Philipp Markolin, PhD @PhilippMarkolin Twitter profile

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

4 months

🚨🚨 Did SARS-CoV-2 come from gain-of-function research? And if so, will we ever find out? I have been on a scientific journey for a definitive answer that took me to the cutting edge of #covidorigin science. Here is what I found ➡️

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

The constant attacks on a vaccine scientist, trying to smear him with false profit allegations because your favorite billionaire and his syncophantic millionaire propagandists got schooled by him is quite something.

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

Fyi this is laughable, total fake news. As anyone who knows me, as an academic with 4 kids, all we have is our modest townhome in Houston (you can ask my stalkers) and a very modest retirement. No money from China or other foreign governments, none from Big Pharma, nothing nada

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

I cannot imagine being in Volodymyr Zelenskyy shoes today. He left his law career to do comedy; produced and then played the president in a popular political satire series; only to be then elected president for real by a people hungering for change. 1/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

7 months

Measles is a super scary disease because it wipes out your immune memory. It was mostly gone in the US and EU and now making a comeback because too many people have been emotionally manipulated by self-serving anti-vax extremists. That is not a future I want to live in.

G Jacobs (NotJustDNA on other sites)🧬🔬💻✍️📚🇳🇿

@BioinfoTools

7 months

Just snipping out the final words ⬇️ #Measles

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

5 months

Viruses like measles come back when vaccination rates drop. To believe otherwise is magical thinking; just like homeopathy.

Amy Maxmen, PhD

@amymaxmen

5 months

Measles reported in Long Island, where a midwife falsified 1,500 vaccination records for children in recent years. She gave kids homeopath "pellets" instead of actual vaccines that would have actually protected them from measles, mumps & other diseases.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Predictable, despicable, intolerable. The recent smear attacks & character assassinations on a celebrated vaccine scientist all come from the same #conspiracy myth-addled info sphere that profits from creating conflict, spectacle & exploiting the fears of vulnerable communities.

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

So let's see now: Steve Bannon last week Joe Rogan, RFK Jr, Elon Musk over the weekend Alex Jones, Jordan Peterson today Tomorrow is another day...

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

5 years

@carolecadwalla As a data scientist working in health data, I can confirm that the NHS data trove is indeed priceless. Longitudinal data (from cradle to grave as you put it) is all the rage in machine learning now, because of its predictive power.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Seems that the force is with science, not the evil heterodox media empire of lies, disaster profiteers and conflict vultures.

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

Too wonderful for words, thank you @MarkHamill you just brought some joy in my life and for my family

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

7 months

Twitter/X has lost almost all of it's utility as a crisis communication and scientific networking tool. With X, it has turn into a platform of information warfare and anti-science activism, a hostile place for scientists and people who value evidence.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

NEW EXCLUSIVE from me: #Denounce , #deny , #deceive - 6 common tactics of media manipulators and why they work to sabotage public discourse Read:

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

Unredacted 'Fauci emails' proving no scientists had any idea about the virus and no inclination of any cover-up, quite the opposite actually, they investigated thoroughly the idea of a #lableak . Lableakers: WHERE ARE THE HIDDEN EMAILS WHERE THEY DO THE COVERUP STUFF? 🙄🙄

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 months

Since the @nytimes op-ed pages are in the business to push misleading talking points from a well-known #lableak activist on the day of the Dr. Fauci hearing; one might need to question the impartiality of the newspaper. Why the timing? Where is the op-ed for a natural origin?

Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 months

🚨Important facts 🚨 SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus that has nothing to do with gain-of-function research. While a complex topic, there is zero scientific doubt behind this today. --> Full story: Here are 5 key highlights why we know this: A short🧵 1/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

What kind of society do we build for ourselves? One where it is okay to let #hate mobs whipped up by ideologues #harass scientists from the public sphere? Where scientists are #targeted because their voice of reason interferes with the #falsehoods and #fictions of influencers?

