Tony Schountz
@schountz.bsky.social
Immunologists who's interested in virus reservoir hosts
Happy to share our H5N1 study, now in @pnas.org ! 🦆🦠 Using live-attenuated viruses, we found that recovery of reassortants between current clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 and human flu viruses is rare in the lab: 20 out of 2,698 isolates (0.7%). www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
pnas.org
We're looking for a post-doc to study innate antiviral immunity of bat and rodent viruses in cells from their natural reservoir hosts. asv.mcjobboard.net/jobs/236298
Post-doctoral fellow
We seek applicants with expertise in molecular virology and virus-host interactions. Experience with enveloped mammalian RNA viruses that are not arthropod-borne, mammalian cell culture, molecular clo...
asv.mcjobboard.net
Fantastic article about the life and work of Bob Garry that highlights both the personal and scientific costs that the conspiracy theory industry has had on Global public health and the scientists who have dedicated their lives to fighting infectious diseases www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
A Top Virus Scientist Stared Down Covid Lab-Leak Proponents. Now His Life’s Work Is at Stake
The battle over Covid’s origins has come for Bob Garry, who’s faced some of the world’s deadliest viral threats.
bloomberg.com
Feeling very honored and grateful today. Some of the journalists whose work I admire most have received this prize in the past and at a time when journalism is under threat in so many ways it’s just really heartening to be recognized by people who care deeply about journalism.
CASW@sciencewriting.bsky.social · 2mo agoCongratulations to @kakape.bsky.social for winning the 2026 Victor Cohn Prize! Judges called his reporting on infectious diseases and misinformation bold, urgent and groundbreaking. And big thanks to Michelson Philanthropies for underwriting the award. casw.org/news/kai-kup...
Honest question, but have you lost your mind? "Lab-Leak Payback" - really? Scientists "embroiled in controversy" - seriously? Just a thought, but maybe focus on the insane conspiracy theories and persecution ongoing in this 'debate'. For some of us, all of this is very real, but, sure, the clicks.
A little hantavirus biology. They’ve been around a long time with ancient writings and oral histories describing diseases that were likely caused by these viruses. Many cases of “trench fever” in WWI and WWII were likely hantavirus diseases.
Heads up folks! From last night's Office Hours --a Microbetv special: A review of the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius, as of 6 May 2026, incl. what we know so far, background on hantaviruses in general, and analysis of the previous Andes virus outbreak. Share widely! Repost! Tell a friend!
Hantavirus on board with Prof. Vincent Racaniello
YouTube video by MicrobeTV
youtu.be
Really great presentation by Angie and Vincent.
Microbetv@microbetv.bsky.social · 7mo agoAs it is decidedly uncivil to accuse people of starting a pandemic that killed 20 million people without any evidence to support the allegation, here are five compelling reasons why SARS-CoV-2 came from Nature. @angierasmussen.bsky.social
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
Maybe you heard somewhere that the COVID-19 pandemic started with a lab leak? NO! That is NOT what the evidence shows. It was not a goddamn lab leak. I’ve had enough. Here is what the evidence shows: it was zoonotic spillover at the market rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/five-reaso...
Five Reasons Why It Still Wasn't a Lab Leak
Time for some of that civil disagreement that the NIH Director can't get enough of
rasmussenretorts.substack.com
Lab Leakers: "SARS-CoV-2 can't infect bats, so it must have been made in a lab". Science: "Let's do the experiment". SARS-CoV-2 behaves exactly like one would expect in a reservoir species - low-level infection, no overt disease, etc. Elegant study from Sato Lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Fifty years ago tomorrow, a seminal paper in immunology was published that revolutionized research and medical treatments. The paper, titled “Continuous cultures of fused cells secreting antibody of predefined specificity” demonstrated that cells could be generated that propagate indefinitely...
Our understanding of the origin of COVID-19 is increasingly being polluted by conspiracy theories. Many, presented in OpEds in places like the NYT, WaPo, and WSJ. It's time to drop the nonsense and refocus on the science - it's long overdue and the data is in. edition.cnn.com/2025/07/31/h...
How conspiracy theories about COVID’s origins are hampering our ability to prevent the next pandemic | CNN
The public discourse around the origin of the pandemic has increasingly been shaped by political agendas and conspiratorial narratives. Some of this has vilified experts who have studied this question...
edition.cnn.com
You’ve been badly misled over COVID origins theconversation.com/how-conspira...
How conspiracy theories about COVID’s origins are hampering our ability to prevent the next pandemic
The COVID pandemic likely began when the virus jumped from animals to humans, and didn’t start in a lab. But false narratives continue to circulate.
theconversation.com
More than 3yrs down the line this has held up surprisingly well, very much because of @lewan.bsky.social prescience borne from climategate and previous clashes with USRTK What we couldn’t predict was how the conspiracists would destroy US biomed science www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
The Lab-Leak Hypothesis Made It Harder for Scientists to Seek the Truth
Virus origin stories have always been prone to conspiracy theories. COVID disinformation has threatened research—and lives
scientificamerican.com
"The story of the negative impact on the future of infectious disease research will only become part of public discourse if scientists speak up loudly" A must read. One Hundred Days, Incalculable Loses @jidjournal.bsky.social Emily Erbelding, MD - NIAID/DMD academic.oup.com/jid/advance-...
