Devon Greyson

Next time I am at a meeting w folks who are more up on the manufacturing side of things I will ask them!

Importing doses was a constraint (not just here, globally) in mpox outbreak response. (We import from Denmark; some others from Japan.) I don’t think we have capacity rn to stand up manufacturing to meet an urgent need. Hopefully this is improving!

Yes, it has helped. And will continue to help if we keep it up (even more so if the govt reinvests in public labs). Just not sure how much capacity we still have today. I understand Sanofi is up & running in Toronto (Tdap & ?); who else? Any influenza yet? I’m not sure.

Good Q! My understanding (vaccination researcher but vaccine manufacturing is not my area of expertise) is that Canada’s vaccine manufacturing capacity was pretty decimated by a few decades of neoliberalism + globalization, and we were relying heavily on imports. But I don’t have stats over time.

In early Covid days the federal govt worked to incentivize vaccine makers to manufacture in country. (For a while before that I believe virtually all were imported.) However, I’m not sure how many are up & running yet. (Novavax notably stalled so long the contract was finally scrapped this yr.)

No, hardly any.

Email from the "PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE" to Kate Starbird asking for all emails from Jan 1 2021 through July 30 2025 with any of the following keywords: "diversity and inclusion" "DEIA" "DEI" "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging" "DEIB" "gender identity" "racial preference" "ESG" "organizational equity" "intersectionality" "anti-racism" "critical race theory" "LGBTQ+" "transgender" "cisgender" "gender ideology" "white privilege" "privilege walk" "cultural humility" "equity audit" "restorative justice" "racial equity" "implicit bias" "microaggressions" "inclusive pedagogy" "identity-based oppression" "systems of oppression" "queer" "non-binary" "sexuality" “Trump” “fascist”

If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?

Dr. Katalin Karikó who won a Nobel Prize for developing mRNA vaccines responds to RFK Jr:

"When you are sick, you wouldn't ask for advice from a lawyer like Kennedy. You ask experts, your physician, for advice."

Agreed. I just don't think it's widely known by people not from/in Cville & don't want them to get the impression it was just melted down by the city instead of purposefully donated to be of educational use.

Charlottesville Robert E Lee statue to be melted down and turned into art City council votes to donate statue at center of Unite the Right rally to African American heritage center

It was given to the African American Heritage Center to make something out of as part of the Swords into Ploughshares program. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021...

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts That kind of shot was first used during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the health secretary has been sharply critical of the technology.

This is so harmful. Scientists are developing mRNA-based cancer vaccines that could save so many lives.

Might be obvious but that Microsoft AI-affected industries study is so clearly designed not to inform, since it is premised on a buffet of questionable assumptions, but to perform (to be reshared and reshared until it is embedded as a stylized fact in the world). 1/x

😢 So much of the dismantling of the country I am from is heartbreaking.

The ramping up of human rights violations & slashing of science & education is hard to even fathom.

But getting rid of the institution that brought us Big Bird, Reading Rainbow, etc. gets me in the feels in a special way.

Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to massive investment and it's not stopping The report delves into the nuances of Parisian cycling culture, exploring the vibrant community of riders who navigate the city's streets

Paris urban biking DOUBLED in just one year.

“Cycling in Paris has transcended mere trendiness; it’s become a fundamental aspect of the city’s identity. Despite challenges like inclement weather, cyclists continue to flock to the streets, setting new records and reshaping the urban landscape.”

The tobacco industry is aggressively rebranding nicotine as a nootropic that has benefits. Content frames nicotine as wrongly vilified alongside tobacco. It's a strategy of reinvention, and people need to understand that it's effective.

Thread:

Outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium Infections Linked ... This report describes a Salmonella outbreak linked to ...

🧫 Raw milk outbreak sickens 171 people

A new CDC report links raw milk from one California dairy to a multistate Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak. 70% of cases were in children.

Raw dairy can carry serious health risks, especially for kids.

🔗 www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

#RawMilk #SciComm 🧪

Outstanding. Watch & share.

I've been waiting all day to see your tweet about this.

Scholar & HPI have been critical supports for ECIs getting their research programs established in BC.

I hope this pausing will result only in improvements and not reduction of career award opportunities. There are already so few others.

^^This post inspired by the shares of “AI”-generated misinformation about last night’s tsunami alerts around the pacific in the wake of an 8.8 magnitude earthquake.

The “AI” fuelled degradation of simple search online really highlights our dependence on an oligopoly that controls major search engines.

I live in Britain; I grew up in Israel. It’s painful to say, but we need real UK sanctions to save Gaza | Yair Wallach Symbolic gestures and empty statements are no longer enough. In Israel’s globalised economy, here’s what will shift public opinion, says says senior lecturer in Israeli studies Yair Wallach

"Calling on our gov't to sanction the state where we grew up, to which we are closely attached and where our families and friends live is not an easy step. But we are horrified by what has happened & what is likely to happen if we do not take such steps." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I’ve recently seen 3 deaths being quoted for the 2025 US outbreak. Did they confirm/conclude the NM adult’s death was due to measles, or has there been another new death in addition to the 2 TX children?

