GISAID is now blocking genomic sequencing access to critical resources like Nextstrain, Covspectrum, Outbreak-info, & others. This makes us less safe, as live tracking of viral evolution remains critical for assessment of emerging threats. This needs to be escalated.

The US Government shutdown is already disrupting air traffic in the USA. And if the shutdown doesn’t end, a program to provide air service to smaller communities runs out of money this coming Sunday. Source: www.wfaa.com/article/synd....

How is this going to play in farm country in the USA where Trump was so popular? From Fortune via MSN, “Farmer says ‘we’re in a very dire situation’ ahead of harvest—with zero soybean orders from China, historically the largest buyer” www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

Recent Pango lineage designation note updates such as github.com/cov-lineages... brought my attention to the emergence of the N.iORF3 aka N*M210 aka N* extended Transcription Regulation Sequence (TRS-B) enhancing mutations A28877T, G28878C several times in XFG. (1/3)

From The Atlantic, “COVID Revisionism Has Gone Too Far” www.msn.com/en-us/news/w... And the pendulum swings…

A question: How is requiring posting of the Ten Commandments in Texas public school classrooms consistent with Article 1, Section 6 of the Texas Constitution: “no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious society or mode of worship.” statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CN/htm/...?

This is interesting: A second COVID protein, the main protease, triggers blood clotting. This protein is *not* in vaccines used in developed countries, but it is highly conserved in coronaviruses including common cold coronaviruses. Ref Pagotto et al, www.nature.com/articles/s42....

Don’t miss that *influenza* awakens dormant cancer cells in lungs (Chia et al, “Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs”, Nature (2025), www.nature.com/articles/s41...). Maybe we need to be more concerned about *all* respiratory viruses.

America, we may be approaching a Strauss-Howe “second regeneracy”. Current Republican vs Democrat, rural vs urban polarization may be changing to alignment by accountability vs impunity, justice vs exploitation, for vs against release of the Epstein Files. 1/6

SARS-CoV-2 isn’t the only neurotropic betacoronavirus. Common cold human betacoronavirus OC43 is also neurotropic. Reference Arbour et al, "Neuroinvasion by human respiratory coronaviruses", Journal of Virology (2000), doi.org/10.1128/jvi.....

Recently I’ve been examining the question “On a per-case basis for the same acute severity, is the rate of post-acute cognitive or neurological syndromes, or post-acute syndromes in general, significantly higher after COVID than after other infectious illnesses such as flu?” 1/8

If this trend continues, it could be huge. If Republicans start losing Texas, they probably can’t win the Presidency. And this might also put pressure on Texas’s Senate seats. www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...

FINALLY Democrats are putting out HARD-HITTING ads. WATCH AND SHARE: #MAGAKidnappers

Actually, from the last period that was not nowcasted, 26th of April - 10th of May, there are 815 non GBW samples on GISAID. Of those 28 were NB.1.8.1*, 64 XFG* and only 5 XFC*. California had 16 NB.1.8.1*, 7 XFG* New York City, 3 NB.1.8.1, 53 XFG* So, the region matters! New

Newsweek headline “Why Are So Many Children Getting Long COVID?” www.newsweek.com/why-are-so-m... I’m old enough to remember when the general public was assured that COVID wouldn’t harm children. Apparently that assurance was false.

Los Angeles, all protesters need to stay peaceful no matter the provocation. The Administration is likely trying to provoke violence. Don’t give it to them. Model your inner MLK Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela. Heed Robert Reich in this article www.msn.com/en-us/news/p....

I recommend paying attention to NB.1.8.1 “Nimbus” while not ignoring XFG. After a long relative lull, world probably has at least 2 rising variants which may battle especially in Europe and the Americas.

As NB.1.8.1 “Nimbus” and XFG rise, people need to realize the risk of COVID-induced organ damage in all ages. This graphic is from Ewing et al, “Review of organ damage from COVID and Long COVID: a disease with a spectrum of pathology”, Medical Review (2024), www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi....

As NB.1.8.1 “Nimbus” and XFG rise, despite the gaslighting propaganda yes children can be impacted especially by post-acute illness. This graphic is from Gross et al, “Long COVID in Young Children, School-Aged Children, and Teens”, JAMA Pediatrics (2025), jamanetwork.com/journals/jam....

US legacy national news network CBS has a story up on COVID variant NB.1.8.1. www.cbsnews.com/news/us-repo...

Sars cov 2 variant update: In this week @corneliusroemer.bsky.social and XZ spotted a couple of lineages with very divergent spikes:

Designation of lineage NB.1.8.1 as Nextstrain Clade 25B has been merged to the main branch. I would consider this the official designation of Clade 25B. See github.com/nextstrain/n....

I’m looking more deeply at SARS-CoV-2 lineage XFG since it appears it might be growing. It has two branches: a minor one with S:H445P and a major one with S:H445R. The 445R branch also has a subbranch with ORF1b:K2557R which from Bloom and Neher estimates may be significant. 1/6

Texas #measles cases from the West Texas outbreak are up to 597 with 62 hospitalized. Source Dallas’s WFAA local news www.wfaa.com/article/news.... Note that the Collin County exposures maybe from a resident of a different county, and there is a known case in an adjacent county.

And the West Texas #measles outbreak may have spread to Dallas-Fort Worth. From Dallas’s WFAA local news. www.wfaa.com/article/news...