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

I know I tried to hold off locking down comments, but didn’t know what else to do? Esp bc of the threats + unprecedented situation of the actual Twitter owner setting the example seeming to encourage his blue check army to rise up against me. Tough being a scientist in this space

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 months

Conspiracy theorists are shocked to learn that a science blogger writing about the bat origins of SARS-CoV-2 visits field sampling expeditions to interview bat researchers 😅 Good journalistic practice must be a nefarious plot 🤣 A niche 🧵 about conspiratorial ideation 1/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Imagine any geopolitical adversary seeing this. A sitting US senator going full-on plandemic (not the only one!), others pushing UFOs garbage... all of them coming together attacking & smearing their own scientists, doctors, experts. When are citizens say enough is enough?

Collin Rugg

@CollinRugg

1 year

JUST IN: Senator Ron Johnson claims COVID-19 was “pre-planned” by an elite group of people with the goal of taking people’s freedom away. Prosecute them all starting with Fauci. “This is all pre-planned by an elite group of people. That's what I'm talking about, event 201 that

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

10 months

Emotionally vulnerable people are being radicalized by politically motivated conspiracy myths and broken information ecosystems, infecting their minds with distorted perceptions of reality, fear and hate. The manipulation economy targets objective reality, science & scientists

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

10 months

Looks as though my recognition today has unleashed a flood of Elon’s X bots. Most not very clever and many like this quite offensive. In previous times we would see them as silly, but not now

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

remarkable how Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, a political outsider if there ever was one, shows courage and human spirit far outside what I myself would probably ever be capable of. Dark times sometimes bring out the best in people, and I am certain that in these dark 5/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

🚨🚨🚨 NEW EVIDENCE #zoonosis Chinese researchers (who have had troubles getting data out) finally managed to sneak upload full #sequencing data from environmental swaps at Huanan market. Show: Co-occurance of #animal sequences with SARS-CoV-2 RNA Added to the evidence map 🔽

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

kleptocratic despot sitting in the Kreml trying to pay for his nostalgia with the blood of his own and other people under the applause of cultivated sycophants. The history might not be written but the message is clear. /end

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Anti-science activism rears its ugly head in the US. It's not just vaccines and public health scientists. It's not just COVID and virologists. Every inconvenient scientific study, every researcher whose work interferes with political myths and power is in their crosshairs.

Prof Michael E. Mann

@MichaelEMann

1 year

#NewClimateWar

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Yeah, because we all know that chinese cell entry receptors are so different from western ones. 🙄 That's not a dogwhistle but a bullhorn for racists to bring them into the #bioweapon -antivaxx mytholgy that RFK is running on. A true MAGA candidate.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

To everybody's surprise, he took up that mantle of responsibility thrown upon him with a class and greatness of personal character befitting a true leader. He fought a hard anti-corruption campaign against established kleptocrats, rebuffed a corrupt American president, 2/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

This is what scientists like @PeterHotez have been screaming from the top of their lungs to anybody willing to listen to facts and reason. Anti-science activism in public health, no matter if smoking, alternative medicine, or vaccination, comes with a gruesome body count.

Charles P. Pierce

@CharlesPPierce

1 year

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a damning report confirming that party affiliation in Ohio and Florida was a risk for dying of Covid-19.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

14 days

With the billionaire owner now openly supporting the authoritarian movement, worth noting that like all authoritarians, he attacks science, truth and an evidence-based worldview when it interferes with his politics.

Elon Musk's War Against Science, Evidence and Objective Truth

Scientists are abandoning Elon Musk's Twitter amid a "mass extinction event" on the social media network, says Philipp Markolin.

bylinetimes.com

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

just to be thrown into the pandemic of a century not one full year in office. And now, not even 3 years in office, he is the commander in chief in the middle of a full-blown defensive war against a mad military superpower and decided to remain in the capital of Kyiv while 3/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

9 months

One thing that is fascinating with the history of the #lableak myth is how many people have been fooled by naïve claims that "one can not tell from the genome" one way or the other whether this is a natural virus. This is false. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, there is zero doubt. 1/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Also, for everybody wondering why media manipulators lie about @PeterHotez financial situation, it is a tactic to discredit him and activate hate groups to harass him out of the conversation. #6 on the figure below, one of many such manipulation tactics and suckers fell for it.

