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Els Torreele

Els Torreele

@elstorreele.bsky.social

620 followers 660 following 120 posts

Interested in Shifting Powers towards Health Equity, Economic Justice, post-Finance Capitalism, Climate Justice, Equitable Access to Medicines and Vaccines, and a better future for all of us. Founding Director of æqua.

Environmental science 28%

Economics 20%

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Els Torreele @elstorreele.bsky.social · Dec 5

As feared, the UK government remained blind and deaf to warnings from health advocates and scientific community to not give into US and Pharma demands for higher drug prices. @martinmckee.bsky.social and I explain how bad this surrender is for public health @bmj.com
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Who are the winners and losers of the UK-US pharma deal—it depends which side you believe

Behind the UK’s “landmark” pharma deal with the US lies a costly surrender, with higher drug prices, weaker safeguards, and vague promises of investment, write Els Torreele and Martin McKee When the...

Reposted by James M. Bullock, Els Torreele

Greenpeace EU @greenpeace.eu · 4h

📍HAPPENING NOW

@xrbelgium.bsky.social and activists from Greenpeace Belgium are blocking the offices of CEFIC, the European chemicals lobby group

‼️ 50 activists have declared the area a climate crime scene!

Extinction Rebellion activists block the entrance to CEFIC in Brussels with signs reading "CEFIC = TOXIC LOBBY", "AREA CLOSED", "CEFIC, COUNCIL FOR ECOCIDE, FAMINE AND IRREVERSIBLE COLLAPSE"

Reposted by Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Amy W. Ando , and 5 more Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Amy W. Ando, Els Torreele, Sara M. Butler, Diane Watt, Klaus Oschema, Kristina McElheran

Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 12h

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

Dan Nguyen @dancow.bsky.social · 13h

VC, founder, dumbass

@Nick_Davidov
Asked Claude Cowork organize my wife's desktop, it stated doing it, asked for a permission to delete temp office files, I granted it, and then it goes "ooops"
Turns out it tried renaming and accidentally deleted a folder with all of the photos my wife made on her camera for the last 15 years. All photos of kids, their illustrations, friends' weddings, travel, everything.
It's not in trash, it was done via terminal It's not in iCloud, it already synced the new file structure.
She didn't have Time Machine.
Disc recovery tools can't see anything.
I called Apple and they pointed me to a feature in iCloud allowing to retrieve files that were saved before but are no longer on iCloud Drive (they keep them for 30 days).
I'm now watching it load tens of thousands of files. I nearly had a heart attack.

Nick Davidov • @Nick_Davidov
VC, founder, DVC.ai - backing repeat founders with a community of 200 engineers. e/acc/OSS. Perplexity, Higgsfield, Animation, Etched. Husband to @msdavidova

Reposted by Els Torreele

Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 15h

You Don't Need Democracy If You Don't Have People.

@quinnslobodian.com and I discuss the tech billionaire dream of "capitalism without democracy."

Quinn's work helped inspire my own, so it was great to finally chat! He's been leading the way on this topic.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1om...

You Don't Need Democracy If You Don't Have People: Quinn Slobodian's Warning

YouTube video by The Nerd Reich with Gil Duran

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Susan Young, Els Torreele

Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 1d

NEW WINTER OLYMPIC SPORT: synchronized snow blowing. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Reposted by Els Torreele

Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · 1d

Everytime I teach global health these days, young people express their dismay at the state of the world and the pathetic leadership we see in most places

They invariably ask me, "What can we do??"

These days, I go prepared with this list (slide below that anyone is welcome to use)

A slide showing that students can do about the state of the world these days:

•Peaceful protests (but only one of many ways)
•Write letters (or call) to your elected leaders and reps
•Vote in local, provincial and national elections
•Run for office
•Write op-eds or letters in media
•Post on social media & follow inspiring people
•Get involved in your local community, volunteer for NGOs
•Donate money (even tiny $) to good causes
•Take courses
•Read, read, and read more (especially history)
•Listen to podcasts, watch inspiring films
•Do art, poetry, theatre, film, dance, sing – joy is resistance
•Go outdoors & reconnect with nature
•Rest when you need to - rest is resistance

Reposted by Els Torreele

MeidasRick 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱💙🐸 @sgtrick.bsky.social · 1d

A plea to our allies in Canada, the EU, UK, and everywhere else. It will send a VERY clear message to this regime that we are fighting so we can restore OUR democracy, and the freedoms of everyone, everywhere.

Reposted by Els Torreele

Javier Padilla @javierpadillab.bsky.social · 1d

“No se deben anunciar hallazgos básicos realizados en ratones como si el paso a la curación en humanos fuese inmediato”.

