3 thoughts I ran out of time to share on #TheDrum tonight: 1/ If Vic has a #HotspotLockdown, they should occur along borders that aren't jurisdictional, but make epidemiological sense. Locking down 6 gigantic LGAs, 20% of Melb's population seems inefficient. #COVID19Aus#auspol
2/ Lockdowns must BE fair and SEEM fair. It's one thing to lock down a state. Another to lock Coburg while Toorak thrives. If the need for this approach to lockdowns isn't communicated well, people will resist. And we'll need more enforcement. Let's avoid friction #covid19aus
3/ Granular lockdowns require granular social support. As this (small) survey during Ebola showed, people's acceptance depends not only on the levels of contagiousness/lethality, but also provision of support services #covid19aus#auspoleuropepmc.org/article/pmc/pm…
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There is a worldwide shortage of IV contrast, and it's happening in Australia too. What is 'contrast', why is it important, and why is this happening? 🧵
Contrast is a dye that is sometimes injected into patients during investigations such as CT/MRI/Angiograms... wherever the dye is carried by blood vessels, it 'lights up' in the image of the scan.
Sometimes it's nice to have a scan with contrast.
Other times it's critical.
In Victoria, there is a 'critical state-wide shortage' being cited by at least one hospital I'm aware of, forcing it to delay scans or perform other investigations as a substitute.
I'm seeing a lot of people say that Will Smith couldn't have done much damage with his 'slap'. Here's why that's not quite true.🧵 (1/15, for real)
Dying from a strike isn't somehow impossible if it is an open handed strike vs a punch. There are other factors that arguably matter much more.
For starters, conventional wisdom in street fights (where you don't have gloves to protect hands) is indeed to 'slap'
Favouring open handed strikes (esp with heel of hand) instead of a closed fist allows trained fighters to *swing harder* without risking metacarpal fractures.
I can't wait to hear the non-explanation for the 24 hour Tokyo-drift hairpin u-turn reversal of the isolation+ day 6 RAT policy.
It's not that either decision is right or wrong, it's that the decisions are poorly made and communicated.
A shorter 7 day isolation period has tradeoffs that plausibly will confer a net positive benefit, at a population level.
Day 6 RAT for covid +ves: tradeoffs either way - neg result might let infectious people go early. Infectious people who test positive may be kept isolated appropriately. non-infectious who test positive would be unnecessarily isolated. Trade offs either way.
The world has 2 new COVID pills. But there's an issue.
After symptom onset, you must get tested, get result back, see Dr, start meds, all in 5 days.
If you're likely to follow that process, you're prob also the kind of person who's had access + inclination to get vaccinated🧵
Authorities could recommend the pills to people who're already vaccainted, but the vaccines are already great! That's not the population with most to gain from treatments.
Plus, in 2022, it could be hard to convince fully vax/booster folk with a sniffle to go thru above process
So who are these pills likely to help the most? The unvaccinated.
But are adults who are currently unvaccinated (for whatever reason) in Aus likely to follow through with the process of testing/waiting for results/getting medication I've mentioned above?