Natasha Loder

The moral panic about GLP-1 rebound. A new note on my S*bstack.

@ShaiBiran like, no uplift I could see or notice on premium

@natashaloder Thanks, good to know!

After X went subscription I decided to try it out and see if it was worth the price. It wasn't. The additional features and reach were of neglible benefit to me as a journalist. I cancelled the subcription, though the app, very soon after paying. Imagine my surprise...

@ShaiBiran nope. not worth it. I'm mostly on Bl*eSky now and its sort of like early days twitter, no algorithm jamming rubbish down your throat. Although there still seem to be plenty of cats and dogs in my feed. Yes it is a bit lefty but everyone is so polite it doesn't matter

@natashaloder Do you feel engagement here is still worth the effort? I'm not sure how long corporate, investors or journalists are going to be here

...when my credit card was billed for well over 300 GBP earlier this year for a renewal. How this was even possible is beyond me.

The “everything drugs” @natashaloder

FYI @rebecwhitt @BBCMorelle @BeccaBarry @Rebeccasmt @Ben_Spencer @whippletom @eleanorhayward @Laura_K_Hughes @lauradonnlee @shaungw @MartinBagot @rhysblakely @michaelsearles_ @denis_campbell @andrewgregory @GeorgiaBanjo @natashaloder @NickTriggle @BBCHughPym #MJAAwards

@notestomyboy That is truly amazing. I’m really happy to hear of his progress.

My Son has been into School today and sat his GCSE English exam. He wore his high school uniform for the first time and sat in a hall with about 100 other kids. The strength and bravery that must’ve taken has me in awe. He’s not done a day in school since Feb 2020 and some of his primary school friends were in the room. He’s done some online tutoring 3 times a week for 6 months but before that did no formal education action for over 5 years. What a boy, love you mate ❤️

A la gente de Tenerife, Mi nombre es Tedros, y ejerzo como Director General de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, el organismo de las Naciones Unidas responsable de la salud pública mundial. No es habitual que escriba directamente a la gente de una sola comunidad, pero hoy siento que no solo es apropiado, sino necesario. Quiero hablarles directamente, no a través de comunicados de prensa ni informes técnicos, sino de ser humano a ser humano, porque se lo merecen. Sé que están preocupados. Sé que cuando escuchan la palabra “brote o epidemia” y ven un barco acercarse a sus costas, afloran recuerdos que ninguno de nosotros ha logrado superar del todo. El dolor de 2020 sigue siendo real, y no lo minimizo ni por un momento. Pero necesito que me escuchen con claridad: esto no es otro COVID-19. El riesgo actual para la salud pública derivado del #hantavirus sigue siendo bajo. Mis colegas y yo lo hemos afirmado sin ambigüedades, y lo repito ahora. El virus a bordo del MV Hondius es la cepa Andes del hantavirus. Es grave. Tres personas han perdido la vida, y nuestro corazón está con sus familias. El riesgo para ustedes, en su vida cotidiana en Tenerife, es bajo. Esta es la evaluación de la OMS, y no la hacemos a la ligera. En este momento, no hay pasajeros con síntomas a bordo. Un experto de la OMS está en ese barco y los suministros médicos están disponibles. Las autoridades españolas han preparado un plan cuidadoso y detallado: los pasajeros serán trasladados a tierra en el puerto industrial de Granadilla, lejos de las zonas residenciales, en vehículos sellados y custodiados, a través de un corredor completamente acordonado, y repatriados directamente a sus países de origen. Ustedes no tendrán contacto con ellos y sus familias tampoco. También quiero decirles algo más, algo que va más allá de la ciencia. Agradecí personalmente al Presidente del Gobierno, Pedro Sánchez, la decisión de España de acoger este barco. Lo califiqué de acto de solidaridad y deber moral. Porque eso es exactamente lo que es. Quiero que sepan que la solicitud de la OMS a España no fue arbitraria. Se realizó en pleno cumplimiento del Reglamento Sanitario Internacional, el marco jurídicamente vinculante que define los derechos y obligaciones de los países y de la OMS cuando responden a eventos de salud pública de importancia internacional. Según esas normas, debe identificarse el puerto más cercano con capacidad médica suficiente para garantizar la seguridad y la dignidad de quienes están a bordo. Tenerife cumplió ese criterio y España lo honró. Casi 150 personas de 23 países llevan semanas en el mar, algunas de luto, todas asustadas, todas deseando regresar a casa. Tenerife ha sido elegida porque tiene la capacidad médica, la infraestructura y sé que la humanidad necesaria para ayudarles a llegar a un lugar seguro. Y porque lo creo profundamente, estaré allí en persona. Tengo la intención de viajar a Tenerife para observar esta operación de primera mano, para estar junto a los trabajadores sanitarios, el personal portuario y los funcionarios que la están llevando a cabo, y para rendir mi homenaje personal a una isla que ha respondido a una situación difícil con dignidad, solidaridad y compasión. Su humanidad merece ser presenciada, no solo reconocida desde la distancia. Como he dicho muchas veces: los virus no entienden de política ni respetan fronteras. La mejor inmunidad que tenemos es la solidaridad. Tenerife está demostrando esa solidaridad hoy. El capitán del barco, Jan Dobrogowski, la tripulación y la empresa que opera el buque han mostrado una colaboración ejemplar en este momento tan difícil. En nombre de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, y en nombre de esos pasajeros y de sus familias en todo el mundo, agradezco al pueblo de Tenerife y a todas las demás personas involucradas. Por favor, cuídense ustedes y cuídense los unos a los otros. Confíen en los preparativos que se han llevado a cabo. Y sepan que la OMS está con ustedes, y con cada persona en ese barco, en cada paso del camino. Con respeto, cariño y gratitud, Tedros

