Slack / Private Message Drop — page 43

to handle and is damaging. Alas, the US President is a prime example. [2020-05-27 15:59:38] [Andrew Rambaut] The most annoying thing is Trevor is very clever and very talented and could be doing great science. I think he is wasted doing NextStrain but he has been sucked in by it. [2020-05-27 16:01:09] [Eddie Holmes] Very true. Believing your own hype never ends well. [2020-05-28 06:19:49] [Andrew Rambaut] Nice to get a wacky paper to review that isn't about SARS-CoV-2: "Influenza virus-flow from insects to humans as causative for influenza seasonality" [2020-05-28 07:05:17] [Kristian Andersen] Ooookay. Jens Kuhn strikes again? :zany_face: [2020-05-28 07:05:42] [Robert Garry] THat was exactly my thought - spooky! [2020-05-28 07:06:52] [Andrew Rambaut] `Corresponding Author: Albrecht Pfäfflin` [2020-05-28 07:06:59] [Andrew Rambaut] ```Virus biomass outweighs human biomass, and insects biomass outweighs human biomass. Insects are regularly habited by viruses as well as humans, humans are further inhabited via insects. A model of viral flow is described and specified to explain influenza virus seasonality, which, in temperate climate, usually evolves when insects have mostly disappeared. With this hypothesis a coherent description of regular seasonal influenza and other seasonal respiratory virus infections in temperate climates is possible. The incidence of influenza under different circumstances e.g. temperature, humidity, or tropical conditions and different aspects like synchronicity of infections or in respect to evolutionary conditions do sustain this hypothesis if the behaviour of insects is considered.``` [2020-05-28 07:19:22] [Kristian Andersen] :joy:. That's amazing - awesome lead! [2020-05-28 08:02:52] [Robert Garry] Pertinent to the thread though - this kind of nonsense is actually less hazardous than some of the bad science promulgated by "credentialed" "scientists." How much damage was done by "experts" simply refusing to acknowledge that this respiratory virus might actually be airborne? I know - rhetorical, but the answer [bat mites aside https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat-Mite] is probably a *lot more* than ~Jens~ some random German dude spewing nonsense about insects spreading ~Ebola~ flu. Then there are the Mikovitses of the world who occupy their own special place. [2020-05-28 09:12:42] [Andrew Rambaut] Bit of a theme today: ```International Journal of Clinical Virology has received a manuscript entitled: "CAN HOUSE FLIES MECHANICALLY CARRY AND /OR TRANSPORT SARS-COV-2?"```