The historic papers in virology series continues with another major milestone. Today, 56 years ago, two papers in Nature reported the discovery of an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, now known as reverse transcriptase, the hallmark enzyme of retroviruses that synthesizes DNA from an RNA template.

89 new sequences from New Zealand 🇳🇿, collected May and June 2026. 9 x XFG 24 x NB.1.8.1 50 x BA.3.2 BA.3.2 is dominating in New Zealand #BA32

98 sequences from Reunion 🇷🇪, collected between January 2025 and April 2026. 6 are BA.3.2, all collected March and April 2026 5 of the 8 total sequences collected from April 1 to now are BA.3.2 BA.3.2 likekly dominated in Reunion in April 2026 #BA32

15 new sequences from Western Australia 🇦🇺, all collected in June 2026. 1 x BA.3.2 2 x XFG 10 x NB.1.8.1 #BA32

84 new sequences from New South Wales, Australia, collected May and June 2026 2 x RF.5 9 x XFG 11 x BA.3.2 61 x NB.1.8.1 BA.3.2 lingers on June 13% May 12% April 20% March 33% February 23% January 18%

Another highlight in the historic papers in virology section: Today fourteen years (and one day) ago Herfst and colleagues reported that H5N1 influenza A virus can be adapted to airborne transmission in ferrets.

114 new sequences from Singapore 🇸🇬, all collected June 2026 2 x BA.3.2 4 x XFG 22 x RF.5 59 x NB.1.8.1 So far 345 out of 390 total RF.5 sequences from Singapore, 15 from North America, 14 from Asian countries other than Singapore and 4 from Europe.

310 new sequences from Japan 🇯🇵, submitted June 22 and collected from August 2025 to May 2026. All 9 sequences collected in June are BA.3.2 #BA32

Yes, BA.3.2 largely gone from Austria but only after dominating in April/May #BA32

Historic papers in virology. today, 30 years ago, two papers in Nature reported that HIV-1 uses CCR5 as a major coreceptor for entry into target cells. This explained key aspects of HIV-1 cell tropism and pathogenesis and opened the door to targeting viral entry for antiviral therapy.

Troubling news bbc.com/news/article...

Evidence discussed on X suggests that COVID cases are selectively increasing among the young in Japan 🇯🇵 and Mexico 🇲🇽. In Japan, this is paralleled by high prevalence of BA.3.2, a viral variant that mainly targets the very young.

Dear epidemiologists and climate geographers. There is a curious one year period to Covid waves in Singapore. Positivities start to rise around calendar week 9, for the third time now. To what tropical seasonal pattern or other pattern could that fit?

Before COVID-19, we worked on defective interfering particles (DIPs) in the context of influenza A virus infection. These particles harbor defective genomic segments, can modulate the spread of wild-type virus, and have been explored as potential antivirals.

Below are most sequences collected in Europe 🇪🇺 from May 1 - now (106 total, 45 are BA.3.2). Europe has largely gone dark. Spain: 53, 37 BA.3.2 Sweden: 13, 3 BA.3.2 France: 9, 2 BA.3.2 Germany: 8, no BA.3.2 Ireland: 4, no BA.3.2 Italy: 2, 1 BA.3.2

Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...

Evidence discussed on X indicates that the high prevalence of BA.3.2 in Japan is paralleled by an increase in COVID cases among the young but not in other age groups. #BA32

BA.3.2 dominates in Japan 🇯🇵 156 new sequences 373 sequences since January 1, 2026 72 BA.3.2 (19%) 76 sequences since April 1 51 BA.3.2 (67%) 29 sequences since May 1 24 BA.3.2 (82%) #BA32

Almost no BA.3.2 in Estonia 🇪🇪 160 new sequences submitted today, almost all from 2026. Just 4 BA.3.2 sequences. Low BA.3.2 frequency - reflects differential spread of BA.3.2 in European countries and/or differences in sampled populations? #BA32

BA.3.2 likely dominates in Japan 🇯🇵. 11 new sequences, 10 are BA.3.2. Collected mainly May and June. No donor age information. # BA32

Ebola Outbreak Could Become Worst on Record, Africa C.D.C. Chief Warns www.nytimes.com/2026/06/16/w...

Roughly 1% of BA.3.2 sequences seem to have intact ORF7a, mostly from Italy. Some of them seem to be transmitted. Any evidence that these viruses have an advantage? Thanks. @ryanhisner.bsky.social @siamosolocani.bsky.social #BA32

BA.1/NB.1.8.1 recombinant uploaded today from Portugal, collection date January 2026. There were two BA.1 collected in Dec 2025 in Michigan uploaded last month as well. BA.1 not entirely finished with us yet, over 4 years after it disappeared from circulation.

17 new submissions from the US - 5 are BA.3.2 (collected in March and April). 5 from Ireland - 3 are BA.3.2 (collected in April). 10 from Japan - 5 are BA.3.2 (collected in April and May). 1 from Bazil, 1 from Cambodia, no BA.3.2 Eh... that's all, folks! Dire times.

