"What we are witnessing here is stereotypical conspiratorial reasoning. [...] Meanwhile, scientists and public health officials are harassed simply because one day some people with power felt humiliated and have been seeking revenge since." Excellent essay by @flodebarre.eurosky.social

Flo Débarre@flodebarre.eurosky.social · 21h ago

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

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

On ne peut pas dissimuler ce qui n'existe pas ou ce dont on n'a pas connaissance. Pourtant, les tenants d'une origine de labo utilisent à foison le mot "dissimulation" (coverup). C'est une technique typiquement conspirationniste pour justifier l'absence de preuve d'une origine de laboratoire.

Flo Débarre@flodebarre.eurosky.social · 21h ago

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

While never "big", he was CEO of 3 sizeable companies before he ran them all into the ground. Achieve (née OncoGenex, née Sonus) Adhera (née Marina, née MDRNA, née Nastech) Atossa (current)

RFK jr overrode the NIH recommendation for NIAID Director to appoint his own preferred candidate (who applied, but NIH declined to interview), per @politico.com. Institute directors have final say on funding decisions and are critical to the integrity of NIH. 🧵 www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

A lab-leak proponent is in line for Fauci’s old job

Steven Quay is in final vetting to run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

politico.com

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....

As a physician who now works in public health & policy, & as the father of a pre-teen boy who will inevitably be exposed to messages from the manosphere, I'm concerned about how MAHA, MAGA, & masculinity influencers have merged Here's my new OpEd on the risks www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

Opinion | The Manosphere and MAHA Have Merged. I Worry for My Pre-Teen Son.

This culture is driving three main kinds of health risks

medpagetoday.com

The lab leak is a totemic belief of the MAGA regime that can not be challenged. Its most fervent proponents have been put into positions of power to enshrine regime pseudoscience. RFKjr - HHS John Ratcliffe - CIA Bhatthacharya - NIH and CDC Quay - NIH None of them are even remotely qualified.

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.

The paperback of Invisible Rulers is out today! To celebrate I dropped audio of the Twitter Space where Mike Benz first groomed Matt Taibbi into believing there'd been "mass censorship" of "hundreds of millions of tweets"—something he'd then testify before Congress. open.substack.com/pub/agentsof...

When Matt Taibbi Met Mike Benz

How independent media turned an obscure political operative into a "whistleblower"—and his claims into government action.

open.substack.com

There's a missing rung on the academic career ladder in Austria and Germany. Historically there wasn't a position like assistant professor or lecturer, so the jump from postdoc to professor was — and mostly still is — huge. Between 70% and 80% of academics in Austria don't have permanent jobs.

Academics in Germany and Austria are stuck in job limbo

Also: Montana's "right to try" law for experimental cures, UK science gets reshuffled, a university sues Anthropic over patents, and more from last week

reviewertoo.com

Proud to have been part of this submission to SCOTUS to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their decade-long disinformation about climate change. With @naomioreskes.bsky.social @geoffreysupran.bsky.social and others www.ucs.org/about/news/a...

Experts File Friend-of-the-Court Brief in Suncor v Boulder Documenting Companies’ Climate Deception

Experts File Friend-of-the-Court Brief in Supreme Court Case Documenting Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil Decades of Climate Deception

ucs.org

@philippmarkolin.eurosky.social Sadly, jumping in on lab leak fever seems to be a marketing gimmick for Ashish Jha's new GenAI scam startup. I dig into it here: www.panaccindex.info/p/ashish-jha...

Ashish Jha's Reactionary Crashout

From COVID Czar to... CEO of a GenAI Scam?!

panaccindex.info

I think the word for this is "collaborator". Some scientists will inevitable choose to trade their credentials and scientific integrity and rather ingratiating themselves with regime-aligned pseudoscience for access to power and personal profit.

Peter Daszak@peterdaszak.bsky.social · 2d ago

Seems @ashishkjha.bsky.social is founder/ CEO of a company advising on future lab-origin (& other) outbreaks. In his Twitter bio but not bluesky. They call it a "public benefit corporation", but not a "non-profit", so safe to assume $$ are exchanged for 'briefings' you can book. bioradarusa.com#team

⬇️

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

NEW: on Fauci diaries The story isn't what's in them — it's the method. "Selective disclosure": leak real documents stripped of context, let partisan media run, go viral before the fact-check lands. Don't ask what's in the dump. Ask who it benefits, and why now. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

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

Watched the Odyssee. Meh. Clearly a film for the contemporary US, but intellectually clichee, at times boring and inconsistent. So I guess perfect for shallow and self-serving pseudoanalysis by midwid crowd pleaser intellectuals wanting to woo others with their hot takes.

Christopher Nolan Stared Into Elon Musk’s Soul | The Ezra Klein Show

YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show

youtube.com

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE POWER ACCOMPLISHES! Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who wrote comments, contacted Congress, and yelled! This is OUR WIN! @standupforscience.net www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

Senate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul

Language is included to delay the president’s move to put political appointees in charge of grant approval.

politico.com

“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

I try not to comment on Alina Chan anymore, because I do not know how many times her self-serving commentary needs to be exposed for what it is for people to not fall for it anymore, but alas it seems she is planning her comeback tour so let me just explain what she tries to do here 🔽 1/

It's been two and a half months since the Ebola outbreak in the DRC was declared and it is now the biggest the country has ever experienced and the second largest the world has ever seen. Dozens of cases continue to be reported each day across three separate provinces. 🧪 insp.cd/sitrep-n077-...

Famous skeptic Michael Shermer.... 😅 Something tells me that was more a branding thing than actual ever a discernible skill of Shermer.

Outbreak investigation reports from 311 HPAI-affected farms in S. Korea. Wildlife control most frequent deficiency (85.9%), operational management (65.9%) + related to anteroom biosecurity measures in barns (56.3%). 👉 www.frontiersin.org/journals/vet...

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 · 5d ago

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.

So, beyond the ignorant defamation, why does this matter? According to @vanityfair.com , this was *the* key piece of evidence in the FBI's case for a lab leak. So it's worth re-reading that story, which remains uncorrected: www.vanityfair.com/news/story/i...

Exclusive: Inside the FBI’s Lab Leak Investigation

As bird flu spreads, and Team Trump begins dismantling America’s public health apparatus, a former FBI scientist and investigator speaks out about the evidence that led the bureau to suspect that COVI...

vanityfair.com

Lots of "lab leak" chatter this week, cherry picking from impolite things written in private during a crisis. So, for some contrast, here's something that was hiding in plain sight for years. It disproves a defamatory conspiracy theory that appeared in @vanityfair.com and the book Viral.

"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 · 5d ago

"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...

Old Matt Wrigley's throwing a hissy fit on Lab leak Twitter accusing me of "Lethal Treason" for emailing collaborators & helping them deal w/ conspiracy mongers. This is a side-gig to his main job blaming conservationists for UK's clearly climate change-induced fires.

🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12

If/when we have an H5N1 pandemic, there will very likely be a lot of preventable child deaths because people have been deluded by these revisionist right-wing lunatics and will insist schools must be open no matter what.

Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 5d ago

Keeping schools open is a goal not a policy. A blanket "never close schools" is a bad lesson. I suggest these: 1. Do not prejudge next pandemic which will be a different virus and could have very different age profile of who it attacks 9/12