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

It’s fake news from some phony conspiracy site. Not even a tiny fraction of that. I’m an academic with 4 adult kids. It all went for their college education, my special needs daughter, trombone lessons, hockey practice, ballet lessons, and a few weddings

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 months

🚨Important facts 🚨 SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus that has nothing to do with gain-of-function research. While a complex topic, there is zero scientific doubt behind this today. --> Full story: Here are 5 key highlights why we know this: A short🧵 1/

Treacherous ancestry

An extraordinary hunt for the ghosts of SARS-CoV-2

www.protagonist-science.com

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

It is one of the great #tragedies of our time that citizens in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet have to live in one of the most ideologically polluted information environments. A place that makes them easy marks for #myth , #manipulation and #magical thinking

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

America's antivaxx crisis: a quarter believe MMR shot causes autism; a third think Covid vaccines kill. It’s extraordinary, despite my battling antivaccine activism daily for 2 decades. The disinformation machine is so powerful and now backed politically

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

enemies are circling in and breaching the city. His decisions will have wide-reaching geopolitical consequences, and directly impact the existence of his nation and the fate of >40 million Ukrainians. I don't know how anybody can be thrown into a fate like his, but it is 4/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Despiccable, disgusting, dangerous. Right-wing hate mobs organize around the Bannon blogosphere to target a scientists who developed a non-profit, no-big-pharma vaccine for the developing world. There should be consequences.

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

My morning begins with Steve Bannon + CFO/COO of his War Room enterprise declaring me “a criminal”. It’s unbelievable: Is it because I co-developed a low-cost patent-free Covid vaccine for poor nations, and provided proof-of-concept that we don’t have to rely on Big Pharma?

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Here is your regular #PublicServiceAnnouncement : All scientific evidence points to SARS-CoV-2 being of natural origin What your favorite influencer's opinion are on the topic are irrelevant What some fake experts or cranks proclaim is not science but self-serving commentary

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

8 months

The #origin of SARS-CoV-2 is something scientists got right from the start but almost everybody else got wrong; influencers, journalists, populists, politicians, editors, news desks & other chattering classes all embarrassed themselves by amplifying the false #lableak myth

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

9 months

Nothing says "free speech" like thermonuclear lawsuits against critics. Pretty obvious that instead of trying to fix the Nazi problem (that´s why advertisers are fleeing X), @elonmusk rather sues those who dare report that their feeds are full of them.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

🚨🚨🚨 @KatherineJWu first to get this scoop down. The Chinese CDC finally uploaded market sampling data, and as expected, environmental swaps positive for SARS-CoV-2 point to raccoon dogs. Yet another strong piece of evidence for #zoonotic origin & against any #lableak myth

Tim Onion

@oneunderscore__

1 year

Well damn.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

6 months

Vaccines are not only safe and effective, it seems that they are almost impossible to overdo. Case study on a self-hypervaccinator taking 200+ shots and having normal immunological responses ⬇️ Anti-vaxxers, does this not make you question your narratives? @PeterHotez

Kilian Schober

@kischober

6 months

What would happen if you got vaccinated against the same antigen over and over again? In @TheLancetInfDis , we now report on a hypervaccinated individual from Magdeburg (HIM) who received 217 vaccinations within 29 months against SARS-CoV-2. 👇 1/19

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Worth bringing this up again. Everybody who does not know who RFK, jr. is, this is it 🔽 An anti-science #activist who leaves a trail of #death behind him while lining his pockets by #defrauding the #gullible , selling lies & pick-pocketing the #scam charities he runs.

