Biorisk analyst

Belfast, Northern Ireland
Joined January 2011
Delighted to have had this wide-ranging conversation with @PathogenScribe covering biological weapons, accidental release, the importance of precision in terminology, mitigating airborne pathogens, dual use research of concern, and much more. Thanks for having me on, Heather!
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Walking through a small seaside town on the North Coast of Northern Ireland a few days ago, I saw a very elderly man in a wheelchair. A woman was walking beside him, wearing a well-fitted FFP2 respirator mask. A rare sight these days, but a reminder that it's an easy thing to do.
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'...if H5N1 mutates and gains the ability to spread person-to-person, it could trigger the next global pandemic – and each new infection gives the virus more opportunities to replicate and change'. Important to note here: this is the first *reported* case in the US this year.
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Benone Strand from Mussenden Temple, Northern Ireland, earlier today. Michael Palin once described the train journey along the coast here as one of the most beautiful in the world. @Translink_NI
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The ruins of Dunluce Castle, between Portballintrae and Portrush on the North Coast of Northern Ireland. There has been a castle on this promontory since the 13th century.
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The Atlantic Ocean from the Nun's Walk in Portstewart, Northern Ireland, earlier today.
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Hiking from Portbradden to Dunseverick Harbour on the North Coast of Northern Ireland earlier today.
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Conor Browne retweeted
Kenya has confirmed a third case of the Ebola Bundibugyo virus. The patient, a 65-year-old woman, is a primary contact and a close relative of the first and second cases and had been under quarantine.
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Society is simply a broad group of individuals. Almost all of those individuals were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and continue to be re-infected. SARS-CoV-2 infection often adversely affects cognitive function. The virus subtly changed many individuals and thus changed society.
I swear SOMETHING broke in society after 2020 and nobody wants to talk about it. And I’m not talking about masks, lockdowns, or COVID. I mean the FEELING of life. Everything reopened. We went back to work. Restaurants filled up. Events came back. But somehow life still feels… different. Years disappear faster. People feel more disconnected. Everything feels more expensive, stressful & rushed. And somehow we’re all constantly exhausted. I can’t even explain exactly what we lost. I just know life before 2020 felt more ALIVE. Tell me I’m not the only one who feels this.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
This post has been copied, word-for-word, from other people. It is a pure copypasta for engagement purposes: Earlier examples of this post: October 12th: x.com/BennettRay1139… October 13th: x.com/_hrmed/status/… Other examples exist as well.
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A rare personal post, of sorts. If you haven't seen this masterpiece of television, I strongly recommend that you do. It is, by far, the best TV I have ever seen. In fact, I often (half) joke to friends that this series ruined television for me, because I judge everything by it.
15 years since The Sudden Departure. #TheLeftovers
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I am immensely proud of my friend @CarnivoraCC for launching this much-needed counselling service. She is an extraordinarily empathetic person and all-round good human, and I have no doubt she will help many people indeed in the future.
I’ll make it short & painless… …months of work, loss of sleep, & the constant meowing of my cat, but it’s finally done! Presenting you my covid centred counselling website 🙌 ccounselling.org/en/ (English) ccounselling.org (German) 1/3
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Absolutely heartening experience in Belfast today: as I was walking through a park I spotted a young woman wearing a mask, a black surgical. As I often do, I offered her an FFP2 - she said she was wearing a mask because she was sick. She thanked me, and I thanked her for masking.
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In the face of a novel pandemic virus transmitted via the airborne route, we politicised respiratory protection rather than normalising it.
Every generation is insane, just blind to it. What will future generations see as our insanity?
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This is obviously a worrying development, especially considering the fact that air travel was involved. I am considerably more concerned by the ongoing outbreak of Ebola in this region than I am by current events in Russia.
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Many people have recently reached out to me regarding the current situation in Irkutsk. Right now, the information environment there is both too sparse and too unreliable to base any firm analysis and / or prediction on. The next week will make the picture much clearer.
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A friend has Covid right now. They have lost their sense of smell and they're having cognitive problems. This hit me today, as it often does: we made, and continue to make, a huge collective mistake in allowing a virus that impacts the brain to transmit unmitigated globally.
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'...meaning that each additional infection event represents an opportunity for adaptive mutations that could favor mammal-to-mammal or, ultimately, human transmission'. We keep giving this beast too much space to mutate.
RFI: First US HPAI (H5N1) outbreak in captive mink – regulatory gaps delay response, Utah, USA Read more at: beaconbio.org/en/report/?rep…
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Conor Browne retweeted
Mink farming is a massive pandemic risk. It's insane that they are allowed to exist. Now we have an active H5N1 outbreak on a mink farm, & "state officials have no clear plan to rein it in." Imagine if uncontrolled H5N1 transmission in mink were allowed in a lab... 1/4
There's an active H5N1 outbreak on a mink farm in Utah and no one is doing much about it: sltrib.com/news/2026/09/27/a… This seems under-reported. I think it illustrates the danger of the virus, the need for more institutional competence, and the comparative risks of farms vs virology
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