Sign in

Jon Bang Ploug

@jonploug.bsky.social
161 followers 130 following 679 posts

Historian. Studying historical epidemics & pathology collections at Roskilde University and PandemiX (Center of Excellence) in Denmark.

PostsRepliesMedia
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
1/ I’ve made Archive Studio for Mac available on GitHub. It is a community macOS adaptation of Mark Humphries and Lianne C. Leddy’s Archive Studio, built for historians, archivists, and humanities researchers working with historical documents. #DigitalHumanities github.com/JonBangPloug...
github.com
GitHub - JonBangPloug/Archive_Studio_for_Mac: Frontier archival processing of historical documents with AI (Mac version)
Frontier archival processing of historical documents with AI (Mac version) - JonBangPloug/Archive_Studio_for_Mac
100
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Daniel Blanco-Melo @dbm003.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Excited to share our work on #AncientRNA from alcohol-preserved lungs, recovering the oldest human RNA virus genome (an 18th-century rhinovirus). Our study shows that viral RNA remnants persist in centuries-old tissue, opening new ways to study virus evolution and historical disease #Paleovirology🫁🦠
biorxiv.org
27221
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Between 1904 and 1907, approximately two million people are estimated to have died of plague in northern India. Despite this extraordinary scale, the episode has never been narrated as a historical catastrophe, surviving instead almost exclusively in statistical series and technical reports.
041
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
At a recent presentation, I argued (with a bioinformatician) that smallpox virulence likely declined around 1600, an argument already well described by the historians Carmichael and Silverstein. A historian at the presentation dismissed my use of sources from different periods as “cherry-picking.”
100
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Grant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿 @notjustdna.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
🦠 Nipah outbreak Nipah virus outbreaks have high fatality rates, in the 40-70% range. The latest outbreak is in eastern India. Five cases are reported, and 100 people are under quarantine. Several Asian countries are reported to be stepping up alertness. 1/2
slguardian.org
Thailand Begins Airport Screening as Nipah Virus Outbreak Spreads in India
Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health has begun screening air passengers arriving from India for signs of Nipah virus infection, following reports of a cluster of cases in India’s eastern state...
12823
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
The Spectator @thespectator1828.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
The intellectual diversity of IoT has been astounding. One of my favourite moments was when a scientist began his reply: ‘A billion, billion light years ago…’ ✍️ Melvyn Bragg
spectator.co.uk
My farewell to In Our Time
I set up In Our Time 27 years ago. I had been shunted from Start the Week to what was cheerfully known as the ‘death slot’, 9 a.m. on Thursdays, because BBC management decided I could no longer present...
031
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Folklore experts: I need help visualizing a portent from an Icelandic Annal: A man sees a "strange sheep" that is spotted and shaped like a "gaflkæna" (a small boat with a flat stern?). Text says: "...with a long snout in front and short/blunt behind; it came up after him in the wake of his boat."
010
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
My thanks to the PandemiX center at @roskildeuni.bsky.social for hosting me today. What a great opportunity to talk about the current state of plague research & the challenges of thinking across so many disciplinary methods. #PandemicThinking #histmed h/t @jonploug.bsky.social
Title slide for Monica H. Green, "How to Collaborate (or Not) Across Historicist Disciplines: Thoughts from 15 Years on the Edge of the Paleosciences of Plague," presented at Roskilde University, PandemiX Center, 9 Dec 2025. The image in the center shows the author pointing to the pre-Big Bang lineage 0.ANT3 on a phylogenetic tree showing the evolution of Yersinia pestis. She is in discussion with sinologist, Bob Hymes.
191
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Italian plague doctor, Rome 1656 The outbreak most closely linked to the iconic beaked suit. – Made with Nano Banana Pro
020
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
I often use documentaries by BBC and others to help bring the past to life for my students. The catch is that you can't make them yourself to fit the exact subject you're teaching. That’s where AI tools could be helpful. They offer infinite customization. Here I had some fun with Nano Banana Pro.
