Since political officials are trying to censor CDC reports, I thought I'd share 12 of the ones I've found useful:
1. Children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Of ~600 attendees in this Georgia Camp, 44% tested positive. Median age was 12. 1/12 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
2. SARS-CoV-2 is stable in air: once airborne, SARS-CoV-2 retains ability to infect cells for at least 16 hrs. It's hardier in aerosols than SARS-1 or MERS. This helps explain why airborne route could be major culprit 2/12 wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…
3. Testing asymptomatic people is really important. This report on prisons shows that limiting tests to just symptomatic people underestimated cases by 12 times 3/12 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
4. Going to restaurants can be risky. This study of patients shows that those who tested positive for COVID19 were actually 2X more likely to have dined at a restaurant in the last two weeks 4/12 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
5. Young children contract SARS-CoV-2 and spread it to households. This study of childcare facilities uncovered 12 children who acquired the virus and passed it onto 26% of their non-facility contacts, including family members 5/12 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
6. We need more testing. Infections in health workers often go undetected: in participants who had contracted the virus, about half didn't know they'd previously had COVID19, and two out of three didn't even have a prior positive test result. cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
7. Air Travel can be risky: even though a passenger on this flight wore an N95 mask most of the time, she was infected during the flight. She was seated 3 rows away from an asymptomatic patient and took off her mask when using the bathroom 7/12 wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…
8. Virus is very contagious: of 3,635 meat facility employees, 929 (26%) tested positive. And that's an under-estimation of all cases since testing was directed at symptomatic people. An additional 210 of their contacts were also infected w/SARS-CoV-2 8/12 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
9. Coronavirus is in the air: 94 employees (out of 216) were infected in a call center in South Korea, a 43.5% attack rate! Nearly all of them sat on the same side of the building, suggesting airflow as culprit 9/12 wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…
10. Another study pointing to coronavirus in the air: an asymptomatic individual sitting at a table in a restaurant infected people sitting at two other tables that were facing an Air Conditioning unit, pointing to recirculated air as the culprit 10/12 wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…
11. Masks should be encouraged: Two hair stylists who were COVID-19 positive interacted with 139 clients. Everyone was wearing masks. 67 clients agreed to be tested and none of them were infected 11/12 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
12. young adults are not immune: of 508 hospitalized patients in this early study, 20% were aged 20–44 ,18% were 45–54 years, 17% were 55–64 years. Almost half of those in ICU were under 65 12/12 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
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A thread on how Paxlovid💊neutralizes the virus👇 1/5
2/The SARS-CoV-2 virus is made up of components (proteins, RNA, lipids) that come together and give rise to functional virus particles. Paxlovid blocks the ability of some of the proteins to function, resulting in a defective virus. Here's how…
3/Normally, when the virus infects cells, its RNA genome replicates, the RNA is turned into proteins, & proteins come together to make new viruses.
When the proteins are made, they're initially strung together, but they need to be freed from one another in order to do their job
Electric Vehicle battery & grid battery supply chains are coming to the USA 🇺🇸
$2.8 Billion in awards to support 20 companies to manufacture domestically
This is 1st of set of investments to build out battery manufacturing
A thread on projects👇1/22
2/22
Albemarle: project objective to construct new, commercial-scale U.S.-
based lithium materials processing plant at Kings Mountain, North
Carolina that uses sustainably extracted minerals from the site’s lithium mine.
3/22
American Battery Technology Company: commercial-scale facility to manufacture battery cathode lithium hydroxide from Nevada-based lithium-bearing sedimentary resources.
The Inflation Reduction Act Congress just passed includes a historic $369 billion investment to 1) lower energy costs; 2) revitalize US manufacturing; 3) slash greenhouse gasses by 40%; and 4) address environmental justice. Here are a few highlights from this bill🧵
1. Lowers energy costs for consumers:
Includes rebates to install electric & low emission appliances in homes
Also includes tax credits to make homes energy efficient, install solar, geothermal, etc...
$7,500 consumer credit to purchase clean cars like EVs; $4K for used🚘
2. Supports nationwide clean energy manufacturing base
Tax credits for manufacturers of clean energy technologies
Grants and loans so auto makers can retool & produce clean cars, like Electric Vehicles
Funds R&D @ENERGY National Labs to develop next-gen energy technologies
1/Early diagnosis, isolation & contact tracing of close contacts are key to controling the Monkeypox outbreak.
Here are the European Union health authority's recommendations for who should be contact traced during this outbreak: the four categories of "close contacts" include:🧵
2/
🔹️Sexual partners: those with any type of sexual contact with MPX cases from the onset of symptoms
🔹️Household contacts: those living in same household (inc. overnight camping/stay) with MPX cases; those sharing clothing, bedding, utensils; or caregivers of MPX cases
3/
🔹️Health workers coming into contact w/patient's lesions or w/prolonged face-to-face contact (>3 hrs at < 2m distance) or involved w/aerosol generating procedures—all without PPE
🔹️Other: case-by-case, may include those sitting next to MPX case during prolonged travel
1/Monkeypox is a member of the Poxviridae family. These are large viruses with large DNA genomes (∼200 thousand bases🧬). By comparison, sars-cov-2 has ~30 thousand. And since its genome is made of RNA it mutates more than monkeypox. Nice review article:rb.gy/higk98🧵
2/Monkeypox is closely related to the infamous smallpox. After smallpox was eradicated through a global vaccination campaign we rightly stopped vaccinating against it. But that allowed monkeypox, once confined to remote areas, to spread more.
3/While the monkeypox case fatality is lower than smallpox—which had a whopping 30% case fatality—monkeypox is quite serious and lethal. Historically the Central African clade had a 10.6% fatality, while the West African clade was 3.6%. The latter has spread around the world.
1/📌What if we had the ability to stop #SARSCoV2—and all its variants—from infecting us?
We do. It's called an N95 mask. When worn properly it catches over 95% of airborne particles—mechanicaly & electrostatically.
It's excellent against #Omicron. A thread on how it works🧵
2/N95 respirators are made of polypropylene material that go through a "melt blowing" process where it's melted & extruded through small-diameter holes into hundreds of tiny fibers (like spaghetti) that are tangled together. They block incoming particles. rb.gy/nz3vgx
3/The fibers are then charged. This is done by passing them through device that produces static electricity. Like rubbing a balloon on your head, but it's permanent. The charge makes them 10 times better at capturing particles than material without charge. nature.com/articles/d4158…