Dorsey, a Twitter cofounder and its former CEO, wrote a year ago: In principle, I dont believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.

He added, Elons goal of creating a platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is the right one.

On Friday, Dorsey shared starkly different thoughts on Bluesky, a Twitter alternative thats seen a surge of interest, partly thanks dissatisfaction over Musks changes to Twitter. Bluesky was the brainchild of Dorsey before the Musk chaos, and Twitter initially funded the platform. Today its still in its beta testing phase and can only be downloaded with an invite from another user. Business Insider reported on Dorseys comments.

In response to a Bluesky user asking whether Musk had proven to be the best possible steward for Twitter, Dorsey replied, No. Nor do I think he acted right after realizing his timing was bad. Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale. It all went south.

Musk had an opportunity to back out of buying Twitter last year, but it would have meant paying a $1 billion break-up fee. Instead, Musk proceeded with the $44 billion takeover, described as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in history by Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives.

If Elon or anyone wanted to buy the company, all they had to do was name a price that the board felt was better than what the company could do independently, Dorsey added. This is true for every public company. Was I optimistic? Yes. Did I have final say? No. I think he should have walked away and paid the $1b.

Musk has alienated advertisers and users alike with his often impulsive changes to Twitter. This month he delivered on a promise to purge legacy blue checks, or accounts where Twitter under the old regime had verified notable users for free. After the purge, a blue check on a Twitter bio meant a user paid for it, leading to a backlash movement called Block the Blue. But then, celebrities who didnt pay for the check mark started receiving it anyway (often to their embarrassment). 

Among them was novelist Stephen King, who told Slate this week, The thing is, you know, not to brag or anything, but I get paid to write. I dont have to pay to do it. This whole thing has just sort of devolved into something thats kind of a head-scratcher. It doesnt keep me up at night, but itsits weird.

To many the blue check chaos felt indicative of Musks Twitter reign, rather than being an aberration. 

Fortune reached out to Twitter for comments but received no human reply outside normal business hours. 

Los Angeles Lakers superfan Jack Nicholson was watching at courtside for the first time in nearly two years Friday night when his team hosted the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series.

The 86-year-old Nicholson hadnt been in his usual seats in the Lakers downtown arena since last seasons opening game in October 2021, but the three-time Academy Award-winning actor returned to his famed spot near the opposing bench with his son.

Nicholson was a fixture in the last half-century of Lakers history, cheering on the team through several eras of success after getting his season tickets in 1970. He was the most prominent face in the Lakers gallery of celebrity fans, his sunglasses and famous grin ever-present at courtside and occasionally on the court if he was particularly displeased by an officials call.

Nicholson cheered while the Showtime Lakers racked up championships and captured Hollywoods imagination, and he remained an avid fan while they won five more titles in the Kobe Bryant era. He famously adjusted his shooting schedules and personal meetings to keep himself free to catch every big Lakers game.

Nicholson rarely attended games after fans returned to the Lakers building following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the chance to watch the Lakers attempt to win a playoff series at home for the first time since 2013 was irresistible to their No. 1 fan.

The matter came to a head Friday after Fagans office released an audit of the states marijuana regulators, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. The audit called for the OLCC to reform some rules for marijuana businesses, saying they are burdens when combined with federal restrictions on interstate commerce, banking and taxation.

Fagan, a Democrat, recused herself from the audit because she is a paid consultant of an affiliate of marijuana retail chain La Mota, Fagans spokesman Ben Morris said at a virtual news conference about the audits release.

La Motas co-owner has hosted fundraisers for top Democratic Oregon politicians, including Fagan, while the co-owner, her partner and their business allegedly owe $1.7 million in unpaid bills and more in state and federal taxes, according to Willamette Week, a Portland newspaper.

Fagan didnt appear at the news conference, which included her spokesman, deputy and the audits director. News of the consultancy was first reported Thursday by Willamette Week.

