@mem_somerville @BenFPiercePhD It’s a heavily populated swamp.

@BenFPiercePhD Proves it. This particular person is very familiar the criminal justice system.

Twitter.

201 coronavirus strains from the NCBI protein database were analysed for furin cleavage sites present on their spike proteins.

Cleavage sites were found in 44 of them, with 17 hosted by bats and 27 by other mammals...including 1 raccoon dog?

Do tell.

📌https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.05.527216v1

#SarsCoV2 #covidorigins

Metatranscriptomic sequencing reveals the viromes of 61 reef fish species in the Great Barrier Reef, with little evidence for virus transmission between species, despite ample exposure. Study led by Vincenzo Costa 🐠

Limited Cross-Species Virus Transmission in a Spatially Restricted Coral Reef Fish Community
https://academic.oup.com/ve/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ve/vead011/7023158?login=false

The above ☝️ study from Slovakia had to contend with three different geographically co-circulating flaviviruses: West Nile Virus, Usutu Virus, and Tick-Borne Encephalitis #Virus.

For comparison, here's a study from the Amazon, looking at cross-reactivity among three different #flavivirus: Dengue Virus, Yellow Fever Virus, and Zika Virus.

"Antibody cross-reactivity and evidence of susceptibility to emerging Flaviviruses in the dengue-endemic Brazilian Amazon"
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.01.033
#virology

Saving this one for future use 😉

https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/ursprung-des-coronavirus-bevor-die-debatte-ausser-kontrolle-geraet-a-03015e66-3956-42f8-abce-34c70ae20ae3

@nailbomb3 I take your Pass and raise it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLsVZEw1mxs

@nailbomb3 Joe Pass. None better.

H5N1 “This is incredibly concerning,” says Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London. “This is a clear mechanism for an H5 pandemic to start.” Isabella Monne, a veterinary researcher at the European Union’s Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza in Italy, where the samples from Spain were sequenced, calls the finding “a warning bell.”

https://www.science.org/content/article/incredibly-concerning-bird-flu-outbreak-spanish-mink-farm-triggers-pandemic-fears

#virology #epidemiology #influenza

@meyer 2023 will be a shocker with the McCarthy-style show trials in the US Congress.

So, according to some, the EHA and WIV were working together to develop bioweapons. But this is definitely not a conspiracy theory.

RT @DiegoSilvaPhD@twitter.com

Adding my voice to the chorus: today is invasion day in Australia, a day that celebrates colonialism, plain and simple. May our Aboriginal brothers and sisters find some peace today. May the rest of us take this day to at least reflect upon our history and present-day racism.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/DiegoSilvaPhD/status/1618421255975358466

RT @katzish@twitter.com

Spillover or lab leak? Covid's origins are an absolutely key question for preventing future outbreaks, writes the great @DavidQuammen@twitter.com -- but a partisan House committee is exactly the wrong group to answer it https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/23/covid-origin-house-subcommittee-scientists/

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/katzish/status/1617558879763849217

@BenFPiercePhD Great piece!

"Right now, though, a sizable body of evidence supports the natural-origin scenario and, so far, no positive evidence indicates a lab leak."

From David Quammen

#SarsCoV2 #covidorigins

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/23/covid-origin-house-subcommittee-scientists/

@pyrrhus I've just written to WHO.

@eddieholmes

Yeah, the name of Japanese Encephalitis Virus definitely needs to be changed.

Especially since it has been detected as far west as Italy:

"Japanese encephalitis virus RNA detected in Culex pipiens mosquitoes in Italy" (Ravanini et al., 2012)
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/ese.17.28.20221-en
#virus #virology

@eddieholmes
Very good point re JEV naming. Wuhan virus stopped pretty quickly (quite right).