Flo Débarre

Recrudescence des cas de Covid, variant "Frankenstein" : faut-il s'attendre à une nouvelle vague cet automne ? Plusieurs experts ont alerté sur une augmentation du nombre de cas de Covid-19 ces dernières semaines, mais faut-il craindre une reprise épidémique cet automne ? On fait le point sur la situation.

En version presse écrite / en ligne, je trouve Femme Actuelle (!) le 23 septembre, qui semble en avance sur le reste de la vague médiatique en France
www.femmeactuelle.fr/sante/news-s...

Oui, il y a eu une forme d'emballement médiatique en France. Je ne sais pas exactement qui l'a lancé -- peut-être via un chroniqueur tv, mais peut-être avant, je n'ai pas creusé. @nicolasberrod.bsky.social saura peut-être

I had this thread in mind for a couple of weeks already, your posts gave me the energy to do it at last!

bsky.app/profile/flod...

▶️ Throughout the Covid pandemic, "Frankenstein" has been used in news articles:
- as a qualifier, to convey fear;
- still as a qualifier, to refer to the chimeric nature of recombinants;
- as a proper noun, for a specific variant -- apparently all because of a Daily Mail title. ▫️7/end

screenshot of linked website ‘Almost Frankensteinish’ Omicron variant worrying, but don’t panic, scientist says Helen Adams November 29, 2021

« Frankenvirus » : et si le coronavirus se combinait avec un autre virus ? Article de Céline Deluzarche publié le 18/10/2020 Le SARS-CoV-2 est probablement issu de la combinaison de deux coronavirus qui ont infecté le même animal. Et si ce processus se répétait chez l'humain et aboutissait à une nouvelle pandémie ? Une hypothèse peu probable, mais pas invraisemblable. De nombreuses craintes ont émergé ces derniers mois sur une possible mutation du SARS-CoV-2, qui l'aurait rendu plus virulent ou plus infectieux. Mais c'est une autre menace qui inquiète aujourd'hui certains chercheurs : celui d'une recombinaison du virus avec un autre coronavirus commun, ce qui donnerait un nouvel hybride et une nouvelle pandémie. Source: https://www.futura-sciences.com/sante/actualites/coronavirus-sars-cov-2-deux-variants-dangereux-sont-combines-nouveau-virus-83001/ (sorry for putting it here, there was no space left in the post for a second URL)

Beyond recombinants, "Frankenstein" and derivatives were also used to mean scary.
Omicron was "Frankensteinish" in late 2021, while "Frankenvirus" was used in a 2020 article speculating about recombination with other viruses -- again, to convey fear ▫️6/7
web.musc.edu/about/news-c...

screenshot of linked website Delta and omicron met up inside 1 person and made the Frankenstein hybrid 'deltacron' March 23, 2022 4:34 PM ET Michaeleen Doucleff

But uses of "Frankenstein" for recombinants largely predate XFG. The earliest I found is from March 2022 on @npr.org about a Delta x Omicron recombinant
(keep this one in mind for another thread another day) ▫️5/7

www.npr.org/sections/goa...

screenshot from linked website. “We started with mythological creatures (e.g., Orthrus, Kraken), then astronomical names (e.g., Eris, Pirola), and this time around we've used some terms from meteorology including the cloud types Nimbus and Stratus.” 3. These are Frankenstein variants, built from genetic recombination NB.1.8.1 has a tangled family tree. It is a hybrid virus, built from a process called recombination, where several viruses – all versions of the Omicron COVID variant -infect the same cell and swap genetic material. It is descended from XDV -- a hybrid of JN.1 and XDE (a hybrid of GW.5.1 and FL.13.4). [illustration]

The name "Frankenstein" has been used several times to illustrate the concept of recombinant, including shortly before the Daily Mail article, in an article on the @gavi.org website (I do not know if this article was used as source by the DM). ▫️4/7
www.gavi.org/vaccineswork...

screenshot of Daily Mail article. Title: Covid alert! New 'super-contagious Frankenstein' variant has rocketed four-fold in just a month...experts warn it could be most infectious yet By JOHN ELY DEPUTY HEALTH EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE Published: 11:51 EDT, 3 July 2025 | Updated: 15:10 EDT, 3 July 2025 [...] Stratus—a descendent of the already super virulent Omicron—is what is known as a Frankenstein or 'recombinant' strain. This means it emerged when a person was infected with two Covid strains at once which then became a new hybrid variant. (Full text at https://archive.ph/t9jJJ)

The July blip in the previous post seems to have been caused by an alarmist title by the Daily Mail -- as often, the DM is driving the news.

In the article, however, "Frankenstein" was not used as a variant name, but as a qualifier, because XFG is a recombinant... ▫️3/7

screenshot of Google Trends for "frankenstein variant" since June 2025. A blip in early July and then a sharp increase at the end of September. The map shows it's most used in France

"Frankenstein" is currently used to refer to the XFG variant, which is a recombinant, as the "X" in its technical name indicates. The "Frankenstein" name is not official, and seems to be used only because other media also used it. But who started the trend? ▫️2/7

illustration with Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's creature, and a SARS-CoV-2 virus

You may have seen the name "Frankenstein variant"; in France, it's been all over the news, but it's not an official name. Where does it come from?

