Flo Débarre
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flodebarre.bsky.social
Flo Débarre
@flodebarre.bsky.social
11K followers 2.4K following 1.2K posts
Personal account
Evolutionary biologist, senior scientist at CNRS/Sorbonne Université
Interests: origins and control of infectious diseases and conspiracy theories; diversity in science; scientific publishing
https://www.normalesup.org/~fdebarre/
EN & FR
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flodebarre.bsky.social
Dans l'email TheMetaNews du matin, Laurent Simon raconte avoir été contacté en 2015 pour être ghostwriter pour Didier Raoult.
À quel point la pratique de signer des livres grand public écrits par d'autres est-elle encore répandue parmi scientifiques et médecins ?
#revuedepresse
screenshot : Ménage à deux. De (trop) nombreuses années plus tard, j'ai été contacté en tant que journaliste santé pour devenir "ghost writer" de Didier Raoult pour un livre de bobologie que son éditeur préparait en 2015. J'ai refusé malgré l'aura de chef de service bankable de l'intéressé à l'époque... certainement pas pour les bonnes raisons (c'était mal payé).
January 21, 2026 at 8:50 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
🙈 web.archive.org/web/20191019...
screenshot of linked website Photo of raccoon dog Raccoon meat has a strong gamey smell, so it should be soaked in water before cooking to remove as much blood as possible. Then stew it with plenty of seasonings. It's best served cold! You can also braise it and then eat it cold, or braise it, shred the meat into strips, stir-fry it with chili peppers, and sprinkle it with cumin. It's basically the same as dog meat, but because raccoon meat has a strong gamey smell, it's important to use plenty of seasonings and serve it cold! Blanch the vegetables, then add plenty of scallions, ginger, star anise, and cooking wine. Cook until tender, then add dried chili peppers and stir-fry until very dry! Garnish with cilantro and serve. It can also be stir-fried, braised, stewed, simmered in soy sauce, or used as filling; it works with almost all methods of cooking meat. Previous product: Raccoon meat 15 yuan/jin
January 20, 2026 at 9:15 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
In 2021, DRASTIC published a report on the WIV database(s), including a document making a very wild (and false) claim: they would have obtained Shi Zhengli's IP & MAC addresses, and linked them to her train trip on Dec 30 to Wuhan. ▫️3/4

drive.google.com/file/d/1CCe2...
screenshot of the linked document CHANGES TO CSD WIV DATABASE DESCRIPTION ON DECEMBER 30TH 2019 Accessed: Mobile data connection from Shanghai to Wuhan high speed night train Device: Device MAC & IP address registered to Professor Zhengli Shi (Wuhan Institute of Virology) CHANGES FROM VERSION 2 (LEFT) TO VERSION 4 (RIGHT) VERSION 2 – 17TH JULY 2019 (ZH2) VERSION 4 - DECEMBER 30TH 2019 (ZH4) [logos]
January 20, 2026 at 7:10 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
The story started in May 2020 with a NYPost article claiming that the database had been altered by Shi Zhengli during a train ride on Dec 30, 2019 to obscure information.

In fact, an article describing this database was just published in its final form that day, amongst others. ▫️2/4
screenshot of the NY Post article What is China covering up about the coronavirus?: Devine By Miranda Devine Published May 6, 2020, 10:17 p.m. ET
January 20, 2026 at 7:10 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
is Genbank also down for you?
screenshot of 500 internal server error from the NLM website
January 16, 2026 at 8:41 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
In their paragraph, they blame Fauci for the decrease. Why is the journal accepting to publish this? It's downright a lie.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the NIAID and its then-director, Anthony Fauci, became, for many, the face of the pandemic response1 . Although not directly under NIAID’s purview, many of the recom- mended policies, including lockdowns, social distancing, school closures, wearing masks and vaccine mandates, lacked robust con- firmatory evidence and remain the subject of debate about their overall benefits and unintended consequences2. Where enforced, vaccine man- dates contributed to decreased public confidence in routine voluntary immunizations3. We recognize that much of the American public lost trust in the NIAID, the National Institutes of Health (NIH; of which the NIAID is a part), and in the greater scientific community4 .
January 16, 2026 at 4:43 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Did they read what they cite?

