⚠️ONE FISH 🐠 SCIENTIST SAVES A WHOLE DAMN ISLAND! So there is this guy - Debes Christiansen - a salmon 🦠veterinarian. He hears #COVID19 & adapts his 🧪test for #SARSCoV2 in a day. Lone scientist tests+traces 10%pop! No more 🦠. Saves Faroe Islands. Hero. theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…
2) The success of the Faroese approach is said by local politicians to be largely a result of the foresight of the veterinary scientist Debes Christiansen, the head of department at the National Reference Laboratory for Fish and Animal Diseases in the capital, Tórshavn.
3) Christiansen had warned the government of the self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark as early as January of the need to prepare for the possible spread of the disease from China. FORESIGHT!!! #COVID19
4) His lab, which was primarily geared to test salmon for viral infection, was adapted and he purchased the extra ingredients required to test humans. There has been mass testing for virus among salmon farmed in Faroese waters since an outbreak of salmon anaemia virus in 2001.
5) According to records, 10% of the pop of 61,000 people got #COVID19 tested. Faroese doctors have been able to track and quarantine everyone who has had contact with the 184 people who had tested positive. Of those who have fallen ill, 131 have fully recovered. No deaths!
6) Christiansen said the switch to human testing had not involved “too much hocus pocus” and that his veterinarian laboratory had been able to source materials required for the tests from a wider range of suppliers. No biggie. #COVID19
7) He said: “It is very easy to adapt. The only thing I changed were some of the ingredients. In our normal work it is specific to fish virus and fish bacteria and in this case I just changed the three components specific to #COVID19.” Easy peesy, lemon squeezy.
8) Christiansen said his facility could do up to 1,000 tests a day if required. the latest batch of tests negative. “we have tested >10% of the population so I don’t think we have that have that many running around who are infected.” ➡️ what a diff early testing makes! #COVID19
9) “If we had had to send the tests to Denmark (1200 km away) for analysis it takes days and up to a week to get them back and it wouldn’t have been possible to control the disease the way we have done.” ➡️ LOCAL TESTING MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!! #COVID19
10) This is Debes Christiansen in his laboratory. He is a fish scientist. He saved island archipelago w/ 49,000 people. Schools are now open cuz of him. Kids playing soccer because of him. He saved the whole damn island chain from #COVID19. Debes Christiansen is a goddamn hero!👏 
11) I’ve had the pleasure, as Co-Principal Investigator of a Danish randomized trial, of working with scientists from Faroe Islands and scientists at the Denmark’s CDC @SSI_dk - they are incredibly sharp and organized agency. They also eat their salmon, fish oil, & vitamin D!😀