The Real Truther

@thereal_truther

2 years

In June 2019 RFK, Jr. visited Samoa & met with anti-vaccine activist Taylor Winterstein. Both falsely claim the measles vaccine causes autism. In November 2019 a deadly measles outbreak swept through Samoa killing 83 people, all babies & children. #TheRealAnthonyFauci

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

This has been one of the most frustrating parts They treat scientists and scientific expertise with contempt and suspicion, then turn around and obfuscate about the track record of errors, falsehoods and incompetence of the people they base their reporting on to gaslight readers

Sam Gregson

@Samuel_Gregson

1 year

This is a key point. Journalists on this topic have gone out of their way to obfuscate the identity and track records of the sources they have credulously parroted on SC2 origins. This goes for “3 sick workers”, “weird restriction sites”, “codons are weird” + other bullshit.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

11 months

What I need people to realize is that influencers do not share information based on value, merit, relevance, accuracy, or contextuality. They care about attention & engagements for popularity, profit, persuasion, or power. This is why our info spheres are full of garbage 24/7

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 months

I find it rich that politicians and journalists blame bad scientific institutions for loss of trust; almost as if there are not multi-billion dollar interests & popular ideologies behind the sowing of doubt, enabled by media and politics, to sabotage public perception of science

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Crypto-bro are lab leakers, anti-vaxxers and generally anti-science: Well observed and noted before (here short explanation) ⬇️ & by others like @Samuel_Gregson , correlates also with TESCREAL ideology (termed by @timnitGebru )

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

1 year

I’m noticing that some who taunt me or really push the RFK Jr debate nonsense often boast on their Twitter (or X) that they’re big time into bitcoin or cryptocurrency? I can’t quite connect the dots on that one, is it just me or have others observed similar links?

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

11 months

"These people [who needlessly died of Covid because not vaccinating] were victims of a predatory movement" This is exactly right.

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

11 months

Science In Action - My ⁦ @bbcworldservice ⁩ interview re: my new book: The Deadly Rise of Antiscience ⁦ @JHUPress ⁩ ⁦ @JohnsHopkins ⁩

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

8 months

Putting trust in the wrong people is deadly. Anti-vaxxers and adjacent anti-science movements not only caused countless preventible deaths by fearmongering about life-saving vaccines. Their fake miracle cures also actively killed people who believed their motivated lies.

Evidence Challenge

@dense_evi

8 months

BREAKING: A huge new study finds Hydroxychloriquine treatment against Covid led to 16,690 deaths in 6 countries This is catastrophic news for parts of the anti-vax movement that encouraged people away from vaccines towards an untested treatment 1/7

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

times, the Ukrainian people will find themselves as capable of courage and individual greatness of character as the almost coincidental person from their midst who happened to become the leader they elected. Every last one of them more worthy of admiration than the 6/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

16 days

"Viruses are the real threats to humanity, not virologists." One of the most pernicious goals of the anti-science movement is to attack the scientists that defend society, sowing doubt and suspicion so they can lure citizens into their manipulative fantasy universe

Marion Koopmans, publications: https://pure.eur.nl

@MarionKoopmans

16 days

Viruses are a threat to humanity, not virologists

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

6 months

No matter if one starts out as anti-vaxxer, climate change denier or lableak acolyte, they all eventually converge on full-on anti-science worldviews. Once in the emotional grip of a conspiratorial myth, rational thinking degrades, morals corrode and hate of others takes over.

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

@PeterHotez

6 months

RFK Jr. Joins the War on Climate Scientists - increasing overlap between the anti-science attacks on biomedicine + climate science, scientists ⁦ @MichaelEMann ⁩ ⁦ @PeterHotez ⁩ are co-writing a new book, Science Under Siege ⁦ @public_affairs ⁩

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Long article plotting the history of errors of the #lableak myth, and a welcome sign that people get tired of being played for suckers by media manipulators. And also dishing on the gullibility of media outlets who get played by cranks, grifters & clicks

The Lab-Leak Illusion

The laboratory accident hypothesis of COVID-19’s origins is a bust, but the popular consensus is unwilling to accept it.

quillette.com

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

6 months

Your regular public service announcement. The #lableak theory never had any supportive evidence, and as scientific evidence for #zoonosis increased over the years and killed the leak hypothesis, truthers went from science fiction to science denial to anti-science activism.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

11 months

If your politics-driven anti-science response to a pandemic that your country failed miserably entails cutting infectious disease research, public health, and science overall... is it fair to say that the wrong lessons have been learned?

