Rick Byers

6 years and 300+ experiments later, I've concluded that sequencing all the viruses going through my house is actually slightly useful, while still wildly impractical of course! lab.rbyers.ca/essays/2026020…

For the record, nobody got sick after this.

In good scientific fashion I am registering my experiment here prior to having results. If any of us get the Flu in the next few days I'll sequence it to compare to the virus my kids had.

We took a bit of a gamble this Christmas thanks to home PCR. My teenagers got the flu. Normally we wouldn't have family over or let them leave their rooms without a mask. But by the 24th PCR showed low viral load (CT>32) and rapid tests were negative, so we chose not to cancel.

X was complaining I wasn't engaging enough. I hear all the cool science kids are on BlueSky now. I've moved this account as well (link in Bio).

My son's isolation failed to keep my daughter from the flu. I wish we had tried harder, her starting the flu now likely means she'll be sick most of the Christmas break. Of course it's possible she caught a different Flu at school, I'll sequence the full genomes later to check.

When my Son started to feel sick I was worried that perhaps I had failed to isolate well enough from him. We ran a swab the next day to find he had Influenza A, not my Rhinovirus.

Who else is trying to figure out what holiday plans they need to cancel due to sickness? While imperfect, I am grateful to be able to use home PCR to help answer that question with data. I have a Rhinovirus and my teenage kids have Influenza A.

But also there are several good studies for Iota-Carrageenan gel antiviral spray showing a similar effect. This is available OTC in Canada as "Salinex ProTect" so I've just bought some to try. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC84… amazon.ca/Salinex-ProTec…

In particular this new study for Azelastine is very compelling. A 67% reduction in placebo-controlled trials! But only available with a prescription in Canada. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12…

What nasal sprays do you use for reducing cold / COVID transmission? My family has used Vicks Early Defense (physical gel) in high-risk settings for over a year. I'm convinced it's reduced colds substantially. But there's more evidence for antihistamine and antiviral sprays.

I've expanded my collection of respiratory viral genomes from colds going through my household. I now have 32 PCR confirmed (about 80% hit rate), and 18 of those sequenced partially or completely.

Wow, getting sequencing done from @plasmidsaurus is SO much easier, cheaper and faster than doing it myself. $20 per sample, left in a dropbox and the next day I have sequence! This opens up so many more practical opportunities for my research!

Man, now that I have gotten used to using NotebookLM to search and query my lab notebooks, it's hard to imagine not having it. I can explore years of experimental results and my thoughts around them to more effectively formulate new experiments. Eg. see this "mind map".

@NigelLaw526509 @nntaleb Um, hi! Canada here. 🇨🇦 I'm proud of the position our ambassador is taking. youtu.be/kmb673Og6mg?si…

@nntaleb What are the human rights records of those countries who left the room and those who stayed?

Netanyahu bullshitting an empty room. There are two types of delegates 1) Those who know he is bullshitting but have some professional interest in staying in the room (slaves); 2) Those who know he is bullshitting but have left the room.

Trump is congratulating himself for finding the cause of rising Autism rates while likely being such a cause himself! 🤦

Translation: fever in pregnancy is associated with autism, and so of course taking fever medicine is as well. But taking Tylenol for fever appears strongly associated with much lower risk, not higher. Other fever medicines are already contraindicated during pregnancy.

"the fever-associated ASD risk was attenuated among mothers who reported taking antipyretic medications (OR = 1.30, 95 % CI 0.59, 2.84), but remained elevated for those who did not (OR = 2.55, 95 % CI 1.30, 4.99)." 🤔 europepmc.org/article/MED/22…