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Conor Browne
@brownecfm
Biorisk analyst
Belfast, Northern Ireland
linkedin.com/in/conor-brown…
Joined January 2011
3,450
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36.4K
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  • Pinned
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Jan 21
    Delighted to have had this wide-ranging conversation with @PathogenScribe covering biological weapons, accidental release, the importance of precision in terminology, mitigating airborne pathogens, dual use research of concern, and much more. Thanks for having me on, Heather!
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    Heather McSharry, PhD
    @PathogenScribe
    Jan 21
    🎙️ Now live: From Spillover to Weapons A conversation with biorisk expert @brownecfm on why clarity matters more than fear for biological threats — natural, accidental, or deliberate. 📷 Listen now on your fav podcast player or here: #InfectiousDose infectiousdose.com/post/biorisk-w…
    33K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Sep 25, 2022
    Some personal observations on the characteristics of people I know who are continuing to take as much care as possible to not get Covid (in no particular order): a short 🧵 1. High impulse control 2. Personal experience of serious illness 3. Strong internal locus of control
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Sep 17, 2024
    My mother passed away a year ago today. Her journey into frailty and nursing care began suddenly, with a fall that fractured her arm. She had just driven back from a bookshop, and fell getting out of her car. Life can change in a heartbeat. Rest easy in the bluebells, mum.
    A photograph of my mother, a woman with platinum-grey hair, wearing a blue winter coat and dark trousers. She is sitting on the stump of a tree in a forest, her head turned to the left. Tree trunks are visible behind her, and the forest floor is covered in bluebells.
    156K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Oct 11, 2023
    1. I think almost everyone who is still taking active steps to avoid being infected or re-infected with SARS-CoV-2 is tired at this point; I know I am. Having said that, late last night it occurred to me, with considerable clarity, that every single person I have had the...
    813K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Dec 10, 2022
    1/ A large part of my job is producing detailed reports for commercial clients regarding how the ongoing pandemic will affect the market in the future. Weeks, months, years.
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Feb 8, 2023
    1/ The single most dispiriting element of the whole pandemic response thus far to me is how obvious it has become that the vast majority of people are unwilling to make the smallest alterations to their daily lives in order to protect the vulnerable.
    669K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Nov 28, 2023
    If you're puzzled as to why governments and public health departments almost never mention even the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 induced immune dysregulation it's because to do so would be to admit the greatest mistake ever made in the history of health policy.
    496K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Aug 10, 2025
    1. I've said exactly this for quite some time. Expanding on Adrian's point here, Covid-19 has three distinct characteristics as a disease that enables it to be denied at a societal level.
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    Adrian
    @SillyPutty78
    Aug 9, 2025
    If COVID resulted in everyone getting harmless, untreatable, utterly gross pustules covering their entire face for weeks we wouldn't still be in a pandemic.
    572K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Sep 25, 2022
    Replying to @brownecfm
    9. Adaptable 10. Emotionally stable 11. Comfortable with uncertainty 12. Pragmatic 13. Intuitively understand risk/benefit analysis 14. Disciplined Unsurprisingly, many of these traits are well-known as forming part of a 'survivor mindset'. These people are not anxious.
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Oct 11, 2023
    Replying to @brownecfm
    5. I will end with this: all of you are doing the right thing, from the standpoints of health, ethics, and, quite frankly, common sense. You are all outstanding human beings, and, I assure you, you will not regret your ongoing decisions /end
    126K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Oct 11, 2023
    Replying to @brownecfm
    2... pleasure of meeting through this platform, every single person still trying to avoid Covid, form, as a group, the most compassionate and resilient set of people I have ever met in my life. These shared qualities are not a coincidence. The great conceptual mistake that the..
    124K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Dec 20, 2022
    COVID-19 in China: Current Situation and Downstream effects: 🧵 1/ From the outset, it is very important to recognise that a humanitarian catastrophe is currently unfolding in China. Analysis of this situation is not incompatible with recognising the horror of the situation.
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Sep 28, 2023
    1. As always, the best reporting on Covid-19 is to be found in the financial press. 'The last big finding was that in some people with long Covid, other latent viruses — things like Epstein Barr virus that go dormant, but don’t disappear — were...
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    Long Covid Is Real. Now the Evidence Is Piling Up.
    From bloomberg.com
    485K
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    Conor Browne
    @brownecfm
    Apr 29, 2023
    Replying to @brownecfm
    3/... but they don't'. My 85-year old mother, with a frailty score of 7 and some confusion, legitimately understands the situation we're in better than the majority of people. All I said back was, 'mum, that's absolutely correct' /end
    126K