Morris denied Fagans outside work represented a conflict of interest and said Oregon Government Ethics Commission guidelines specifically allow public officials to maintain private employment.

But hours after the audit press conference, Republican legislative leaders, who are in the minority in the Legislature, called for Fagan to resign over the consulting job.

This appears to be an ethics violation and if it isnt then Oregons ethics laws are broken, Senate Republican leader Tim Knopp and House Republican leader Vikki Breese-Iverson said in a joint statement.

Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, indicated she had concerns later on Friday.

Its critical that Oregonians trust their government, Kotek said in an emailed statement.

Kotek said she was urging the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to immediately investigate this situation and asked the Oregon Department of Justice to examine the audit.

The audit questioned the OLCCs requirement that marijuana businesses keep their stash behind steel doors and have 24-hour video surveillance systems. The OLCC should make marijuana regulations more like those governing distilled spirits, which the agency also regulates, the auditors said.

The audit also said Oregon should prepare for the U.S. government eventually legalizing marijuana and position the state, with its huge stockpiles of the drug, as a national leader in the industry.

Oregon, long known for its potent marijuana, would be competing with other pot-producing states particularly California, which also has a vast oversupply for the export market if marijuana is ever legalized nationally.

Now is the time for Oregon to prepare its system for a future when cannabis is legal nationally, Oregon Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Myers said at the news conference.

Oregon Audits Director Kip Memmott noted with a bit of envy that Canada legalized marijuana and is a lot more proactive in looking at the benefits financially.

Oregon can lead the way in the U.S. in how pot is regulated, while also offering its high-end strains of marijuana, Memmott said.

We have kind of a signature commodity, along with our timber and all the other great things that Oregon produces here. And theres a real opportunity, Memmott said.

Oregons auditors reminded the OLCC to follow its own strategic plan to position the state as a national leader by increasing the number of speaking engagements at national conferences, holding more statewide meetings and championing a nationwide framework for cannabis regulation.

OLCC Executive Director Craig Prins wrote in response that his agency is keen to move quickly if, and when, interstate marijuana commerce is permitted.

Prins said he expects only the highest quality products from well-regulated systems, that have recognized testing, packaging, labeling, and traceability standards, will be allowed for sale into other states.

Oregon has for years prioritized these standards, which are aimed at protecting consumers, Prins said.

A total of 21 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational use of marijuana, but activists see little chance of the current Congress moving toward national legalization. Still, theres hope the Biden administration will allow pot commerce among states that have legalized it.

During her time as White House COVID response coordinator under former President Donald Trump, from March 2020 through January 2021, Birx oversaw the development and widespread distribution of COVID tests, treatments, and vaccines. American innovation in combating COVID, however, slowed to a crawl after the initial hurried pushand it leaves her frustrated and worried about the future, as the virus continues to evolve to pick off COVID treatments and chip away at the protection that vaccines provide. 

Ive been really upset that the federal government has not prioritized next-generation vaccines that are more durable, next-generation monoclonals, and long-acting monoclonals, Birx told Fortune in an interview at the magazines Brainstorm Health conference, held earlier this week in Marina del Rey, Calif.

Omicron is mutating to bypass the initial arsenal of weapons developed for use against it. Already, Omicrons changes have rendered every universal monoclonal antibody treatmentadministered to people at high risk of hospitalization and deathuseless. Eventually, it will take down Paxlovid, too, Brix says.

She added: If we lose Paxlovid, we could easily double the number of deaths, which currently sit at just over 1,000 per week, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Weve lost ground

As the U.S. COVID public health emergency (PHE)slated to end May 11draws to a close, Birx is concerned that apathy has overtaken common sense. She says shes more worried about the lack of progress on vaccines and therapeutics than she is about the government declaring an end to the COVID crisis.

If they were ending the PHE and I could say, Okay, we now have three therapeutics, we have better monoclonals, we have a more durable vaccineinstead, weve lost ground in therapies for those who are vulnerable, she said.

