Zach Hensel
@zachhensel.bsky.social
single-molecule microbiology lab @ ITQB NOVA in Portugal
https://zach-hensel.github.io/
https://zach-hensel.github.io/
I remember back when Prasad first commented on COVID-19. He said he wouldn’t stop focusing on his other stuff because that’s “what the virus wants” (paraphrased from memory). Too bad he didn’t stick to his initial thought.
November 29, 2025 at 9:51 PM
I remember back when Prasad first commented on COVID-19. He said he wouldn’t stop focusing on his other stuff because that’s “what the virus wants” (paraphrased from memory). Too bad he didn’t stick to his initial thought.
aka lies which he’s quite fond of
November 29, 2025 at 9:48 PM
aka lies which he’s quite fond of
Had to go look up the agreement they terminated because they also wiped it from their website… web.archive.org/web/20251010...
web.archive.org
November 29, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Had to go look up the agreement they terminated because they also wiped it from their website… web.archive.org/web/20251010...
Never when I see some self proclaimed data driven quack talk about this do they discuss the relevant data — the exact details are complex but the major changes behind Lyme emergence aren’t controversial.
November 29, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Never when I see some self proclaimed data driven quack talk about this do they discuss the relevant data — the exact details are complex but the major changes behind Lyme emergence aren’t controversial.
For each of these lies from Makary, there are specific patients he’s exploiting by lying about them and the history of their care. That includes some that aren’t alive to protest the exploitation.
November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
For each of these lies from Makary, there are specific patients he’s exploiting by lying about them and the history of their care. That includes some that aren’t alive to protest the exploitation.
Oh, and his Bethesda conspiracy theory? It’s obviously nonsense since another patient was also transferred from Texas to Atlanta.
November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Oh, and his Bethesda conspiracy theory? It’s obviously nonsense since another patient was also transferred from Texas to Atlanta.
It strikes me as an immensely bad idea to have someone so morally corrupt running an agency where corrupt decision making costs lives rather than money.
November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
It strikes me as an immensely bad idea to have someone so morally corrupt running an agency where corrupt decision making costs lives rather than money.
What sort of things does Makary lie about? For one, he invented the death of a child to oppose child vaccination. Never addressed or corrected his error.
November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
What sort of things does Makary lie about? For one, he invented the death of a child to oppose child vaccination. Never addressed or corrected his error.
Of course there’s no record of Makary saying anything like this until spreading conspiracy theories about Fauci became a viable path to political power.
Only now does Makary say he’s always been suspicious of Fauci since that moment — an unsurprising thing since he’s a liar.
Only now does Makary say he’s always been suspicious of Fauci since that moment — an unsurprising thing since he’s a liar.
November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Of course there’s no record of Makary saying anything like this until spreading conspiracy theories about Fauci became a viable path to political power.
Only now does Makary say he’s always been suspicious of Fauci since that moment — an unsurprising thing since he’s a liar.
Only now does Makary say he’s always been suspicious of Fauci since that moment — an unsurprising thing since he’s a liar.
The worst thing from Makary himself in the movie is the conspiracy theory he pretends he’s always believed that Fauci orchestrated transfer of an Ebola patient to Bethesda solely for a photo op and with no clinical rationale.
November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
The worst thing from Makary himself in the movie is the conspiracy theory he pretends he’s always believed that Fauci orchestrated transfer of an Ebola patient to Bethesda solely for a photo op and with no clinical rationale.
I watched it so that you don’t have to — www.the-gallop.com/from-fauci-t... — the Hooper-centric “Origin of AIDS” is referenced heavily and Redfield reprises his role from “House of Numbers”
Thank You Dr. Fauci Review
Thank You Dr. Fauci is a documentary investigating the origin of COVID-19. What do scientists have to say about it?
www.the-gallop.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I watched it so that you don’t have to — www.the-gallop.com/from-fauci-t... — the Hooper-centric “Origin of AIDS” is referenced heavily and Redfield reprises his role from “House of Numbers”
It’s interesting that this didn’t come up at all in their confirmation hearings, isn’t it?
November 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
It’s interesting that this didn’t come up at all in their confirmation hearings, isn’t it?
Mostly a history of shaking my head as smart people keep getting duped by a half-rate Bible Code.
November 29, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Mostly a history of shaking my head as smart people keep getting duped by a half-rate Bible Code.
Even true for those of us who had zero to do with any related work until recently bsky.app/profile/zach...
Addendum: the first version I wrote of this had a short conflict of interest section. This tweet from 5-October is why I decided to write this up.
I removed this section, since responding to a call for "open debate" is what I did by publishing this preprint, so there's no conflict here.
I removed this section, since responding to a call for "open debate" is what I did by publishing this preprint, so there's no conflict here.
