Judging from its disappointing, unprestigious and short list of invited speakers #NIDO2026, starting June 26 in PRC/HK, is going to be poorly attended and lacklustre. Perhaps few (except me) enjoyed the last, #NIDO2023, or CSHAs #Coronavirus meeting in Awaji, Japan, very much?

🚨NIDO 2026 is now accepting Late‑Breaking Abstracts for research findings that became available after the regular submission deadline. Request for submission: info@nido2026.com #NIDO2026 #Nidovirus #HKJCGHI #Virology #GlobalHealth #Research

They didn't tell anyone much but USDA is "soliciting public and stakeholder input on the future regulatory framework for genetically engineered (GE) organisms under the Plant Protection Act." Get busy if you have an opinion. Deadline June 15! @GMWatch @foe_us @foodandwater app.govly.com/public/signals…

Munster told investigators at the Detroit-area airport that any necessary documents were in his laptop, “but you don’t need them. I do this all the time,” the FBI quoted him as saying. apnews.com/article/scientist…

The virus hunter and his contraband A prominent virologist is alleged to have brought pathogens into the US without authorization. The FBI is investigating. On January 25, 2026, virologist Vincent Munster travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Detroit by plane. At the airport, officials asked him to open his luggage. They found dozens of vials containing patient samples – without the necessary paperwork. This was initially reported by a whistleblower. The FBI is now investigating. Munster researches dangerous pathogens, including Ebola and monkeypox viruses, at his workplace, a high-security laboratory in Montana. He has also been involved in projects by the US military's research agency. In 2017, the scientific journal " Science " described how the virus researcher and his team captured bats in the Democratic Republic of Congo to collect blood and urine samples. Munster returns to this location repeatedly, always searching for active Ebola viruses, which he hopes to find in the bats. However, the article stated: "Sending material that could contain the Ebola virus is a bureaucratic nightmare. It can take months for the samples to arrive in the USA." The exact contents of the samples that Munster brought back from the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2026 are not publicly known. The Bundibugyo virus, commonly known as "Ebola," has been circulating in the eastern part of the country since at least April. According to the National Institutes of Health, Munster's field study on Ebola is being conducted in the western part of the country. Journalist saw internal emails Journalist Paul Thacker revealed on his blog, " The Disinformation Chronicle," that Munster had been caught at Detroit airport. He cites internal emails from the US Department of Health and Human Services. "Virologists regularly collect viruses from far-off countries and bring them to their own cities to study them," Thacker wrote. One of these virologists is Vincent Munster. In response to an inquiry from Infosperber, Thacker stated: “Vincent Munster smuggled dangerous human pathogens into the USA. And this despite the fact that we had a Covid pandemic, which was presumably triggered by virus research, and despite the White House working to end dangerous gain-of-function research.” Gain-of-function research involves intentionally making pathogens more dangerous. In his blog, however, Thacker offered a more nuanced perspective: The pathogens, including the monkeypox virus "and potentially other viruses," that Munster had brought with him "could have been inactivated by the reagents and thus no longer infectious." Munster had not responded to several of Thacker's inquiries. The US Department of Health and Human Services referred Thacker to the FBI, which declined to comment. "Will probably go to prison." Vincent Munster will "probably go to jail," ardent Trump supporter and influencer Laura Loomer quoted US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy as saying. Kennedy had informed her of this in writing. Loomer has close ties to the White House. She emphasizes that Munster is a foreigner and claims that the virus researcher had Ebola viruses in his luggage – and then Loomer's speculations run rampant: Did Munster possibly plan a bioterrorist attack? “We know that Vincent Munster hates President Trump. Was he trying to unleash another virus during Donald Trump’s presidency to ruin his term again or blame him for an Ebola outbreak?” the influencer recently speculated on X, alluding to the coronavirus pandemic. Involved in controversial experiments Munster is from the Netherlands. In 2013, he established the Virus Ecology Department at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, which he now heads. The research facility is operated by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Its former director, Anthony Fauci, supported gain-of-function research and considered it beneficial. Munster learned his craft, among other things, from virologist Ron Fouchier at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Fouchier caused a storm in 2011 when he created highly dangerous H5N1 influenza viruses in the laboratory ( Infosperber reported on this). He downplayed the risks of such gain-of-function research. Munster was involved in the controversial H5N1 experiments. Zika viruses smuggled – or not? The virology department at Erasmus University is headed by Marion Koopmans, who also works for the WHO. Emails released during a court case revealed that Fouchier, Koopmans, and Munster were in contact with the powerful US scientist and then-presidential advisor Anthony Fauci, at least at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Fouchier was involved behind the scenes in manipulating public opinion to prematurely dismiss the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 could have originated in a laboratory. As a proponent of gain-of-function research, he had no interest in seeing this branch discredited and potentially hampered, or even completely shut down, by regulations. Koopmans has also been accused of illegally smuggling viral material out of the country. "Marion Koopmans told me in the back of a taxi in Geneva that she had smuggled Zika virus out of Brazil in a vial in her trouser pocket," tweeted US scientist Edward Hammond @pricklyresearch in 2021. He has been advocating for greater biosecurity for decades. @MarionKoopmans promptly dismissed his accusations as "bullshit." "Reckless and dishonest" When contacted by @infosperber, Hammond stood by his account. According to Brazilian law on genetic resources and biosafety, such smuggling would have been prohibited. What is permitted during transport is regulated; this information can be found, for example, on the recently updated website of the Swiss Federal Commission for Biological Safety. In the case of Vincent Munster, the "foreigner" who has been conducting research in the US since 2009, Republican Senator Tim Sheehy has now become involved. According to him, it has been confirmed that Munster was temporarily detained at Detroit airport and that the FBI is investigating. Is Munster a scapegoat because the Trump administration has a score to settle with the gain-of-function researchers close to Fauci – or did he actually massively violate the rules? Journalist @thackerpd maintains his position: "Vincent Munster smuggled dangerous human pathogens. Whether they were inactivated or not, we don't know." Thacker states that if he had been allowed to publish the documents he had reviewed, he would have done so. Munster's actions "underline that these virologists don't follow the rules. They have acted recklessly and dishonestly towards the public for far too long." Munster does not deny and remains silent, even when asked by Infosperber. Why didn't Munster obtain permission? “I think the case should at least be investigated,” says virologist and plant geneticist @BioSRP Jonathan Latham, who critically observes the field – and vice versa. He suspects that an Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, which claimed over 11,000 lives, was due to sloppy work in a laboratory. Munster would likely have received permission to transport monkeypox, which is considered less dangerous than Ebola or Bundibugyo. Why, Latham asks, did Munster not obtain this permission? Martina Frei with @infosperber / May 31, 2026 infosperber.ch/wissenschaft/…

