Hannah Herzig @hcherzig

Biosecurity@PopVax | views are my own Joined May 2026

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Hans Kluge @hans_kluge

6 days ago

Warm congratulations to Prof Peter Piot and Prof Jean-Jacques Muyembe on receiving the 2026 Virchow Prize for their pioneering work in global health. Fifty years ago, their combined field and laboratory work helped identify and characterise the Ebola virus, turning a previously unknown pathogen into knowledge that continues to guide outbreak response today. As Ebola again tests communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the legacy of Professors Piot and Muyembe remains deeply relevant. Their decades of partnership show that outbreaks are defeated not by fear, but by cooperation, equity and sustained investment in strong health systems. lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/new… @virchowprize | @LSHTM | @ProfHeidiLarson | @ITMantwerp | @MTamfum | @inrb_kinshasa | @MinSanteRDC | @WHOAFRO | @ProfJanabi | @anne_anciiaWHO | @WHO_Europe

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Nan Ransohoff @nanransohoff

23 hours ago

Today we're launching Intercept: a $500M philanthropic initiative to make respiratory infections, like the common cold and flu, a thing of the past. We treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but that’s really not the case. Most of us will spend 5% of our lives (!) sick from these viruses, they kill 1M people a year, cost $600B annually in productivity, and periodically threaten civilization through pandemics. So, if they’re such a big problem, why haven’t we dealt with them yet? Last year we convened ~40 leading scientists, pharma R&D leaders, biotech investors, and regulatory experts to better understand that. We heard two main reasons: (1) First, it’s just technically very challenging: respiratory viruses represent hundreds of distinct, mutating strains across several families. Fortunately, recent breakthroughs make this newly possible. (2) Second is a lack of funding: broad-spectrum solutions have historically been underfunded, in part because they’re not a great fit for most philanthropic or commercial funding (and while COVID generated a burst of activity around preventing and understanding respiratory infections through an influx of new funding, that hasn't been sustained). We think that with enough focus and funding, this might be solvable. Intercept is a $500 million philanthropic initiative that will take advantage of new tools to catalyze the development and deployment of two types of products: broad-spectrum preventatives and air cleaning technologies. This problem is undoubtedly difficult. But it’s more tractable now than it’s ever been. We think we should give it our best shot. We’re enormously grateful to our anchor funders: @stripe, @AnthropicAI, @TheFluLab, @FoundationOAI and individuals from Jane Street. And, I’m very excited to be building this with @incredutility and the rest of the team.

Nan Ransohoff @nanransohoff

23 hours ago

interceptfund.substack.com/p/ending-respi…

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Jassi Pannu @JassiPannuMD

17 hours ago

"Making respiratory infections a thing of the past" might sound unrealistic. But it's a continuation of progress we take for granted. If you're reading this, you likely don't worry about foodborne or waterborne disease. Time to achieve this for respiratory infections too!

Nan Ransohoff @nanransohoff

23 hours ago

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Hannah Herzig @hcherzig

a week ago

"What does success look like in public health? It’s often the things we don’t see, the headlines we don’t read, the diseases that don’t develop." Very nice column from @devisridhar on what went well during the hantavirus outbreak response.

Prof. Devi Sridhar @devisridhar

a week ago

My latest column on whatever happened to hantavirus.... theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

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PopVax 🇮🇳 @PopVaxIndia

2 weeks ago

We're excited to welcome Hannah Herzig (@hcherzig), who previously helped set up the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) at the European Commission, to lead PopVax Biosecurity and build the Immune Engine to combat the threat of AI-designed viruses!

Soham Sankaran @sohamsankaran

2 weeks ago

The end of the world might start with someone asking an AI to design a deadly new virus. To combat this, @PopVaxIndia is building the Immune Engine to design & manufacture new medicines for novel pathogens in weeks, not years. Read our essay: chronicles.popvax.com/p/apocalypse-l… (1/11)