Ben Pierce
Health, real world data, data science, stats, science, vaccines, research. Pro-science. All views/opinions are my own.
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- Reposted by Ben Pierce🧵Remember the preprint claiming SARS-CoV-2 has a "synthetic fingerprint"? It said a restriction map was "extremely unlikely to have arisen by random evolution.” I took its claims seriously. The "synthetic fingerprint" hypothesis collapses. My new preprint explains why. arxiv.org/abs/2510.23833
- Reposted by Ben PierceWe’ve identified a highly divergent betacoronavirus from South American bat that encodes a functional furin cleavage site. Another fascinating reminder of how diverse coronavirus evolution is in wildlife reservoirs. #Virology #VirusEvolution #Bats #Coronavirus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Good science needs time. Finally, a functional furin cleavage site found in the S1/S2 junction of a bat coronavirus. 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Women in the US are now being forced to have babies and carry in the most painful way possible. The #autism announcement yesterday was not based at all on science. The correlations found in that 1 study are not sound: the follow up times were unbalanced, leading to bias and misleading associations.
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- My favorite thing: one of the CDC's COVID-19 risk factors is vaccination status, so one has an increased risk when discussing the COVID-19 vaccine prior to being vaccinated. So meta! And so meaningless from the ACIP. This #ACIP is not helping Americans.
- Listening to the ACIP meeting in the background.... When voting, there were several comments about postponing the Hep B vote until a future meeting, but the motion was actually that the Hep B vote be postponed indefinitely.
- Excellent news and hard work pays off - one of our studies, "Health outcomes of women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in North West London: a 10-year longitudinal study" accepted in BMJ Public Health 🥳🎉
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- Reposted by Ben Pierce@zachhensel.bsky.social and I have a new paper on the origin of SARS-CoV-2! 🧪 There are a lot of reviews on the topic already, so we tried to do something different: characterize "lab leak" scenarios, and directly address those on SARS-CoV-2's furin cleavage site.▫️1/9 doi.org/10.5802/crbi...
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- Show me these data and I will find you at least 30 confounders. The language will be most important, particularly how strong (that is, poor) are the report's claims of causality. www.wsj.com/health/healt...
- Lots of disturbing takeaways from the RFK Jr hearing, most prominently that he's listening only to Bhattacharya and Makary - non-experts - about vaccines rather than others (or reading any papers). However, there's another major question:
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- Reposted by Ben PierceIn under 24h following the newly identified outbreak of #Ebola in the DRC, the virus has been isolated, sequenced and the virus sequence data made publicly available. virological.org/t/the-16th-e...
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- Reposted by Ben Piercegift link to dr. susan monarez’s piece in the wall street journal this morning.
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- Reposted by Ben PierceYour periodic reminder that mRNA vaccines are a scientific and public health game-changer. Those that have been approved have passed stringent efficacy and safety checks. They protect you and your child against potentially fatal diseases. You may, however, get a sore arm.
- Reposted by Ben PierceDr. Paul Offit, a prominent voice on vaccines and frequent critic of RFK Jr, is blocked from participating in FDA’s vaccine advisory committee. HHS says his special government employee status expired. Offit says FDA had asked him to stay on 2 more years: www.cnn.com/2025/09/02/h...
- Our 2021 review on COVID #vaccines was open access and provides a full report of effectiveness. Thanks to @carlzimmer.com and @apoorvanyt.bsky.social for their terrific article in NYT 👍 www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/h...
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- Reposted by Ben PierceYesterday the president demanded that evidence about Covid vaccines be shown to the public. Today @apoorvanyt.bsky.social & I run through some of the studies made public over the past 4+ years that show that the vaccines work. Gift link: nyti.ms/46k17Tq
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- Reposted by Ben PierceThis 🧵 is long so please bear with me. It is compiles evidence in a historical timeline on how effective #COVIDVaccines are. When a pandemic ends we quickly and easily forget the tools that got us out of it. So here is my labour day gift to you prompted by this headline.
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- Reposted by Ben PierceUS public health, global health sec, & science is facing unprecedented threats & intentional erosion. During COVID-19, I think so many of us felt that this horrific global event would bring us together - a pandemic requiring community partnership & trust in science. (1/5)
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- Good article from Sen Sanders. However, why must he resign - why cannot he be removed? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/o...
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- Reposted by Ben PierceEnough is enough. The health of the country is in danger. Read our resignation letters: insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-n...
- If there's any sign that the immunization schedule will be overhauled by RFK Jr and the crazies currently in the ACIP - it's this 👇. Look out for news on that in the coming weeks.
- Scoop - SUSAN MONAREZ, nation’s newly installed CDC director, is being ousted, people familiar tell @lenasun.bsky.social @laurenweberhp.bsky.social + me
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- Reposted by Ben Pierce🚨🧵My latest: As measles took off in Texas, the Trump administration took actions that prevented CDC scientists from responding. The outbreak became the biggest in 30 yrs. It’s far larger considering the outbreaks it sparked in other states & Mexico. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
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- The White House wants you to forget how many lives were saved by #publichealth leaders, particularly: Fauci. www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202...
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- It would be a joke if it weren't true. Published today by the White House: www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202...
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- This should drive American scientists - and Americans in general - crazy: a new study on a H5N8 #mRNA #vaccine (in mice), from a team in Russia. Good results, well done to the researchers - it's a shame that politics blocks this from being pursued in the States. www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13...
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- A friend has his first novel out today! "Leverage" by Amran Gowani has been highly rated by People, Chicago Magazine, and others. A former Wall Street analyst, his first work of fiction is a gripping tale of Wall Street's dark side. Check it out! #books 📚 www.amazon.co.uk/Leverage-Nov...
- Reposted by Ben PierceA must-read, must-share piece - clearly deconstructing the shoddy science of the Geiers (who are inexplicably in charge of studies at HHS). Consider this an early warning for what lies ahead. 🛟🩺🧪 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- Second gift link for today: this is one of the best #scicomm pieces I've seen on the shoddy approaches (it cannot be called science) used by anti-vaxxers 🧪 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- Good article, now a 🎁 link: it may help more people understand that mRNA is a vaccine platform, rather than associating it with mandates/lockdowns www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/o...
- The head of the NIH does not have even 1 book on his shelf. One cannot and should not lead this institution if they're doing their own research by googling fields like vaccinology and immunology.
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- Reposted by Ben PierceIn today's article, learn how a chance discussion with the chair of Harvard’s statistics department changed everything about how I think about learning statistics. Click here to read the full article: kareemcarr.substack.com/p/the-hardes...
- I trust RNA vaccines because the data show that their benefits FAR outweigh the risks. Don't you? For creating falsities about their risks and putting millions at harm, RFK Jr and Bhattacharya, the current heads of the HHS and NIH, must go.
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