diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fc5c0f61..09da74e7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Relies on data from https://simplemaps.com/data/us-cities.
 ## Running locally
 If you're using Pipenv (see below), then run commands from `./bin/…` inside a `pipenv shell` or wrapped with `pipenv run ./bin/…`.
 
-1. Run `./bin/fetch-from-gisaid > data/gisaid.ndjson`
+1. Run `./bin/fetch-from-gisaid | bunzip2 > data/gisaid.ndjson`
 2. Run `./bin/transform-gisaid data/gisaid.ndjson`
 3. Look at `data/gisaid/sequences.fasta` and `data/gisaid/metadata.tsv`
 
diff --git a/Snakefile b/Snakefile
index 3b8a7d13..e4362ebf 100644
--- a/Snakefile
+++ b/Snakefile
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ if send_notifications:
     all_targets.append(f"data/{database}/notify.done")
 if config.get("fetch_from_database", False):
     all_targets.append(f"data/{database}/raw.upload.done")
+    if send_notifications:
+        all_targets.append(f"data/{database}/notify-on-database-change.done")
 
 rule all:
     input: all_targets
@@ -47,32 +49,51 @@ def run_shell_command_n_times(cmd, msg, cleanup_failed_cmd, retry_num=5):
         print(msg + f" has FAILED {retry_num} times. Exiting.")
         raise Exception("function run_shell_command_n_times has failed")
 
-rule download_main_ndjson:
-    message:
-        """Fetching data using the database API"""
+if config.get("fetch_from_database", False):
+    rule download_main_ndjson:
+        message:
+            """Fetching data using the database API"""
+        output:
+            ndjson = temp(f"data/{database}.ndjson" + (".bz2" if database == "gisaid" else ""))
+        run:
+            run_shell_command_n_times(
+                msg = f"Fetching from {database}",
+                cmd = f"./bin/fetch-from-{database} > {output.ndjson}",
+                cleanup_failed_cmd = f"rm {output.ndjson}",
+            )
+else:
+    rule download_main_ndjson:
+        message:
+            """Fetching data from our S3 bucket"""
+        params:
+            file_on_s3_dst= f"{config['s3_dst']}/{database}.ndjson.xz",
+            file_on_s3_src= f"{config['s3_src']}/{database}.ndjson.xz"
+        output:
+            ndjson = temp(f"data/{database}.ndjson")
+        shell: """
+            ./bin/download-from-s3 {params.file_on_s3_dst} {output.ndjson} ||  \
+            ./bin/download-from-s3 {params.file_on_s3_src} {output.ndjson}
+        """
+
+
+rule bunzip2:
+    message: "Decompressing {input}"
+    input: "{stem}.bz2"
+    output: "{stem}"
+    shell: "bunzip2 {input:q}"
+
+
+rule notify_on_database_change:
+    message: "Notifying on database NDJSON change"
+    input:
+        local_file = f"data/{database}.ndjson"
     params:
-        s3_src_bucket = config["s3_src"],
-        file_on_s3_dst= f"{config['s3_dst']}/{database}.ndjson.xz",
-        file_on_s3_src= f"{config['s3_src']}/{database}.ndjson.xz"
+        remote_file = f"{config['s3_src']}/{database}.ndjson.xz"
     output:
-        ndjson = temp(f"data/{database}.ndjson")
-    run:
-        if config.get("fetch_from_database", False):
-            if database=="gisaid":
-                msg = "Fetching from GISAID API"
-                cmd = f"./bin/fetch-from-gisaid > {output.ndjson}"
-            else:
-                msg = "Fetching from GenBank API"
-                cmd = f"./bin/fetch-from-genbank > {output.ndjson}"
-            cleanup_failed_cmd = f"rm {output.ndjson}"
-            run_shell_command_n_times(cmd, msg, cleanup_failed_cmd)
-            if send_notifications:
-                shell("./bin/notify-on-record-change {output.ndjson} {params.s3_src_bucket}/gisaid.ndjson.xz {database}")
-        else:
-            shell("""
-                ./bin/download-from-s3 {params.file_on_s3_dst} {output.ndjson} ||  \
-                ./bin/download-from-s3 {params.file_on_s3_src} {output.ndjson}
-            """)
+        touch(f"data/{database}/notify-on-database-change.done")
+    shell: """
+        ./bin/notify-on-record-change {input.local_file:q} {params.remote_file:q} {database}
+    """
 
 
 rule download_biosample:
diff --git a/bin/fetch-from-gisaid b/bin/fetch-from-gisaid
index d649fb6e..243f6288 100755
--- a/bin/fetch-from-gisaid
+++ b/bin/fetch-from-gisaid
@@ -6,5 +6,4 @@ set -euo pipefail
 
 curl "$GISAID_API_ENDPOINT" \
     --user "$GISAID_USERNAME_AND_PASSWORD" \
-    --fail --silent --show-error --location-trusted --http1.1 \
-    | bunzip2
+    --fail --silent --show-error --location-trusted --http1.1