In @natmed.nature.com, NIH& NIAID leaders complain about a decrease in public trust, and cite a survey pointing to the Republicain administration as responsible for the recent decrease!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/public-confi...
quotes from the linked websites: " We recognize that much of the American public lost trust in the NIAID, the National Institutes of Health (NIH; of which the NIAID is a part), and in the greater scientific community. Taubenberger, Powers & Bhattacharya, Nature Medicine https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-04160-1 Reference 4: Public confidence in U.S. health agencies slides, fueled by declines among Democrats. ASAPH/Annenberg Science Knowledge surveys (Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2025). https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/public-confidence-in-u-s-health-agencies-slides-fueled-by-declines-among-democrats/ "The decline in confidence among Democrats comes amid persistent attacks by leaders in the Republican administration about the competence and integrity of the health agencies. " Confidence in Fauci, who stepped down from his NIAID post at the end of 2022, is statistically unchanged since October
January 16, 2026 at 4:38 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Seems like Rand Paul took the figure fron the wrong paragraph of his own speech in May 2021. The NSF budget was apparently 8 billion according to Rand Paul.
The quail figure is in the next paragraph of his speech and was $800'000.

www.congress.gov/117/crec/202...
So fast forward, and we spend about $8 billion a year with the National Science Foundation. Is it getting any better? Are they doing a better job at overseeing their money? Well, I don’t know. This bill is going to increase their funding by 68 percent. There is $29 billion in this bill for the National Science Foundation. So don’t you think the American people deserve to know where their money is being spent?
January 16, 2026 at 7:45 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Looks like Figure 7 from this scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?s...
screenshot of linked article, showing a phylogeny similar to the one shared by Zach
January 15, 2026 at 4:25 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
(December 2021)

xkcd.com/2557/
[description below] Title text: This plan may sound appealing to people who know a little about the immune system, but the drawbacks are clear to people who know a lot about the immune system and also to people who don't know anything about it. Image: three panels 1: WH, to CB: See, it's *good* to get infected, because it gives you immunity. 2: CB, to WH: Why would I want immunity? 3: WH, to CB: To protect you from getting inf... ... wait.
January 14, 2026 at 3:00 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Ah, I'm curious!! Is this the meteorite hypothesis, or a different one?
Aggrieved and eccentric authors are a problem familiar to any editor. We have always gotten a fair bit of pseudoscience, and there is a lot of stuff sent in that is plain nuts (a proposed geological rather than virological origin of COVID was perhaps my favorite).
January 12, 2026 at 2:51 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Ça fait donc plus d'un mois au moins que des SARS-CoV-2 de la lignée BA.3.2* se baladent en France.

La France ne semble plus poster ses séquences sur Genbank/ENA, donc les infos ne sont pas visibles sur les plateformes publiques de visualisation.
cov-spectrum.org/explore/Fran...
graphique du nombre de séquences publiques au cours du temps en France, depuis début 2020. Fin 2022, le nombre devient proche de 0, et y reste depuis
January 10, 2026 at 9:08 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Online controversy largely arose from coordinated amplification on Twitter/X, where a small number of activist accounts generated a disproportionate share of engagement. ▫️4/6

(interactive version of the plot in the blog post link below)
number of tweets about the article over time, color coded by the source. Most (re)tweets are linked to just a few sources
January 6, 2026 at 6:20 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Published in Feb 2020 as a Commentary, a brief article refuted claims that SARS-CoV-2 had been engineered from RaTG13, SHC014 or MA15, or HIV.
Nothing controversial here! And the article's impact was limited. But it was targeted by FOIA requests. ▫️2/6
screenshot of the whole article, main text is less than 2 pages
January 6, 2026 at 6:20 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Are you familiar with the story of the EMI article?

If not, good for you, you did not waste time with a manufactured controversy aimed to sow distrust.

For the curious, here's how lab leakers tried (and this time, failed) to generate outrage: ▫️1/6 🧵 #covidorigin
illustration: collage of tweets about the article
January 6, 2026 at 6:20 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
It's odd for several reasons:

1) Elsewhere in the accompanying document, DRASTIC folks speculate that someone else could have made the edits.

If DRASTIC had IP and MAC linked to Shi, why still consider someone else? It's inconsistent. ▫️2/4

web.archive.org/web/20210218...
The writer of the factsheet may be the WIV researcher [redacted], as she is described as being responsible for the text writing in the factsheet itself. She may have uploaded the new factsheet herself or Pr. Shi Zhengli may have done so while on the train.
December 27, 2025 at 11:04 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Looking for tips and comments!

Some time ago, DRASTIC lab leak activists wrote that Shi Zhengli edited an article on 30 Dec 2019, that they have her IP and MAC addresses, and they could even tell the edits were from a train.

How would this even be possible? ▫️1/4

#covidorigin
archive.md/sKCPq
screenshot: CHANGES TO CSD WIV DATABASE DESCRIPTION ON DECEMBER 30th 2019 Accessed: Mobile data connection from Shanghai to Wuhan high speed night train Device: Device MAC & IP address registered to Professor Zhengli Shi (Wuhan Institute of Virology) CHANGES FROM VERSION 2 (LEFT) TO VERSION 4 (RIGHT) VERSION 2 - 17™ JULY 2019 (ZH2) 中国科学数据 VERSION 4 - DECEMBER 30" 2019 (ZH4)
December 27, 2025 at 11:04 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Some people fight against the ideas promoted by the Heritage Foundation and implemented by the Trump administration.

