Simon Pollett

Interesting and perhaps under appreciated need in the biotech space.

Working w @huddlej.bsky.social & Trevor Bedford, we mapped neutralization titers on interactive Nextstrain trees to visualize neutralization across subclades and natural mutations.

See:

nextstrain.org/groups/blab/...

nextstrain.org/groups/blab/...

Most viruses that spill over into new species burn out, but some persist. 🦠

A Penn State study led by David Kennedy and Clara Shaw found that infection prevalence and viral shedding were strong predictors, while severity and intensity were not.

science.psu.edu/news/what-tr...

First Case of Neuroinvasive Oropouche Virus in Wisconsin: A Case Report Oropouche virus (OROV) is a re-emerging arbovirus that poses a yet undetermined degree of threat to the United States (US), with outbreaks reported in the Caribbean and South America, including new areas of spread, since the end of 2023.

First Case of Neuroinvasive Oropouche Virus in Wisconsin: A Case Report

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky

The Animal Health in Australia Annual Report 2024 is now available. Highlights include:
-Wildlife Health Surveillance
-National Avian Influenza Wild Bird Surveillance Program
-H5 HPAI preparedness
-HPAI H7 outbreaks in poultry
👉 animalhealthaustralia.com.au/wp-content/u...

It is impossible for me to stress to you, as one of the authors of the widest-cited paper projecting Aedes aegypti-borne virus risk under climate change, the degree to which we do not need to be worrying about yellow fever epidemics in the United States right now compared to other real things

New research article

Diagnostic and phylogenetic perspectives of the 2023 Murray Valley #encephalitis virus outbreak in Australia: an observational study

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

#IDSky #ClinMicro #ViroSky #flavivirus #OpenAccess #OA

Regulators Approve a Twice-Yearly Shot to Prevent H.I.V. Infection

BREAKING: The FDA has approved a twice-yearly injection that provided a near-perfect shield against H.I.V. infection in clinical trials. But the Trump administration has gutted the programs that might have paid for it in low-income countries
(Gift article)

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/h...

“FluRisk” integrates genomic data w AI - predict human adaptation, mammalian virulence, antiviral resistance, human receptor-binding potential. Webserve integrates molecular marker atlas + predictive tools for phenotyping
👉 www.computationalbiology.cn/FluRisk/#/.
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Headline reads: Chatgpt gets crushed at chess by a 1 MHz Atari 2600

Presented without comment

France grapples with surging tropical diseases amid spread of tiger mosquitoes The insects can spread the virus from biting infected people.

🦟" #France grapples with surging tropical diseases (eg #dengue, #chikungunya) amid spread of tiger #mosquitoes ( #Aedes albopictus)" via @politico.eu
www.politico.eu/article/fran...

Glucose-Lowering Medications, Glycemia, and Cognitive Outcomes This randomized clinical trial examines the relative effect of 4 classes of glucose-lowering medications that were randomly added to metformin on cognitive performance in persons with type 2 diabetes ...

Glycemic control among people with Type 2 diabetes linked to modestly reduced cognitive performance
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

F.D.A. Approves Novavax Covid Vaccine With Stricter New Conditions

The FDA on Friday quietly approved the Novavax Covid vaccine, but only for older adults and for others over age 12 who have at least one medical condition that puts them at high risk from Covid.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/s...

Original paper here: academic.oup.com/jid/advance-...

More evidence against 🦟 Oropouche transmission. “If you bypass the midgut infection & escape barrier, it COULD be competent” – and if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a bicycle. Given the strength of the midgut barrier + other tx nuances, it’s hard for viruses to evolve incrementally around it.

Advances in Global Disease Surveillance: An Introduction to BEACON On April 24, 2025 CEID celebrated the launch of its new program, BEACON, which is operated in partnership with the Hariri Institute for Computing and Data Sciences at Boston University and HealthMap at Boston Children’s Hospital. This symposium brought together global and local health experts to share their insights on the timeliness and impact of this innovative new platform. 0:00 Introduction by Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, CEID Founding Director and BEACON Director 6:07 Opening remarks by Dr. Robert A. Brown, Boston University President Emeritus 12:32 Address by Sir Jeremy Farrar, Chief Scientist, WHO 24:14 Demonstration of BEACON website and technology by Dr. Yannis Paschalidis, BEACON Co-director and Hariri Institute Director; and Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, CEID Founding Director and BEACON Director 59:34 Featured Speaker: Yvonne Hao, Former MA Secretary of Economic Development 1:26:00 Panel discussion on global health concerns and the role of AI in healthcare and disease surveillance. Featuring Dr. Wilmot James, Senior Advisor to the Brown Pandemic Center; Dr. Barbara Mahon, Deputy Director of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Gates Foundation; & Dr. Nicole Lurie, Executive Director Preparedness and Response and US Director, CEPI. Moderated by Dr. John Brownstein, BEACON Co-director and Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital 2:29:38 Keynote address by Dr. Robbie Goldstein, Commissioner, MA Dept. of Public Health

If you were unable to join our launch celebration symposium last week, or would like to revisit any of the conversations, a full event recording is now available here: http://spr.ly/633272akAf

Fig 3. Experimental vector origin location and collection year. a) Map and b) table of the origin of each vector used in experimental vector competence publications. World map created in BioRender. c) The vector collection year of each colony/strain of species (line) relative to the corresponding publication year (circle/hexagon). Vectors without a collection year stated in the publication are shown as hexagons without a corresponding line.

