I've lost my vacuum cleaner.

I set the Roomba going on its little job & a little while later I heard it give its musical "I'm stuck!" alarm (in French, as I can't figure out how to change the language).

....And I can't find it πŸ™ƒπŸ€¦πŸ»β€β™€οΈ

#HowsYourFridayGoing?
Good news - I have found the Roomba. It made itself a little nest under a low cupboard, behind some boxes, & over some thick cables (didn't know it could crawl over those). It now has a dead battery & is being grumpy at me (in French).
Roomba & I have a strained relationship at times. I bought it second-hand & I think it has abandonment issues

Me: *pointing* I would actually really appreciate it if you'd do the kitchen floor now please
Roomba: *heads off to vacuum random corner by front door for the 17th time*
The premise of Roomba is a bit of a mis-sell, really:
"Would you like to believe you can let the vacuum get on with its job but actually be trapped in a weirdly parental supervisory role? Boy, do we have the gadget for you!"

"Never talked to appliances before? You'll start now!"
Then, after being rescued 5 times & half-vacuuming the floor, Roomba wheels back into its little stand and plays itself a victory song like it's just landed a Ryanair flight πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™€οΈ

β€’ β€’ β€’

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More from @firefoxx66

14 Oct
We do not have to choose between lives & livelihoods when fighting #SARSCoV2 - through effective #TestTraceIsolate & suppression, we can allow *everyone* to take part in an open society.

Join myself & more than 80 other #COVID19 scientists & experts - sign the #JohnSnowMemo
Why 'John Snow'? It's not just because winter is coming! John Snow is considered one of the founders of epidemiology - he traced a cholera outbreak in London to a water pump & removed the handle to curb transmission. Quick effective action saves lives!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow
The letter says it best, but why do we stand against 'targeted shielding' & 'natural herd immunity'?
1. We do not fully understand immunity to #SARSCoV2 - we don't know how effective it is, or how long it lasts. It's irresponsible to lean on something we don't know will work.
Read 12 tweets
7 Oct
Thanks for helping to spread info about phylogenetics @Laurie_Garrett! But it's critical the info is accurate.

Couple of important points:
These great graphics are come from @nextstrain! You can see a tree with full menus here: nextstrain.org/ncov/global
We update every weekday!
Also, those early genomes aren't 1% different. That would be a difference of 300 bases, and they differ by 0-2 bases.

The divergence of the strain you pick out (see it in yesterday's run nextstrain.org/ncov/global/20…) is in number of changes, NOT percent! Much less worrying :)
As @pathogenomenick says, even the longest branches of the tree are incredibly similar - they differ by ~20 bases out of 30,000 - or ~0.07%

Also, the sequence highlighted has 4 amino acid changes, not 6. This isn't unusual, so no need for alarm!
Read 4 tweets
7 Oct
1/ In much of Switzerland, we had a significant drop in temperature about 2 weeks ago. Likely people have come indoors, closed windows, & turned on heaters - all things that increase #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 transmission.

Winter isn't coming - it's here. And it's making things harder.
2/ In #Switzerland we have been teetering over the edge for weeks: a slow but sustained rise in cases. Our actions were slowing transmission, but not stopping it. The thermostat drop may have just given us a gentle push into more effective #SARSCoV2 spread.
3/ Rising #SARSCoV2 cases are bad on all counts:
- More chance of spilling into older age groups (worse outcomes) πŸ‘΅πŸΌ
- More chance of rare bad outcomes in younger ages πŸ€’
- And cases beget cases - the more there are, the harder it is to contain them πŸ“ˆ
Read 4 tweets
30 Sep
1/ #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 transmission isn't equal: some cases transmit much more than others. We know that close, crowded, poor ventilated places (esp w loud talking/singing) link to superspreader events.

Minimising these situations will have an outsized effect - without 'lockdown'
2/ We can also reduce *risk* in those situations: make them less crowded (density rules), make them quieter (no singing, turn down music so talking is easier), increase ventilation (open doors/windows, turn up HVAC), reduce aerosols (wear masks if possible).
3/ @AdamJKucharski explains that this uneven transmission also means a person, on average, was infected by someone who infected others too. If we trace *backwards* & find the 'source' - then trace their contacts - we'll identify more cases.
More effective use of tracing efforts!
Read 11 tweets
25 Sep
Is #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 evolving to bypass masks & hand-washing??

Good news - No! These measures physically remove πŸ§ΌπŸ‘πŸΌ or trap 😷 the virus so it never reaches you. These basically can't be evolved around. So keep up the mask-waring & hand-washing - it *is* protecting you!
Ah, you'd like more detail? Sure! The 'mutation' referenced is 'D614G' - it arose in Jan (long time ago!) & we've known about it for months. It's actually the variant that most ppl in Europe & many in the US already had!

So why are scientists still looking at it?
There is evidence the D614G mutation *may* slightly increase transmissibility. Studies in cell culture & looking at the virus structure think it might be /better at bonding to cells/.

That means it has to get to a cell before that mutation can have an effect!
Read 4 tweets
23 Sep
The 'Texas Paper' is getting sensationalist headlines. Remember:
- D614G is same mutation we've known about since spring & been in media all summer
- It happened in ~Jan & most of Europe & much of US had it
- Great to confirm previous work, but not 'breaking'

#SARSCoV2 #COVID19
Worth noting that the authors of this study sat on 5,000 sequences *all summer* meaning they couldn't be used by other scientists to explore any findings in these sequences. Or to better understand Texas's epidemic during its biggest spike.
The author laments the low sequencing rates of #SARSCoV2:

β€œI think we need to be doing this pretty aggressively in multiple locations on a real-time basis,” Musser said. β€œI think it’s shameful that we’re not doing that.”

/It's shameful to sit on sequences that could be public./
Read 11 tweets

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