Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Sep 17, 2020 11 tweets 5 min read Read on X
VIRAL LOAD & MASKS. New study— hospitalized patients w/ greater viral load have HIGHER risk of #COVID19 death.

📌We know MASKS lower your viral load if you do somehow get infected.

📌Thus, together means: MASKS => ⬇️ VIRAL LOAD => ⬇️DEATH RISK

Thread🧵
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
2) This study also implies that testing companies should also report viral load (Ct values - lower Ct being higher viral load). It could be more informative.

And currently Ct values of 40 (low viral load) are some say is too high. nytimes.com/2020/08/29/hea…
3) “Tests with thresholds so high may detect not just live virus but also genetic fragments, leftovers from infection that pose no particular risk — akin to finding a hair in a room long after a person has left, Dr. Mina said.”
4) “One solution would be to adjust the cycle threshold used now to decide that a patient is infected. Most tests set the limit at 40, a few at 37. This means that you are positive for the coronavirus if the test process required up to 40 cycles, or 37, to detect the virus.”
5) “Any test with a cycle threshold >35 is too sensitive, agreed Juliet Morrison, a virologist. “I’m shocked that people would think that 40 could represent a positive” A more reasonable cutoff would be 30 to 35, she added. Dr. Mina said he would set the figure at 30, or less
6) BACK to first study. mortality. What is high/medium/low? See below. Patients should have and learn about these data besides just YES/NO positive.

📌High viral load = CT value <25

📌medium viral load = CT value 25-30

📌low viral load = CT value>30
7) As previously pointed out in July, lots of studies show masks lower viral load. Here is one for masks and influenza.
8) Furthermore, as earlier described in a Lancet study 2 months ago — indeed higher viral load (lower values) associated with more severe #COVID19 symptoms. Thus, this checks out for higher viral load linked with high mortality too. Consistent.
9) So now, time to update our “connect the dots”

✅masks ➡️ lower viral load
✅lower viral load ➡️ milder #COVID19 illness
✅Masks ➡️ milder illness
✅Masks ➡️lower viral load ➡️ lower mortality

📌So let’s #WearAMask
📌Let’s start reporting viral load Ct values more often
10) For the full discussion 🧵 on masks and viral load and severity— refer back to this master thread.
11) forgot to mention neat surgical mask hamster study—groups of 🐹were placed in cages separated by surgical mask materials, vs no mask material. Not only did surgical mask 🐹 get less #COVID19 infection, but also milder illness! Again supports viral dose.academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar…

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More from @DrEricDing

Mar 26
HOLY CRAP! The Francis Scott Key Bridge has collapsed after a ship collision in Baltimore. The 1,200 feet (366 m) span bridge was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world.

2) my god— The Francis Scott Key bridge is one of the main highways that forms the beltway of Baltimore. The collapse has been called a mass casualty incident and it is unknown at this time how many vehicles may have been on the bridge at the time of the collision & collapse. wtop.com/baltimore/2024…Image
3) Multiple vehicles have fallen into the water. This is not a small bridge folks - it’s one of the largest truss bridges in the world - and facilitates much of the flow of shipping in the port of Baltimore - which is now likely toast for a while.
wtop.com/baltimore/2024…
Read 16 tweets
Mar 19
Dear @CDCDirector Mandy Cohen… you’ve completed abdicated the “control and prevention” in CDC’s name. Countless have been maimed by #LongCovid, and continue to be harmed.

My thoughts on @Slate’s health podcast—13:30 min mark—



slate.com/podcasts/well-…
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wel…
2) What @CDCDirector did by dropping isolation rules for active #Covid infectious patients— to green light them to goto work and school and shopping centers to spread the virus is complete dereliction of duty to public health. See thread 🧵 on details why. 👇
3) of course I had to misspell “completely” in top post. But while to err is human…. To correct… divine. Maybe @CDCDirector Cohen should learn some contrition. Meanwhile:
Read 6 tweets
Mar 15
📰BREAKING UPDATE—A close friend of @Boeing whistleblower John Barnett who was found dead in his hotel parking lot last week (while still testifying against Boeing) said he had told her just before his court deposition—➡️”If anything happens to me, it's not suicide." See 🧵👇
2) "I know that he did not commit suicide," said Jennifer, a friend of Barnett's. "There's no way." ➡️Jennifer said they talked about this exact scenario playing out.

