Many years ago, I was planning a study around influenza vaccination that I remember calling the 'flujab' study for short.

Maybe it's a British thing but I don't think the word is particularly associated with antivax here. These days, it's as likely to mean semaglutide as a vaccine.

Ah, sorry. I misunderstood your point. The barrels of cash make even more sense now.

Fully agree with the list, including the last one.

Would you add clean water and clean air?

Was Banks saying everyone else got drunk and he didn't? That doesn't sound like Banks at all.

Or was this him saying 'I wasn't drunk, it was all of you lot who were drunk'?

Exceptions to the known pathogens tend to come through the animal house, where someone caught something from a live animal.

But, as Elizabeth said, new pathogens emerge naturally all the time.

Lab leaks have happened, certainly, but what leaks are usually known pathogens kept in the lab. That's very different to some new and unknown pathogen emerging from a lab with no explanation for how it got in there in the first place.

I was thinking they're infallible on their own terms. Skynet didn't do what it's designers intended but when it decided to kill everyone, it was very good at it. Though I don't remember Data or Murderbot having any trouble counting fingers.

That's very kind of you.

The irony being that a lot of novel viruses are artificial in the sense that they arise out of our agricultural systems or wild-caught animal trade. Nobody seems to be nearly as concerned about that.

Hollywood's spent years telling us that apocalyptic viruses come from idiots in labs so when an apocalyptic virus appears, everyone's primed to think lab leak.

Hollywood's also spent years telling us that AI is omniscient and infallible so...

How the hell is this going to work? What ERB, in Denmark or Guinea, is going to let them withhold the birth dose in a region where there's endemic vertical transmission?

There's no grantholder named in the linked document which makes me wonder if this is even a real study or some sort of grift.

In fairness, it's not for the first time although maybe Trump is the most extreme example. Carl Sagan said that nuclear weaponry makes us dependent on the 'sanity and sobriety' of our leadership.

It's one of the most terrifying statements I've ever heard.

There's solid evidence that a FFP2/N95 masks keep filtering for at least 40 hours. By then, they're probably starting to smell even if the straps haven't broken but as you say, the reuse makes them a lot more affordable.

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

No idea! All four could be about either. Now I have to read the substack to find out.

Every time Sweden comes up, I think aha, they mean the Swedish approach of free healthcare, generous public services and mandatory paid sick leave.

Then I remember who they are. And what they are.