The body of the Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was found by rescuers after several hours of digging in the rubble after an Israeli strike. She is the fourth journalist to have been killed by Israeli forces in seven weeks. This is why the word ‘journacide’ is now being used.

The real steps in the right direction, which at this rate @Nature will reach around 3000AD, are to blind reviewers to the authors and to publish the reviews of rejected papers; and the true reasons are not "to illuminate the process...blah, blah" but to prevent malpractice, which in our experience is endemic and inherent to editorial power and why they won't do it.

I guess we'll be making this point for a while yet: It is not Ebola Virus. The CFR of Ebola is therefore of minimal relevance It is Bundibugyo virus, of which there have only been 2 human outbreaks with very uncertain CFRs

The enhanced games are not about sport. "I believe we are just at the beginning of a global, decade-long mega-trend of human enhancement and consumer biotech." bbc.com/sport/articles/cj0p1…

Rebranding #Bundibugyo is fine with some people but it isn't made any more right by calling people sick from it as suffering from "Ebola disease". It's made worse, for the victims and for us.

Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini dies aged 76 bbc.in/4dUer4R

So according to @insideNIAID actual Ebola virus should be called Ebola virus and so should Bundibugyo virus which is a different species. By this logic I presume every other species in the genus should also be called Ebola virus? So that would include viruses (like Reston virus) that cause negligible symptoms in humans and have never been shown to transmit between humans. Way to confuse the public I guess.

For people wondering why I am fussing about calling this an "Ebola" outbreak when it's a Bundibugyo virus. Different species, see the GIF. Well the media and science media are asking actual Ebola survivors about their experiences but not asking anything at all about actual Bundibugyo outbreaks from the past. Names are important: cell.com/cell-reports-medici… @alisonannyoung @R_H_Ebright @danaparish @Tantalite @TheSeeker268 @StevenSalzberg1 @WhiteCoatWaste @MJnanostretch @angoffinet @gdemaneuf @jhalloy @JohnStauber @DrBobRedfield51

Likely not. The one #Ebola out break that came closest to a pandemic was due to western bungling, corruption, and a coverup. independentsciencenews.org/h…

Legacy media implemented a blackout on CIA officer Jim Erdman's testimony that the CIA’s scientific analysts determined the COVID pandemic started from a lab leak and Tony Fauci interfered in the process. Erdman was too credible for them to skewer w/ made up news, floating

This is a common misconception. D614G functions in all species tested, therefore it's NOT a human adaptation, it's an adaptation to transmission. It was the only consistent AA change for 9 months = PERFECT human adaptation; consider other species where AA changes start accumulating in the Wuhan strain straight away. And in biological terms, although D614G has structural ramifications these are not how its effects are mediated. Rather, D614G dampens the innate immune system, which is extra high in the nasal passages. So by doing this it enhances transmission (in and out). Hence the quantum leap in transmissibility it engendered. (And, importantly, DEFUSE does not explain this mutation.) D613G is not a thing except a typo?