Some other people collaborate with the Heritage Foundation.

archive.is/2YsqA
screenshot of the linked page, from the Heritage Foundation website, featuring Robert Redfield, Richard Ebright, Alina Chan and Robert Moffit. Descriptions below their pictures: Robert Redfield, MD Former Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018-2021) @redfield_dr Richard Ebright, PhD Professor, Rutgers University and Laboratory Director, Waksman Institute of Microbiology @R_H_Ebright Alina Chan, PhD Scientific Advisor and Viral Vector Engineer, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard @Ayjchan Robert E. Moffit, PhD Senior Research Fellow, DeVos Center for Human Flourishing
December 23, 2025 at 4:33 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
#H5N1 : An infected herd was recently detected in Wisconsin, and genome sequencing indicates that this is yet another spillover event, making it the fourth detected one.

How do these spillovers happen and why are they restricted, so far, to the US?

www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-...
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 19, 2025—On December 14, 2025, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced the first detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a dairy herd in Wisconsin. On December 17, the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) completed whole genome sequencing and confirmed that the virus is H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b genotype D1.1. Analysis indicates that this detection is a new spillover event from wildlife into dairy cattle, separate from previous events. Key Points Most detections in U.S. dairy herds have resulted from movements linked to the original spillover event that occurred in the Texas Panhandle in late 2023, involving the B3.13 strain. In early 2025, through the National Milk Testing Strategy, USDA detected two spillover events in Nevada and Arizona dairy herds. Both were identified early, and no further herd infections occurred through animal movements. These events involved the D1.1 strain. The Wisconsin herd, also detected through the National Milk Testing Strategy, represents a new, separate spillover event and involves the D1.1 strain. At this time, no additional dairy herds have been identified as infected in association with this event.
December 20, 2025 at 7:11 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Not to mention his recent claim that the US Intelligence community already knew in November 2019 that a virus had leaked from a Wuhan lab

archive.is/mb5Ff
Screenshot of linked article All of these factors made the laboratory at Wuhan a target for American espionage. By late November of 2019, I was told, “the American intelligence community knew that a virus had escaped. We also knew that they”—the Chinese bureaucrats in Wuhan and Beijing—“knew how to cover up a report.”
December 8, 2025 at 7:40 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Slightly different story according to the Daily Mail
archive.is/9lQgM
screenshot of Daily Mail infographic 5 The monkey and hamster DNA contains a rare mutation of Covid-19. Most experts believe it is derived from the original virus. Hungarian researchers say it is an ancestor of Covid-19 that bridges the gap between bat coronavirus and the earliest Wuhan strain
December 4, 2025 at 8:33 AM
flodebarre.bsky.social
A June 2020 date instead of Jan collapses the entire cover-up narrative. This shows how one unverified detail, like a wrong date, can turn mundane events into viral conspiracy fuel.

"Timeline matters a lot here", had written Jesse Bloom. Will he correct this tweets and Github? ▫️8/9
archive.ph/E5C8M
Bloom Lab @jbloom_lab Timeline matters a lot here. According to Chinese scientists, samples submitted in Dec 2019, results received in early 2020. If they were sequenced in Dec 2019 then exceptionally important, because Chinese govt holds #SARSCoV2 not discovered until Dec 30-31... (13/n) 6:27 AM · Feb 9, 2022
December 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
The sequences however contained mutations that clearly look derived, i.e. not compatible with being from the earliest SARS-CoV-2 viruses infecting humans -- as noted at the time, among others, by @kgandersen.bsky.social, and more recently highlighted by @zachhensel.bsky.social ▫️4/9
screenshot of tweet by Kristian Andersen @K_G_Andersen Replying to @K_G_Andersen Further, we have a unique mutation at 23525 (H655Y), which is also found in e.g., Omicron and Gamma. This appears to be a derived mutation (i.e., not ancestral). 10/ 3:38 AM • Feb 10, 2022
December 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
In a Twitter thread and on a Github page, Jesse Bloom announced that the sequences had been received by the Chinese researchers in early 2020 / in Jan 2020.

The contaminating SARS-CoV-2 sequences were therefore potentially among the earliest ones. Were they really? ▫️3/9

github.com/jbloom/PRJNA...
Details from Istvan Csabai On Jan-4-2022, I chatted with Istvan Csabai. He had contacted the authors of the pre-print, and shared their reply to him. The authors had prepped the samples in early 2019, and submitted to Sangon BioTech for sequencing in December, getting the results back in early January.
December 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM
flodebarre.bsky.social
Are you familiar with the story of the Antarctica sequences?

If not, good for you: you didn't clutter your brain with yet another Covid-origin damp squib, where innocuous data were made to look suspicious by misrepresenting a date.

For the curious, here's the story. ▫️1/9 🧵 #CovidOrigin
illustration image, made of a map of Antarctica (NASA svg) and SARS-CoV-2 virus (NIH BioArt)
December 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM