Goodness. A lot of my Xwitter feed is about this outbreak in Russia. It seems that it might not be bubonic plague. But either way, it’s a serious virus. It’s become aerious enough in my mind11 Not that I know anything. that I’ve created the "2026 Russian Outbreak" tag on the blog.#

Again, I hope this turns into nothing.#

But pretty much every outbreak in the history of the world has spread far and wide and humbled humans ability to contain and control it.#

I don’t know much about the science of outbreaks and plagues. All I know is that outbreaks are very common – as we learnt with COVID-19. Throughout history there’s plagues roughly every fifty years I think. And now that humans have the toxic combo (literally) of being able to design these viruses ourselves and the hubris to think we can control it, it wouldn’t surprise me if outbreaks happen more often than every fifty years.#

I’m always baffled that there’s labs playing with this stuff. I hope it’s for ethical reasons – such as helping cure diseases. But you feel that we’ve got to put together some sort of treaty, like we have with nuclear bombs, around these viruses.22 Though don’t expect Russia to play ball.#