Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that the 1918 flu pandemic was caused by a lab virus from vaccine research, a defective influenza vaccine. Let’s analyze what a lie this is. First, in 1918, 107 years ago, virology was in its infancy

Everything you might ever want to know about the furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2.

Stefan Pöhlmann@snpoehlm.bsky.social · 2w ago

🧪An exciting new preprint offers insights into how SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses can acquire cleavage motifs for the cellular protease furin. A thread on the importance of the furin motif in the SARS-CoV-2 spike and its possible origins.🧵

Fauci called the plan to crush the vulnerable with giant pre vaccine pandemic waves of COVID “dangerous nonsense” and this is one reason why republicans want to destroy him.

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

youtu.be/Kl7FLKZCxBQ?...

Fauci Fiasco Addendum (Gigi Gronvall and Gain of Function Research)

YouTube video by Professor Dave Explains

youtu.be

"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

I had the opportunity to ask NIH Dir. Jay Bhattacharya about his comments re: mRNA vaccines, that they had "failed to earn the public's trust" so the NIH should not invest. His answer demonstrates that science and pandemic preparedness are taking a backseat to ideology. youtu.be/S0rsz3Ph7XE?...

Cfr mtg NIH director

YouTube video by Gigi Gronvall

youtu.be

Trump's response to the worst year for measles in 35 years: Make next year worse. Delaying vaccines has consequences: kffhealthnews.org/public-healt...

Dan Diamond@ddiamond.bsky.social · 4w ago

BREAKING — Trump is planning to sign an executive order today that calls for spacing out childhood vaccines, breaking the MMR into three separate shots and making other key vaccine changes. @lenasun.bsky.social @rachelroubein.bsky.social

It was great joining Chris and Matt over @guruspod.bsky.social to talk about the latest surge in the lab leak discourse and attacks on science. A lot of ground got covered - from the science to the politics, including where we are on understanding COVID origins. podcasts.apple.com/is/podcast/l...

Lab Leak Groundhog Day: COVID Origins in 2026 with Worobey, Andersen, and Holmes

Podcast Episode · Decoding the Gurus · 10 August · 1hr 45min

podcasts.apple.com

Excellent video (with me at the 2 hour mark) debunking all the bad-faith right wing cranks and disinformation agents attacking Fauci and the scientific enterprise he has come to represent.

Anthony Fauci is Evil Satan Bastard Man!

YouTube video by Professor Dave Explains

youtu.be

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 · 4w 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...

Discussed here

The Covid Amnesia Project and the Plot to Erase 2020

It’s up to those of us who experienced the pandemic in the real-world to make sure that what actually happened in 2020 isn’t deliberately erased by sheltered disinformation agents who experienced

sciencebasedmedicine.org

Pittipapa@pittipapa.bsky.social · 4w ago

Reminder: This was all occurring in the face of a death rate so high that people in NYC were being buried in mass graves.

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...

Anthony Fauci is Evil Satan Bastard Man!

YouTube video by Professor Dave Explains

youtube.com

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

Gregg Gonsalves@gregggonsalves.bsky.social · last mo.

This is just bat-shit crazy. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

OK so RFK Jr did say on CNN that "COVID-19", "RSV" and "Lyme disease" came from gain of function research. I've only seen lab leak RSV from some very fringe social media accounts so far; is this a common claim? Source: youtu.be/u-FVCCLsZnQ?... via @atrupar.com

3 years ago I wrote this piece for @theatlantic.com about why we mustn’t take public health for granted. This is long before this admin’s deep cuts to public health. With the massive Cyclospora outbreak, I couldn’t help thinking about my own warning from the past.

Another quick thread on Tulsi Gabbard's documents, released on Thursday: There is finally a version of the May 2020 LLNL Z Division report. There are still redactions, but enough can be read to know it was baseless. ▫️1/5 www.dni.gov/files//docum... #covidorigin

Matt Ridley’s evidence for a lab leak collapsed, yet his certainty only grew. My post breaks down Ridley’s bizarre, unscientific case that boils down to a 12-nucleotide “God of the Gaps” argument. www.the-gallop.com/review-matt-...

