1. CDC: nearly 11,000 exposed to coronavirus on flights. Agency investigated 1,600 cases of people who flew while at risk of spreading the coronavirus, identifying nearly 11,000 people who potentially were exposed to the virus on flights 🧵 washingtonpost.com/local/traffica…
2. According to story, CDC contends viruses don't spread easily on planes w/air filtration systems, but being in close proximity to people for long periods is a problem. CDC’s guidance for travel is that staying home is safest. Indeed, in-flight transmission has been observed...
3. Yesterday researchers published an example of SARS-CoV-2 spread on planes. In March, a super-spreading event on a 10-hour London to Hanoi flight led to 16 Infections due to what is thought to be airborne transmission on the aircraft...
4. Authors of that study challenged the airline industry's assumptions that blocking the middle seat isn't necessary: both the use of face masks and additional physical distancing on planes can help to reduce transmission.... wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26…
5. We @FAScientists have asked United and American to block the middle seat. It won't make the problem of long-range aerosols go away but it will reduce the risk of short-range transmission. @iduncan mailchi.mp/fas.org/airlin…
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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…