Oh, really? The reddit cycling community consensus seemed to be that it was in the jogging lane, which was distinct from the bike lane. Haven't seen it yet myself.

I believe it's in the jogging lane, which is distinct from the bike lane, but from this photo you can't really tell.

Evidence that politicians don’t necessarily have to choose between supporting Palestinian human rights & getting the support of Jewish voters.

Write-in ballots to be used in Alberta byelection due to record number of candidates | CBC News Elections Canada says voters will need to write in their desired candidate during the upcoming byelection in Alberta's Battle River-Crowfoot to avoid a massive ballot with more than 200 names.

The longest-ballot folks balloted so hard they end up creating the shortest ballot.

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

This guy either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the difference btw granting agencies he is decimating (NIH didn’t fund the famous anole/hurricane study, NSF did), and then chases that with outright lies that NIH-funded research caused the Covid pandemic.

"The VICP routinely dismisses meritorious cases outright or drags them out for years. Instead of “quickly and fairly” awarding compensation, Special Masters dismiss over half of the cases. Most of those that proceed typically take 5+ years to resolve, with many languishing for more than 10 years as parents struggle to care for children suffering with often extreme disabilities. Petitioners’ attorneys complain that the Special Masters make punitive downward adjustments to attorneys’ fees and medical expert fees to punish effective advocacy. Expert witnesses for injured children complain that they suffer intimidation and even threats that they will lose professional status or NIH funding if they testify for injured children. The government pays its own medical expert witnesses promptly while simultaneously slow-walking payments for petitioners’ experts—sometimes for years. The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it. I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals. I am grateful to be working with @AGPamBondi and HHS staff to fix the VISP. Together, we will steer the Vaccine Court back to its original Congressional intent. "

"The structure itself hobbles claimants. The defendant is HHS, not the vaccine makers; and claimants are therefore facing the monumental power and bottomless pockets of the U.S. government represented by the Department of Justice. Furthermore, most of the Special Masters come from government, legal, or political posts, and typically display an extreme bias that favors the government side. There is no discovery, and the rules of evidence do not apply. The government lawyers do not allow children’s attorneys access to the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a taxpayer-funded CDC surveillance system that houses the best data on vaccine injuries. Attorney compensation is in the hands of notoriously biased Special Masters and often hostile government attorneys, who can leverage this power to turn petitioner attorneys against their clients' interests. The VICP routinely dismisses meritorious cases outright or drags them out for years. Instead of “quickly and fairly” awarding compensation, Special Masters dismiss over half of the cases. Most of those that proceed typically take 5+ years to resolve, with many languishing for more than 10 years as parents struggle to care for children suffering with often extreme disabilities. Petitioners’ attorneys complain that the Special Masters make punitive downward adjustments to attorneys’ fees and medical expert fees to punish effective advocacy. Expert witnesses for injured children complain that they suffer intimidation and even threats that they will lose professional status or NIH funding if they testify for injured children. The government pays its own medical expert witnesses promptly while simultaneously slow-walking payments for petitioners’ experts—sometimes for years. The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it. I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals."

"The 1986 Vaccine Act gave vaccine makers immunity against lawsuits by children who suffer vaccine injuries. The statute, and numerous subsequent court decisions, recognized that vaccines, like all medicines, are, in the words of the American Academy of Pediatrics case, “unavoidably unsafe,” and that a percentage of vaccinated children will suffer injuries or death. Congress, therefore, simultaneously created the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which obliged HHS to compensate injured children. In the words of then Labor and Public Welfare Committee Chairman Senator Edward Kennedy, “when ... children are the victims of an appropriate and rational national policy, a compassionate [g]overnment will assist them in their hour of need.” Under the VICP, vaccine victims can petition for compensation to the so-called “Vaccine Court,” which pays out awards from a trust fund endowed by a 75-cent surcharge on every vaccine. Congress intended that injured children be compensated “quickly and fairly” for injuries, “either presumed or proven to be causally connected to vaccines,” with doubts about causation resolved in favor of the victim. To date, the Vaccine Court has paid out $5.4 billion to 12,000 petitioners. But the VICP no longer functions to achieve its Congressional intent. Instead, the VICP has devolved into a morass of inefficiency, favoritism, and outright corruption as government lawyers and the Special Masters who serve as Vaccine Court judges prioritize the solvency of the HHS Trust Fund, over their duty to compensate victims. The structure itself hobbles claimants. The defendant is HHS, not the vaccine makers; and claimants are therefore facing the monumental power and bottomless pockets of the U.S. government represented by the Department of Justice. Furthermore, most of the Special Masters come from government, legal, or political posts, and typically display an extreme bias that favors the government side. There is no discovery, and "

Secretary Kennedy posted a lengthy tweet about vaccine court. As is common, he misrepresented the facts in his claims. A thread.

Here are his claims - screenshot and text below. x.com/SecKennedy/s... 1/n

Anticipating my annual meteor-watching leave & desperately hoping not to get Covid again this year, and instead to be able to enjoy the Perseids (& more this year!) in all their glory. 😷🤞🌠