🇰🇭 VERTIC is at the NACW of Cambodia for a 3-day workshop to assist with the drafting of biosecurity legal measures to further implement the BWC in the national system of Cambodia. We are looking forward to working with participants over the next three days! Thank you to @norad.no for their support!
New publication alert!
As the 7th session of the BWC WG draws to an end, VERTIC and KCL have published a report on monitoring approaches for BWC compliance. The report is available to read on our website.
www.vertic.org/publications...
This week, VERTIC is back in Geneva for the 8th session of the Working Group on Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention. We’ll be closely following the discussions as States consider how the Convention can be enhanced to address current and emerging challenges.
#1972BWC
#BiologicalWeapons
What a wonderful idea!
Deel of like deze post, blijf interesse tonen aan degenen die je kent met PAIS, houd de politiek verantwoordelijk, en doe wat je kan om infecties te voorkomen (bijv thuisblijven bij klachten, een mondkapje in het ov). Een PAIS kan iedereen overkomen, juist ook als je jong, fit en gezond bent.
Geen van ons is gezond genoeg om online of in persoon te protesteren, maar zo schrijnend is nu eenmaal het gebrek aan aandacht. Daarom strijden wij voor:
1. Erkenning
2. Structurele investering in biomedisch onderzoek naar de verschillende PAIS
3. Betere zorg
4. Langdurig passend beleid
Deze menselijke en economische schade wordt echter niet gereflecteerd in zorg en investeringen in biomedisch onderzoek. Dit is niet te verklaren en MOET anders.
Daarnaast is de economische schade immens. In Duitsland is die schade door alle PAIS geschat op 1.5% van het BBP (2023), omgerekend naar Nederland is gaat dit om €16 miljard per jaar. Duitse politici noemen dit niet voor niks "een van de grootste uitdagingen voor de volksgezondheid van de 21e eeuw".
De ernstigste getroffenen liggen al jaren of decennia op bed, alleen en in het donker, zonder echte zorg. Het lijden is enorm, veel patiënten vroegen al euthanasie aan en kregen dit ook toegewezen.
Vandaag is in Den Haag en online het #PAISProtest. Honderdduizenden mensen in Nederland, volwassenen én kinderen, hebben PAIS (Post-Acute Infectie Syndroom zoals long covid, ME, chronische Q-koorts en Lyme, post-sepsis). We zijn #NietHersteld na infectie.
📢 T&V No. 176 is out! Marking 50 yrs of the BTWC 🧬 & 100 yrs of the Geneva Protocol 📜, with a lead article by Jean Pascal Zanders (@ban-cbw.bsky.social), plus insights on nuclear irreversibility, institutionalisation of the BTWC & maritime sanctions evasion. Read: www.vertic.org/2025/07/trus...
Recently, VM hosted a workshop with @filippalentzos.bsky.social on compliance monitoring approaches under the BWC. Stay tuned, as we will share some insights during a public side event at August's BWC Working Group!
VERTIC co-hosted a successful Biosecurity Legal Frameworks Workshop in Jakarta, 9–11 July 2025, with the Indonesian Biorisk Association, supported by NORAD. Participants explored Indonesia’s biosecurity and legal frameworks. Thank you to all who made it possible! 🤝🇮🇩
It was a pleasure to attend the launch of the Nicholas A Sims Archive on Biological Disarmament on Friday and to celebrate his innumerable contributions to the BWC. Thanks to @filippalentzos.bsky.social for hosting the event and archive!
Jo Platt MP says the system doesn’t recognise the experience of people with long Covid – ministers have a real opportunity to put this right.
The image contains a quote in white text on a dark blue background with a pink quotation mark symbol. The quote reads: "Why that is is not entirely understood. There is a big research gap, generally, in trying to understand why responses to infectious diseases could have these sex biases." Below the quote, the author's name and title are displayed in pink text: DR. PRASANNA JAGANNATHAN ASSOC PROF OF MEDICINE The image has a minimalistic design with a neon color scheme and a small stylized hand logo in the top right corner.
🧪 Studies, anecdotes & research are consistently showing that women are at higher risk of #LongCovid
Yet, the systemic gender bias shows we are still light years behind understanding why
This silence is present in:
🔻Messaging
🔻Protection
🔻Access to healthcare
🔻Treatment
February marked a milestone with the EU CBRN Project 81:BIOSEC Closing Conference in Hanoi. VERTIC is proud to have served in this project under SCJS Europe, tackling biosecurity challenges in Southeast Asia. We thank our partners & team leader, John Jones OBE, for their collaboration and friendship
OTD five years ago, I took my two primary school children out of school, 2 days before national lockdown was announced in the UK.
It wasn't magic foresight or anything - just family & friends in Germany going into lockdown weeks earlier.
A short thread on how
#CovidIsNotOver 🧵 1/n
At the heart of every attack on disability benefits is the myth disabled people “get perks”: a free car, loads of cash, a life off work. It misrepresents the reality of disability, whilst exploiting low wages and high living costs to make the public envy people in daily pain.
“In 2025, Long Covid is the public health crisis no one wants to talk about, taking a wrecking ball to people’s lives, the economy and the health service while those with power pretend there’s nothing to see here.”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"when they should be running around the playground, these children can barely make it out of bed. Not that you ever hear about 🦠 in the school absence debate. Instead, parents of CYP with #LongCovid are threatened with being taken to court"
bit.ly/3RhUwAA
#LongCovid #LongCovidKids #Education
It's #LongCovidAwarenessDay
👂🏼Listen to our stories
😔 Believe us when we say it's bad
😷 Help us normalise mask wearing
🚨 Raise awareness - look through the hashtag and share in your network
🫂 Check on your friends and family - who has been missing from gatherings?
🔬 Politicians: fund research!
A heartfelt thanks on Long Covid Awareness Day to the incredible myalgic encephalomyelitis community who've used their precious energy to provide crucial information and validation to desperate Long Covid sufferers like myself. Five years ago, you were the only ones who understood.
Sometimes you will see people at author events wearing #ffp3 or #n95 masks. This is mostly because they recognise that SarsCov2 is airborne and still circulating widely. And that any Covid infection could be the one that leads to #LongCovid
#LongCovidAwarenessDay
Poster stating "Millions suffering. Infections & reinfections. No mitigations. No cure. CURE LONG COVID NOW.
Today is #LongCovidAwarenessDay. Millions are living with destructive fatigue, facing the risk of reinfections in a world with no mitigation measures and no cure. We need medical care, funding of biomedical research, public awareness campaigns, and clean air in buildings. #CureLongCovid 💚😷
Important to reflect, but also be aware of an ongoing pandemic.
~10K cert COVID deaths in 2024, majority underlying.
Millions suffer #LongCovid .
Yet, IPC cell denies airborne transmission. HCW & patients unprotected.
Kids exposed to repeat infections.
Living with ≠ ignore 💔
x.com/covidinquiry...
"A different narrative has invaded the conversation: it wasn’t the virus that ruined our lives, but the response."
As kids get sicker, media ignores scientific papers pointing to immune damage after COVID. Instead, parents are urged to “watch out” for unusual waves of RSV, flu, pneumonia, & more, while masks, clean air and the pandemic are pointedly never mentioned.
www.thegauntlet.news/p/kids-keep-...
Having just returned from a 55 mile hike along the rugged coastline of Northern Ireland (with photography and great coffee on the way), I am genuinely bemused that some people will still tell me that I'm not living my life solely because I put a mask on anytime I was indoors.