H. Holden Thorp, in Science, on how it ain’t over until it’s over and the failures of governments that pretend otherwise. 
Ed Yong, speaking at Yale, discusses 2 years of covering the pandemic (and winnning pretty much all the science awards ther…

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how we’ve become numb to the ongoing deaths.
Zeynep Tufecki, in The New York Times, on the lessons we still haven’t learned that could have saved millions of lives. 
      Related Stories…

Mother’s Day is coming up so here are some photos I have been collecting showing some of the children in Ukraine: 7-year-old Angelina, just arrived from Russian-occupied territory pic.twitter.com/3jxeI8FcXd— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) May 2, 2022 H…

Aris Katzourakis, in Nature, on what the word endemic actually means
Hitoshi Oshitani, in the New York Times, on what Japan got right in its approach to the pandemic.
Photo By https://www.flickr.com/photos/reggiepen/ – https://www.flickr.com/photos/re…

I still find it hard to believe that a lot of people in Ontario are still intending to vote for Ford and the Conservative party, in spite of his awful performance as premier. Then again, I also find it hard to believe that so many people in Saskat…

this website is great because a super famous movie star like bette midler can get ratioed by [checks notes] uhh, jorts the cat pic.twitter.com/vwAAWaYCvA— the hype (@TheHyyyype) May 14, 2022 This is priceless shade, too: The only thing Melania wanted …

What happened at your school that sounded like an urban legend but was real? My friend’s little sister was in drama class and slid across the stage on her stomach and a piece of wood was sticking up and impaled her. She had to be air lifted to Duke hospital.

— Kristi YamaGuccimane (@wapplehouse) May 18, 2022

It’s so hard, it’s a joke:
Why did God create economists?
To make weather forecasters look good. https://t.co/FXRKCqBJhF

— Timothy Huyer (@tim4hire) May 14, 2022

“No one told me NFTs were bad!!”

Dude all of Twitter was screaming about how bad they were from the start. We said it was a pyramid scheme. You smugly replied “nah you just don’t get it. It’s the future. To the moon!” You decided to play in a decentralized market and got played.

— Lauren Walsh • Woubble’s Dad (@LaurenWalshArt) May 13, 2022

I tweet this every time men decide it’s time to make decisions about women’s bodies, but my ex boyfriend thought all women got their period on the 15th of the month. He was 26 at the time.

— Sabrina (@Sabrinafon) May 4, 2022

Finally, this:

The final dance in Dirty Dancing, but they’re dancing to The Muppet Show theme tune. pic.twitter.com/ldfjmm5JoQ

— Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) May 17, 2022

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on why it’s a terrible idea not to treat the unvaccinated.
Katherine J. Wu, also in The Atlantic, on whether Omicron infections will translate into widespread immunity.
The Agenda, with a great segment on how COVID is airborn…

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on the immeasurable grief. Don’t look away. 
      Related StoriesSaturday Stories: Sweden’s Failure, More For Kids, And What Does Endemic MeanSaturday Stories: Normal?, Living?, Human Rights…

Edward A. Nardell, in Time, on how to clean our indoor air.
Gregg Gonsalves, in The Nation, on the dangers of hopium and wishful thinking on COVID.
Melody Schreiber, in The New Republic, on how masks have no impact on child development.
  &#…

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how the #UrgencyofNormal/done with COVID talk condemns the immunocompromisedRamnath Subbaraman,  Michelle Holmes,  and Lakshmi Ganapathi, in Common Dream, on the privilege required to state that you’re done with …

Here’s the cover photo of 2010 book about the SlutWalk Movement — just thought I should help out that Ottawa school trying to “measure” the shorts and skirts of its female students today.Maybe if they used this photo as their guide, then their female …

Chuck Wendig, in TerribleMinds, on our great surrender and how we let COVID win.Bruce Arthur, in The Toronto Star, on the myth of mild Omicron.Katherine J. Wu, in The Atlantic, on how we’re long past the point of hoping ‘mild’ Omicron will spare us.Ed…

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on the disaster being wrought by governments giving up on COVID control. 
The late and great Paul Farmer, in Noēma, on social medicine for a better future.
      Related StoriesSaturday Stor…

Ed Yong, the best science journalist of this pandemic, in the Atlantic, discusses Omicron and how we’re definitely not ready for it. It’s so good it’s the only story I’m posting this week. 
      Related StoriesSatur…

(Photo of Supreme Court protest today, by Jabin Botsford, WashPost)Today lots of comments and discussions about how the United States is criminalizing abortion again.I’m not sure which Justice the Washington Post Editorial Board is trying to speak to w…

Melody Schreiber, in The New Republic, on why the #UrgencyOfNormal cabal so badly want kids to be unmasked. The #UrgencyOfEquity, which I support, discusses how to best protect our most vulnerable and marginalized students during this pandemic.&n…