120
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
It will be challenging to counter a new pandemic influenza strain that spreads through a population like wildfire if our health authorities keep insisting that it is transmitted solely via large droplets. Unfortunately, this is the stance that all health authorities are taking now.
151
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 23/11/2025
Another social media thread turned into an article for easier reading: Art review: Hunters in the Snow, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565) You can read it here; fakehistoryhunter.net/2025/11/23/a... Or here; fakehistoryhunter.substack.com/p/art-review...
fakehistoryhunter.net
Art review: Hunters in the Snow, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565)
This article was originally a thread on social media, which is why it is formatted with lots of images and short responses.The text is about the image below that paragraph. Let’s do another p…
5919
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Jon Cohen @cohenjon.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Thanks to @undark.org for reviewing my new book! undark.org/2025/11/21/b...
undark.org
Book Review: The Urgent Quest to Prevent the Next Pandemic
In "Planning Miracles," Jon Cohen chronicles the efforts of scientists and others to eradicate the threat of pandemics.
0135
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Nahyan Fancy @fancynahyan.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
I am very pleased and grateful to share this announcement of our recent award from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social for a project on history of smallpox and measles #histmed #histsci news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h... The project will be based @exeter.ac.uk @cceh-u24.bsky.social led by ... 1/2
news.exeter.ac.uk
Exeter scholars secure significant research funding to investigate the early history of Smallpox and Measles
The early histories of smallpox and measles – and the insight they might offer to contemporary health and medicine – will be under the microscope of a new research project. Pustules, Palaeogenetics an...
56513
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Translating passages from the physician, Isbrand van Diemerbroeck (1609-74) work "On the Plague" Very interesting work, and he writes very well. See for yourself:
020
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
I really did not enjoy Jay Bhattacharya & Matthew Memoli’s screed against pandemic & virology research for the flagship blog of a “free-market think tank." Instead of getting mad, I accepted @jeremyfaust.bsky.social's kind invitation to take a factual & scientific blowtorch to it.
425185
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Can't emphasize how damaging this is. A single non-scientist—Peter Bogner—holds all power & makes all decisions at GISAID & provides no justifications for any of them, except blatantly false ones. He has that power because he conned rich & powerful people into giving it to him. Enough.
114556
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
In Denmark, archaeologists are thrilled about metal detecting. They have discovered otherwise unknown treasures. Our National Museum is currently holding an exhibition celebrating their finds. Why not in England? Bad experiences? nationalmuseet.dk/udstillinger...
nationalmuseet.dk
Jagten på Danmarkshistorien: Skatte fra fortiden
Opdag Danmarkshistorien med skattejægere, fra guldhorn til vikingeguld, og se deres fantastiske fund.
120
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Enough plague research bickering for now . – Listening to the song Northwest passage and dreaming about studying Franklin's lost expedition.
000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
How can you publish a paper on plague transmission from corpses .. and then exclude every study involving fleas!? That’s literally how bubonic plague spreads. The WHO review cut out all relevant evidence and ended up answering the wrong question entirely. wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...
wwwnc.cdc.gov
Plague Transmission from Corpses and Carcasses
Plague Transmission from Corpses and Carcasses
120
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
The modern 'rat-only' understanding of plague transmission is out of touch with the sources: "In Glasgow, whatever the original source of the infection may have been, there was no evidence that rats played any part in carrying it amongst those who were attacked by the disease." Glasgow, 1900.
010
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Jean Fisch @jeanfisch.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
The healthy vaccinee effect runs deeper than we may think What this full national Danish study shows is that a huge effect remains even after correcting for age, sex, comorbidity, medical visits and place of residence The "unvaccinated by choice" test less (and die earlier) 1/
13513
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
A grave of a Roman physician in Bingen dating to the 2nd c. AD contained a remarkable set of medical instruments, including cupping cups with a stand in the shape of a grapevine. These cups were used for therapeutic suction or bloodletting, a practice with deep roots in Greco-Roman . 🧵1/ 2 📷 me 🏺
A display of two ancient bronze cupping cups hanging from a delicate, metal stand  in the shape of grapevine with a round base. The cups have a weathered greenish patina. The setup is showcased against a dark background.
