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Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
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4 Oct, 8 tweets, 3 min read
So Trump is now also receiving dexamethasone. @WHO guidelines very clear that it is to be used only “in patients with severe and critical #COVID19”. Guidelines incl. “conditional recommendation not to use corticosteroid therapy in patients with non-severe #COVID19”.
Idea is not to reduce the immune system’s ability to fight the virus. But in later stages of severe disease, it’s the immune system itself that is creating most of the damage so sensible to dampen it down. Wondering if idea is that infused antibodies change that equation?
Any thoughts? @BhadeliaMD @MartinLandray
You know what rationale would be @Craig_A_Spencer?
Here’s his take:
This is @carlzimmer making the same point:
And this is a really interesting perspective too:
Fair point - as usual - from Jeremy here arguing the terms “severe” or “critical” may not be very useful. Point is whether the patient needs oxygen

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More from @kakape

Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
2 Oct
"We mourn the loss of so many”, says @DrTedros at #covid19 @WHO presser. "The world is still grappling with the #COVID19 pandemic. Every week we’re adding approximately two million cases."
@DrTedros @WHO "It's never too late to turn the tide”, says @drtedros.
"In Europe, countries have done it. In Asia, countries have done it. In the Pacific, countries have done it. In the Middle East, countries have done it. In Africa, many countries have done it. In the Americas..."
@DrTedros @WHO "This is a critical moment in the #COVID19 outbreak response”, says @drtedros.
"We urge every single leader to strengthen their response, put targeted measures in place that we know can suppress the spread, ensure that health systems and workers are protected, and saves lives."
Read 9 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
29 Sep
One million people dead from #covid19.
Imagine losing a mother, a father, a sister, a brother. Multiply that loss, that pain by a thousand then multiply that again by a thousand. That’s what we are looking at.
What a sad day.
And as I have written before we are on track for 1,500,000 deaths by the end of the year.
Last week more than 2 million cases and more than 36,000 deaths were reported to @WHO, similar to the week before. #covid19 is continuing to cause disease and death at a staggering rate. Image
@WHO "The Eastern Mediterranean Region showed the greatest increase (9%) in cases in the past week, while the European Region reported a substantial rise in deaths, with a 9% increase compared to the previous week.” Image
Read 4 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
28 Sep
“Last week we reached an important milestone in which, @WHO issued the first Emergency Use Listing for a quality antigen based rapid diagnostic test, and we expect other rapid tests to follow. ”, says @DrTedros at #covid19 presser.
@WHO @DrTedros Good news: 120 million of these tests will be made available to low- and middle-income countries, to "enable the expansion of testing, particularly in hard to reach areas that do not have lab facilities or enough trained health workers to carry out PCR tests”, says @DrTedros.
@WHO @DrTedros These tests are cheaper ("priced at a maximum of 5 US dollars per unit”) and faster (15-30 minutes) than PCR, says @DrTedros. "The quicker #COVID19 can be diagnosed, the quicker action can be taken to treat and isolate those with a virus and trace their contacts."
Read 10 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
27 Sep
"Going forwards, improved communication of uncertainty is essential as models are used to predict the effects of different exit strategies."
Yup!

Quote is from this paper on modelling #covid19 exit strategies, which is well worth reading in full:
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.109…
It makes a lot of good points about what data is needed to improve models that can guide exit strategies and has a good short discussion on herd immunity and incl. three challenges for even determining the herd immunity threshold:
1. “most of the quantities for calculating the threshold are not known precisely”, for instance how common immunity is or how long it lasts
2. even the value for R0 needs to be refined
3. Disease clustering lowers threshold but to know how much, more info on transmission needed
Read 4 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
25 Sep
"So-called lockdowns and the impact on global travel and trade have already taken such a heavy toll”, says @DrTedros at @WHO #covid19 presser. "The global economy is expected to contract by trillions of dollars this year."
@DrTedros @WHO "Many countries have poured money into domestic stimulus packages”, says @DrTedros. "But these investments will not on their own address the root cause of the economic crisis – which is the disease that paralyses health systems, disrupts economies and drives fear and uncertainty“
@DrTedros @WHO Today, @WHO and partners are publishing strategy plan and investment case for scale-up phase of the ACT Accelerator, says @DrTedros.
Aims to deliver
- 2 billion doses of vaccine
- 245 million treatment courses
- 500 million tests
to low/middle income countries by end of 2021
Read 16 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
25 Sep
This paper by @devisridhar, @HelenClarkNZ, @martinmckee and others on how nine countries (incl. Germany) managed easing #covid19 restrictions is worth a close read. The take-aways may not be new, but they bear repeating:
thelancet.com/action/showPdf…
@devisridhar @HelenClarkNZ @martinmckee 1. "countries can move forward mainly on the basis of the epidemiology or on the epidemiology in combination with other considerations; however, a clear and transparent plan that describes which factors are being taken into account is essential”.
@devisridhar @HelenClarkNZ @martinmckee 2. “countries should not ease restrictions until they have robust systems in place to closely monitor the infection situation”.
Read 7 tweets

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