20 more #measles cases in the Texas outbreak since April 11. That’s a total of 561 with 58 hospitalized. Source: Texas Department of State Health Services www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/...

Stop saying “post covid”. People are confusing the end of the public health emergency with the end of the pandemic. The pandemic is not over. “During COVID” is now. If we want to end it, we need to first acknowledge this fact. Then mask up, clean the air & develop better vaccines & treatments.

It’s early and hard to really tell, but I’m getting concerned about recombinant lineage XFJ designated yesterday 2 April 2025. Why? At 8 sequences, reports are from 6 countries on 3 continents with 2 US states all without travelers. It also has a breakpoint in the Spike RBD. 1/3

The Texas measles outbreak continues to expand and spread. Reporting from the Associated Press. apnews.com/article/meas... Texas reaches 400 measles cases as US deals with outbreaks in 5 states

I went digging for new actuarial data on COVID-19, and I found this recent post from March 20, 2025. I think this applies specifically to Australia, but patterns may be similar elsewhere. www.actuaries.digital/2025/03/20/c...

Oklahoma now has 7 confirmed and 2 probable measles cases. Previous probable measles cases have been updated to confirmed. Reporting from Oklahoma City’s 9 News. www.news9.com/story/67e2eb...

In the Bloom and Neher estimates, S:H445P is one of the strongest Spike mutations in SARS-CoV-2 clade 24A. But it requires an improbable and slow A->C RNA mutation, so it’s taken time to emerge. 1/2

The Texas-New Mexico measles outbreak is now up to 320 cases. www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/t...

Two more measles cases in Oklahoma linked to the Texas-New Mexico outbreak for a total of four. Reporting by KWTV News 9 Oklahoma City. www.news9.com/story/67d4e7...

In recognition of the fifth anniversary of the COVID International Public Health Emergency declaration and of the upcoming Long COVID Awareness Day, I’ve assembled a series of resources on Long COVID including overviews, presentations from actor Matt McGorry, 1/33

Four confirmed measles cases in Lamar County, Texas northeast of Dallas on the Oklahoma line after an unvaccinated group traveled to the epicenter of the West Texas outbreak. www.wfaa.com/article/news...

The Texas-New Mexico measles outbreak may have spread to Oklahoma. Cases are not test-confirmed but have symptoms consistent with measles and exposure to the Texas-New Mexico outbreak. Reported by Oklahoma City’s KFOR. kfor.com/news/local/t...

Sad are the days that cry out for the Gray Champion, but happy is the time in those days when the Gray Champion comes again. And now, perhaps, the Gray Champion has come again in the guise of Bernie Sanders. apnews.com/article/bern...

Possible impacts of DOGE cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service including how prices for Anericans for access to weather forecasts may rise from the current equivalent of one cup of coffee per year. From CBS Boston. youtu.be/u58Quvi6Gbk

How much economic suffering will Americans tolerate after voting for Trump because of the increased price of eggs? “Americans 'Going To Have To Suffer,' Trump Economist Warns” www.msn.com/en-us/news/n...

Actor Matt McGorry busting COVID myths on Instagram. This video is also apparently available on X and TikTok. www.instagram.com/reel/DGDttsl...

American workers need to realize they’ve been sold lies, the American left needs to learn to exercise forgiveness and grace, and American Christians need to realize they’ve strayed far from the Gospel. For this all to happen, America may have to hit rock bottom.

Is “there is nothing we can do about it, so we might as well accept it” fatalism about COVID the gateway drug to “there is nothing we can do about it, so we might as well accept it” fatalism about fascism?

SARS-CoV-2 lineage LP.8.1 (KP.1.1.3.8.1; JN.1.11.1.1.1.3.8.1) has been designated Clade 25A by Nextstrain github.com/nextstrain/n.... (1/3)

For my SARS-CoV-2 variant hunter and tracker friends and anyone else who is interested, I’ve just created a GitHub repository github.com/alurqu/sars-... for my files of which mutations occur at least 50% of the time in a lineage as found by my search code.

CoV-Spectrum has been fixed and, for the first time since December 23, has new data. LP.8.1.1 now leads #Collection42 cov-spectrum.org/collections/42 (and has 293 sequences.) XEK.4 and XEK.1.1 are next with under 100 sequences but with mutations at S:680 next to LP.8.1.1’s S:679R. 1/2

For those interested in how SARS-CoV-2 is evolving, I found this paper to be interesting: Furnon et al, “Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 spike during the COVID-19 pandemic”, Nature Microbiology, www.nature.com/articles/s41... Some of my notes about this paper: (1/13)

Increased SARS-CoV-2 viral replication and pathogenesis due to a mutation in NSP6 (Non-Structural Protein 6): It’s a pathway I had not previously considered, but this is a good example of why SARS-CoV-2 mutations outside the Spike can be important and are worth watching. x.com/ttaha801/sta...

I’m seeing some debate over COVID levels in the US are high or low, so here’s a series of US nationwide and regional SARS-CoV-2 wastewater chart screenshots I just took from data.wastewaterscan.org. First, the US National chart. 1/5

New SARS-CoV-2 lineages have been designated. One of them, XEK.4, shows an eye-popping global growth advantage on #Collection42 cov-spectrum.org/collections/42. Be careful. This is still a small lineage with most samples from Ontario, so the growth advantage is likely a mirage.