325860
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Bird flu is back, big time Remember, back in March, 2025, RFK Jr unveiled his "unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip." (www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/h...)
64424
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
I am fascinated by how viruses evolve - and not just since #SARSCoV2 has shown us at the global stage how consequential virus evolution can be for us. In my new story in @science.org I got to explore how researchers are probing deeper into the past with old RNA virus genome. So a 🧪 thread…
science.org
On an Arctic archipelago, frozen soil may preserve a hidden history of viruses
Scientists are hunting for ancient RNA in Svalbard’s permafrost, hoping to shed light on the evolution of viral diseases
421175
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
This is not only worrisome but also extremely foolish. It would make for a bad movie where influenza has somehow infected people to do their bidding: "Many of the top American flu scientists are not able to do the critical research that might help clarify this because it is no longer allowed."
020
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Still, no one dares to adress the elephant in the room: "China holds the distinction of being the world’s largest producer and consumer of antibiotics. Per capita antibiotic use in China is approximately ten times higher than in the United States" pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
theguardian.com
Sharp global rise in antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals, WHO finds
Experts describe findings as deeply concerning and predict 70% increase in related deaths by 2050
020
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
A terrorist group attempts to assassinate the Prime Minister of a European country, and people respond by nearly condoning the terrorists. What is wrong with people here? People on social media, including Bluesky, are nearly as extreme as in the 1930s. This does not bode well for the future.
110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
"The fabled Ghoul was a delicate-minded gentleman, compared to an old, hardened sexton." Interesting and humoristic but also pretty macrabe description of the work of the old city sexton/gravedigger. It must qualify as one of the worst jobs in history.
110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Le Chat by Mistral is, in fact, the best large language model (LLM) for performing complex optical character recognition (OCR) of numbers out of the box with little prompting. This has significant potential. Millions of documents containg numerical data are trapped in documents.
110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Great if this readily available and well-known allergic nasal spray really could reduce the number of respiratory infections, including covid. edition.cnn.com/2025/09/12/h...
edition.cnn.com
A common nasal spray may help prevent Covid. What a new study shows | CNN
A common nasal spray may lower the risk of getting Covid-19, a new study shows. Dr. Leana Wen discusses what this all means as coronavirus cases rise.
120
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 04/09/2025
Art review! This time we''ll be looking at 'De boerendans' (the farmer's or peasant's dance) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, from c. 1567. I love Pieter's art & of course I love art that depicts an era generally still considered to be bland, dark & horrid, as also being a bit fun.
3333
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Mild viruses pose a greater pandemic threat than deadly ones. We would never allow a Ebola-like outbreak to become a true pandemic. Its lethality would terrify us into swift, decisive action. (This movie, "Outbreak," gave us precisely this false understanding of what the real threat is.)
020
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
"Of course, you have to interpret between the lines because we don't have very much. We have the bear tapestry, we have often conflicting accounts of what actually happened." H/T @marcmorris.bsky.social www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/k...
mirror.co.uk
King and Conqueror's James Norton addresses fierce backlash to drama over issue
King and Conqueror star James Norton has opened up about the historical accuracy of the BBC One drama after viewers took to social media to make the same complaint
8395
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
"Talking, listening and reading have been part of academic culture since the beginning, but written assignments — the five-paragraph essay, the research paper, reading responses — were not".
1298
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
I just returned from vacation in California where we saw the natural parks, Disney etc. I also wanted to learn more about the Native Americans in the places I visited, but I couldn't find any monuments, museums, or other information. So many people once lived there, and so much history, erased.
020
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency @unhcr.org · 08/08/2025
A deadly cholera outbreak has struck Dougui refugee settlement in eastern Chad, home to Sudanese arrivals from Darfur. 264 cases and 12 deaths have been reported.