Thus, the end of the PHE is not a victory, she maintainsfar from it.

Right now, were just accepting that 270,000 Americans died last year, she said. Two-hundred and seventy thousand. Were going to easily lose over 100,000 this year. That, to me, is not success.

Birx continued: You dont want to back yourself into controlling the pandemic because all the vulnerable Americans have died. Thats not how you win in public health.

Annual summer and winter surges

As for the future of the pandemic, nothing is certain. Birx points out that wastewater levels of the virus are virtually the same as they were a year ago, and that every year so far weve seen summer and winter surgessignaling that the virus is now seasonal,  like the flu. 

When it comes to COVID, well have a summer surge, and well have a winter surge, like we have had in years past, she said, adding that surges have become less dramatic lately due to a high level of population immunity.

Birx says it remains to be seen whether COVID becomes more deadly. Omicron has become so highly transmissible that its virtually stuck in evolutionary stasis, with new variants incredibly similar to the previous one. To get unstuck, sometimes viruses will evolve to become less infectious but more severeso its just a matter of tracking it.

Americans have accepted repeat infections, Birx saysand while such frequent infections have helped blunt spikes in cases, they also bring along with them a high level of long COVID, she said. 

Brix called for wastewater monitoring at every American embassy overseas, asserting that such testing would give scientists an idea of how COVID, the flu, RSV, and adenovirus are circulating globally. Doing so would allow them to better prepare for surges to come.

New York wouldnt have happened with better planning

Weve missed the mark before, and without proper surveillance, we could miss it again, Birx warns. Case in point: The nations pandemic preparedness plan failed immediatelyin the first week of the pandemic, she sayswhen those involved didnt realize that COVID could be transmitted among people who had no symptoms.

Early in the pandemic, the bulk of those hospitalized were 50 and older. But theres never been a pandemic that only infects certain age groups, she said. Just because those under 50 generally werent hospitalized didnt mean they werent being infected. You had to know there was a spectrum of disease and a lot of asymptomatic spread.

When Birx joined the White House COVID response team in early March 2020, COVID testing was only available in public health labs. She gathered private companies in a hurried push to develop and manufacture tests that could be made widely available, an effort that took six weeks. 

Imagine if we had done that in the end of December, beginning of January, she said. New York and all of those fatalities wouldnt have happened, because we would have seen it at the very beginning. 

Were not ready for the next pandemic

As for the next pandemicwhether its a future evolution of COVID, the bird flu, or something different entirelyBirx says the U.S. is unpreparedand is perhaps even less prepared now than it was on the eve of COVID-19. In large part, thats due to the lack of involvement of private companies in governmental pandemic planningand a rapid-onset amnesia of lessons learned over the past three years.

When she called on private companies shortly after assuming her position, they stepped in and saved the day, she saysand countless American lives. The companies missed out on revenue when they diverted supplies to safety net hospitals that paid less, rearranged their supply chains, and dropped all pretense of competition and just helped, she said.

The group that saved Americans was the private sector. To not have the private sector at the table makes certain that were not going to be prepared.

Birx called for researchers to be more cautious when conducting lab experiments with viruses like COVID and the bird flu. At the moment, bird flu doesnt easily infect humansa trait that prevented coronaviruses SARS and MERS from becoming larger problems in the early 2000s.

But that could change quickly and easily, if researchers modify the bird flu to easily adapt to humansa move that, in case of a lab leak, could put humans permanently at risk, she says.

As for whether the COVID pandemic started from a lab leak in China or an animal-to-human spill-over event in the Wuhan wet market or elsewhere, Birx doubts well ever have enough data to say definitively.

We canand shouldguard against both scenarios, going forward, she maintains.

We ought to be putting systems in place to prevent lab leaks, she said, and we should be putting systems in place to prevent leaks from wet markets.