iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yup. Most labs in SA were using lenti, we were using actual CoV isolates.

Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Guy who died this weekend in #Kedah was bitten in the #rabies buffer zone extending 50km from the Thai border wherein all dogs must be vaccinated, so enforcement has clearly been patchy www.malaymail.com/news/malaysi...

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Ceva Animal Health just uploaded this video of their oral #rabies vaccine rollout in #Sarawak. Cute puppieeeeees! 🐶🐕 youtu.be/s1zLQAds_ak?...

youtu.be

Ceva Rabitec - Malaysia 2026

YouTube video by Ceva TV - Ceva Santé Animale Channel

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I thought Snap Crackle and Pop was Lucky Charms, Crecy was Agincourt, and had no idea Nicki Minaj is from Trinidad. In my defense I'm not European, barely listen to music, and we don't have that particular Kellogg product in Malaysia. catfishing.net #828 - 7/10 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈 🐟🐟🐟🐈🐈

catfishing.net

catfishing - the Wikipedia guessing game

Guess the Wikipedia article from its categories. 10 interesting people, places, and things to guess every day.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”

APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm in Maryland and the place I reliably see them is.... the fenced-off area at risk of death by train or arrest for trespassing verge beside the metro stations 😆

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

*south and southeast Asia, we've got way more fluent English speakers in the sunset of the British "Empire" than China, Japan, and Korea do.

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

For those confused by #Malaysia geography, #Sarawak and #Sabah share #Borneo with the Indonesia's 5 provinces of #Kalimantan and the nation of #Brunei. #Kedah is one of the peninsular (Semenanjung) mainland states, up north by #Thailand which is having a large and prolonged #rabies outbreak.

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

None too soon given this weekend's death of a young man in Kedah. We can no longer assume semenanjung (the peninsula/mainland) is functionally #rabies free as my brother was told when he was bitten a few years ago and they didn't give him PEP #rabiesvaccine www.malaymail.com/news/malaysi...

malaymail.com

Man dies of rabies in Kedah’s first human case in 28 years

ALOR SETAR, Sept 27 — The State Health Department (JKN) of Kedah has reported the state’s first human rabies case since 1998, involving a 31-year-old man from Kubang Pasu who...

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

How many children have to die horribly before governments adopt this technology that's been used on wildlife in rich countries for decades? Are the lives of children in Asia and Africa worth less than raccoons in America and foxes in Europe? #rabies #rabiesvaccine

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Yup, again the techbro fallacy of assuming a)everybody else is an idiot & b) they can become an instant expert by speed-reading their new hobby. Biologists & bioethicists have been thinking about synthetic biology risks for decades. AI may speed things up but it doesn't fundamentally change that.

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

*except for rich kids like Elizabeth Holmes where growing up with a ton of money creates the same kind of blinkered worldview as male privilege

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

.... that turned out to not be the case but that's a story for another day

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I was killing it academically with very little effort throughout primary and secondary school, but I was TERRIFIED that once I hit university that I would find out that's where all the actual smart people are

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think girls tend to not make that error as much because we're socialized to be constantly thinking about other people and the entire social network we're embedded in

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think the technocrat-to-fascist pipeline revolves around the typical gifted male child fallacy that being the smartest kid in the class growing up extrapolates to being the smartest man in the world, and the corollary being that everybody else is a fucking idiot especially poor people

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Mike Elk @mikeelk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

X is blocking the Brazilian Catholic Bishops' Conference account as polling shows Catholics backing Lula. The Church has denounced outside interference in the election

paydayreport.com

X Blocks Account of National Conference of Bishops of Brasil As Catholics Back Lula

Polls show Catholics backing Lula as the church denounces foreign interference.