31111
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Kennedy's battle with science reminds me of the scene in Schindler's List, where Amon Goeth orders the Jewish engineer shot, but heeds her advice anyway. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
RFK Jr demanded a vaccine study be retracted — the journal said no
In a rare move for a US public official, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr called for a Danish paper finding no link between aluminium in vaccines and disease to be retracted.
120
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Faldt over Oldtidssagaerne for et par måneder siden og er snart ved at være færdig med at lytte/læse mig igennem de 8 bind (Karsten Pharaos oplæsning er fantastisk) Hvorfor har ingen præsenteret mig for dem før! De er jo fantastiske! www.saxo.com/dk/serie/old...
saxo.com
Alle bøger i 'Oldtidssagaerne' serien - Find Alle bøger hos Saxo
Alle bøger som Alle bøger i 'Oldtidssagaerne' serien
010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Ja, og det er interessant at dykke ned i årsagen til, at det blev sådan. At rotten blev indbegrebet af farlig sygdom. Det starter ud med en fejl og en misforståelse angående rottens universelle rolle i pestudbrud. The Indian Plague Commission. politiken.dk/podcast/duly...
politiken.dk
Rotterne kommer. Men er det i virkeligheden et misforstået dyr?
Lyt til nyt afsnit af ’Du lytter til Politiken’.
110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Fascinating study, I just stumbled upon. youtu.be/XL-I4nCxAl4?...
youtu.be
Why is the microbiome of Irish Travellers important for everyone?
YouTube video by Science Animated
010
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
How did the pandemic start? I have avoided publicly commenting on this for 5 years. Here's my take as someone who has no stake at all in the game. gidmk.substack.com/p/pandemic-r...
gidmk.substack.com
Pandemic Revisionism, Part One: COVID-19 Origins
Because people keep getting this very wrong.
19346114
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret @oldoptheatre.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Our Head of Commercial Operations Sara joined the ‪@history-hit.bsky.social‬ folks on the 'After Dark' podcast to talk about the complex and often deadly world of Victorian surgery. Listen now at the link below! 🔗 pod.link/1705694900/e... #HistoryHit #AfterDark #AfterDarkPodcast #OldOpTheatre
1145
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Hvem begyndte på den mærkelige tradition, at det er familien og ikke rektor eller lærerne, der giver studenten huen på, og hvorfor er det blevet fast tradition? Er det måske moster eller bedstefar, der forestår eksaminerne, repræsenterer institutionen og overbringer titlen?
010
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Transkribus @transkribus.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
We've just released Text Titan I ter, the latest version of our popular Text Titan Super Model for English, French, Dutch, and other languages in the Latin script. But this time, we also wanted to know how it compared to ChatGPT, Gemini and other LLMs. Here's what we found out 👇
blog.transkribus.org
The new Text Titan I ter and how it compares to ChatGPT, Gemini, and other LLMs
Discover our new Text Titan I ter model and see how it compares with the leading LLMs for text recognition with historical documents
072
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
I have now read a lot of primary sources about the plague from 1346 until 1819 (Ottoman plague epidemic). Not a single source of all these many different types of sources, in all these hundreds of years, speaks of rats. Wouldn't someone have noticed a massive rat die-off?
220
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Transkribus @transkribus.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
1/3: This isn't fake news: Transkribus can now be taught to identify the documents in a collection written by a specific person 😲
1166
Reposted by Jon Bang Ploug
Nature @nature.com · 03/06/2025
Live-animal markets are a natural laboratory for viruses to evolve and spark deadly outbreaks, yet scientists lack support to study the risks they pose go.nature.com/455pSTt
go.nature.com
Exclusive: Inside the thriving wild-animal markets that could start the next pandemic
Live-animal markets are a natural laboratory for viruses to evolve and spark deadly outbreaks, yet scientists lack support to study the risks they pose.
23916