Turns out, that's only seven studies between 1961 and 2024. Still, a fair bit of work to extract the data, summarize it, make sense of methodological differences, and come to a conclusion about public health risks. Our open data initiatives can save us some time on #1 and #2 before outbreaks start.

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe: new maps published New maps published by ECDC show that hotspots for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in the EU are mainly concentrated in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe, based on 2023 notification rates of locally-...

🔗 The updated maps support risk assessment and help inform decisions around vaccination and awareness campaigns.

Learn more and explore the interactive TBE maps here ➡️ bit.ly/42p8XJT

#TBE #TickBorneEncephalitis #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #ECDC4PublicHealth #TickBorne

The overlapping global distribution of dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever - Nature Communications Arboviruses transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes have an expanding global distribution and identifying areas at risk is important for public health planning. Here, the authors present global disease maps f...

The overlapping global distribution of #dengue, #chikungunya, #Zika and #yellowfever

#IDsky ⚕️ #EpiSky 🦟

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

A climate and population dependent diffusion model forecasts the spread of Aedes ... Aedes albopictus The data comes from the project VectorNet, funded by the European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The project collects data from different sources, and records confirmed observations of presence (established or...

A climate and population dependent diffusion model forecasts the spread of Aedes ...
->Nature | #Climate | More info from EcoSearch

A broadly protective human antibody for GI genogroup noroviruses - Nature Microbiology At present, there are no countermeasures against the GI genogroup of noroviruses. The authors characterize a protective human antibody that broadly recognizes this genogroup.

OUT NOW! 👉 A broadly protective human antibody for GI genogroup noroviruses

There are no effective countermeasures against the GI genogroup of noroviruses. The authors characterize a protective human antibody that broadly recognizes this genogroup
#MicroSky 🦠

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

Nirmatrelvir–ritonavir versus placebo–ritonavir in individuals with long COVID in the USA (PAX LC): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 2, decentralised trial The substantial burden of post-COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID) underscores the need for effective pharmacological interventions. Given t…

Important placebo-controlled study of nirmatrelvir/r vs placebo in people with Long Covid. (Placebo arm got ritonavir only.)
No benefits observed.
Looking forward to seeing the Long Covid results in the ACTIV-6 study of metformin. #IDSky
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Instrumental Variables Analysis and Mendelian Randomization for Causal Inference Causal inference is a branch of statistics that attempts to quantify the impact of a treatment or intervention on an outcome, recognizing that, when experimentation is impossible, the treatment allocation may not be independent of other factors that predict the outcome.

Instrumental Variables Analysis and Mendelian Randomization for Causal Inference

Weekly number of Chikungunya confirmed cases on Reunion island (2025) showing an exponential trajectory. Data from the Regional Health Agency.

Map of Chikungunya cases on Reunion island during week 10 of 2025.

#Chikungunya epidemic on Reunion island. ~3000 confirmed cases and 2 deaths during week 10 (3-9 Mar.)
#Aedes aegypti

A diagram of the study screening, enrollment, and follow-up.

Scrub typhus is a leading cause of severe undifferentiated fever in Asia. This community-based surveillance study assessed the epidemiologic characteristics of scrub typhus in an area of India where the disease is endemic. Full study results: nej.md/41FpS9b

#MedSky #IDSky

Great walk through of all the knowns and unknowns of the current HPAI outbreak in US dairy cattle with a focus on both the cattle, but also human pandemic risk.
👉 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Pathogenicity and transmissibility of bovine-derived HPAI H5N1 B3.13 virus in pigs Since the first emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruses in dairy cattle, the virus has continued to spread, reaching at least 16 states and at least 950 dairy herds in the U...

Pigs are notoriously feared for being "mixing vessels" for influenza viruses i.e. they could help the virus evolve to spread more easily in humans. In a new preprint scientists tested whether the H5N1 bird flu spreading in dairy cattle can effectively infect pigs.🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 neuraminidase has a long stalk, which is in contrast to most highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses circulating between 2002 and 2020 | mBio While the truncated version of the N1 neuraminidase stalk domain may be associated with increased virulence in poultry, the long version of the stalk domain has been associated with increased transmis...

Cool paper from Florian Kramer & colleagues about a novel feature of circulating H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4. These viruses have a longer stalk in their neuraminidase (NA) enzyme, a key viral protein. This was not seen in past H5N1 strains (2002-2019)
Why does it matter?🧪
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The First Diagnostic Immunome A Big Step Forward By Sequencing B and T Cell Receptors Plus A.I.

This week was the 1st publication using our immune cell sequencing to accurately make medical diagnoses. It has enormous implications, as I've reviewed here erictopol.substack.com/p/the-first-... @scottboydlab.bsky.social @science.org @anshulkundaje.bsky.social @maximzaslavsky.bsky.social

Good lord