Aris Katzourakis

‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

And thousands more spared long term after effects of infection (long covid), and the unnecessarily costly effects of overtly long measures necessitated by the delay.

‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10

Key takehome, a lot of us were highlighting:

"If a lockdown had been imposed on 16 March, a week earlier than took place, modelling suggests this could have cut the number of deaths in England in the first wave of the virus by almost half, equating to 23,000 lives saved, the inquiry authors say."

1/ How does the COVID Inquiry's Module 2 report align with what we said in @independentsage.bsky.social at the time? A 🧵on Transparency, Early & Decisive Action, Scientific Advice, Integration of Social & Economic Harms, Communication and Behavioural Science, Governance, Data and Preparedness

With much regret, I have resigned my long standing membership of the Labour party. I refuse to be a member of a political party that incorporates far right talking points into its immigration policy.

HI-FEVER: a Nextflow pipeline for the high-throughput discovery and annotation of endogenous viral elements AbstractSummary. Endogenous viral elements (EVEs) offer valuable insights into virus and host evolution, but their detection remains computationally and bi

I'm excited to introduce our new workflow for detecting endogenous viral elements - HI-FEVER. 🖥️🧬

academic.oup.com/bioinformati...

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Big thanks to @ariskatzourakis.bsky.social, @humanceae.bsky.social, José Gabriel and Cormac for bringing this from conception to fruition!

It's for their own good

👌

Fact for the day: paracetamol does not cause autism

Three jobs in our shiny new building:

Re-upping this....

I dare not!

Give me your post code, your body mass index and your smoking status and I’ll come close to that.

New AI tool can predict a person’s risk of more than 1,000 diseases, say experts Delphi-2M uses diagnoses, ‘medical events’ and lifestyle factors to create forecasts for next decade and beyond

Uh..

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A life and mind building selfie....getting ready for the new @biology.ox.ac.uk era, exciting times ahead!

Endogenous viral elements in termite genomes reveal extensive diversity of deltaviruses and provide insights into their origins Deltaviruses are subviral agents of animals, which, in humans, require a hepadnavirus helper for transmission. The absence of deltavirus-like endogeno…

New paper alert 🎉
We explore the origins of deltaviruses and find they have infected and co-evolved with termites for 141 million years 🐜🕑🦴

This was a fascinating story to work on with @ariskatzourakis.bsky.social, Jose Gabriel and @anselmojiro.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Termites have fused a viral gene into their own genome, making them symbionts, not just pathogens.

Researchers found 13 deltavirus-like sequences in the genomes of 5 termite species. These are called endogenous viral elements (EVEs), viral DNA that has been integrated into host genomes.

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Endogenous viral elements in termite genomes reveal extensive diversity of deltaviruses and provide insights into their origins Barreat et al. describe the discovery of deltavirus genomic fossils (ẟEVEs) in multiple species of termites. The wide expression of ẟEVEs in termites and a host gene fusion indicate that some ẟEVEs ma...

Termite genomes shed light on the enigmatic deltaviruses, their ancient origins, and an intriguing example of co-option of viral genes by a host.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

David Baltimore, Nobel-Winning Molecular Biologist, Dies at 87

Obituary for David Baltimore; huge influence in more aspects of virology than can possibly be listed in a post.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/s...

“The research highlights the potential of mRNA technology beyond vaccines," says @ariskatzourakis.bsky.social

"The current trajectory in the US with mRNA vaccines will certainly and tragically slow down progress on both of these fronts”

mRNA drugs could protect against almost any kind of viral infection mRNA drugs might be able to protect against a huge range of viruses by turning on key parts of our innate defences against infection

This is incredible - early stage research suggests drugs based on mRNA vaccine technology could protect against just about any virus 🦠 🧪

Essentially, the mRNAs turn on innate defences ahead of infection, which can give the body a crucial edge

www.newscientist.com/article/2492...

What do we know about the Covid-19 virus five years on? As the virus continues to evolve, experts assess its latest variants, seasonal prevalence and levels of vaccine uptake

Really good points in here:

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

In the arms race between viruses and their hosts, viruses have found a dependable ally..

Outbreaks and inequities – Dr Mahan Ghafari is tracking the evolution of viruses for a fairer future

Outbreaks and inequalities - researcher spotlight on @mghafari.bsky.social at @biology.ox.ac.uk

www.biology.ox.ac.uk/article/prof...

What a team. Go lionesses ⚽⚽

Two PhD studentships available in real-time infectious disease modelling, jointly with LSHTM, Imperial and UKHSA. January 2026 start + 3.5 years of funding: www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/fees-a...

Resident doctors’ strike undermines union movement, says Wes Streeting Exclusive: Health secretary urges medics not to join BMA industrial action on Friday

Uh, no it doesn't - you do.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Nooo Ozzy. And we has gigging just a couple of weeks ago. Always with us.

Royal Society suggested to Elon Musk he consider resigning science fellowship Exclusive: Fellows called on academy to act over Tesla owner’s role in Trump administration’s attacks on research

Yeah, I think somehow saying would you mind terribly if you resign because you are embarrassing us, isn't going to have the desired effect

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

🧵1/ Big changes are coming for the occupational group now termed physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) in England. Our new @bmj.com piece (@trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social & me) unpacks the implications of the Leng Review, commissioned by @wesstreeting. Here are our thoughts. 👇