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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

@mackayim.bsky.social

12K followers 2.9K following 7.1K posts

forever virologist, researcher, PCR guy. past lab manager. husband. dad. reader. writer. fixer. bad typist. learner. australian. #MasksWork https://virologydownunder.com/

virologydownunder.com

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 5d

Quick update of Australian #flu numbers -07OCT
FluA subtype A(H1N1), derived from our *last* pandemic #influenza virus, dominates.
2025=thick red dashed line/red monthly dots. The last pink dot just marks September as an incomplete month.
1,368 added daily over 14 days (19,147).
➡️slowing continues

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Reposted by Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

Mick Ryan @warinthefuture.bsky.social · 3h

Recently I published a report that explored how we might ‘translate’ Ukraine lessons for application in the Pacific region.

You can download the full report at this link: researchcentre.army.gov.au/sites/defaul...

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Reposted by Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

Tatarigami @tatarigami.bsky.social · 5h

Our exclusive report on Russia’s tank production is out. Using internal files and state contracts, we show production plans for the next decade and current output. A short thread will follow soon, but for now, you can read the report

frontelligence.substack.com/p/exclusive-inside-russias-20262036

Exclusive: Inside Russia’s 2026–2036 Tank Fleet Modernization and Buildup Plans

In the spring and summer of 2025, as part of our own operation, our team obtained exclusive documents that provide new insight into Russia’s tank-production plans and confirm the existence of a little...

frontelligence.substack.com

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 2h

Indeed! What inspiring leadership and management.

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 2h

Undoubtedly on nosocomial and aged care infections. But they're all still cases.
How people acquire their infections - and whether they should have - is untracked (as I'm sure you know) for most things except for rare pathogens or those or particular concern.

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 3h

For example e360.yale.edu/features/pha...

Phantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing

High-profile initiatives to plant millions of trees are being touted by governments around the world as major contributions to fighting climate change. But scientists say many of these projects are il...

e360.yale.edu

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 3h

So long as the plan includes their upkeep. They have to be watered. Some of the big tree planting endeavours of the past have failed because they've died.

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 3h

What a frakkin mess.

Crawford Kilian @crof.bsky.social · 3h

Breaking News: RIFs in reverse. Some CDC workers have been brought back, in latest whiplash.
open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

Breaking News: RIFs in reverse. Some CDC workers have been brought back, in latest whiplash.

This is breaking news.

open.substack.com

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 5h

"Thanks Will, it's utter chaos here in the IKEA food line this Sunday morning, the Strawberry and cream layer cake is flying onto plates as are the Plant balls. I personally have my eye on an unnamed trip of green coloured rolls.
Back to you in the studio."

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 6h

Clearly human hospitalisation peaks *have* continued in WA, and probably align well with wastewater community peaks.
So, ya know, important to use a relevant scale.
www.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Corp...

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 6h

Interesting choice of scale for the human cases trace. I'd have preferred to see the scope of the human case bump more clearly.
As it's presented, this suggests limited hospitalisations despite peaks of community spread (described via genome detection).

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 6h

Cheers. I hadn't seen that.

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 9h

“A big challenge is that the governments themselves, whether center-right or center-left, were losing touch with people and weren’t delivering on some of the basic hopes and dreams of people, so you get frustrated with government, period”
-yeah, no kidding
edition.cnn.com/2025/10/11/p...

Obama’s warnings about democracy fading increasingly sound directed toward the US | CNN Politics

“We’re seeing politicians target civil society, undermine freedom of the press, weaponize the justice system. And no one is being spared. Even countries that thought they were immune from wholesale as...

edition.cnn.com

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Reposted by Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · 14h

‘Tron: Ares’ grossed $14.3M in the film’s domestic opening day

That’s less than ‘Morbius’

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Reposted by Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · 12h

First trailer for Marvel's 'Wonder Man' series

All 8 episodes release January 27 on Disney+

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Reposted by Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

Crawford Kilian @crof.bsky.social · 10h

This may be the last time you ever see a current issue of the CDC's weekly MMWR: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.h...

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The MMWR series is the agency’s primary vehicle for ,,,

www.cdc.gov

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Reposted by Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

Mike Coston @fla-medic.bsky.social · 20h

AFD Blog `Nature: Viral Infections and the Risk of Neurodegenerative Diseases (Meta-Analysis & Systemic Review)' #COVID afludiary.blogspot.com/2025/10/natu...

Nature: Viral Infections and the Risk of Neurodegenerative Diseases (Meta-Analysis & Systemic Review)

Key findings from Liu et al. 2025 #18,902 One hundred years ago the world was in a post-pandemic era following the end of the 1918 Spanish F...

afludiary.blogspot.com

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 19h

👍

Reposted by Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀

The Saturday Paper @thesaturdaypaper.com.au · 21h

Australian medical authorities say disturbing evidence is emerging of a possible return of previously eliminated diseases, as childhood immunisation rates continue to fall. satpa.pe/1KlwBMm

The rising risks of vaccine reluctance

The latest drop in childhood immunisation rates has raised concerns among medical authorities that some communities are losing herd immunity to diseases such as measles.

satpa.pe

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 21h

Now you've lost me.

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 21h

The rain still gets to the ground though, but that shade is a big win.
(he says, also as a lay person)

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 22h

Yeah, increasing the dots by ~4x, although they'd be so small they may not be noticeable by all 🤷

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 22h

Because it's not all of one single black dot. It's only about a quarter of one dot.
(btw, I agree it's not a perfect image - just tested it on the family & we think: could be confusing because 2 shades of orange, the grey is too much like the black & the zoom lines should include only one dot, FWIW)

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 22h

The black portion in the green-circled bit

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Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 22h

It's the pie chart's fraction of just 1 of the orange agriculture dots that's been blown up.
Does that make sense?

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · 22h

How Renewable Energy And Agriculture Thrive Together: Fact Sheet | Clean Energy Council

Discover how solar and wind farms can support traditional farming.

cleanenergycouncil.org.au