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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
columnist, author carlzimmer.com & @Carl_Zimmer@mastodon.social & threads.net/@cwzimmer & bsky.app/profile/carlzi
ConnecticutJoined March 2008

Carl Zimmer’s Tweets

Dear Mr. President: It is important that you and everyone else understand the science of #covid19 because people’s lives depend on it. Let me correct the mistakes in your tweet. 1/7
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So now the Fake News @nytimes is tracing the CoronaVirus origins back to Europe, NOT China. This is a first! I wonder what the Failing New York Times got for this one? Are there any NAMED sources? They were recently thrown out of China like dogs, and obviously want back in. Sad!
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And one more thing: reporters for the New York Times got thrown out of China after helping to expose how the Chinese government played down the severity of #covid19 in the early weeks of the outbreak. I am proud to write for the same newspaper. 7/7
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Scientists have discovered a remarkable human who lived in Siberia 90,000 years ago. Her mother was a Neanderthal, and her father was a Denisovan. Here’s my story on our emerging view of human hybrids:
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A new study indicates sudden global warming stripped oxygen from the ocean 252 million years ago and led to the greatest mass extinction ever. The parallels to now are way too close for comfort. My story for
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"When people just see you standing up there, they sometimes think you’re being complicit in the distortions emanating from the stage. But I felt that if I stepped down, that would leave a void. Someone’s got to not be afraid to speak out the truth.”
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At the White House press conference, Fauci is talking to reporters about coronaviruses binding to ACE2 receptors in the airway. Welcome to 2021. 🤯
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Starting Tuesday, MIT is offering a weekly class to undergraduates **and the public** called “COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and the Pandemic.” An impressive lineup of guest speakers are coming. Livestream info here:
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Scientists wanted to know how the virus reached the city. Studying the virus’s genes, they found the answer: mostly from Europe. The virus did not originate in Europe, but it got to New York through Europe. 5/7
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"I would try to, you know, calmly explain that you find out if something works by doing an appropriate clinical trial; you get the information, you give it a peer review. And he’d say, 'Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this stuff really works.’"
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On getting mysterious powder in the mail: " I looked at it somewhat fatalistically. It had to be one of three things: A hoax. Or anthrax, which meant I’d have to go on Cipro for a month. Or if it was ricin, I was dead, so bye-bye.”
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As infected people moved, some brought the virus to other countries. People in those countries became infected. Some died. 3/7
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Vaccine makers started work on coronavirus vaccines in early January, the day they got hold of the coronavirus genome. They didn’t wait for the president. nytimes.com/2020/07/17/hea
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The president credits himself with vaccine development. Moderna timeline shows it began working on a vaccine while the president was still denying the virus was spreading in the US.
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Note: birds have many flu viruses that *never* get into us. A few bird flus have hopped into people as dead ends. Even fewer have become full-blown pandemics (sometimes via pigs). Four did so over the entire twentieth century. But when they jump, they can make quite landing...
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"To me, it’s a strong reminder of how ready we are to ignore things we cannot imagine.” -The discovery that microbes build electric wires all over the world is mind-blowing, even for the scientists uncovering the planetary grid Here’s my story
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Based on Covid-19 tests and genomes, scientists estimate that B.1.1.7 is doubling in the U.S. every 10 days. It could dominate by March. Public health measures and mass vaccination are crucial right now. Here’s my story for
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Another big vaccine news day. J&J vaccine has 72% efficacy in US, which drops to 57% in South Africa, probably due to B.1.351 variant. With Novavax’s similar results yesterday, it’s a wake-up call about viral evolution. Story w/ &
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I didn't think these fungi, which turn insects into zombies, could be any more remarkable. Turns out I was wrong. Some have gone through an astonishing evolutionary transformation, changing them from killers to essential parts of an insect's body. [1/15] (Image )
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