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The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

science.org

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Re: The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

#21

Post by mikeyouse »

YeBanKo wrote: post #17
mikeyouse wrote: post #13

Bill Gates' team and other global health experts have been pushing for a truly open sequence database for awhile now -- GISAID of course has been freaking out and threatening litigation all over the place for every perceived slight. Then there was the other scandal of late, Martin Enserink wrote about that one too ( https://www.science.org/content/article/dispute-simmers-over... ). Basically GISAID claimed they were…

I am not familiar with how GISAID works, but there any sort of signature that authenticates data and ensure integrity. If they backdated the post, could they also tempered with sequences data?

They can definitely mess with the sequence metadata (date submitted, date published, authors, etc) - but they primarily host NGS sequences which can trivially be verified against the original sequencing runs maintained by the researchers, so it's pretty unlikely they've ever tampered with actual genomic data.

Re: The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

#22

Post by SapporoChris »

JohnFen wrote: post #16
glofish wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is because the person is evidently a con-man. So it is not as much "interesting" but "illuminating" that supposedly smart people like scientists can be just as easily mislead as the random person responding to an email scam.

Everybody, without exception, can be conned. Smart people are no more resistant to it than anyone else.

"Smart people are no more resistant to it than anyone else" Absolute statements are very rarely correct.

Re: The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

#23

Post by tough »

YeBanKo wrote: post #6

If things described in this article are true, the the person running GISAID is a conman. WHO and other health orgs uses GISAID’s EpiFlu database to make a recommendation for which strains to use for next flu vaccines. Seems wild that an org ran by a conman has such an impact on the healthcare worldwide.

Almost like its cons all the way down

Re: The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

#26

Post by glofish »

JohnFen wrote: post #16
glofish wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is because the person is evidently a con-man. So it is not as much "interesting" but "illuminating" that supposedly smart people like scientists can be just as easily mislead as the random person responding to an email scam.

Everybody, without exception, can be conned. Smart people are no more resistant to it than anyone else.

Of course that everyone can be conned,

but smart people are more resistant - for the mere fact that they probably know more and are better versed in the goings of life -

I am surprised that anyone would think otherwise.

Re: The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

#27

Post by mutagen »

to11mtm wrote: post #15
dekhn wrote: post #10

I've seen women who do email support roles use an invented persona with a man's name. The one time I asked, the person explained that when they used their own name, they received a fair amount of unwanted attention which went away when they switched to a man's name.

I remember a conversation with my (now) Ex-wife when we started playing an MMO together regarding her nickname; They would use a name that was vaguely ambiguous on gender but was far more likely to be considered Male than female, and it was for similar-ish reasons. They would still get some harassers occasionally (usually someone who found out they were female in guild chat... which was thankfully dealt with swiftly…

Along these lines, nearly 20 years ago in World of Warcraft I made a female human character with a slightly unconventional combination of features and received gender related comments on the character's appearance by the time the character got to Westfall (relatively low level area).

Re: The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

#29

Post by majormajor »

glofish wrote: post #26
JohnFen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody, without exception, can be conned. Smart people are no more resistant to it than anyone else.

Of course that everyone can be conned, but smart people are more resistant - for the mere fact that they probably know more and are better versed in the goings of life - I am surprised that anyone would think otherwise.

> but smart people are more resistant - for the mere fact that they probably know more and are better versed in the goings of life -

Nah, you just run a different playbook. You gotta leverage that arrogance. Like Bankman-Fried.

Re: The “invented persona” behind the GISAID viral sequence database

#30

Post by Accujack »

glofish wrote: post #7
Metacelsus wrote: post #2

It's interesting that a person without any background in biology (Peter Bogner) was able to start a sequence database that has now become critical infrastructure for public health. But it seems like GISAID has outgrown his ability to lead it, and it would be good to transition to more responsible leadership.

It is because the person is evidently a con-man. So it is not as much "interesting" but "illuminating" that supposedly smart people like scientists can be just as easily mislead as the random person responding to an email scam.

I'd say being a confidence man is secondary. Primarily, he seems to have some sort of mental illness. He's paranoid, and seems quite unstable. It's likely he has delusions of grandeur and considers himself a major force behind saving millions or billions from COVID.

I suspect if pushed to replace himself as governance for GISAID (which I suspect he controls alone... I doubt the mentioned technical or governance boards exist) he may well lock off all access to the data that's accumulated or even delete it to prevent someone from taking it from him.

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