Can’t be long now before someone starts selling the bro-sphere injectable peptideins. Like peptides but smaller!!! Nobody knows what they do but, hey, why not?

@Support can you get in touch please?

No, you did not

@agingroy @prenuvo Interesting. The UK guidelines are different. You know I think I’m going to toss my referral.

@natashaloder @prenuvo A nodule stable for over a decade is about as reassuring as imaging gets. Fleischner Society guidelines say nodules under 6mm in low-risk patients don't need routine follow-up at all. Your daytime brain is right, whereas the 3am version just doesn't have access to the base rates.

$2,500 for a full-body MRI. @prenuvo sells peace of mind. Kim Kardashian sold it as "lifesaving" to 353 million followers. Three systematic reviews. ~15,000 people. The numbers are less flattering. -> 94% get flagged for something -> 1.6% have cancer -> A third get sent for more tests -> 16% are false positives You pay for reassurance. You get a 94% chance of the opposite. Trials proving this saves a single life? Zero. Medical societies recommending it? Also zero. The radiologists who read these scans for a living don't recommend buying one. @prenuvo charges $2,500. @ezrainc charges $499. Neither has published a controlled trial showing their scans reduce deaths. One @prenuvo patient paid $2,500, got the all-clear, had a catastrophic stroke eight months later. Missed arterial stenosis on the scan. He's partially paralyzed. Where evidence supports it, MRI surveillance works. Li-Fraumeni patients: 89% vs 60% five-year survival. Everyone else: 1-in-60 chance of finding cancer. 1-in-3 chance of a testing cascade that ends nowhere. Not anti-MRI. Anti-selling tests with no outcome data and calling it prevention. @prenuvo, @ezrainc: publish an RCT with mortality endpoints. I'll update this.

@iBenHughes @scoob20_ @evernote @obsdmd I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. They offer you 40% off Advanced when you cancel. Very happy to turn it down.

@scoob20_ @natashaloder @evernote @obsdmd Yep after 20 years with @evernote my renewal email this morning with double the price (the second time it’s doubled in 3 years no less) is the final nail in the coffin. I’ve begun migrating all notes today and will be cancelling before renewal.

I would like to congratulate @evernote on such an outrageous price increase that it finally made me look into migrating to @obsdmd. Honestly I've stuck it out for so long with this bloated app and its really tragically bad AI-interface that it is the wake-up call I needed.

@agingroy @prenuvo Do you know what is even crazier? I had an MRI with Craig Venter more than a decade ago and I had a nodule there THEN. But guidelines say that if it is 5mm or more then I have to go have a follow up. It is driving me nuts. Daytime me is like this is stupid. 3am me is 😱

@natashaloder @prenuvo Lung nodules found incidentally are benign >95% of the time. Doesn't help at 3 AM. You paid for reassurance. Got months of hypervigilance instead. That anxiety burden is problematic to say the least, and it's almost never counted in the cost-benefit.

And just for completeness some lovely words from @FutureJurvetson x.com/FutureJurvetso…

The note from JCVI jcvi.org/media-center/j…

Some lovely joyful words on the sad passing of Craig Venter @JCVenterInst by @RogerHighfield.

@FutureJurvetson What a lovely post and a real reminder of what a sparkling human being he was. Really sad to hear that light has gone out.

Genomics pioneer Craig Venter has passed. "If you want immortality, do something meaningful with your life." — J.C. Venter (1946-2026) So many memories... I served on the board of his Synthetic Genomics for over a decade and invested in four of his companies. He was indefatigable and pitched me on his latest new startup just last month. He was the first to sequence the human genome — his own; he gave me a hardback book of his Y chromosome sequence, the one with the SRY gene that made him male. He made the first synthetic life form, a living organism with a near-minimal genome fabricated by chemical synthesis. President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Science. Time and time again, he pushed the bounds of what people thought possible, often engaging the cutting edge of Moore’s Law and the Carlson Curve of plummeting gene sequencing and synthesis costs. He even made a desktop DNA printer. And he had a keen sense of humor and joie de vivre throughout. Here are some of those moments from 23 years of photoblog posts on him: flickr.com/search/?user_i… And more in the SynBioBeta Obit: synbiobeta.com/read/a-synthet…