Rebecca Pompano

@PompanoLab

11 months

Details of House-proposed cuts for 2024 fiscal yr: NIH 6.2% ⬇️ Including: NIGMS 2.6% ⬇️ NCI 2.9% ⬇️ NIAID 22.9% !!⬇️ Worried? Call/email your House rep to let them know! The Senate budget included 2.4% ⬆️ for NIH, far preferable.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Society would do well to remember that the sobering reality of our present conundrums does not change when science is shut up. Too many want to sever the bond between science and society because science disrupts the narratives of the powerful who seek to manipulate with fictions

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

In the scientific literature, the #lableak hypothesis is dead. Killed by a detailed body of evidence for #zoonosis . However, for op-ed and pundit class, the #lableak myth will never die. Don't fall for #inauthentic discourse and baseless assertions. Ask for the evidence.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Today in anti-science news: The op-ed writer @zeynep condescendingly insults a mathematical biologist @akcayerol about a topic of his expertise. "you don't understand the thing you study, once you get the basics from my op-ed, you can thank me later" 🙄 Hilarity ensures 😅😂

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

8 months

There is a sizeable weird overlap between health, wellness and anti-vaccine influencers advocating for all-meat diets. An aversion to modern science/technology and a helpless hedging to an idealistic past that never was. Driven by a strong "appeal to nature/tradition" fallacy.

mallory (she/her)💬

@this_is_mallory

8 months

Help I’ve stumbled into carnivore reels.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

10 months

The renewed attempts by rightwing disinformation merchants to push #Ivermectin as a "miracle cure" for Covid 🙄 (& now cancer 🙄🙄) are not just medical misinformation These are deliberate actions to sow distrust in science & institutions to manipulate and mobilize GOP voters

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

6 months

Anti-science is not only bad for society and the public good, it is a loser's ideology robbing citizens of beauty, wonder and agency.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Yet another paper with the warning lights on. Zoonoses will be THE driving force of pandemics the next decades, and most governments and wider society fail to learn their lessons because they got taken in by fearmongering #lableak grifters and manipulators selling false myths.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

MEME ALERT: There is a new GOP minority report out today 'concluding' SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab. I've read it and it is basically a rehash of outdated #lableak talking points, irrelevant anecdotes, and a strong misrepresentation of scientific studies and data. Short version:

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

God @NateSilver538 is such a motivated idiot he is involuntarily hilarious. "The lableak is what politicians want to silence" "Aren't most politicians pushing it? Wasn't it largely Trumps agenda? "yeah but it mean... what about liberals & NYT & Twitter coalition cabal?" 🤣

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

And here is the long-waited @ODNIgov #intelligence report; saying fuck-all about a #lableak . 🔽 Will the #conspiracy theorists now shut up? No, of course not. They and their GOP handlers rather harass, dox and threaten innocent scientists for clicks.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

10 months

"[...] even after 200,000 lives lost. These were victims of a predatory disinformation campaign,” Hotez says. Instead, the vaccine opponents “are doubling down, just telling a bigger lie, blaming the vaccine and the scientists." Must read from @hiltzikm

Michael Hiltzik

@hiltzikm

10 months

Column: Scientists are paying a huge personal price in their lonely fight against anti-vaxxers

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

7 months

The definition of unethical false equivalency... 🤮🤮🤮 From the rightwing opinion pages of the journal that keeps pushing phony bothsidism on any scientific issue that interferes with the political mythmaking of its donor class, from climate to vaccines to COVID origin.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 years

This is a masterpiece of sorts. A collection of cherry-picked data, messages, and expert quotes, skillfully woven into a narrative of insinuation that dodges all the 'inconvenient' facts, data, and conclusions from those same experts and studies. 1/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

"...this goes by the authoritarian playbook —to portray both science and scientists as enemies of the state. It’s part of the larger attack on the intelligentsia. And if you go back to Hannah Arendt and the origins of totalitarianism, this is very much by that playbook as well"

Dr. Jonathan N. Stea

@jonathanstea

1 year

The end game of the anti-vaccine movement is to discredit. Part of the way you gain power and control is discrediting science, scientists and scientific institutions. - @PeterHotez

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

@paulkrugman When will people realize that fascists seek to create crises because it empowers them? There is no deal they want, crisis is their goal

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

One thing has to be clear: The powerful do not want to live in a world shaped by science, they want to live in a world shaped by them Science is a guardrail protecting the public interest, thats why the powerful try to subvert, dismantle or discredit it in the eyes of the public

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

Here is my take on the origins of SARS-CoV-2.

