How many human cases of H5N1 have there been historically? We just updated our dataset on this. Find it here: ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-f…

This only shows reported cases — testing to confirm flu subtypes is limited, especially for subtypes like H5N1.

I see that Metaculus has a median forecast of 3% that human H5N1 cases will exceed 500,000 before the end of the year.

But, only 28 people have made a forecast, and there's only 1 forecast in the last month! Could we get more interest/thoughts on this?
metaculus.com/questions/1501…

A short distraction from MooFlu (© TompkinsLab) to BatFlu:

'The bat-borne influenza A virus H9N2 exhibits a set of unexpected pre-pandemic features'

from Schwemmle Lab and company

assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-29375…

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I don't know why OP deleted it, but I think it needs to be preserved for posterity.

Recently published paper in the Journal of Public Economics :

'The econometrics of happiness: Are we underestimating the returns to education and income?'
Vol 230 (Feb 2024)

by Chris Barrington-Leigh (@profcpbl )

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

How well do people know their own social abilities? Patrick Heck, Matt Brown, and I ran two studies (N=927) that each showed a surprising pattern: a negative relationship between people's self-rated skill and actual performance for social ability. People who rated their social skills…

If you're 18-22 years old, consider applying for Works in Progress's summer school in August.

It features Saloni Dr Anton Howes Stuart Ritchie 🇺🇦, and others, on topics like the causes of the Industrial Revolution and the dysfunctions of modern science.

worksinprogress.news/p/apply-to-com…

Very important to note here that qPCR positives are not the same as 'virus particles.' It's much easier to detect viral RNA by qPCR than it is to detect infectious virus or intact virus particles (as the article correctly notes).

This finding does have some big implications:

Here is a link to 239 consensus genome sequences, assembled by 👾 Karthik, from sequencing reads of 2.3.4.4b H5N1 influenza A virus from cattle and other species.

github.com/andersen-lab/a…

Science-y writery types! Our World in Data is hiring an in-house writer, and obviously they're brilliant and important and you could actually make a difference to the world! Go and apply here ourworldindata.org/writer-q2-2024

We just updated our data on electrical vehicles:
ourworldindata.org/electric-car-s…

Here is one datapoint: 93% of all new vehicles sold in Norway last year were electric.

Come work with us!

Our World in Data is looking for a writer who can write global issues for a wide audience. You could focus on poverty, inequality, health, demography, or any of the many other topics we cover (or don't yet)! (And the team is awesome.)
ourworldindata.org/writer-q2-2024

Update:

Seems the Dept. of Agriculture Dept. of Agriculture_APHIS chose not to share sequence data with the global GISAID Initiative system where a vast majority of all global scientists have shared their data on influenza viruses since 2008.

In addition, they chose not to include critical metadata on timing and…

psu.edu/news/research/…

Come work with us!

Our World in Data is looking for a writer who can write global issues for a wide audience. You could focus on poverty, inequality, health, demography, or any of the many other topics we cover (or don't yet)! (And the team is awesome.)
ourworldindata.org/writer-q2-2024