Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Epidemiologist & health economist. Public health early warnings. Faculty @NECSI. Fmr 16 years @Harvard. Short story: https://t.co/eNp7gjyhC0. Early bio: https://t.co/oHWAOO7FXU

Oct 5, 2021, 9 tweets

BOOSTERS URGENTLY—Singapore wave spiking so hard that 50% of all hospitalizations & 32% of all #COVID19 deaths are breakthroughs—all while 98% cases asymptomatic or mild & 83% of 🇸🇬 population is 2-dose vaccinated. Vaccines work—but #DeltaVariant is risky!
moh.gov.sg/news-highlight…

2) Vaccines work? Absolutely! 98.3% mild or asymptomatic. But is #DeltaVariant so severe that it can still send the rest of the 1.7% to the hospital.

3) There are currently 247 cases requiring oxygen supplementation, and 34 in the ICU. Of those who have fallen very ill, 235 are seniors above 60 years. hence why elderly need boosters.

4) Singapore 🇸🇬 relaxed its mitigation, hence now lots of younger adults are hospitalized too. It’s exponential math if you balloon total infected.

5) To be clear— if a country is 100% vaccinated, then 100% of any hospitalization would be breakthroughs too. 98.3% of SG’s surge in cases is mild or asymptomatic— but when you BALLOON the total number of cases, inevitably there will be hospitalizations.

6) the other issue is waning efficacy against infections. 47% after 5 months. But hospitalization efficacy is holding up at 88% at 5 months. But 88% isn’t 100%… and when you BALLOON 🎈 the total number infected then, you will have spillover into hospitals.

7) If there are 2 viruses, one more contagious and less severe, and one less contagious and more severe… which will sicken more? The more contagious & less severe—ballooning the denominator. Problem is— #deltavariant is both more severe and more contagious—and immunity wanes.

8) Because of the waning, we need a public database for vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. CDC is finally providing it.

9) We now know not all vaccines have same efficacy. We need to implement policies to react to that. Boosters for J&J and Pfizer faster…

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