Kit Yates

The cable, sent to all U.S. missions on December 2, orders U.S. consular officers to review resumes or LinkedIn profiles of H-1B applicants - and family members who would be traveling with them - to see if they have worked in areas that include activities such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety, among others.

Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

🧵How much should the NHS worry about this winter's flu wave?

You may have seen this alarming headline on the BBC website today...

I think it's too early to make this claim and the data does not support it.

I think it will be a bad flu season but no evidence to think worse than previous yrs

1/8

NOIDs causative agents: week 48 (week ending 30 November 2025)

So the flu peak was very temporary. Test numbers say influenza in the UK has just jumped back into huge growth this week: +76% up. Sustained, that would be very bad news.

Measles cases have suddenly stepped up too. Don't like either of those.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Flu cases in Scotland more than double in a week In the week of 24-30 November, lab-confirmed cases rose from 845 to 1,759, according to Public Health Scotland data.

Right across the UK, flu seems to be pretty bad at the moment.
Worth getting the jab if you are offered it (and probably not a bad idea even if you aren't and can afford it).

Ouch.
Wordle 1,628 6/6

🟨🟨🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Salford Red Devils: Troubled ex-Super League club wound up by High Court Troubled former Super League club Salford Red Devils are wound up by the High Court.

This is sad news for the club I grew up watching as a kid.
We would head down to the terraces of the Willows for most home games.
To think it should all end like this.

Mystery as remains of seven-arm deep-sea octopus wash up on beach Arms from the rarely-seen species were discovered at an Aberdeenshire national nature reserve.

Septopus.

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

The most precious commodity you have is your attention. You don’t have to waste it on poor-faith debates or arguments with strangers if you don’t think they’ll be productive. You can prioritize the things that matter to you and make your life richer.

This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started

Unfortunate choice of words from South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus describing an eye gouging incident:
“The optics weren’t great”!

Sir Tom Stoppard, playwright famed for his wit and depth, dies at 88 The King and Queen pay tribute to a "dear friend who wore his genius lightly".

Et in Arcadia ego.

Lying in politics is wrong and should never be rewarded, says newspaper which pays Boris Johnson £1 million a year to be its star columnist

Experts say strict new FDA protocol for vaccine approval is ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ Lead FDA vaccine regulator announced new approval process after claiming Covid vaccine had killed 10 children

Allegedly Prasad is now going to put limits on how many vaccines can be given simultaneously, re assess annual flu-shot policies, change the process for vax approval to be longer and demand tight restrictions on pregnant women being able to have any vaccines 🧪🧵#PublicHealth

The Prime Minister just told me any party leader should want to get to the bottom of this Russian bribery scandal with Reform.

He is the Prime Minister and a party leader. Why isn't he launching a national investigation himself?

Starmer calls on Farage to apologise to his alleged victims of racial abuse at school Prime minister says Reform leader’s explanations about alleged comments are ‘unconvincing to say the least’ Keir Starmer has called on Nigel Farage to apologise to his school contemporaries who claim the Reform leader racially abused them while at Dulwich College. The Guardian reported last week the testimony of Peter Ettedgui, who said a 13-year-old Farage “would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”. Continue reading...

Starmer calls on Farage to apologise to his alleged victims of racial abuse at school

“I am delighted that my son, as well as my daughter, will now be afforded equal protection against catching and spreading the virus that killed the grandmother they never got to meet.”

More good news about the HPV vaccine.

open.substack.com/pub/kityates...

#VaccinesWork

It really is

Our son got his first dose of HPV vaccine when he was 9

Vaccinating boys & men has benefits for BOTH women (e.g., helping to reduce HPV transmission to female sexual partners) AND men (e.g., reducing the risk of oral, head & neck, penile, & anal cancers)

X is not above the law

In all the years I've been campaigning, this is the first where I've feared retaliation - but even X is not above the law. That's why we've referred X to Ofcom for horrific posts that, having taken legal advice, we believe are illegal under the Online Safety Act. goodlaw.social/wk2q

Frikkin amazing stuff.

So we are clear welfare spending in this country is NOT “out of control”. It’s risen very little in 10+ years. Small increase due to ageing & ill population. But benefits to working age families & children have been cut severely. Over 70% of children in poverty live in working families #Budget2025

Covid-19 and cardiovascular disease in a total population-study of long-term effects, social factors and Covid-19-vaccination - Nature Communications Covid-19 has been linked to cardiovascular complications, but the long-term impacts, particularly for mild infections, are not well understood. Here, the authors investigate the long-term impacts of Covid-19 on cardiovascular disease using data on the whole population of Sweden aged 40-75 years.

Covid-19 has been linked to cardiovascular complications, but the long-term impacts, particularly for mild infections, are not well understood. A study in Nature Communications demonstrate an increased risk of cardiovascular disease after Covid-19, also among mild cases. #medsky #cardiosky 🧪

The Caerphilly school with almost 100% attendance - and how they did it Attendance rates remain significantly lower than in 2019, but one school is bucking the trend.

Was it by having no kids with chronic illness at the school?
Must let everyone else know how they managed that.
I hate these sorts of stories.

This used to be career-ending stuff.

Beautiful day on campus at the University of Bath for the kick off meeting of our GW4 mathematical biology mentoring programme.

“My NHS colleagues and I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Johnson no longer mentions them at all.”

Hard hitting and necessary on the government’s covid complacency from @drrachelclarke.com

observer.co.uk/news/...

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all."

My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away.

Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Boris Johnson took four days off as NHS warned Covid could ‘overwhelm’ system Files show then PM was walking dog, riding motorbike and hosting guests as pandemic planning stalled in ‘lost month’

"Boris Johnson took four days off from official government business during a key period in the UK’s Covid preparation when the NHS was bracing to be “overwhelmed” by the virus."

When we most needed a leader we, instead, had this guy.

Suggesting that science is or has “orthodoxy” is a fundamental misunderstanding.
Orthodoxy implies unquestionable dogma.
Science doesn't work like that: it’s a method designed to question, test, and revise if necessary.