The highest rate on record. It staggers me that no-one in public health seems to be acknowledging that immune dysregulation caused by prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is likely a significant factor in this, and the implications of this concept going forward. abcnews.go.com/Health/flu-a...

Extremely important study, with very concerning implications for the future. The COVID generation: the neurodevelopmental consequences of in-utero COVID-19 exposure. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A wintry Glenariff Valley, Northern Ireland, taken on a hike earlier today. Scotland can be seen on the horizon.

In 2026 there will be more mass media articles and commentators ridiculing people taking precautions to avoid SARS-CoV-2 infection while simultaneously hundreds of pieces of research will be published further demonstrating the long-term harms of infection. Ignore the ridicule.

A very Happy New Year to you all. If you're still mitigating against infection from SARS-CoV-2 you have nothing but my respect and admiration. Wishing each and every one of you a wonderful 2026.

1. Sometimes, the absurdity of the situation we're all in just hits me. Going forward, ongoing and continuous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 will lead to an ever-increasing percentage of the global population developing chronic illnesses due to sequelae of infection.

This was my late mum's favourite Christmas ornament. One year, she forgot to put Santa here away, and when her friend from Canada visited in May and pointed out that he was still on the mantelpiece, mum deadpanned, 'it's Christmas every day in this house'. Happy Christmas all!

A key component of analysis is the distillation of complex situations to the fundamental concepts that underpin them. I never, ever thought in 2020 that the simple concept of, 'I don't want to get infected with a novel virus' would be warped from common sense to a rebellious act.

SARS-CoV-2 is so dangerous precisely because of its insidious nature. Its propensity to continually re-infect. The superficial similarity of the symptoms it causes to those of other common viruses. The unseen risk of sequelae. That wretched molecular shark tricks almost everyone.

Please remember, every time you see a newspaper or magazine article denigrating people - people like myself - who choose to avoid infection with SARS-CoV-2, there will always be a tiny, quiet voice in the mind of the author whispering, 'what if they're right'? We are right.

To be blunt: if you are doing anything at all right now to reduce your risk of infection from SARS-CoV-2, you're being smart. As a result of the current high prevalence of flu, masking is back in the media. Ignore anything negative said about it. Political nonsense is irrelevant.

'John Muir, co-founder of the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation, a UK charity campaigning for the improvement of clean indoor air, said any investment in the devices was well worth the money'. There's a poll in this article - please vote. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/educati...

I am convinced in the future we will look back and realise the sheer unimaginable folly of letting a virus that can cause immune dysregulation and cognitive dysfunction in humans infect and re-infect the global population over and over again. Worse still, that we encouraged it.

This is a great piece from Lucy at Pandemic Pages Podcast drawing comparisons between masking during the 1918 - 1920 influenza pandemic and today. Strongly recommend! pandemicpages.substack.com/p/the-case-for…

Read the study and think about population level implications, remembering that the vast majority of people have been infected multiple times. What are the possible long-term neurological sequelae? What are the implications for societies now? news.griffith.edu.au/2025/12/16/c...

While this is to be lauded, it always frustrates me that masking is *initiated* when levels are high. The best time to mask in hospitals is always; the second best time is when it is patently obvious that prevalence of flu / RSV / Covid is low but *increasing*. www.derryjournal.com/health/face-...

1. As a result of the current high prevalence of influenza and the accompanying media coverage of the spread of the disease, I've been asked about mitigations by a number of friends who take *no precautions against SARS-CoV-2*. A few observations regarding these conversations:

1. Like everyone else in the biodefense community, I've been watching H5N1 like a hawk since long before SARS-CoV-2 emerged. H5N1 could easily undergo reassortment with another influenza strain to create a reassortant virus with a significant CFR and efficient human transmission.

Tomorrow is the earliest sunset of 2025 in Northern Ireland. To celebrate, please enjoy two seagulls watching the setting sun from Ramore Head, Portrush, earlier this evening.

Delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the current influenza surge in today's Belfast Telegraph; the virus itself, what we should be doing to mitigate it - vaccination, ventilation, masks - and how infection control has become ideological. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/...

With influenza surging in the UK and Ireland, the fact is that the culture war nonsense surrounding masks combined with the lack of airborne mitigations in hospitals (itself a result of the political and social erasure of Covid) will lead to deaths that could have been avoided.

Recent discourse has really cemented for me that many objections to mask wearing are rooted in an insecure kind of masculinity. Wearers seen as 'weak' or 'scared'. This idea is as absurd as calling a soldier weak or scared because he or she chooses to wear a Kevlar vest.

'Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Mr Gloster* added that hospital emergency department attendance was at its "highest ever" last Monday' Highest ever. *The HSE Chief Executive. www.rte.ie/news/2025/12...