![Conflicts of interest
The first author of Bruttel et al. recently wrote that I “was either involved in generating this virus somehow, or lost someone close to the pandemic. he just can't face the truth, and like a cultist, fights it behind others backs whereever [sic] he encounters ist [sic], while fearing an open debate.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:x43yqs76dtuxqf7yzkqrlz4v/bafkreidspvmjb4fj5tfagqikegvmgdi4d5xdosqvfeiwsz7qgj2vfrykmu@jpeg)
November 28, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Even true for those of us who had zero to do with any related work until recently bsky.app/profile/zach...
Don’t you realize that every word @peterdaszak.bsky.social says doesn’t count cuz he’s part of the cover up 🙃
As is everyone else who speaks their mind on this issue. Weird how it’s only the people who get in the way of conspiracy theories who are part of the conspiracy, isn’t it?
As is everyone else who speaks their mind on this issue. Weird how it’s only the people who get in the way of conspiracy theories who are part of the conspiracy, isn’t it?
November 28, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Don’t you realize that every word @peterdaszak.bsky.social says doesn’t count cuz he’s part of the cover up 🙃
As is everyone else who speaks their mind on this issue. Weird how it’s only the people who get in the way of conspiracy theories who are part of the conspiracy, isn’t it?
As is everyone else who speaks their mind on this issue. Weird how it’s only the people who get in the way of conspiracy theories who are part of the conspiracy, isn’t it?
I contacted the producer of the story, who responded by telling me that I must be wrong since MI6 concluded it was a lab leak.
This is something that never happened. Just completely invented.
This is something that never happened. Just completely invented.
November 28, 2025 at 10:30 PM
I contacted the producer of the story, who responded by telling me that I must be wrong since MI6 concluded it was a lab leak.
This is something that never happened. Just completely invented.
This is something that never happened. Just completely invented.
Literally any fact checking would never work. One of these days someone is going to demand a retraction or sue over some of the nonsense in German media.
November 28, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Literally any fact checking would never work. One of these days someone is going to demand a retraction or sue over some of the nonsense in German media.
It’s just wild — as noted in the story, their key source thinks everything is a lab leak! The Ebola conspiracy theories are particularly disgusting because some of the characters in the conspiracy theory aren’t alive to defend themselves if they wanted to.
November 28, 2025 at 10:28 PM
It’s just wild — as noted in the story, their key source thinks everything is a lab leak! The Ebola conspiracy theories are particularly disgusting because some of the characters in the conspiracy theory aren’t alive to defend themselves if they wanted to.
I have zero clue about the culture significance of the program so I had to ask people nano is the “ancient aliens” of Germany to check if this was taken seriously or not… the content is just wildly false and the music definitely didn’t help!
November 28, 2025 at 9:56 PM
I have zero clue about the culture significance of the program so I had to ask people nano is the “ancient aliens” of Germany to check if this was taken seriously or not… the content is just wildly false and the music definitely didn’t help!
Yeah the post he quotes says it’s an experiment that made the virus “now capable of infecting humans” which… no.
I get that it’s a busy job but you’d think Bhattacharya could task his capable staff with lit review rather than random liars on twitter.
I get that it’s a busy job but you’d think Bhattacharya could task his capable staff with lit review rather than random liars on twitter.
November 28, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Yeah the post he quotes says it’s an experiment that made the virus “now capable of infecting humans” which… no.
I get that it’s a busy job but you’d think Bhattacharya could task his capable staff with lit review rather than random liars on twitter.
I get that it’s a busy job but you’d think Bhattacharya could task his capable staff with lit review rather than random liars on twitter.
And the countdown begins until that headline becomes the latest shiny thing that's amplified as evidence of a "lab leak" origin since there's no actual supporting evidence.
November 28, 2025 at 6:45 PM
And the countdown begins until that headline becomes the latest shiny thing that's amplified as evidence of a "lab leak" origin since there's no actual supporting evidence.
Thank you for covering this. It was really strange to contact the presenter and get a response from a writer/producer telling me that the presenter had no responsibility for the content he presented.
What's the point of having a scientist as a TV presenter, in that case?
What's the point of having a scientist as a TV presenter, in that case?
November 28, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Thank you for covering this. It was really strange to contact the presenter and get a response from a writer/producer telling me that the presenter had no responsibility for the content he presented.
What's the point of having a scientist as a TV presenter, in that case?
What's the point of having a scientist as a TV presenter, in that case?
No idea what the “why” is on a deeper level than that.
November 26, 2025 at 11:32 PM
No idea what the “why” is on a deeper level than that.
The historical “why” is that Michael Levitt relied on him first to provide evidence for his inane Panglossian theory that epidemic trajectories are preordained, vaccines only work via placebo effect (including in blinded trials), and people in Wuhan died of panic and not COVID-19.
November 26, 2025 at 11:32 PM
The historical “why” is that Michael Levitt relied on him first to provide evidence for his inane Panglossian theory that epidemic trajectories are preordained, vaccines only work via placebo effect (including in blinded trials), and people in Wuhan died of panic and not COVID-19.