Prof. Michael Fuhrer
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michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social
Prof. Michael Fuhrer
@michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social
Epidemic epistemic trespassing. Knows a lot about graphene.
Monash Uni. Directed fleet.org.au. Fellow @scienceacademy.bsky.social.
Plays bass for www.instagram.com/push_the_trigger
Bird photos at www.flickr.com/photos/off-world
Reposted by Prof. Michael Fuhrer
Sowing fear of "ICE at the polls!" could do more to suppress votes than any actual ICE at the polls. Here's an explanation of the right's strategy on this, along with my recommendations for what to do instead of playing along.

katestarbird.substack.com/p/effective-...
Effective outrage
Defusing and redirecting threats of “ICE at the polls!”
katestarbird.substack.com
February 17, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Maybe this is helpful for the interview:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael...
Michael Fuhrer - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
February 17, 2026 at 11:47 PM
I've never been interviewed to be accepted as a follower, so this is a first!
February 17, 2026 at 11:28 PM
All sounds good to me. I guess we're 70+% aligned in viewpoints (but, who wants 100%?) and have several common interests. Quite a few people follow both of us.

I'm non-anonymous and a member of my country's national academy, so probably not a complete fool!
February 17, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Just curious, why do your other followers follow you? Do they ever comment on things you've written? I've never experienced this attitude towards followers before so I am very curious!
February 17, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Huh, I just hit the follow button. Your profile doesn't say anything about "don't hit the follow button", quite a few people follow both of us, and we seem to have interests in common. Apologies if I have misunderstood how this works. Can you point me to the clearly stated part so I know next time?
February 17, 2026 at 11:08 AM
Yes I think this is true in a very fundamental way.
February 17, 2026 at 7:09 AM
That we--humanity--allow some individual humans the conceit of believing that they personally own $100B, and that we all go along with that conceit, is madness. We really don't have to do this, and we really should stop.
February 17, 2026 at 6:35 AM
Sorry, you've totally lost me.

Anyway, I don't know any of the people over at WastewaterSCAN, or how smug they were in 2020, but their wastewater RNA measurements show that there's no surge in covid going on in Minnesota. I guess that's good news (for humans). bsky.app/profile/mich...
WastewaterSCAN publishes data by site, so we can see if their readings really have spiked.

Nope, they haven't.

This winter's reading are lower than last winter, and last winter's lower than winter before. And nothing funny in the last couple weeks.

4/
February 17, 2026 at 4:53 AM
I got here through Michael Hoerger. I've actually never met Hoerger, but I'll believe you when you say he's without shame. He's certainly catastrophically wrong, we agree on that!
February 17, 2026 at 4:15 AM
Appreciated 🙏
February 17, 2026 at 3:30 AM
But more generally, @michael-hoerger.bsky.social is a fraud, and it's probably not a great idea to repost his stuff.

bsky.app/profile/mich...
In fact the WVAL is exactly what @michael-hoerger.bsky.social is plotting in his plots.

(What @jpweiland.bsky.social is plotting seems to change from time to time, but he says he derives his numbers from wastewater, using a secret recipe)

14/
February 17, 2026 at 3:26 AM
Turns out that the whole MN covid surge thing is based on a mistake - the raw data shows there's no surge.

Long thread on exactly how it happened here.

bsky.app/profile/mich...
WastewaterSCAN publishes data by site, so we can see if their readings really have spiked.

Nope, they haven't.

This winter's reading are lower than last winter, and last winter's lower than winter before. And nothing funny in the last couple weeks.

4/
February 17, 2026 at 3:26 AM
I mean, OK, that's one way to evaluate new information, sure.

(P.S. Gid got it from me, not the other way around)
February 17, 2026 at 2:24 AM
I'd be surprised if there isn't a study right now being funded to find out. I don't know that, but such studies have been funded in the past, and there's much more (not less) interest in respiratory viruses now.
February 17, 2026 at 2:22 AM
You are welcome 😁
February 17, 2026 at 12:18 AM
You're welcome 😀
February 17, 2026 at 12:00 AM
They're very effective!
February 16, 2026 at 11:39 PM
UKHSA was doing it for a while but they stopped.

So you're right, we don't know. I don't know, you don't know, the CDC doesn't know, WHO doesn't know, and Michael Hoerger doesn't know.
February 16, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Here I have overlaid them - black is WastewaterSCAN average for MN, yellow is CDC WVAL for MN. You can see that CDC's spike in last two weeks is not reflected in the actual data (which is, in fact, the actual data CDC is using!)
February 16, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Unlike what CDC is reporting.
February 16, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Zooming in you can see that there's no spike in the last couple weeks.
February 16, 2026 at 11:23 PM