1/3 Thread: I was glad to see the Russians publish their phase 1 data, previously I was critical for their lack of transparency after their public declarations following licensure of "Sputnik V" or whatever the heck they were calling it. Some positives and negatives:
2/3 Thread: On positive side was their lyophilized formulation: Freeze-drying makes it possible to deliver vaccine in remote areas without a cold chain. The Russians are good at this, they pioneered the creation of "dryvax" that made it possible to eradicate smallpox in 60s 70s
3/3 Thread: Downsides: Not very high virus neutralizing antibodies, hard to compare study to study, but levels of VNA similar to Astra Zeneca vaccine in NHPs that was partially protective, also logistic complexity of 2 different vaccines for prime and boost, respectively.
I'm curious to know what might happen if they boosted instead with our recombinant protein vaccine, if that prime-boost strategy might induce higher VNAs? Not sure how we could make that happen - it certainly would be an interesting exercise in vaccine diplomacy...
Russia 🇷🇺 India 🇮🇳 USA 🇺🇸 #VaccineDiplomacy during this terrible time? That would be beyond cool, but I wouldn’t know how to begin brokering something so ambitious. Maybe @WHO@DrTedros could help us begin?
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I don’t understand what NY Times is trying to do today, I mean I get the part below, but why that headline? And why bury the overwhelming benefits of Covid immunizations? Why say “for most people” the benefits outweighs the risks. Say it as it is >99.9%
And you point out how 200,000 Americans needlessly perished because they refused Covid vaccines from a predatory and political vaccine campaign amazon.com/Deadly-Rise-An…
Between this and the mainstream media’s obsession with false equivalency between natural Covid origins vs gain of function/lab leak, they are not helpful
1/n update on Covid in U.S. first some good news, latest from CDC shows we’re now at about our lowest levels of new COVID hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic…
2/n also Covid wastewater numbers looking pretty good, so as I said a few weeks ago, it looks like we might a low Covid spring or at least May. Good for HS or college graduations
3/n the concerning trend is one @EricTopol and others pointed earlier today namely these newer FLiRT variants, if and when they go over 50% will the numbers rise again?
1/n I’m seeing on social media and popular podcasts, awful nonsense and false claims about Covid immunizations in pregnancy causing autism in newborns. This is dangerous health disinformation at multiple levels. Here is the real story.
2/n First the adverse health impact of Covid on both pregnant mother and new baby is undisputed, it’s devastating for both, especially high maternal morbidity and mortality journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
3/n moreover the health benefits of Covid vaccinations for both mother and newborn are also indisputable and life saving. This from @LancetDigitalH thelancet.com/journals/landi…
1/n Latest from @IHME_UW and their new Global Burden of Disease 2021 data for COVID19 excess mortality in 2021. A few things: First, it helps dispel the myth that LMIC nations on the African Continent were spared the ravages of Covid. A reason…
2/n a reason is low vaccination rates. My view: the overemphasis on speed or new technologies and innovations, there were insufficient mRNA and particle vaccine doses made in 2020-21, and these were bought up quickly by high income countries.
3/n I believe if our @TexasChildrens vaccine group received more international assistance we could have moved faster to help LMICs in Africa. As it is even without that help (or very modest help), at least 100 million doses of our low-cost, patent-free Covid vaccine administered