One Hundred Days, Incalculable Losses
Emily J Erbelding, M.D., M.P.H; One Hundred Days, Incalculable Losses, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, , jiaf317, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaf31
academic.oup.com
English version of my review of Bratlies book: A book filled with contradictions, cherry-picking of data, conspiratorial arguments, and serious accusations that undermine trust in research and contribute to making the world less safe in the face of the next pandemic. tjomlid.com/a-critical-r...
A critical review of "The mystery of Wuhan - The hunt for the origin of the covid pandemic" by Sigrid Bratlie
A book filled with contradictions, cherry-picking of data, conspiratorial arguments, and serious accusations that undermine trust in research and contribute to making the world less safe in the face o...
tjomlid.com
Wildlife trade acts as a vast global network of unregulated natural laboratories,with ample opportunities for viruses to circulate & evolve to become more dangerous We can either turn a blind eye or try to understand & mitigate the risks My latest in @nature.com 1/ www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: Inside the thriving wild-animal markets that could start the next pandemic
Live-animal markets are a natural laboratory for viruses to evolve and spark deadly outbreaks, yet scientists lack support to study the risks they pose.
nature.com
It's notable that @zey.bsky.social is reading people who think our article is too dangerous to even link to, so here it is: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
A Critical Reexamination of Recovered SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing Data
Abstract. In 2021, Jesse Bloom published a study addressing why the earliest SARS-CoV-2 sequences in Wuhan from late December 2019 were not those most simi
academic.oup.com
Four years ago, Jesse Bloom announced the recovery of SARS-CoV-2 sequences and suggested they could come from very early COVID-19 patients. Zach Hensel and I found out that Bloom's claim relied on the deliberate omission of a January 30, 2020 collection date contradicting his narrative. 🧪 #PopGen
A Critical Reexamination of Recovered SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing Data
Abstract. In 2021, Jesse Bloom published a study addressing why the earliest SARS-CoV-2 sequences in Wuhan from late December 2019 were not those most simi
academic.oup.com
“In 1900, 30 percent of all deaths in the United States occurred among children younger than 5, mostly because of preventable infectious diseases. By the end of the century, that number was just 1.4 percent.” #VaccinesWork #VaccinesSaveLives #ACIP
Jeremy Kamil@macroliter.bsky.social · last yr.🧪 🎁 🔗 💉 🤡 😞 🤦🏻♂️ 📰 wapo.st/4jKcZlh
I strongly recommend fine documentary “A Shot in the Arm” on vaccine hesitancy & its (often well-paid) promoters, incl RFK, Jr. www.pbs.org/video/shot-i... Watch whole thing, but especially: 34:32-onward RFK, Jr 43:45-50:27 Samoa deaths: he denies/evades involvement, video records contradict.
Shot in the Arm
Explore vaccine hesitancy historically and in the context of COVID-19.
pbs.org
Moving forward, there are already other - and better and, hey, transparent - initiatives as it comes to sharing critical data: NCBI, of course, which should be used by _all_ tax-payer funded research, but also @pathoplexus.org, which should become the replacement for GISAID - and I'm sure it will.
“… peer-reviewed literature is dominated by articles supporting a zoonotic origin” while lab leak papers “are rare, fringe, and mutually incompatible with each other.” Correct. And it’s not because one side is “censored”. It’s because one side has zero evidence. www.factcheck.org/2025/05/trum...
Trump Administration Incorrectly Claims Certainty About Origin of Coronavirus - FactCheck.org
Since regaining power in January, the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed with false certainty that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a lab. But there isn’t clear evidence that the virus cam...
factcheck.org
“The Neo-Anti-Vaxxers Are in Power Now - A new cadre of officials might deal in evidence more than Robert F. Kennedy Jr. does, but they still question the worth of vaccines.”
The Neo-Anti-Vaxxers Are in Power Now
A new cadre of officials might deal in evidence more than Robert F. Kennedy Jr. does, but they still question the worth of vaccines.
theatlantic.com
This highlights the central problem with so many of those who want to believe the lab leak narrative: they latch on to the big picture - there's a lab in Wuhan working on bat viruses - but don't grasp the details which show that a lab leak is far less likely than a zoonotic event. Detail is key.
My comments with @marykekatos.bsky.social ABC News abcnews.go.com/Health/safet...
What we know about the safety, efficacy of mRNA vaccines amid recent scrutiny
Infectious disease experts say mRNA vaccines have been studied for decades, they are safe and effective, and were instrumental in saving lives during the COVID pandemic.
abcnews.go.com
Proximal Origin wasn’t a coverup. It was Kristian et al’s scientific opinion based on limited data (but held up well). Scientists have a right to freely express their opinions, on Slack & in papers. This isn’t “bad behavior.” It was scientists collaboratively examining the evidence. IOW, their jobs
Kristian G. Andersen@kgandersen.bsky.social · last yr.Since the NYT Armchair Brigade is at it again, let me just share a few public quotes made in May, 2020. 1️⃣ "Even Kristian Andersen [.] first thought that COVID-19 was just as likely to have been accidentally released from a lab as it was to have come from nature" www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/sci...
