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Laura McCall

@equibotanica

Motto should be: 'No post without a typo'. 'Like' =|= agree. Vaccine equity is in everyone's interest. avatar image: @BruegelBot from the other place Not super active here ... yet

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21.09.2023
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Latest posts by Laura McCall @equibotanica

1. COVID is only starting as a crisis of chronic illness. You cannot talk in the past tense

“For so many NHS staff, in many ways covid never really left… There’s been no pause, no time to heal, just a relentless push forward in a system permanently stuck in crisis mode”

01.05.2025 23:39 👍 132 🔁 46 💬 4 📌 0
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Merci, EmmanuelMacron 💙💛

Every European will be safer if every part of Ukraine is sovereign and pro-European.

russian occupation of an independent country creates a precedent that endangers the entire continent.

23.04.2025 19:11 👍 689 🔁 153 💬 19 📌 11
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Trump day 91: No decisions, but Easter message about ‘millions of criminals,’ American detained 10 days for ‘illegal entry,’ Hegseth shared classified info with his wife and brother & more - Reporters... New decisions from Trump, and new fallout. An overview of day 91.

Trump day 91: First day with no decisions, Easter message about ‘millions of criminals,’ American detained 10 days for ‘illegal entry,’ Hegseth shared classified info with his wife and brother & more: reportersonline.eu/trump-day-91... #trump100

21.04.2025 11:00 👍 39 🔁 19 💬 0 📌 1

If Jesus had focused more on kitchen table issues and less on unpopular outcasts like lepers and prostitutes, he might have won more support from white working-class Judeans.

20.04.2025 02:08 👍 22755 🔁 4703 💬 270 📌 161

At least three people who are obsessed with criticizing me are being published in this book and I just want to point out that I travel and write regularly making the case for science funding and why cosmology is imporrant and these guys have had fuck all to say about science funding

21.04.2025 00:12 👍 511 🔁 85 💬 11 📌 1
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Video shows doctor with measles treating kids. RFK Jr later praised him as an ‘extraordinary’ healer A video shows a Texas doctor, who has been treating children in a measles outbreak, with a measles rash on his face in a clinic while caring for patients a week before he met with Health Secretary Rob...

It’s bad enough we have healthcare workers refusing to mask, now one admits to practicing medicine while he has measles

Does the HHS Secretary condemn this behaviour? No. He praises the doctor as an “extraordinary healer”

Measles is airborne & wildly contagious. This doctor should lose his license

19.04.2025 09:46 👍 594 🔁 214 💬 24 📌 21

We need to stop making concessions to the right bc right-wingers get mad.

There’s this big effort to rewrite school closures. Even in ostensibly liberal media, we get solemnly acknowledgments that schools were closed too long.

Not bc of data, but bc right wingers screamed about it long enough.

13.04.2025 10:48 👍 1385 🔁 305 💬 20 📌 13

Autism isn’t an epidemic. It's not a disease. It’s a natural variation in how people think…which, frankly, is a relief in a world where most people don't think at all.

19.04.2025 19:49 👍 22153 🔁 4366 💬 416 📌 200

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

18.04.2025 22:40 👍 3082 🔁 1372 💬 141 📌 64

I hate the trope about "elites looking down their noses at rural folks lives". I lived in rural areas, and believe me, there was plenty of disdain there for the way urbanites lived *their* lives. It's not a one-way thing and in any case doesn't excuse fascism.

19.04.2025 16:28 👍 428 🔁 20 💬 13 📌 4

EU 2024 electricity generation:

49% renewable energy
24% nuclear

Only 28% fossil fuel 👍

19.04.2025 10:10 👍 50 🔁 16 💬 1 📌 2

Wishing him the best of luck with that. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

19.04.2025 09:32 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"We have footsteps to follow, and shoulders to stand on! Fascism wins when you lose hope. To joyful persistence, my friends!"

19.04.2025 09:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

In the immortal words of Toni Morrison.

It applies to ableism too.

19.04.2025 01:19 👍 133 🔁 40 💬 4 📌 1
The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.
2.

Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events.
3.

Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research (gene altering and organism supercharging) at inadequate biosafety levels.
4.

Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers were sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market.
5.

By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced. But it hasn’t.

The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature. 2. Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events. 3. Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research (gene altering and organism supercharging) at inadequate biosafety levels. 4. Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers were sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market. 5. By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced. But it hasn’t.

The White House has turned COVID.gov from a public health resource into a politically charged platform promoting the lab-leak theory and attacking specific scientists and the pandemic response in general. Let’s fact check its 5 headline claims… 🧵

19.04.2025 08:46 👍 2333 🔁 1011 💬 96 📌 101

Good to see you here, by the way.

06.04.2025 23:50 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

No kidding

06.04.2025 23:44 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

We’re either heading for a recession or are already in one, paired with a stock market collapse, all because Trump did something real stupid that he could undo at any time. The US economy is crashing because a single dipshit *wants* to crash it, and nobody with the power to stop him will do so.

06.04.2025 23:24 👍 144 🔁 37 💬 7 📌 0
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We Need Mandatory Masking in Healthcare, and We Need it Now Healthcare facilities should set the tone when it comes to masking. They should help patients protect themselves from Covid and other threats. Instead they push droplet dogma and put lives at risk.

