Steve Griffin

YouTube video by Professor Christina Pagel Trump as king - Trump is increasingly depicting himself as the "great leader"

Just over a minute on Trump as the would be king...

youtube.com/shorts/dpLgf...

The end of Digging for Britain.
For me, at least.
But I’ll still be making television about archaeology, on other channels. So watch this space…

Mucosal vaccination in mice provides protection from diverse respiratory threats Traditional vaccines target specific pathogens, limiting their scope against diverse respiratory threats. We describe an intranasal liposomal formulation combining toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 and 7/8 l...

I REALLY hope this can be replicated in humans. A trial in mice showed that a nasal vaccine targeting multiple respiratory pathogens including COVID-19 worked really well - enabling development of protective Immunity in the lung for 3 months (the duration of testing) 🧪

University of Cambridge to keep vet school open The university's general board agrees a new way forward for veterinary education.

Yay Cambridge Vet School stays open.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

Quelle surprise...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Usually meetings early in year would discuss fall vaccines. Now Kennedy is cancelling meetings so what will the future vaccines be?

To be fair, Battacharya has always been a huge supporter of diseases...

US NIH director Bhattacharya to temporarily run CDC U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will step in as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Trump administration official said on Wednesday, part of a broader shakeup within the health department ahead of midterm elections.

Things just go from bad to worse over in the US.

Precisely, it's a Govt level issue, not individual HEIs...

Tens of thousands more students join legal action over Covid-hit studies Sign-ups to Student Group Claim in England and Wales escalate amid reports of £21m payout by University College London

Universities were forced to pivot quickly to online teaching when all institutions went into multiple lock downs imposed by the government in response to a covid pandemic. 🧵

Double-reverse: FDA now says it will review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine

But how are vaccine manufacturer's able to work and respond to capricious changes at the turn of a time from Kennedy's team? This illustrates how unqualified they are and risks the future of vaccine research in the States as well as damages access to better vaccines which we REALLY need for flu

the FDA have done an abrupt turnaround and after initially saying they wouldn't review Moderna's application to licence an updated flu vaccine for the fall they have NOW decided they will review the application 🤷‍♀️

Trump-appointed panel approves White House ballroom project A commission made up of Trump appointees signed off on the design after architects made changes in response to concerns.

"And the man at the back said, "Everyone, attack"
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said, "Boy, I wanna warn ya
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Andrew pictured leaving police station following arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office - live updates The King's brother was arrested at 08:00 on Thursday morning; police say they are searching addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.

Quite a photo www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...

Wow.

"I've been totally exonerated"

US builds website that will allow Europeans to view blocked content Freedom.gov appears to be administered by a branch of the Department of Homeland Security

So the US government is now providing a website that essentially lets European users look at banned porn and hate content cos they love free speech so much yet somehow keep stifling their own journalists and criticism of Trump…. Yup that’s completely normal ?!?!

YouTube video by Professor Christina Pagel Restricting the Vote: The Midterms Strategy #democracy #voting #politics

The latest Trump administration moves to restrict voting ahead of the Midterms

youtube.com/shorts/UgHy3...

bsky.app/profile/dunc...

Epstein files fallout takes down elite figures in Europe, while U.S. reckoning is muted Unlike in Europe, officials in the U.S. with ties to Epstein have largely held their positions of power.

Presume it's something to do with the fact that, according to Trump, he's been 'totally exonerated' 😒

This is so dark.
The disinformation runs so deep.

‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question The graduate earnings premium isn’t really measuring what most people think

‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question - www.ft.com/content/649d...
via @FT

Mom whose 7-year-old has brain swelling from measles still wouldn’t vaccinate EXCLUSIVE: South Carolina parents living in the state’s measles epicenter tell Rhian Lubin of their devastation after their unvaccinated 7-year-old son, Ethan, developed encephalitis, a complication f...

Full story here: www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

What’s going on with Measles in England? An explanation of where we are, how we got here and what we can do

PS more detail on my substack post here

christinapagel.substack.com/p/whats-goin...

What’s going on with Measles in England? An explanation of where we are, how we got here and what we can do

'What’s going on with measles in England?'
New from @chrischirp.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/christin...

And when it comes down to it, 96 cases in just a few weeks is *huge* when we know it can be zero or close to zero. There mustn’t be any shrugging of shoulders, or acceptance of these outbreaks.

We know that outbreaks are avoidable because we did avoid them – for years, and not long ago. 7/8

So is 96 cases so far in 2026 a lot? Compared to 20th C, no. But it is an unwelcome sign that we could be returning to the early vax era when lower coverage meant significant outbreaks.

AND the susceptible population is growing not shrinking and providing more room for local epidemics to grow. 6/8

chart showing confirmed measles cases over last 13 years by region. London and W Midlands have highest cases.

This means that we would expect measles to be able to spread most easily regions where there has been relatively low coverage years, meaning there are too many susceptible children who will be vulnerable if exposed.

Recent cases concentrated in two least vaxxed regions, London & W Midlands. 5/8

chart showing % of 5 yr olds having had 2 doses of MMR vaccine by region. London is the lowest (70%) and NE and SW the highest (90%). Need 95% for herd immunity

But nationally, by 2025 only 84% of 5-year olds had had 2 doses of MMR, a long way off the 95% required to keep measles eliminated.

There is also stark regional variation, with London having by far the lowest vaccine uptake in the country (70%) & W Midlands the next lowest (84%). 4/8

same as before. Chart showing notification of measles per year in England since 1940. Rapid drop off after measles vax introduced in 1968, and further drops following MMR in 1980s-1990s. In 2000s barely any

The amazing consequence of years of high rates of vaccination was that for 20 or so years in England, measles essentially disappeared. In 2016, WHO declared Measles eliminated (no or very little local transmission) in England. We’d gone from 100,000s of cases before vax to basically none. 3/8