However, now, his words seem like a premonition he told her directly not to believe.

abcnews4.com/news/local/if-…
Image
3) "I know John because his mom and my mom are best friends," Jennifer said. "Over the years, get-togethers, birthdays, celebrations and whatnot. We've all got together and talked." When Jennifer needed help one day, Barnett came by to see her. They talked about his upcoming deposition in Charleston. Jennifer knew Barnett filed an extremely damaging complaint against Boeing. He said the aerospace giant retaliated against him when he blew the whistle on unsafe practices.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 13
📍Hey folks—on #TikTok—as an American born in China—I have a few thoughts in this post. First of all, I would NOT ever recommend allowing TikTok to access your contact book 📔 of friends, or let TikTok connect to find your Facebook friends, or add your phone number. TikTok claims to be a “global private company” but it’s a wholly owned Chinese company—how big of a deal is it? Well, years ago, Google hit the nuclear eject button and forced itself to fully pulled out of mainland China—why? Because Google got into a fight with Chinese govt—because any media company operating in China must be subject to CCP control and grant communications access (read: for censors/monitoring/data tapping) to the CCP government. Google refused—and hence Google doesn’t operate anywhere in mainland China anymore. For same reason… TikTok being owned by Bytedance, a wholly owned China company—they are subject to same CCP control. TikTok just needs to divested from China and become US owned. Do yourself a favor meantime — disconnect your address contact book 📕 and your FB from TikTok if you must use it, and try not to use your📱number if possible (but still use a 2FA). I don’t want a ban of TikTok but I do support the TikTok divestment from China (so that it is fully US owned). I think TikTok is useful and powerful, but we need to secure it for us fellow Americans by supporting the ***divestment*** so that US controls it. I hope people see I’m not anti-TikTok—I just want us to make it better and more secure to protect our freedom of speech, privacy, and civil liberties. Thanks for listening. And may there be peace ☮️ in the Middle East.Image
Image
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2) I recommend you disconnect as many access points to your phone as possible from TikTok, if you must use it. Trust me on this. I use a ton of social media (I run other large social pages besides Twitter)—but TikTok I don’t touch beyond the most basic limits. Image
3) Congresswoman @RepSpanberger knows what’s she’s talking about — she was a former CIA officer. TikTok will always be subject to Chinese data control as long as it is Bytedance owned.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 11
⚠️HOLY SMOKES—A famous whistleblower against @Boeing on safety issues, has just been suddenly found dead in his truck in his hotel parking lot—all while **testifying in the middle of his week of depositions** against Boeing. JFC. Many of John Barnett’s claims about dangerous Boeing practices have already been verified by the FAA. If we don’t hold accountability for his death, whistleblowers won’t come forward in the future—which would endanger publicly health & safety.
bbc.com/news/business-…Image
Image
2) WTF — “It said the 62-year-old had died from a "self-inflicted" wound on 9 March and police were investigating.” ➡️ people don’t suddenly commit suicide in a parking lot while at a hotel to testify against @Boeing for days and days.
@Boeing 3) Everyone needs to watch John Oliver @LastWeekTonight episode on Boeing immediately… it’s fire 🔥

Read 23 tweets
Mar 6
“We’ve known, there are lots of studies (that show) up to 50% of all cases are transmitted asymptomatically, which means fever is not the relevant thing here.” And many patients never develop a fever at all during a COVID-19 infection.

Read more at: miamiherald.com/news/coronavir…
2) This means if they are feeling kind of sick but don’t have a fever, they may not isolate at all based and may spread the virus to others. The guidelines are “wishy washy” at best and require people to self-diagnose… if an illness is COVID-19, flu, RSV

miamiherald.com/news/coronavir…
3) “Feeling better is subjective, right? What is ‘feeling better’ to one? If you have symptoms that aren’t better explained by another cause, we don’t have the testing for other causes. And what is ‘better explained’? All these things are just so nebulous and undefinable,”
Read 6 tweets

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