Tricking AI text-detectors, and covid’s unanswered questions

My colleague has just come down with covid-19. The onset of symptoms was rapid, and she described it as “like being hit by a freight train.” “How very retro of you,” another colleague commented. Another replied: “This is still a thing?”

As a health reporter who has been covering covid since the early days, I am still asked this question on a fairly regular basis. And more than three years in, there are still some big, unanswered questions when it comes to covid. We still don’t really know where this particular coronavirus came from, and our understanding of long covid is still patchy at best. But we do know it continues to cause infections, disease—and death. Read the full story.

Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

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1 Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over Threads 

It claims that Meta poached former Twitter workers to create the “copycat” app. (Semafor)
+ Impressively, Threads sign-ups have surged past the 30 million mark. (WP $)
+ It’s also already hosting a whopping 95 million posts. (The Verge)
+ Threads has what other Twitter rivals don’t: a built-in user base. (Wired $)