Christopher Cox

@cwhe.bsky.social

1497 Followers 113 Following

Writer and editor, NYTM and NYM. Signal: christophercox.01

Highlighted text reads: The Biden administration also invested $766 million in the development of mRNA vaccines for pandemic flu. “If the strain changes,” O’Connell said, “we would want to stay ahead of what’s currently circulating, and mRNA lets you do that a little easier.”
A dhow sailing on the open ocean.
Screenshot of the article with this text: The virus won't replicate into a desert indefinitely. In Worobey and Nelson's paper, they write, somewhat cryptically, "The continued absence of H5N1 in U.S. swine is highly fortunate." I asked Worobey to explain what that meant. Pigs, he said, "have both receptor types throughout their respiratory tract and therefore could conceivably be a much, much better place for the evolution of something that could become successful."
Illustration of the respiratory tract of a man breathing in flu virus, the virus mutating, and the man coughing out mutated virus.
A screen shot of a paragraph from the story with the text: “During the first Trump administration, when Alex Azar had Kennedy’s job, he said, “The secretary of HHS has a shocking amount of power by the stroke of a pen.” We may be about to find out how true that statement is. Offit thinks it’s likely that Kennedy will either eliminate committees like his — cutting off one path for dissent — or fill them with like-minded people. He could hold up the approval of new vaccines and refer existing ones for additional study. There may be few checks on his ability to do so. “In a normal world, you would have people at the FDA and CDC who would say, ‘No, sorry, that’s not going to happen,’” Offit said. “But we don’t live in that world. We live in a world full of sycophants who are just there to rubber stamp whatever it is they’re told to do.” It turns out that not interfering with the vaccine-approval process is another one of those norms that, like not renaming the Gulf of Mexico, we have scant ability to enforce.”
Q: How do you organize your books? A: I have a beautiful library, organized by subjects: History (early to late), Author Biographies, Exploring, Women's Studies, Journalism, Entertainment, English Fiction, American Fiction and Children's Books. The Paranormal books are organized by Ghosts and Hauntings, Reincarnation, Coincidences, Strange but True. Q: Why so many books on the paranormal? A: I have had many strange things happen in my life. Q: Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how). A: Any time, on the sofa, with good lighting, my cat and a small glass of wine.
Question: What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently? Answer: From a book on primates, I recently learned that chimps, monkeys and gorillas all peel bananas from the opposite end from us and use the stem as a handle. I even wrote a poem about how I made the switch.
Screenshot of an interview with James Schuyler from the Fall 2024 issue of The Paris Review.