain in This Story
The doctor was thrust into his pandemic-leadership role because of Trump’s deadly dereliction of duty.
theatlantic.com
The #Ebola #Bundibugyo outbreak in DRC's Ituri province is now the 2nd largest in known history, having overtaken the 2018-2020 outbreak in North-Kivu & Ituri in a matter of 2.5 months. Hard to say how big this one will get. Can't see it ending anytime soon.
Since this has been popping up again... www.npr.org/2026/07/29/g...
Animal spillover? Lab leak? What the science says about the origins of COVID-19
The release of Dr. Anthony Fauci's pandemic diaries has rekindled the debate over the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Here's how scientists have weighed in.
npr.org
Ebola may have been spreading for months in the DRC before anyone recognized it. A new reconstruction suggests the outbreak was already widespread in the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu by January. It wasn’t officially declared until 15 May. Why did no-one raise the alarm? My story for @science.org 🧪
EXCLUSIVE: Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected
A remote mining town gripped by fear saw hundreds of suspected cases before the government declared an outbreak, report says
science.org
“But that matters little when the lessons and innovations of that successful response have been actively un-learned, and the institutions that led it have been destroyed.” open.substack.com/pub/zeteo/p/...
Blame Elon Musk and Donald Trump for the Out-of-Control Ebola Crisis
Jeremy Konyndyk, who helped lead the U.S. response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, writes about the deadly consequences DOGE's dismantling of USAID has had, as Congo struggles to contain the virus.
open.substack.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
This is the GOP Conspiracy Two-Step: Create an environment where experts need to worry about bad faith attacks from political actors, then use the expert's moves to protect against the bad faith attacks as proof of a conspiracy. You can't win against it.
Ernie Piper@whoisernie.bsky.social · 2w agoZeynep Tufekci is still completely insane over the lab leak idea. "There is a conspiracy to cover this up" is not evidence for "covid was a bioweapon that escaped from a lab". It could also be evidence for my theory, "please stop talking about this stupid idea"
The evidence supports the alt theory of a spillover from animals sold at the market. Spillovers also happen to account for all other novel infectious disease epidemics. I'm tired of writing about this since I'm tired of the harassment. Pretty much every science writer I know feels the same.
"politicizing science remains a vital political tactic." "Wednesday’s hearing was another example of how criticizing scientists has become an important outlet for the [Republican] party – and where relitigating the Covid crisis justifies skepticism of a broad range of science."
Prof Sheena Cruickshank@sheencr.bsky.social · 2w agoGood summary of what the insanity that was the Fauci hearing yesterday was about- basically a senators vendetta against Fauci and overall an attack on science versus conspiracy theories. An absolute shocking display from the Republican senators involved.
Dr.Anthony Fauci is a good man who deserves a peaceful retirement for his many decades of hardwork and leadership. It is a disgrace he isn't being extended this bare minimum of grace.