Nature’s neglected GoF laboratory

The case for a zoonotic origin of SARS-CoV-2

www.protagonist-science.com

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

#lableak This⬇️is a deliberate lie and toxic garbage. Scientists are not 'ignoring the possibility of a lab leak' for fucks sake. And you know this MJ, given that I don't know how many virologists have explained to you over the last two years why they think LL is unlikely. 1/

MJ Allen

@MJnanostretch

2 years

None of this is to say that the virus didn't come to us from a Market spillover- it may have. But why ignore the possibility of a lab leak like it's a hot potato? &scientists can't fathom why they're losing credibility w the public? Just be honest that's all people r looking for.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

9 months

Does anybody need a banner with 18 manipulative arguments anti-vaxxers use?

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

6 months

Quick tip: - one does not have to be a domain expert to be scientifically literate and understand the "mainstream" scientific explanation on a topic - one certainly should be a domain expert before thinking about challenging (or even discarding) the "mainstream" explanation

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

#lableak Conspiracists produce 1000 baseless fantasies with low thought input, but expect scientists to do a time-intensive full scientific rebuttal. This asymmetry is intentional spam, not debate. ▶️What can be asserted without evidence can also be discarded without evidence.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Brilliant interview by @PeterHotez who is an remains very idealistic despite undergoing a darkening moment of history. Take a few minutes out of your day to read it.

A Virulent Antisemitism: An Interview with Dr. Peter Hotez

Scientist and science advocate Dr. Peter Hotez explains the link between anti-science rhetoric and antisemitism in the wake of COVID-19.

momentmag.com

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

4 months

I am still baffled by all the journalists, news outlets and other amplifiers who wrote sensationalist stories based on words of contrarian experts and conspiracy theorists; but now that their sources have gone full cuckcoo land, can't be arsed to revisit the topic for correction.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

4 months

Of course, any virologist worth the salt has said the same thing: recombinant engineering of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 was impossible. That is why the "gain-of-function engineering" myth is among the stupidest fan fictions pushed by the #lableak truthers.

Ben Pierce

@BenFPiercePhD

4 months

Baric's testimony offers one of the most detailed accounts of how #SARS2 could not have been engineered. He even takes one step further than Proximal Origins saying it was impossible, rather than not plausible.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

8 months

The anti-science ecosystem feeds off contrarian influencers, media manipulators, and political shysters. Actors who have an interest in sowing doubt about science because it interferes with their personal, ideological, or financial agendas. Note the overly broad brush strokes.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

🚨 I urge any sane people left in the US media landscape to call this out for what it is: An #abuse of power and a blatant #manipulation of voters. #GOP politicians targeting independent #scientists for political #spectacle . Let me say a few things, for the record. 1/20

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

@ArthurCDent If you do not have the time to read through everything, I compiled some high-resolution infographics to summarize the tactics against #vaccine , #climate and #origin science. Feel free to consult, use and share them. PDFs can also be found for free in the article.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 years

The unabashed narcissm of the IDW never seizes to astonish me. Both elevating themselves as being somewhat 'worthy' of being in the 'loop', while throwing shade at the alleged 'incompetence and corruption' of said elite. Let me translate his word salat for you: 1/

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

3 years

@BretWeinstein @podclipsapp @TheLancet 2/n Some of us are domain specialists. Bret for example in evolution. Fauci in infectious disease. Baric in GoF. Etc. But normally we would work together to figure this out. That is not happening. I don’t know what Fauci & Daszak are doing but it is not just trying to do science.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