Esa frase de hace 15 años está ahora más vigente que nunca.

Muy recomendable este articulo de @manuelansede.bsky.social en @elpais.com

elpais.com/ciencia/2026...

La verdadera historia detrás de “la primera terapia efectiva contra el cáncer de páncreas” de Mariano Barbacid

La empresa del bioquímico, Vega Oncotargets, ha rebajado su eslogan después de las falsas expectativas generadas por el anuncio de un prometedor experimento con 45 ratones ‘curados’

Reposted by Els Torreele

Derek Beres @derekberes.bsky.social · 1d

2 new MAHA-approved bills would force insurance companies to cover supplements and shield homeopathic manufacturers from liability while allowing them to make more health claims.

This is what Kennedy has always been aiming for.

www.conspirituality.net/episodes/brief-maha-is-a-supplements-grift

Brief: MAHA is a Supplements Grift — Conspirituality

Two new MAHA-approved bills would force insurance companies to cover supplements and shield homeopathic manufacturers from any liability while allowing them to make more health claims. As Derek argues...

www.conspirituality.net

Reposted by Els Torreele

Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 1d

Listen to RFK lie about the MMR killing kids.

Reposted by Els Torreele

Sarah Emily Duff @sarahemilyduff.bsky.social · 1d

‘About 80% of data-annotation and content moderation workers are drawn from rural, semi-rural or marginalised backgrounds. Firms deliberately operate from smaller cities and towns, where rents and labour costs are lower, and a growing pool of first-generation graduates are seeking jobs.’

‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI

Women in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Els Torreele

Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 2d

Fuck these fucking thieves

Anthropic Knew the Public Would Be Disgusted by How It Was Destroying Physical Books, Secret Documents Reveal

Newly unsealed documents suggest that Anthropic was well aware that destroying books to train its AI would look bad.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Rosemary A. Joyce, Rita Rubin , and 8 more Jennifer Bussell, Rosemary A. Joyce, Rita Rubin, Lesley A. Hall, Justin Lewis, Scott A. Imberman, Els Torreele, Melanie Simms, Erin O’Donnell, Catherine J. Frieman, Nicole Guenther Discenza

Nome @nome.bsky.social · 2d

Just because good news is worth celebrating:

There is now a Prep medication that is an *every six month* injection.

HIV has, effectively, a vaccination.

Reposted by Jonathan Wolff, Rosemary A. Joyce, Michael Zimmer , and 6 more Jonathan Wolff, Rosemary A. Joyce, Michael Zimmer, Stephen D. Murphy, Els Torreele, Paul Nightingale, Federica Genovese, Thomas E. Murray, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Scott Patrick, PhD @neimanmarxist.bsky.social · 2d

This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner, Richard Larouche, Els Torreele , and 1 more Aaron Sojourner, Richard Larouche, Els Torreele, José Antonio Noguera

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 3d

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back to a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

IT SAVES PUBLIC MONEY to house people.

Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me

In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.

Reposted by Naomi Klein, Mel Bartley, Patrick Dunleavy , and 2 more Naomi Klein, Mel Bartley, Patrick Dunleavy, Els Torreele, Nick Hubble

Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 4d

"If Mandelson's links to Jeffrey Epstein disqualifies him from holding power, why does the company controlled by Epstein's business partner and co-owner retain access to the UK's most sensitive national security infrastructure?"

Peter Thiel. Jeffrey Epstein. Palantir. The UK Government.

Jeffrey Epstein Co-Owned Venture Fund with Palantir Founder as it Entered UK Government

The Russian connected convicted sex trafficker co-owned a fund with Peter Thiel, now embedded in Britain’s most critical infrastructure with the help of Peter Mandelson

bylinetimes.com

Reposted by Jussi T. Eronen, Els Torreele

Shobita Parthasarathy @shobitap.org · 8d

“Rather than viewing technological innovation as unidirectional, developed by researchers to benefit the public, we should reimagine it as a collective enterprise grounded in community”—my take on how we might repair public trust in science, in @science.org 👇🏽

Repairing trust in science requires a more inclusive understanding of innovation

These are extraordinarily challenging times for university researchers across the United States. After decades of government largess based on the idea that a large and well-financed research ecosystem...

www.science.org

Reposted by Richard Dien Winfield, Gerald Friedman, Stacy D. VanDeveer , and 8 more Richard Dien Winfield, Gerald Friedman, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Els Torreele, Michael D. McDonald, Jo Littler, Christina Pagel, Manisha Sinha, Colin Woodard, David Darmofal, Steven H. Seggie

Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 8d

The director of Melania movie

Reposted by Els Torreele

RichardJR @electricbluesfan.bsky.social · 9d

1/13
🇺🇸 🇨🇦 #TRUMP PREPARES TO BREAK #CANADA 🇨🇦 🇺🇸

Since Davos, the attacks have been relentless.

