Wow. www.reddit.com/r/singularit...

I'm taking part in this webinar on Friday to discuss my experience in #SciComm as an ECR during the Covid-19 pandemic - should be a really interesting conversation! Sign up below:

For better or worse (and there's lots of arguments for both) the genie is out of the bottle - it's here to stay, and that means we should be trying to maximise it's usefulness to society, and at the same time, trying to minimise harms. This is just wishing it away.

Great to see @christophraser.bsky.social discuss daily contact testing as a way of reducing quarantine burden at the UK Covid Inquiry. However, it is disappointing this is the only mention of this policy in the entire 12 days of the Test, Trace, and Isolate Module.

Now to make the most mid latte art of all time 🤩

Just a few days left to apply for a PhD integrating behavioural data in infectious disease modelling using AI at Charité Berlin with me and Prof Stefan Flasche. Deadline 6th April!

In Britain, we pride ourselves on authenticity, tradition, and cultural heritage. *sips pint of Madri*

My two pence on lockdowns/NPIs is that for high R resp. pathogens we should really talk about effectiveness in terms of capacity to delay, rather than prevent. So the question is then: what reduces R but also carries lowest societal costs so it can be maintained until we get vaccines/antivirals out?

Do we worry too much about misinformation? I've got a piece in today's Guardian about aliens, vaccines and social media - and the dual risks of believing falsehoods and ignoring truth: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Here's the table of contents for my lengthy new piece on how I use LLMs to help me write code simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/11/...

This photo in @theguardian.com looks like a screenshot from an isometric strategy video game:

Interested in pursing a PhD in infectious disease dynamics, artificial intelligence, and behavioural science? Come and join myself and Professor Stefan Flasche at the Charité Center for Global Health in Berlin: karriere.charite.de/en/job-vacan...

When an epidemic hits, how long does it take to get going with common epidemic analysis tasks? A couple of weeks ago, we asked representatives from over a dozen UK organisations and universities who work actively on epidemic analysis and modelling how long the below tasks would take them.... 1/

What wall?

Can't vote but #FUKAFD and #FUKNZS! #BTW2025

Wastewater from airplane toilets? We introduce a global Aircraft-Based Wastewater Surveillance Network (WWSN) for pandemic monitoring in Nature Medicine 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s415... Aircraft-based wastewater surveillance allows for real-time, non-invasive monitoring of global pathogen spread Short 🧵

The success of and belated market response to DeepSeek doesn’t really prove many AI-skeptic takes right. This is evidence of powerful generative AI being easier and cheaper to make and run than anyone expected so soon.

Ryanair: we should limit people to two drinks at European airports Berlin airport: BIERTOWER

Today I learnt Charlie Brooker was one of the founders of CeX, and designed their logo?!

Compared to its own overall price levels, housing in the UK is more expensive than anywhere in the OECD. www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Glastonbury ticket from 1986. Seems a bit steep...

"The utterly plausible case that climate change makes London much colder" by @henrymance.bsky.social for @financialtimes.com: www.ft.com/content/7711...

🇮🇪☘️🇪🇺🎉🇮🇪☘️🇪🇺🎉

Very sad to see the loss of such an effectively explanatory pub sign in Nine Elms (June vs. now in December)

Are superspreaders always social butterflies? 🦋🦠 Our new study on temporal social contacts showed most people are highly connected only for brief periods. Crucially, this challenges the idea that respi outbreaks naturally subside once highly connected people becomes immune. doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

"Many current front-line countermeasures for respiratory virus pandemics are medieval in origin, from quarantining travellers to shutting people in their homes..." My new piece in @plosbiology.org:

It is difficult to see how an organisation can claim to have promoted "effective public dialogue" when it deliberately chose a name that closely mimicked, yet stood in opposition to, the official public health body. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“Although we were initially skeptical that mirror bacteria could pose major risks, we have become deeply concerned. We were uncertain about the feasibility of synthesizing mirror bacteria but have concluded that technological progress will likely make this possible” 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

What is it like to attend a predatory conference? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Good, except ticket prices won't go down because three companies you've never heard of hold the rail network hostage by privately leasing all the rolling stock in the UK, and then pay out huge amounts in dividends to shareholders (£409.7m in 2022-23): www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Scientists who have studied #H5N1 #birdflu for years are flummoxed by the lack of severe cases among the 55 human cases the US has confirmed this year. I talked to lots to explore the theories of what's going on. www.statnews.com/2024/12/02/b...

Also a must read is the editoral by Elizabeth Miller, bringing all the evidence together: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Huge congrats and thanks to those involved in this huge study led by Lay-Myint Yoshida et al. in Nagasaki, particularly the study participants in Nha Trang, Vietnam along with all colleagues at the Pasteur Institute Nha Trang, MCRI in Melbourne, and us at LSHTM in London.

Very happy to share our new study out today in the New England Journal of Medicine, showing fewer PCV doses are non-inferior to standard schedules in maintaining control of vaccine-type carriage in Vietnam. This could make vacc programmes much more affordable for LMICs. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

1/ Influenza wastewater activity levels are currently low across the US, aside from conspicuous areas in CA where #H5N1 is spreading in dairy cows. A deeper dive into the Wastewater Scan data paints a very concerning picture and should add to our sense of urgency.

Great to finally visit the WHO Pandemic Hub in Berlin for the first time - I'll be working between here and Charité over the next few years on my project investigating how best to apply AI tools in outbreaks/pandemics.

My main gripe with Bluesky currently is that things happening in the real world don't seem to trend in the same way that they did on Twitter. For example, I completely missed this protest by UK farmers. It's nice to see people's pictures of woodland, or some stars, but I came here to get updated!

Thanks @lshtm.bsky.social for putting my "accidental aRt" up in the new building at Tavistock Place! I knew GCSE Art would pay off some day.

Is air filtering a useful way to reduce respiratory infections? Does the new RCT in residential care homes show they don’t work? Is air the new 💩? Answers to all this and more in my new post: How to not be completely wrong about air filters 💥

Really enjoyed the first IDM conference in Thailand! Some great talks and a great way to meet a whole lot of new folks at once.

Infectious Disease Modelling starter pack! Suggestions are welcome! go.bsky.app/86Ao1a5

Excellent first edition of the Infectious Disease Modelling conference in Bangkok! Great to have the opportunity to talk about how AI could be useful in outbreaks - really looking forward to the next one in a couple of years. #idm2024

Some news: after 6 years at LSHTM, I've moved to Berlin to start a postdoc at Charité Berlin! I'll be working with Prof. Stefan Flasche to investigate how best to use AI in tackling outbreaks, partnering with WHO Pandemic Hub and others - really looking forward to getting started.

2025: Guinness denies knowledge of viral "split the G" drinking challenge and reassures customers that "the text on the logo has always been at the bottom of the glass"

Why it's a shame that social media is (still) so fragmented – particularly when faced with new problems that benefit from collaboration, peer-review of emerging evidence and fresh eyes on the data: kucharski.substack.com/p/why-twitte...

Pretty strong hint to hit the X button on X this morning...