A thread on various uses of the name "Frankenstein" in news articles during #Covid: ▫️1/7

screenshot of the Daily Mail article Covid alert! New 'super-contagious Frankenstein' variant has rocketed four-fold in just a month...experts warn it could be most infectious yet READ MORE: WHO says it can't rule out Covid having come from a Chinese lab By JOHN ELY, DEPUTY HEALTH EDITOR [...] Stratus—a descendent of the already super virulent Omicron—is what is known as a Frankenstein or 'recombinant' strain.

screenshot from CEPI website 3. These are Frankenstein variants, built from genetic recombination

This time, it seems to come from a July 2025 article in the Daily Mail, that may itself have used a mid-June article on the GAVI @gavi.org website, that used the name "Frankenstein" to refer to the fact that it is a recombinant.
www.gavi.org/vaccineswork...
cc @pasteur.fr @lindageddes.bsky.social

who does not have a Wikipedia page

TIL that you can put language-specific formulas in an Excel file, that make your file unusable by people who have Excel in another language.

(I spent some time debugging a file that had a formula containing "Faux" instead of FALSE)

the best answer i got for this:

Screenshot of the phone app showing the menu

They can be found by clicking on the "🔰 Saved" item in the left menu

Chasseur d'orages Armé d'appareils photos, les chasseurs d’orages cherchent le meilleur endroit pour prendre les plus belles photos d’éclairs zébrant le ciel. Mais ce n’est pas seulement pour l’esthétique, certains son...

La prise de son de cette émission sur les activités de chasseur d'orages de @sergezaka.bsky.social était impressionnante ! (Même si la musique angoissante était peut-être superflue)

On est dans l'orage
#revuedepresse

capture d'écran du site de l'OMSA pour West Nile, montrant les deux arrondissements

J'ai trouvé un bout de réponse sur le site de l'OMSA. Il y a eu des cas dans le 12e et dans le 7e arrondissement. Pour le 7e, c'est peut-être à l'École Militaire. Le 12e, probablement pour le bois de Vincennes.

wahis.woah.org#/in-review/6...

Oui, et c'est bien pour ça que je me demande : si c'est la Garde Républicaine, c'est un peu plus une info que si c'est un "banal" centre équestre

Interesting interview of @peterdaszak.bsky.social by @nicolascgrey.bsky.social on the personal consequences of having become a public villain in a set of conspiracy theories

www.thisrobotdreaming.com/blog/intervi...

Je suis curieuse de savoir ce que sont les cas équins dans Paris

Planning Miracles by Jon Cohen: 9780593321225 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A groundbreaking book about the past, present, and future of pandemics, and a behind-the-scenes portrait of the intrepid and innovative community of scientists working tirelessly to stop the next one ...

My book, Planning Miracles: How to Prevent Future Pandemics, comes out next week. It's not about flawed COVID responses. It's about scientific efforts to develop better vaccines, treatments, masks, surveillance--and to move more quickly...as one world.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690752...

Photo of Jane Goodall in the center, signing a book, with three women standing slightly hunched behind her. A very young Michelle is to the right, smiling.

As a primatologist, Jane Goodall was a huge inspiration to me. I admired the way she describes chimpanzee behavior with such detail and empathy, and she’s inspired so many people and advocated for chimpanzee conservation and welfare.

However, I'm dismayed at what her narrative leaves out (1/10)

Recyclage du plastique, une solution contre-productive En août 2025, le sommet de Genève sur la pollution plastique a encore échoué à négocier un traité international. En cause, notamment : des désaccords sur le recyclage et ses limites. Une question au c...

« À l’échelle individuelle, le recyclage [du plastique] sert de mythe pour légitimer des pratiques de consommation ».

lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/rec...
#revuedepresse

Jane Goodall’s legacy: three ways she changed science The primatologist challenged what it meant to be a scientist.

As we mourn Jane Goodall, this @nature.com article explores three ways in which she changed science:

1. Altering the way we view both other primates and ourselves
2. Inspiring generations of women scientists
3. Communicating science in a way that engaged the public

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A statement from the President of the Royal Society | Royal Society A statement from Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, regarding threats to the values that allow science to flourish.

They did not
royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...
H/t @scurry.bsky.social

La oss vende tilbake til bevisene for koronapandemiens opprinnelse Jakten på pandemiens opprinnelse er for viktig til å bli avsporet av uvitenskapelige insinuasjoner.

It was nice to read @zachhensel.bsky.social 's Op Ed in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten
"Let's return to an evidence-based debate about the corona pandemic"

Google-translated version: www-aftenposten-no.translate.goog/meninger/deb...

Ah, true.
Is it in a paper though? This was an inclusion criterion, we were not going to cite tweets. It's maybe in a BioEssays paper, I'm not sure and cannot check right now.
Anyway, it's not even RRAR, but RRARR

Exciting news!
The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris.

This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics.

More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk

See you there !

Screenshot of a paragraph of the linked text. (**= highlighted) Within this framework, incivility is refusing to surrender to hatred, refusing to smile politely at someone who doesn’t consider you their equal, refusing to carve away the seemingly unpalatable parts of yourself until there is nothing left. **To be uncivil means pointing out hypocrisies and misinformation.** It means accurately acknowledging what people have said, with ample documentation and holding them accountable for their words and deeds.

"To be uncivil means pointing out hypocrisies and misinformation."

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...

Photo du livre mentionné dans le fil, dans une libraire

🥳