4 months

SARS-CoV-2 has nothing to do with gain-of-function research or Anthony Fauci; this we know 💯% certain. The remaining uncertainties on the origins question are narrow and exclude any #lableak idea; but strongly point towards the wildlife industry Source:

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

8 months

Science denial is not an accident but usually driven by actors that manipulate people with political fictions, magical thinking or hateful conspiracy myths. Their goals are self-serving: Profit, persuasion, popularity or power, not the public good. Their victims get radicalized

Prof Michael E. Mann

@MichaelEMann

8 months

As my colleague & friend @KHayhoe put it: "And so, it is 100% clear that there is this toxic package or bundle of right-wing ideology, nationalism, exceptionalism, racism, sexism, anti-immigrantism, and anti-climate-change that goes with it. That is what drives many of them".

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 years

It would be almost hilarious if it wasn't so pernicious to society. The biggest spreaders and amplifiers of misinformation for profit turn around and claim that factual reporting about a scientific topic by the 'mainstream media' is actually the real misinformation. 1/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

4 months

There will be a ramp-up of media coverage to bring the false #lableak myth back to the attention of the masses; right when the general election heats up. Multiple reasons for this, first and foremost the political need for emotional activation of potential voters A short🧵

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

A common #misconception : Scientists appealing to the preponderance of evidence or scientific consensus are not closing ranks, circling the wagon or trying to shut down discussion. On the contrary, they provide a baseline to streamline intelligent discussions on shared facts.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

10 months

There is a certain swath of public "intelligentsia", from journalists, editors, #influencers & politicians, who like to position themselves as enlightened centrists by both siding scientific fact with dangerous fiction ➡️ Motivated reasoning to signal virtue & innocence A🧵

Google “Project 2025,” Donald Trump is a Fascist

@WalkerBragman

10 months

This review just lazily repeats a bunch of right-wing narratives and talking points. For example, it blames public health scientists for alienating right-wingers, but it fails to mention that well-funded right-wing dark money groups coordinate to undermine public health.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 years

This is a classical example of how ignorant and toxic the lab leak discussion is online. Act 1: You have a renowned science journalist doing all the hard work to investigate, research, track down scientists to interview and then writes her own independent article.

Jane Qiu, PhD

@janeqiuchina

3 years

@JamieMetzl @franciscodeasis @mattwridley @techreview My interaction with Shi’s lab—spanning >40 hrs in 6 wks over 14 months—was no different from any other labs I’ve interviewed in & outside China in the past 16 years. I’m not a CCP member. I spent my formative yrs in UK (I’m an unapologetic Anglophile) & lived in US for 5 yrs. 2/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

3 months

I just hope all the journalists, influencers and amplifiers who played their part in hyping #lableak narratives & contrarians while discrediting virologists now play close attention to who does the work on #H5N1 response. And who is ominously absent from any real work 🙄🤔

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

17 days

"If these narratives are left unchecked, we become a society that dismisses and vilifies those with expertise and experience relevant to the challenges we face."

Dr. Angela Rasmussen

@angie_rasmussen

18 days

“What is now happening to virology is a stark demonstration of what is happening to all of science. It will come to affect every aspect of science in a negative and possibly a dangerous way, as has already happened with climate science.” -colleagues & me

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 months

I don't know, but I feel like the cool kids don't get sucked into magical worldviews and waste their time live-action roleplaying as "investigators" in trite conspiracy myths. Which makes all of those in the media who fall for them, over and over again, kinda embarassing?

