New email to Director Bhattacharya about a new Scientific Freedom lecture to be given my Matt Ridley on The Search for the Origin of COVID-19.
Ridley is a British scientist and journalist who published a book in 2022 on the subject.
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As a new study calls into question one of the central planks of the "lab leak" hypothesis, I review the long history of pandemics and describe how researchers have long puzzled over their origins.
markhonigsbaum.substack.com/p/opportunit...
"Russian flu," the pandemic that hit in 1977, bears an evolutionary signature of having emerged from a lab, perhaps as part of a failed vaccine effort. Covid, mpox, Ebola, and other influenza pandemics don't. Here's my story on a new way to trace the origins of pandemics. Gift link: nyti.ms/46N0W33
Scientists Get a Glimpse of How New Pandemics Are Made www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/s...
As bombs rain down on Tehran, the world appears more than divided than ever. But was war in the Middle East inevitable? Or is the current conflagration further evidence of how Covid-19 destabilised our world, plunging us into permacrisis?
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
The red cover of the book. A white mask at the centre of the cover makes the shape of a heart.
The title page of Fran Hall's section: A Wall of Pain and Love
Black and white pictures of the wall in the book.
The title page of Mark Honigsbaum's section, "Walking the wall: Covid-19 and the politics of memory"
On World Book Day, we're remembering powerful contributions about the Wall from our Chair, @franfd.bsky.social, and journalist @honigsbaum.bsky.social to "When This Is Over - Reflections on an Unequal Pandemic"... โค๏ธ
#WorldBookDay
medical historian @honigsbaum.bsky.social
In the last six weeks, Europe has seen Biblical levels of rain, exceeding the 40 days and nights described in the Book Genesis.
When will the deluge end, many have been asking? But what if it has only just begun?And what are we going to do about it?
substack.com/home/post/p-...
When Peter Mandelson bought a house in my street, I wondered how he could afford it. Pity then that all it took was one call to my editor from the โPrince of Darknessโ to kill my story.
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
I think youโll find Max gave a different version to Guardian, saying Mandy first rang him to complain about my questions in 1997, which is how I remember it. Robertson loan revelation was following year. www.theguardian.com/politics/200...
Yes, I seem to recall our editor at that time accepting Mandyโs word as โan honourable manโ that heโd financed the loan himself. He wouldnโt be the last to be taken inโฆ
To Oxford to debate the Covid Lockdowns this evening with Sunetra Gupta, Hugh Montgomery & Toby Green. What did we get right and what did we get wrong? And what should we do differently next time?
x.com/comacfreedom...
The new Netflix miniseries Death By Lightning based on the 1881 assassination of president James Garfield by a deranged office seeker is highly pertinent to our troubled times.
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
Study in JAMA Pediatricsย estimates that vaccinating pregnant women against COVID-19 prevented 7,000 hospitalizations in infants and 3,000 in pregnant women from January 2024 to May 2025.ย
#Medsky
www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/cov...
Some thoughts on the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, and what the litany of campus shootings say about our violent, blood-soaked times.
markhonigsbaum.substack.com/p/meridian-t...
www.thefp.com/p/sam-harris...
Sage advice from Sam Harris:-
Get off social media.
Read good books and real journalism.
Find your friends.
And enjoy your life.
Charlie Kirkโs Killing and Our Poisonous Internet www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...
โWhile the internetโs rot once felt safely bottledโฆwithin a digital realm, this act of political violence may have punctured whatever barrier once existedโ.
When my beloved goldendoodle of 15 years died this summer I was overwhelmed with grief. Then something extraordinary happened: I took a hiatus from social media and began engaging with people in real life.
markhonigsbaum.substack.com/p/murphys-gift
My worst nightmare is coming true. I am turning into Jay Bhattacharya. @reason.com is writing articles calling me a silenced and censored scientific dissident.
What have I done to myself. ๐
reason.com/2025/09/03/f...
I am happy Gov. Kathy Hochul took action to defend COVID vaccine access in the face of the anti-science attacks from Robert Kennedy Jr. and his crank allies like Marty Makary and Jay Bhattacharya.
But I note that itโs only for ages 3 and up. The CDCโs original guidance was 6 months and up.
Today, parakeets are a common sight in public parks. But in 1930 the birds sparked a worldwide panic when it was discovered their faeces contained a deadly bacterium.
Click on my Substack to read my new post on the Great Parrot Fever Pandemic of 1930.
markhonigsbaum.substack.com/p/the-green-...
Despite putting on her โhappy faceโ at the launch of Labourโs 10-year plan for the NHS this morning, the British public are unlikely to forget Reevesโs visible anguish at PMโs questions in a hurry.
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
Despite putting on her โhappy faceโ at the launch of Labourโs 10-year plan for the NHS this morning, the British public are unlikely to forget Reevesโs visible anguish at PMโs questions in a hurry.
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
Sultanโs death is terrible but re: Vylan affair, two wrongs donโt make a right. #whataboutism
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
@mrjamesob.bsky.social @lbc.co.uk To judge by James OโBrienโs call-in on LBC radio today, sympathy for the Chancellor as the architect of her own misery was in short supply.
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
No one knows what sparked Rachel Reevesโs visible anguish on Wednesday, but for a moment at least she showed that she was human.That is something the public will likely remember long after her tears have dried.
open.substack.com/pub/markhoni...
The idea that you can debunk your way out of a conspiracy theory is disproven over and over again. Better imo to ask people with an alternative point of view what their single strongest piece of evidence is and discuss that in depth. For "lab leak" those conversations don't last long.
Thanks for that Zach - clearly, you have put in the work!