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

In that sense, a Wikipedia article is similar to a journal-published review paper that's got a large author list

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My friend who's a primary school teacher is encouraging his students to cite Wikipedia on the grounds that at least they're learning to look up human-researched and -written articles instead of asking Google or ChatGPT

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Honestly I rage-quit for a couple of years when some admin reverted a paragraph I had spent a couple hours writing because "primary sources are not allowed in biomedical articles", idk if that's still the case but it wasn't very well enforced. I think that should be a soft guideline instead of hard

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It has evolved a lot. I get annoyed at the bureaucracy of insider admins nitpicking my edits, but the system also ensures a pretty incredible degree of reliability for a volunteer-run effort. This is altruism in action on a global scale that governments and capitalists could not have anticipated

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Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Just seen it's Wikipedia's 25th birthday. The greatest website online, and possibly the internet's greatest fruit

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Update the day after #Novavax and #Gorillaz: barely noticeable injection site pain yesterday. Fantastic concert I've been waiting 25 years for. Cheap seats were actually great because focus on live band, not virtual band members on screens as in the early years. Finale: Feel Good, Clint Eastwood♥️🐵

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

...ALL the CoV neutralization work that he subsequently became famous for.

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm not sure, my supervisor had me do the wet work on Novavax anda AZ but excluded me completely from discussions with any big pharma collaborators. He was very much of the mindset that students are tabula rasa/minions despite my prior years of experience was what enabled his lab to do ALL...

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

idk if the #Novavax South Africa results ever got published, at least if they did I wasn't included as an author despite doing the actual work >:( #covidvaccines

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Going to get my Covid booster right before heading to #Gorillaz because people are disgusting

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The vet tech at my cats' hospital had this on her bottle 🤣 For those who don't get it, it's a dachsie cycling #dachshunds #antibiotics #sciencehumor #medicalhumor #puns

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The elephant is following the highway, so an estimate by driving directions is relevant - about 237 km 😱 Poor thing has a leg injury.

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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Biochemist Florence Seibert developed the Purified Protein Derivative (PPD) in the 1930s. Before her work, TB skin tests were inconsistent & unreliable. Her PPD formula was adopted as the international standard (1952) & remains in use for TB testing today. Died #OTD in 1991. #WomenInSTEM

Vintage black-and-white studio portrait of American biochemist Florence Barbara Seibert (1897–1991), shown from the shoulders up. The young woman has short, dark, wavy 1920s-style hair parted on the side, wears round wire-rimmed eyeglasses, and offers a gentle smile toward the camera. She is dressed in a light-colored blouse with a ruffled collar. A studio imprint reading “A. F. R. S. Chicago” appears in the lower right corner.

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I'll be giving a short talk about #tuberculosis #TB #antibodies #monoclonalantibodies discovery at @astmh.bsky.social ! 🦠💉 That is, if the US government doesn't shut down again this year 😓

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

One of the craziest things I've read about disease stigma is that when Sungai Buloh was converted from a leprosarium into a modern infectious disease hospital, the ex-lepers still living there were afraid of the HIV patients.

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Tom Lumberjack @knilb.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Ag uses ground & surface water, which is an input into potable/municipal supply. Data centers use municipal supply which requires treatment, and the treatment equipment and process cost money. The step function to upgrade municipal capacity is a big step.

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Sagittarius A* @sagastar.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

ALFALFA [punches wall]

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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

And here's the best part: "Tehee but at least agriculture uses the water to make food!" Uh, you'd be surprised! Farmers are INCENTIVIZED TO WASTE WATER. To use more than we need, to grow thirsty crops in deserts, etc. A whole lot of that massive ag water use DOES NOT MEANINGFULLY GROW FOOD.

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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

We really have to understand that decades of being told "Turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth!" was kinda bullshit. Folks we are failing to comprehend the SHEER VOLUME of water agriculture uses. ALL urban water use in the CO basin? Is ~1/3 of what the farms there use.

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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The ag lobby really, really, really, really, really, really, really wants you to think AI is the reason reservoirs are going empty. It's not. It's agriculture.