This is exactly what happens when a novel seasonal influenza strain meets a population with Covid-induced immune dysregulation; it's not 'like Covid again', it's the ongoing and continuous effects of Covid. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Some patients do attend A&E with problems that could be dealt with by other healthcare services. However, the article makes clear this cadre represents 2% of patients. If you really want to reduce pressure on A&Es, offer Covid vaccines free for all. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

5 years 11 months ago, I become very concerned. 5 years 10 months ago, I wander my city, dazed, knowing what's going to happen soon. 5 years 9 months ago, I read an email that suggests anosmia is a symptom. I decide to do everything I can to not get infected. Still doing so.

'What surprised them was that 16.3% of those babies received a neurodevelopmental diagnosis by three years, compared with 9.7% of the babies who were not exposed to COVID-19 in utero'. www.propublica.org/article/covi...

'H5N1 is no longer the slow-moving outbreak of the past. It has become a fast-changing global pathogen, spreading through birds, repeatedly testing the biological boundaries of mammals and producing more genetic variation than at any time in its history' cambodianess.com/article/a-mu...

1. As I was getting off a crowded train at a major railway station in Northern Ireland yesterday, I saw someone else disembarking who was also wearing an FFP2 mask. She was the first person I've seen wearing a mask 'in the wild' in Northern Ireland in about three weeks.

Glenariff Forest Park, Northern Ireland, earlier this afternoon.

As I've said before, the distinction drawn between acute infectious diseases and chronic diseases is, in many cases, artificial. This is the huge flaw in MAHA: infections can and often do cause chronic disease; vaccines can thus prevent some chronic diseases. stanmed.stanford.edu/infections-l...

International Men's Day. Guys, check in on your friends; if you need help, ask, and, importantly, remember the version of masculinity you're being sold online and by many politicians isn't masculinity, it's cruelty. Last, there's nothing unmasculine about protecting your health.

This has been obvious for quite some time now: www.propublica.org/article/bird...

Everything about SARS-CoV-2 weakens us as a species. Population-level immune dysregulation leading to both reactivation of latent pathogens and creating niches for new ones; the politicisation of our response regressing public health and massively amplifying anti-vax ideology.

Increasing prevalence of H5N1 globally, drastically reduced surveillance in the US, H3N2 driving a severe flu season in the Northern Hemisphere, a mismatched flu vaccine, and the possibility of undetected human - human transmission of H5N1 is a recipe for a reassortment event.

Potential human case of bird flu in the US. abcnews.go.com/Health/wireS...

In the light of this, it's important to establish the relationship between reactivation of EBV (which, of course, can be triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection) and the development of new-onset lupus. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Masking indoors in public spaces boils down to this for me now: I love never being sick from airborne infectious diseases. The last cold I had was in early 2019, with not even a sniffle since. The only thing I don't do is dine indoors in public spaces; a good trade for health.

Sunset over Belfast Lough yesterday evening from Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland.

1. Non-paywalled link in next post. www.independent.ie/life/health-...

H5N1 infections in wildfowl and poultry are increasing quickly in North America and Europe as a result of the southward migration of wild birds. With a severe flu season ahead of us, driven by H3N2, the risk of reassortment has significantly increased. www.bbc.com/news/article...

1. Rather than, 'Two of the worst winter flu seasons of the past decade have been seen in the last three years, something partly attributed to the *bounce-back of the virus after Covid restrictions were lifted combined with immunity being low*'... www.bbc.com/news/article...

The reason for this is multi-factorial, but the fact that Long Covid is not mentioned once is extremely telling. Especially since the article makes an explicit comparison with 2019. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Considering the vast amount of evidence that Covid can cause serious long-term health problems, mitigating risk of infection is absolutely logical. This should be utterly uncontroversial. But alas, politics, tribalism, and a desire to conform trump logic for most people. Not me.

1. My background is in CBRN defense. I was involved in the field long before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. I used to essentially discount comments on social media - especially this platform - as fringe, not representative of the real world. Sadly, this is no longer the case.

1. Fundamentally, a significant part of what I do is the prediction of both the behaviour of pathogens in the future and our likely collective response to future pathogenic threats. I have an excellent track record in this regard for two main reasons:

1. The possibility of low-level human to human transmission of H5N1 occurring under the radar is something that has concerned me for several months now. www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influe...

1. I read a study that hinted at this over a year ago. Although the overall individual risk seems to be small, there will be impacts at the population level. The effects of pathogens are an inconvenient truth for MAHA. Non paywalled link in next post. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

I believe that the state and media backed changing of the meaning of the word, 'Covid' to 'the period of time when non-pharmaceutical interventions were in place' rather than the disease itself will, in the future, be seen as the most damaging linguistic trick in history.

I try to be professional on this platform but there are times, like now, when it hits me hard on a visceral level that we are in the midst of a catastrophic global public health crisis and it seems, as a species, we've somehow decided that ignoring it is the best plan we've got.