Review: Matt Ridley's "Viral" Case for a Lab Leak

Matt Ridley went from calling a lab leak “slightly more probable” in 2021 to “almost certainly correct” in 2026. Yet, as his original case in Viral collapsed, his certainty now rests on a 12-nucleotid...

the-gallop.com

In March, Matt Ridley gave the inaugural "Scientific Freedom Lecture" at NIH, on a lab leak origin of COVID-19. The talk was so full of misrepresentations, omissions, falsehoods and lies that I will need several blog posts to debunk it. Here's Part I: pandemonium.hypotheses.org/995 🧪 #covidorigin

Fact-checking Matt Ridley’s “Scientific Freedom Lecture” at NIH (Part I)

Matt Ridley, global warming skeptic and co-author with Alina Chan of a book promoting a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2, was invited by Jay Bhattacharya, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NI...

pandemonium.hypotheses.org

His video on the Telepathy Tapes was so concerning that it got a copyright notice. Even some of those are the Telepathy Tapes subreddit see the problem. "The voice for a silenced community silences critics. Hmmm. Not cool." www.reddit.com/r/TheTelepat... www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHzO...

Discussion of AGW denialism from geologist / science journalist Peter Hadfield + the science communicator Dave Farina (Potholer54 + 'Professor Dave Explains'): "Disarming Climate Change Denial Tropes (Featuring Peter Hadfield aka Potholer54)" www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHzO...

Disarming Climate Change Denial Tropes (Featuring Peter Hadfield aka Potholer54)

YouTube video by Professor Dave Explains

youtube.com

The EJW article that doesn't mention that lineage A was found in HSM can be read here: econjwatch.org/issues/volum... Despite my writing being "commented-on" I was not invited to reply.

Zach Hensel@zachhensel.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🧵 1/8 Just saw the @mbweissman.bsky.social critique of Pekar et al. (P2022) in EconJournalWatch. He says that P2022 was contrived to "patch over difficulties" in the hypothesis that COVID-19 originated in the wildlife trade. In order to make this argument, he left out the most important evidence.

YouTube: "NIH FFS: The Freedom From Science Lab Leak Lecture Series" www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPU4...

NIH FFS: The Freedom From Science Lab Leak Lecture Series

YouTube video by Angela Rasmussen

youtube.com

Early in the pandemic I said that the furin cleavage site is the grassy knoll for COVID origins loons. Yet again Ridley affirms my assessment.

Thomas [DARK MODE], DO@tom.medsky.social · 6mo ago

Jay Bhattacharya currently hosting lab leak proponent Matt Ridley at an NIH conference. Ridley admits that he has performed no experiments and there is no direct epidemiological evidence for lab leak. Whoever asked that question is my hero.

@saveamericamvmt.bsky.social @standupforscience.bsky.social and @27unihted.bsky.social are co-sponsoring an event covering this lecture with the first NIH Freedom From Science lecture with scientists who have actually worked to find evidence and unravel the origin of COVID-19 #NIHFFS 2/3

Wrong again. The paper + fine print together note residual confounding from not controlling for: - the number of rounds of improvement of the secondary response - prior infection Both confounders lead to underestimation of efficacy. Seriously, ACTUALLY READ: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Additional #Currygate background. youtu.be/mYYPDNK4Vrw?...

Tilting at Strawmen and Other Tricks of Climate Denial Enablers, Mark Boslough, Bay Area Skeptics

YouTube video by SandiaGranite

youtu.be

The stupid paradox, cont. #NIH director Jay Bhattacharya launches the "Scientific Freedom Lectures" series w/ a non-scientist. Matt Ridley is a science journalist who believes in the Covid lab leak hypothesis. "Scientific freedom" is about conspiracy theories. 🧪 arstechnica.com/science/2026...

NIH director launches "Scientific Freedom" lectures with non-scientist

First speaker minimizes climate change, COVID risks—and is a lab leak proponent.

arstechnica.com

@altnih4science.bsky.social is it true that Bhattacharya has launched a “Scientific Freedom Lecture Series” at NIH and the first speaker will be Matt Ridley, a known climate change denier and COVID19 lab leak enthusiast? I mean, if true, where’s the science here? Were no astrologers available?

It’s really rather telling that the NIH Director launches a “Scientific Freedom” lecture series, and THIS is who he asks to lecture—a kooky conspiracy theorist 🤯

Atomsk's Sanakan@atomskssanakan.bsky.social · 6mo ago

If they're going to have a 'Scientific Freedom' lecture series with Matt Ridley, will they include his climate change denialism? Or his denialism on health risks of from saturated fat? Or his conspiracy theory of AIDS pandemic origins? Or... www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-gd... x.com/AndrewDessle...