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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 4h

"Basic science in NZ has yielded world-changing discoveries in neonatal care, life-saving genomic advances in cancers, and the invention of R, a programming language used at every university on the planet. This is the country of Ernest Rutherford! Our government can and must do better."

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 4h

and, worst of all, the personal interests of the specific members of the board."

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 4h

Samuel Mehr: "Moving control of science funding decisions away from the experts and toward government ministers is a recipe for under-informed funding decisions that are likely to be biased by external influence, whatever topics are currently exciting (but don’t necessarily have any long-term value)

Science Media Centre NZ @smcnz.bsky.social · 1d

Big shakeup for NZ’s research funding – Expert Reaction

Big shakeup for NZ's research funding - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre

The Government will consolidate decision-making for New Zealand's science research funding as part of its new science system strategy. Research Funding New Zealand will be a new independent board that...

www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 4h

which in turn is responsible to a Minister, future funding decisions could be influenced, or perceived to be influenced, by factors beyond the excellence of the research."

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 4h

Some great comments here.
Dame Jane Harding: "It will also be vital for the new Board to be, and to be seen to be, impartial, and independent of political influence. Our concern is that, with both the Board and the administration of funds embedded in a government department... "

Science Media Centre NZ @smcnz.bsky.social · 1d

Big shakeup for NZ’s research funding – Expert Reaction

Big shakeup for NZ's research funding - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre

The Government will consolidate decision-making for New Zealand's science research funding as part of its new science system strategy. Research Funding New Zealand will be a new independent board that...

www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 4h

I mean it's the logical next step

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 4h

At this point I'm just waiting for someone to suggest asking a chatbot which proposals should be funded

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Science Media Centre NZ @smcnz.bsky.social · 10h

Updated with new expert comments overnight:

Science Media Centre NZ @smcnz.bsky.social · 1d

Big shakeup for NZ’s research funding – Expert Reaction

Big shakeup for NZ's research funding - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre

The Government will consolidate decision-making for New Zealand's science research funding as part of its new science system strategy. Research Funding New Zealand will be a new independent board that...

www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Marc Veldhoen @marcveld.bsky.social · 11h

The abuse of science: the anti-science movement using cherry-picking to pretend SARS-CoV-2 has similar effects to HIV

How the "World Health Network" and all associated have lost even the last bit of credibility

marcveldhoen.substac...
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The abuse of science: the anti-science movement using cherry-picking to pretend SARS-CoV-2 has similar effects to HIV

How the "World Health Network" and all associated have lost even the last bit of credibility

marcveldhoen.substack.com

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Science Media Centre NZ @smcnz.bsky.social · 1d

Big shakeup for NZ’s research funding – Expert Reaction

Big shakeup for NZ's research funding - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre

The Government will consolidate decision-making for New Zealand's science research funding as part of its new science system strategy. Research Funding New Zealand will be a new independent board that...

www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Science Media Centre NZ @smcnz.bsky.social · 2d

NZ’s new targets to manage its methane emissions – Expert Reaction

NZ's new targets to manage its methane emissions - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre

The government will shrink its 2050 methane emissions targets to a lower range of reduction than what's currently legislated, and it will not pursue a tax on agricultural methane emissions. New Zealand's...

www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Marc Veldhoen @marcveld.bsky.social · 2d

Important graph: SC2 is still more damaging to the very young, with influenza less so. But, do look at RSV. That is a real danger at that young age.
RSV proliferates deeper in underdeveloped lungs, small alveoli, and induces the secretion of mucus +there are less maternal Abs.

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Alasdair Munro @apsmunro.bsky.social · 2d

Pleased to share my new post looking at the recent successes and turbulence in the development of therapeutics for infant RSV protection

Much progress made - but there’s more to do still!

#IDSky #PedsID 🧪

Protecting babies against RSV

The last two years have changed the landscape of RSV disease prevention

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Marc Veldhoen @marcveld.bsky.social · 4d

Importantly, no differences in symptoms associatyed with LongCovid were found between the infected and non-infected groups. This does not mean nobody had symptoms after infection, they were rare that in a cohort of over 5k people, it was not above the background.
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Reposted by Michael Plank

Marc Veldhoen @marcveld.bsky.social · 4d

Post-COVID-19 condition in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 in autumn 2023 in the Netherlands: a prospective cohort study with pre- and post-infection data

Risk of LongCovid is not noticable above background after 2023.

www.sciencedirect.co...
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Post-COVID-19 condition in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 in autumn 2023 in the Netherlands: a prospective cohort study with pre- and post-infection data

Post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) risk may have changed due to vaccination status, virus variants, prior infections, and other factors. We aimed to estima…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Prof. Michael Fuhrer @michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social · 5d

Covid exceeded the average flu excess death toll by a factor of 5-10 for three seasons in a row, but has since subsided, and is now well below the average seasonal influenza excess death toll.

The numbers are fairly similar to what was found by UKHSA for the UK.

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bsky.app/profile/mich...

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Prof. Michael Fuhrer @michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social · 5d

Last time I talked about the work from the UKHSA to model excess deaths from covid and influenza.

I decided to see if I could cook up a similar model for the US.

Answer: Yes!

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bsky.app/profile/mich...

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 9d

Great thread explaining UKHSA's Covid and influenza excess death estimates

Prof. Michael Fuhrer @michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social · 9d

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has been estimating excess deaths in the UK due to Covid-19 and influenza since 2022.

Here’s a visualization of their latest results. I’ll walk you through it.

www.gov.uk/government/s...

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 11d

So tragic: Alberta baby born with congenital #measles (mother contracted measles late in pregnancy) died shortly after birth.
The province, which has had a massive measles outbreak this year, says this is the 7th case of congenital measles in 2025. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Premature baby dies of measles in Alberta outbreak's 1st death | CBC News

Alberta is reporting its first measles death since outbreaks of the highly contagious illness began in March. The province says a baby, who was born prematurely after the mother became sick, died shor...

www.cbc.ca

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 12d

Ah I see, yes agreed (I thought you were commenting on the difference in A(nfd) specifically, rather than A vs B)

Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 12d

Looks like almost all GP samples are subtyped but only a subset of the hospital samples are? Am I missing something?

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Marc Veldhoen @marcveld.bsky.social · 12d

Long Covid Risk for Children Doubles After a Second Infection, Study Finds

The new research provides evidence that Covid reinfections can increase the risk of long-term health consequences.

Oh dear, this is not good from the NYT.

www.nytimes.com/2025...
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Long Covid Risk for Children Doubles After a Second Infection, Study Finds

The new research provides evidence that Covid reinfections can increase the risk of long-term health consequences.

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 12d

What's even the point of this?

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Michael Plank @michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 13d

This is a very nice visualization. Independence is a foundational concept but can be counter intuitive and is one of those words that means something a bit different in maths than in everyday usage

Thomas House @tah-sci.com · 14d

I love this. Explainer: There are 100 outcomes (all squares) each equally likely. Wiggly lines event happens 20% of the time; grey event happens 30% of the time. >

David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 15d

This came up in the staff meeting today: how the ordinary English meaning of the word “independent” does not describe at all how a Venn diagram looks, and what to do to fix that. #MathSky www.adelaide.edu.au/mathslearnin...

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Reposted by Michael Plank

Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 13d

This study seems riddled with selection and detection biases and I can't see how any knowledgeable expert could just take the results at face value and conclude a doubling of risk of long-covid with reinfection.

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 14d

Children and teens who had a Covid reinfection had a doubling of #LongCovid risk (PASC) and a significant increase in many other adverse outcomes (Figure) www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

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