By Soupvector – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112983798
Sirin Kale, in The Guardian, with the life and death story of 42 year old triathlete, body builder, and anti-vaxxer John Eyers
Katherine J. Wu, in The Atl…

Lots of comments tonight about the first Conservative debate — apparently not an “official” debate though I’m not sure why that mattered. The big loser was, I think, Patrick Brown — this would have been his first opportunity to introduce himself…

Just a few miscellaneous but somewhat funny tweets today: Mr. Squirrel approves of the new Ukrainian postage stamp. pic.twitter.com/Vm6cXomrnc— Lorenzo The Cat (@LorenzoTheCat) May 1, 2022 ‘landlord’ and ‘landlady’ are needlessly gendered words. pls …

Here’s a collection of recent items from Ukraine. Now that Ukraine is winning this war, we are seeing some odd reactions – almost as though pundits can’t wrap their heads around the prospect of Russia losing its Evil Empire status quo. Is the…

Katherine J. Wu, Ed Yong, and Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on how our response to Omicron to date represents all of our past mistakes on fast forward.
      Related StoriesSaturday Story: Ed Yong on OmicronSaturday Storie…

Nans Florens, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, Jérôme Barriere, Eric Billy, Fabrice Frank, Véronique Saada, Alexander Samuel, Barbara Seitz-Polski, Kyle Sheldrick, and Lonni Besançon, in OCF Preprints ask should we publish every correlation during the COV…

Evan Scrimshaw sent out a newsletter tonight talking about Skippy and the Conservative so-called “debate” last week and its worth quoting from:  … It’s a busted ideology and a party infected by more than just bad opinions but stupidity at i…

Almost two decades ago, the International Day Against Homphobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was set May 17 — it has become a celebration around the world of Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. The only thing I am sorry …

Andrew Joseph and Helen Branswell, in STAT, on the lessons we’re learning from Omicron.
More Helen Branswell, in STAT, on 10 lessons she’s learned covering the pandemic.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in his Substack, helps LeBron James understand the differenc…

Katherine J. Wu, in the Atlantic, on the dumpster fire that is America’s COVID rules (and for Canadian readers, much overlap with ours).
Gregg Gonsalves, in The Nation, on the impact of COVID fatigue on our morality. 
Ed Yong, in The Atlanti…

Selena Simmons-Duffin, in NPR, drawing from HIV to explain how having the tools to beat a virus isn’t the same thing as using them.
STAT staff, in, yes, STAT, with 6 COVID mysteries that have yet to be solved.
Donald K. Milton, Edward A. Nardell and D…

Just a batch of somewhat-random tweets tonight, sorted into some topic areas.   Ontario Election:I didn’t watch the debate but I saw a few funny tweets coming out of it: Michael De Adder: Debate notes https://t.co/6b4fWU0u0g via @torontostar—…

A 1972 Merle “Ting” Tingley cartoonToday turned out to be the perfect day for this old cartoonThe original remark, from 1971: pic.twitter.com/aLLy1r13Q1— Sarah Sears (@iamSas) May 4, 2022  Trudeau dropped the f-bomb when he apparently got fed up w…

Rex Chapman titles many of his dog videos “Dogs, bruh” so I thought I would use it for this post: Good boy loves fireworks 💥 pic.twitter.com/XB0UJzIkBq— CCTV_IDIOTS (@cctv_idiots) May 15, 2022 short dog problems pic.twitter.com/Bk0DFSD3Mi— ᴘᴀᴠʟᴏᴠ ᴛʜ…

Orac, in Respectful Insolence, on the baked in failure of the Great Barrington Declaration.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how climate change may be underwriting this and future pandemics. 
      Related StoriesSaturda…

I have been struck by the number of outstanding photos I am seeing of the brave soldiers fighting for Ukraine. I have been collecting these now for more than a month, and tonight I thought I would post some of the best:

Here are members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces hold Easter cakes near the trenches, outside Kyiv on April 23.

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

This is Fedir Shandor. He’s fighting for #Ukraine.
In a peaceful life, he’s my colleague — uni lecturer & the Head of the Department of Sociology at Uzhhorod National University.
In the photo, he’s giving online lectures to his students, from the trench on the front line. pic.twitter.com/NPIPAGKWFm

— Inna Sovsun (@InnaSovsun) May 16, 2022

This picture from #Azovstal! #SaveAzovstal #SaveMariupol pic.twitter.com/C7ADl6STyx

— Anonymous Operations (@AnonOpsSE) May 16, 2022

The first female navigator of @UA_NAVY
Eugenia Bakay: “Now you just need to decide – are you ready to defend your country or not”.
(1/4) pic.twitter.com/aocqkMd7K7

— ArmyInform (@armyinformcomua) May 13, 2022

Damn, what a scary but beautifully written report from @mschwirtz accompanied by incredible photos from @lynseyaddario. I’m so glad you guys are safe!https://t.co/Yo0u6SIT2X