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

One of the saddest parts of being manipulated into believing anti-science conspiracy #myths is the simple fact that it robs you. It steals your sense of beauty and wonder. It cheats you out of intellectual tools to navigate the world. It hijacks your agency and abuses your hope

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

4 months

It is exactly for these unethical, manipulative persuasion campaigns why scientific literacy on the #orignsofcovid is so important. Here is why we know for certain that SARS-CoV-2 has nothing to do with gain-of-function research, nor Fauci. Read:

Treacherous ancestry

An extraordinary hunt for the ghosts of SARS-CoV-2

www.protagonist-science.com

Rand Paul

@RandPaul

4 months

I've launched a bipartisan investigation to examine the origins of COVID, gain-of-function research, and Dr. Fauci's cover-up attempts – all to prevent a future pandemic. Will you stand with me as we get to the bottom of what REALLY happened? Add your name now! ⬇️

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Okay let's keep score on #originofcovid : ❌ IC community says it was no #bioweapon , no engineering, no lab manipulation ❌ 'patient zero' myth refuted by IC & @ScienceMagazine ❌all scientific evidence is on #zoonosis ✅ GOP & #lableak lunatics harassing innocent scientists

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

🚨 SARS-CoV-2 was not engineered The notion that we could have made this genome with all its intricacies & #evolutionary fingerprints is deeply #ignorant It's like saying that because we can write musical notes, anybody can stumble upon creating #Mozart 's piano sonata Nr. 18 🧵

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Spot on from Fauci. Many young idealistic researchers who went into science to help people and society are wondering if they will be next, targeted and threatened by political and other anti-science activists.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 months

That is probably not good news for the @NYTimesOpEd desk. My inquiry into the timing of these articles (coordinated on the day of Dr. Fauci's hearing) and their content (to legitimize Republican attacks on public health and scientists) has still not been answered by the editor.

Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 months

It's not like the @nytimes and certain associated columnists had not had ample warning before about their current course of action. Now they have to take the reputational damage that comes with their deliberate actions. Must read:

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 months

Love this projection

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson 🐙

@ayanaeliza

2 months

#WorldOceanDay reminder that’s it’s one BIG ocean. It connects us all — another way our fates are intertwined.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

5 months

That is exactly the point. They have long moved on from trying to make their case in the scientific literature because they can't. So they manipulate influencers, politicians, and journalists to keep a dead hypothesis alive & bully actual scientific voices from public spaces

Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social

@GYamey

5 months

@_everythingism @SydMartin4 I will never understand why the lab leak extremists don’t publish peer reviewed science to prove their theory; they just hurl insults and harass people and accuse them of genocide 🤷‍♂️ Wouldn’t it be better for these folks to do the actual science rather than just harass others?

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

8 months

Anti-vaccine activism is not something that's all fun and games, showing 'them scientists who is the boss' online It comes with harm, sickness, and death. It first hits the vulnerable, those reliant on societal or parental protection. It fosters fear, blame, hate against others.

United Nations

@UN

8 months

Measles cases in Europe & Central Asia have skyrocketed by 3000% this year due to a backsliding of immunization among children. Vaccinations play a crucial role in protecting children worldwide from dangerous & deadly diseases. More from @UNICEF :

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

NEW EXCLUSIVE from me: #Distort , #discredit , #dismiss - 6 additional tactics of media manipulators and why they work to sabotage public discourse Read: Details follow: 1/

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

2 months

After Dr. Fauci, @COVIDSelect has set their harassment campaign against the next outspoken vaccine scientist. Abusing the power of the state to witch hunt outspoken scientists with zero probably cause serves only one purpose: Intimidation & censorship of inconvenient voices

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

The comments under this tell you exactly what happens when a popular conspiracy myth gets questioned right where the truthers believed to find a save space. So much energy wasted on a fiction mostly concocted by media manipulators while science is entirely one-sided for zoonosis

Claire Lehmann

@clairlemon

1 year

The laboratory accident hypothesis of COVID-19’s origins is a bust, but the popular consensus is unwilling to accept it.

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

8 months

Only seeing the most extreme garbage on this platform I am sure you are too Just be wary that this is not reality, but mostly self-serving performance art, propaganda, manipulation and info warfare that exploit our emotions & the agency of our most susceptible citizens Be kind

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Philipp Markolin, PhD

@PhilippMarkolin

1 year

Anti-science activism always goes hand in hand with violations of human, civil & democratic rights Conspiracy myths are an effective tool of manipulators against inconvienient voices. They rob not only our understanding of the world, but steal parts of our shared humanity too.

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