We know masks prevent Covid & other respiratory infections

We know hospital acquired covid has a 10% mortality rate

We know patients are scared or postponing medical care because they can’t risk Covid

We know many HCWs are burned out & suffering Long Covid

So why aren’t we masking in healthcare?

10.03.2025 10:58 👍 501 🔁 180 💬 15 📌 3
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RFK Jr. Fanboys Owe You An Apology A Formal Reading of the Riot Act

🚨 NEW: RFK Jr. Fanboys Owe You An Apology

Supporters of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. now have to face the music: RFK Jr.'s critics predicted exactly how his tenure as HHS Secretary would go, and a child is now dead of measles as the result.

👇 READ, SHARE, SUBSCRIBE: www.panaccindex.info/p/rfk-jr-fan...

10.03.2025 17:59 👍 48 🔁 13 💬 3 📌 3
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Censor, purge, defund: how Trump following the authoritarian playbook on science and universities I have mapped 35 of the Trump administration's attacks on science and universities to the authoritarian playbook - and consider what it means for attacks still to come

My latest post is now out.

I show how Trump's attacks on science and universities are neither random nor new - they fit very precisely into the authoritarian playbook.

This means we can guess what might come next and prepare - and we must!

christinapagel.substack.com/p/censor-pur...

10.03.2025 14:58 👍 1574 🔁 917 💬 37 📌 61
A flyer with text describing Airborne Infection Prevention training for using germicidal UV-C. A QR code for an interest form and logos of sponsors are at the bottom.

A flyer with text describing Airborne Infection Prevention training for using germicidal UV-C. A QR code for an interest form and logos of sponsors are at the bottom.

06.03.2025 13:33 👍 27 🔁 14 💬 2 📌 0

80% of German VOTERS went for parties that promised to have nothing to do with the AFD...

MEDIA: Huge win for AFD!

23.02.2025 21:50 👍 3782 🔁 790 💬 162 📌 52
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A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls So...

WIRED continues to lead the reporting on what's happening inside the US government right now.

A 25-year-old Musk acolyte now has admin privileges over the code that controls Social Security payments, tax returns, and more.

www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

04.02.2025 10:19 👍 515 🔁 223 💬 24 📌 15
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This paper showing that a bunch of interventions didn't work for #longcovid is used as evidence that #longcovid is psychosomatic. But if the interventions tested didn't address the biology of the disease, they wouldn't work. See my field for another demo of this tautology.

29.11.2024 00:55 👍 75 🔁 13 💬 5 📌 0
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Long Covid - Hunderte von Kindern in der Schweiz kämpfen mit den Corona-Folgen Das Corona-Virus ist nach wie vor da. Ein ernstes Problem vor allem für Menschen mit Long Covid, darunter auch Kinder.

Stell Dir vor , Dein Kind geht zu Schule, kommt krank wieder heim und wird nie mehr gesund. Das darf einfach nicht passieren und schon gar nicht tausendfach. #BildungAberSicher www.srf.ch/wissen/gesun...

26.11.2024 04:58 👍 107 🔁 43 💬 3 📌 1
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Dr. Marty Makary: “We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April” & “It’s Okay To Have an Incorrect Scientific Hypothesis. But When New Data Proves It Wrong, You Have To Adapt.” | Science-Based Medicine Part 1: Doctors who said the pandemic ended 3-years ago now have the audacity to lament the "damaged public trust in the medical profession."

So I see Marty Makary is being pushed as FDA chief. The Fox News-ification of fed positions continues. Some background on him during the height of the COVID pandemic and co-author of a highly criticized paper on medical errors as a cause of death... medsky idsky lawsky health polucy

25.11.2024 16:37 👍 17 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1


Reading RIVM's comments regarding avian influenza is likely to trigger a bit of deja vu in anybody who was in the Netherlands in January and February of 2020.

25.11.2024 15:20 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
Screenshot of auto translation Dutch to English from 

https://www.l1nieuws.nl/nieuws/2796375/vogelgriep-duikt-weer-op-kunnen-mensen-ziek-worden-en-is-een-ei-eten-nog-veilig

Can humans get sick from bird flu?

Bird flu is rare in humans. Only in rare cases can bird flu be transmitted from animals to humans. This is done through intensive contact with infected animals.

Those who do get infected with the bird flu virus do not get very sick from it. The symptoms in humans correspond to 'normal' flu symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches and cough. Sometimes people get an eye infection from bird flu. The risk of someone with bird flu infecting other people is negligible. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) advises people who have been in contact with a sick bird to contact their GP.

Screenshot of auto translation Dutch to English from https://www.l1nieuws.nl/nieuws/2796375/vogelgriep-duikt-weer-op-kunnen-mensen-ziek-worden-en-is-een-ei-eten-nog-veilig Can humans get sick from bird flu? Bird flu is rare in humans. Only in rare cases can bird flu be transmitted from animals to humans. This is done through intensive contact with infected animals. Those who do get infected with the bird flu virus do not get very sick from it. The symptoms in humans correspond to 'normal' flu symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches and cough. Sometimes people get an eye infection from bird flu. The risk of someone with bird flu infecting other people is negligible. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) advises people who have been in contact with a sick bird to contact their GP.



Good news, everybody!

Avian influenza has been detected again in the Netherlands but don't worry:

"[Humans] who do get infected with the bird flu virus do not get very sick from it."

www.l1nieuws.nl/nieuws/27963...

25.11.2024 15:20 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0