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Onisillos @onisillos.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Given the overwhelming demand (🤥), here are the editorials I've written on covid origins: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... and www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus that found its way into humans through mundane contact with infected wildlife that went on to cause the most consequential pandemic for over a century. While it is scholarly to entertain alternative hypotheses, particularly when evidence is scarce, these alternative hypotheses have been implausible for a long time and have only become more-so with increasing scrutiny. Those who eagerly peddle suggestions of laboratory involvement have consistently failed to present credible arguments to support their positions.
Take the time to reflect on the paragraph above and how many words were expended to make the simple point that COVID-19 had a natural origin. This is because there are many people, most notably in the USA, with disproportionate influence who are poised to seize on less explicit statements to undermine a simple, and pretty straightforward, truth. These are the same people who are willing to malign individuals—a topical example being former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci—who dedicated themselves to understanding and lessening the impact of the pandemic.
The sheer hubris needed to underpin alternative hypotheses was an early signal of their tenuousness, when we are intensely aware that the natural processes needed to bring about this sort of pandemic are constantly churning and testing the boundaries between animal and human populations. The most remarkable thing about the whole COVID-19 origin saga is the confected controversy over something that should not be controversial at all. The thing that should be controversial is how little of the energy expended over this discussion has been directed towards actual beneficial outcomes.
To be frank, the fanciful ideas put forward by self-described free thinkers are more in keeping with popular movies than the realities of working with pathogens. It is admirable to pursue curiosity wherever it might lead and to reject the constraints of…

A year ago, August 2024, we addressed the state of discussions about COVID-19 origins in our Editorial COVID-19 origins: plain speaking is overdue. We did not lay out the evidence because the space we had available was not sufficient to address the points in detail. And the evidence was presented in a comprehensive and digestible fashion by the authors of the relevant research. Our focus was laying out the situation in a clear and uncluttered way, to counter the many commentators in the press who were giving their assessments based on what they wanted to believe (or what would make a more entertaining story) rather than what they could back up with evidence. Given the potential consequences, to pandemic prevention and public health in general, they were being irresponsible.
On June 27, 2025, WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) published their report Independent Assessment of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2. This report provides an update in the context of information that has emerged since their 2022 report. The report outlines the most prominent hypotheses and reflects on the supporting evidence for each of them. They stress that they did not have access to raw data when preparing this report, and SAGO and WHO have requested further information from governments, including those that have made assertions about the origins of SARS-CoV-2: China, Germany, and the USA. At the time of writing the report this information had not been provided. Meaning that this report is based on published literature, not so-called intelligence touted by some governments.
The report outlines four hypotheses but essentially two are based on zoonotic spillover and two are based on a laboratory accident. The assessment in the report from the outset discounts one hypothesis from each of these broad categories due to a lack of evidence, although SAGO remains open to reconsideration if more evidence is forthcoming. Despite giving one of the laboratory accident…

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Skeptical Raptor @skepticalraptor.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Professor Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social discusses the challenges and dangers of splitting the #MMR #vaccine into separate doses for measles, mumps, and rubella. The process is complex, costly, and unlikely to increase safety. buff.ly/V9z93g8

skepticalraptor.com

Splitting the MMR vaccine into its three components will be difficult

Professor Reiss discusses the challenges and dangers of splitting the MMR vaccine into separate doses for measles, mumps, and rubella.

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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The WHO announced in its press conference today an adaptive Ph3 trial that will evaluate Ervebo the Zaire virus targeting Eola vaccine for BDBV Ebola in the DRC. They plan and adaptive design with a ring vaccination approach. www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/who-cal...

clinicaltrialsarena.com

WHO calls for Phase III Ervebo vaccine trial amid Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak

In the absence of a vaccine candidate for the Bundibugyo, panellists agreed to investigate Ervebo against the strain.

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Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

New CDC director faces first major test before she even begins work. Will she carry out Trump's order to slash the number of life-saving vaccines recommended for children? www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

cidrap.umn.edu

New CDC director faces first major test before she even begins work

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Hwa Shi-Hsia /xwa51 ʂɚ55 ɕja35/ @coolvirus.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

If you haven't seen the news about Trebuchet Guy yet, here it is: arstechnica.com/science/2026...

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Honestly, this is one reason I think a lot of management strategies imported from the corporate world struggle in universities: the task of managing a university is invariably herding a lot of cats because only strange cats decide that teaching and researching at that level is what they want to do.

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