I and @independentsage.bsky.social advocated kids vax vs SARS2 since day 1. Even when transiently available to u12s, they were sold as a damp squib by those in authority. As vax coverage dwindles, the lack of foresight gets harder to reconcile. #LongCovidKids is a major neglected issue 💔

Taking the idea one step further: Could the establishment of a reservoir in young children- as discussed in my previous post - be one of the routes by which SARS-CoV-2 transitions into endemic circulation?

BA.3.2 - a "forever" variant? I've always wondered why BA.3.2 has persisted for such a long time. Now we know that it mainly targets the 0-4-year age group, and we know why. Could that explain its persistence?

Another fantastic preprint on BA.3.2's propensity for children, this time from Yunlong Cao & co. They not only confirm David Ho's lab findings (that kids have ~0 Ab response to BA.3.2) but dig into the details of exactly why kids are so vulnerable to BA.3.2. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/6

🧪 Multiple independent observations now suggest that BA.3.2 circulation can be associated with an increased COVID-19 burden among young children. Here is the evidence and its implications.

This Could Be Trump’s Worst Attack on Science Yet www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/o...

🧪 Quite a ride with BA.3.2 What we learned: 1/n Highly mutated spike protein. High antibody evasion, reduced ACE2 binding. bsky.app/profile/ryan...

Here’s the latest picture of the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the DRC. Confirmed cases increased in the latest SitRep by 72 to 450. It seems the pace of the outbreak is fairly steady overall. 🧵

I realized recently that Germany has a database with -all hospital admissions (any cause) -by diagnostic code -by outcome incl death The death rate among admissions for SARI (severe acute resp infx: J9-22) shows something much more severe hit Germany in 2020 What could it be?🤔

50% of the 8 most recent BA.3.2 sequences reported from Spain were obtained from patients aged 4–12 months. #BA32

Only 16 SARS-CoV-2 sequences collected in Europe between 15 May and 8 June 2026 are currently available in GISAID. 8 of the 16 sequences are from Spain - and all 8 are BA.3.2* #BA32

The basis for the last sentence below: New data from David Ho's lab showing that while adults & kids have ~equal antibody responses to XFG & NB.1.8.1, children have essentially no neutralizing antibodies to BA.3.2. This seems to solve the BA.3.2 + kids mystery. 1/14 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Warum verdrängt #Cicada manche #Corona -Varianten, aber nicht alle? Weil verschiedene Varianten verschiedene Immunlücken nutzen. Zudem erklären Pöhlmann et al. vom Deutsche Primatenzentrum (DPZ), was Cicada für Kinder bedeutet: www.laborjournal.de/editorials/3... #SARSCOV2 #Virologie #COVID19

China’s Rise in Drug Development Looms Over U.S. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/b...

The significance of the sequence below is modest, but it raises some questions: ➡️Why has BA.3.2* not been detected in South America until now? ➡️Why are there still no BA.3.2* reports from mainland China? ➡️And why does XFG reach almost 100% dominance in Russia? #BA32

This sequence from French Guiana 🇬🇫, hCoV-19/French_Guiana/IPG20260024, EPI_ISL_20449452, is the first - and currently the only - BA.3.2 sequence from South America deposited in GISAID. #BA32

Still only a limited number of new sequences from Europe 🇪🇺. May data are available for Spain 🇪🇸, where BA.3.2* remains strong. A similar trend could be expected in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, France 🇫🇷, and Italy 🇮🇹, where BA.3.2 prevalence was already high in April. #BA32

BA.3.2, NB.1.8.1 and XFG cocirculating in Australia 🇦🇺. #BA32

Pretty clear signals of a new COVID-19 wave in NSW, with reported cases growing in recent weeks to the highest level in ~9 months. From the detailed variant data, it looks like "Nimbus" sub-lineage RK.1 is driving. RK.1 adds the Spike D420N mutation to PQ.17.7.2.

There are currently no approved vaccines against Bundibugyo virus (Orthoebolavirus bundibugyoense). However, approved vaccines exist against Ebola virus (Orthoebolavirus zairense), including Ervebo. 1/2

Two travelers from Uganda with a-specific symptoms found in Como Italy, now in isolation #Ebola milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2026...

🧪 Filoviruses are among the most lethal viruses known to infect humans. Yet despite decades of research, major questions about their ecology, evolution, host range, and potential for wider geographic spread remain unresolved. ➡️A thread on Ebola, Marburg, and related filoviruses.

Ebola outbreak: the data that show why researchers are so alarmed www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Ein Medikament gegen alle Viren: Ist das möglich? Stefan Pöhlmann (@snpoehlm.bsky.social) von @primatenzentrum.bsky.social & @uni-goettingen.de im #Podcast #TonspurWissen von @leibniz-gemeinschaft.de & Rheinischer Post. 💉 👉 pod.fo/e/41ba7b #Medizin #Viren #Impfung #Ebola #Hanta #Infektionen

This is also the case in Berlin, where BA.3.2 disappeared in the wastewater genomic sequencing data (see below). Interesting that the picture is so different in the different locations!

Interesting: Apparently, TMPRSS2 is not exclusively beneficial for the virus: it disrupts the Golgi apparatus and thereby interferes with spike incorporation into viral particles. The SARS-CoV-2 E protein, in turn, seems to counteract this effect. doi.org/10.1038/s443...