#Tariffs, military threats, and overt support for #Alberta #Separatism.

👉 The message is clear: Trump wants to make an example of us. 👈

Andrew Coyne reports
#CdnPoli #Trade #PolitiSky #SkyPolitics

Reposted by Els Torreele, Catherine M. Hulshof

Scott Galloway @profgalloway.com · 9d

Trump cares most about the markets. The best strategy is to opt out.

We’re asking you to join a monthlong national economic strike targeting tech and AI companies. www.resistandunsubscribe.com

Reposted by Els Torreele

Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · 9d

Those who give, promote and research vaccines are under attack today

In the past, they were heroes

Els Torreele @elstorreele.bsky.social · 10d

👇 Excellent thread putting the limitations of algorithmic/statistical inference (« AI »), as opposed to real understanding, into perspective

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 10d

I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature

AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...

Reposted by Els Torreele

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 10d

So there you have it: AlphaGenome is a great start, and will surely be a valuable tool. Whether it will lead to clinical advances remains to be seen. Its applicability will be limited by its very nature. And we still need to do the basic science. 32/32

Reposted by Els Torreele

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 10d

So, what has AlphaGenome done? As with AlphaFold and the protein-folding problem, it has sidestepped developing a full scientific understanding of the complexities by using AI to infer statistical associations – in this case, between genomic variation and biological outcomes. /19

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich, Els Torreele

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 10d

I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature

AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...

Els Torreele @elstorreele.bsky.social · 10d

“By hiring Hyman, CBS New will be misinforming its large audience on health. He is the face of functional medicine, a pipeline that moves disenchanted healthcare providers away from evidence-based care and into the arms of a very lucrative wellness industry.”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Bari Weiss’s new CBS hires include ‘germ theory denialist’ doctor

Dr Mark Hyman, who claimed he reduced his biological age by 20 years, brought on as a contributor

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Els Torreele

Just Treatment @justtreatment.org · 11d

Thanks to John McDonnell MP, Rachel Maskell MP, Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Iqbal Mohamed MP, Seamus Logan MP, Warinder Juss MP & Tim Roca MP for joining our event w/ @globaljusticenow.bsky.social in Parliament last night, and showing concern about the UK-US pharma deal which will hike NHS drug prices.

Reposted by Els Torreele

cictar.bsky.social @cictar.bsky.social · 11d

Starbucks’ shifts profits to Switzerland, leaving scant revenue for coffee-producing countries. Read all about it in the new CICTAR report:

cictar.org/all-research...

The ‘Swiss Swindle’ — Does Starbucks short-change coffee-producing countries? — Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research

While claiming 99% of its coffee beans are ‘ethically’ sourced, Starbucks’ shifts profits to Switzerland, leaving scant revenue for coffee-producing countries and perpetuating poverty in farming commu...

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, Els Torreele

dylan baker @dylnbkr.bsky.social · 11d

I've heard that Dan Savage quote make the rounds, too:

"During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for."

I think about it often.

A crop of a collage. In the upper righthand corner, there is blacked out text. The visible text is mostly obscured, but you can see "raising warning of swiftly approaching disaster", followed by more blacked out text, and then "the US would have to turn itself into a police ... in history". On top of that text is large text that says "designed in harmony" cut out from one source, and "rebuild your home... your nation" from another. There are hand-drawn green lines around the cut-out text. This piece is attributed to Renée Cohen.

A diagram of an eco-friendly house surrounded by different labeled elements. These labels include "forests" "solar roof" "rivers" "cycles" "nutricious food" "rainwater harvesting" "info hub" "harvesting wind" "kinetic to electric" and "cat". This is attributed to Sangita Ekka.

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Els Torreele

Global Abortion Rights News @globalabortionnews.bsky.social · 11d

"Our new analysis shows that it is far more dangerous to be pregnant than to have an abortion, and this gap in mortality risk is even larger than previously recognized.” - lead study author Maria Steenland.
In fact, the mortality risk of pregnancy is 44 to 70 times higher than from abortion.

Risk of maternal death during pregnancy greatly underestimated, study finds

A new study comparing deaths of pregnant people and of those who have an abortion show that risk of death due to pregnancy is three times higher than previously estimated.

Reposted by Els Torreele

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 11d

They are going to do exactly what we said they’d likely do and shouldn’t.

gh.bmj.com/content/8/11...