Willy Spaan

Prasad can’t be trusted as he has spread so much misinformation

An excellent summary

There not a single piece of solid scientific evidence that points in the direction of a lab leak

Found this useful to learn more bsky.app/profile/mooc...

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Genetic tracing of market wildlife and viruses at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic DNA of mammalian wildlife species susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 was detected along with SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in environmental samples from animal stalls located at the market epicenter of the emer...

Talk by @flodebarre.bsky.social #Evol2025 clearly laying out the evidence for a market origin for SARS-CoV-2. Covering work from: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

With all due respect, there is no scientific evidence supporting a lab leak. All available data points toward a natural spillover event. Since the Spanish flu and HIV, this has been the most severe pandemic since 1918.

#USUniversities are an adornment to humanity, and motivated or ignorant attacks on them should be mourned by thinking people of all nationalities.

scroll.in/article/1083...

Ramachandra Guha examines the wider implications of #DonaldTrump's attacks on American educational institutions.

Trump’s Lie about Dead “White Farmers” Just Got Even More Grotesque That photo he brandished to Cyril Ramaphosa was from the Democratic Republic of Congo—whose refugees the Trump administration is pointedly not welcoming to America.

Unreal: To sustain his lie about a "genocide" of "white farmers" while meeting with the South African president, Trump used a photo of war deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I looked into this a bit more. It's worse than it first appeared. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/1956...

Historically, antigenic shift was tied to influenza, but emerging insights into coronavirus RNA recombination suggest it could also happen in non-segmented viruses.

Or RNA recombination targeting the Spike gene?

Community pushback grows over proposal to replace metric signs on I-19 The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing to convert the kilometer-based signage along Interstate 19 to the standard U.S. system of miles, drawing criticism from the Green Valley community.

The stupidity and wastefulness of this administration is simply disgusting. This will cost a lot of money to do. 125,000 federal employees have been fired but we have money for this?

Absolute clown show.

www.kgun9.com/news/communi...

Vance says Roberts is ‘profoundly wrong’ about judiciary’s role to check executive branch | CNN Politics Vice President JD Vance called Chief Justice John Roberts’ comments earlier this month that the judiciary’s role is to check the executive branch a “profoundly wrong sentiment” and said the courts sho...

Vance wants to dismantle the separation of powers, which is a fundamental principle of democracy. www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/p...

Exciting News – Nature Health Global Receives A Surprise 1:1 Challenge Fund Gift – DONATE NOW And Double Your Impact! - Nature.Health.Global The Nature Health Global Board is delighted to announce an unexpected $25,000 gift from an anonymous donor. The unrestricted gift is a 1:1 match Challenge

EXCITING NEWS – Nature Health Global is delighted to announce a SURPRISE dollar-for-dollar match “Challenge Fund” from an anonymous donor today

naturehealthglobal.org/exciting-new...

While I applaud Europe taking a step to fund bringing scientific excellence to Europe, the ERC’s current success rates at 10% for Europe based scientists is statistically at lottery levels. The total ERC budget should double across the board aiming at doubling funding rates.

Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose.

Two weeks ago a new Executive Order on "Improving The Safety and Security of Biological Research" was signed.

The EO purports to ban "dangerous gain-of-function research", however, it is much more wide-ranging than that, severely limiting life-saving research.

🧵

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Excellent analysis. This Executive Order has far-reaching consequences, and I wonder if anyone involved truly understands the extent of its impact. If strictly implemented, it could actually make many people around the world less safe.

Exactly

This man was an absolute hero through the peak(s) of the COVID pandemic.

COVID vaccine protected kids from long COVID Instead of special protection against long COVID, vaccines kept children and adolescents from developing the condition by blocking COVID-19 infections in the first place.

An almost equally important impact on prevention of long Covid in children www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-re...

theconversation.com/vaccination-...

If anyone needs it, here is a twitter thread from 2021 show why RaTG13 absolutely can't be the progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 because you would need to 'undo' all the mutations on RaTG13 that arose since its most recent common ancestor(s) with SC2: rambaut.github.io/twitter/ratg13

Can someone name an opinion letter in a journal from 2020 that (1) reviews the then known features of newly sequenced SARS CoV-2 and its relatives (2) weighs ALL possible origins without excluding the possibility of various lab leak scenarios, (3) has not be shown to be wrong by subsequent data?

Profiles in cowardice. #BillCassidy owns every death, every illness that comes from this Administration. He is a coward who has betrayed his Hippocratic Oath. #RFKJr #publichealthmalpractice.

Jay Bhattacharya is so full of shit. He has been *extremely* vocal about this, including explicitly endorsing a movie that claims Fauci covered up a bunch of lab leaks (without evidence), *signing his name* on letters accusing my colleagues and me of fraud for our research on COVID Origins, etc.

A Review of “In Covid’s Wake”: According to Laptop Class Professors, the Heroes of the Pandemic Were Laptop Class Professors The authors of the Great Barrington Declaration prevented fair and honest discussion by constantly spreading fake information. The authors of a new book don't care at all.

Discussed here.

sciencebasedmedicine.org/laptopclassb...

Exclusive: The inside story behind the search for the origins of COVID-19 An big screen documentary movie, an announcement, and an exclusive excerpt from "Lab Leak Fever", the definitive book unraveling the pandemic origin controversy

Guess the cat is out of the bag.

Today marks the beginning of the end of the false lab leak narrative.

Read what I have been working on over the last years:
www.protagonist-science.com/p/exclusive-...