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) May 11, 2022

Each region in 🇺🇦has its costumes, cuisine&traditions. But, 🇺🇦is united & ONE in face of🇷🇺

💪So say soldiers of 128 Brigade-Zakarpattia Legion as they proudly display traditional bartka-chiseled shepherd’s axe, lethal weapons & trembita +embroidered Hutsul vest for their spirit! pic.twitter.com/Jc8EMBottZ

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) May 4, 2022

A Ukrainian and A French sniper fighting together against Russian invaders. I feel so much gratitude to the volunteers from different countries who came here to help us fight. pic.twitter.com/Z41XM5QM1A

— Nika Melkozerova (@NikaMelkozerova) May 1, 2022

🔥The darkest time is always before dawn‼️‼️‼️#StandWithUkraine #ArmUkraineNow https://t.co/KbSvKqbu0a pic.twitter.com/PyunGdg33D

— Cargo-200🇺🇦 (@RF200_NOW) April 25, 2022

A fighter in one of the #Ukrainian Special Forces in front of a destroyed #Russian T-72B3.

Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻 pic.twitter.com/0otwiF5z5A

— Canadian Ukrainian Volunteer 🇺🇦🇨🇦✊🏻 (@CanadianUkrain1) April 22, 2022

An amazing photo: Fighters from the Ukrainian army’s 30th Brigade take their positions in a trench in eastern Ukraine -photo by Ukraine photojournalist Maxim Dondyuk
https://t.co/5D37YpRVfA

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) April 20, 2022

Olena is an officer in Ukraine’s 128th Mountain Assault Brigade – the Transcarpathian Legion. pic.twitter.com/Gku8eMDYDh

— Michael MacKay (@mhmck) April 18, 2022

As of now #Ukraine is winning #Russia‘s war against #NATO. pic.twitter.com/oPRCnedKCT

— Linas Linkevicius (@LinkeviciusL) April 10, 2022

A #Ukrainian lioness with an important message.

Glory to #Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes, women and men ✊🏻🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Wys3QMooIS

— Canadian Ukrainian Volunteer 🇺🇦🇨🇦✊🏻 (@CanadianUkrain1) April 7, 2022

I am so impressed by this young soldier, in a photo taken outside Kyiv as the Russians were leaving earlier in April:

 Marcus Yam/ LA Times
How beautiful is this?

This mural was painted on the wall of the Military Academy of🇱🇹in Vilnius by an artist Linas Kaziulionis
It was inspired by a📷by Andriy Andriyenko, which captures a moment of farewell of🇺🇦border guard Vitaliy and his wife at Kramatorsk railway station https://t.co/juApw7Vpwr pic.twitter.com/5GWIt3XAuw

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 30, 2022

There are so many other First Responders worth highlighting too — here’s a firefighter taking a break:

Emilio Morenatti/AP

Moving back to Canada for a moment, I couldn’t resist retweeting this classic:

Freedom? They are literally dancing and PARTYING in the streets in Ottawa right now. People using the word “dictator” and “tyranny” have zero idea. pic.twitter.com/uzaL7q6w67

— Dan MacDonald (@danmac800) May 1, 2022

I can’t help it. I am comparing the sympathetic media reaction today toward Singh, after a few jerks screamed curses at him as he was moving toward his vehicle after a campaign event, with the cynical media reaction last September toward Trudeau, …

it’s not the ocean you hear when you hold a seashell to your ear, or your own heartbeat drumming and echoing back at you. it’s the ones you’ve lost calling to let you know they made it to the other side and they’ll be waiting around the campfire unti…

Just a short posting tonight, but it appears that the tide in Ukraine is turning: Long story short. Russia seems to be pulling out of the area to the north of Kharkiv entirely, and still cant make significant advances in the Donbas. https://t.co/DE1Fc…

A draft SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe V Wade on a 5-4 vote leaked tonight, and of course we saw the usual pearl-clutching toonight about how unseemly it is to leak a draft Supreme Court decisions:What is that line from Shakespeare? Oh yes, “Fuck thei…

Steven Novella, in Science Based Medicine, on why we cannot and should not withhold medical care from the unvaccinated. 
Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on why Omicron’s explosive growth is so concerning. 
Andrew Pekosz, in The New York Times,…

Jacob Stern and Katherine J. Wu, in The Atlantic, on the meaninglessness of endemicity.
John M. Barry, in The New York Times, on learning from 1918 the risks of pretending it’s over before it is.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on the state of our hospitals…

I guess expecting Canadian Conservative voters to listen to an actual DEBATE is just too much to ask of the Youngs today, not to mention really B-O-R-I-N-G, man!  Brother Wells over on his Substack: “Well, that was a national disgrace.” #cpcldrdeb…