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Dear Pandemic

25 Nov, 10 tweets, 3 min read

1/ Q: Has my #COVID bubble gotten out of control? How can I tell?

A: Your “bubble” might be far bigger than you think. To figure out exactly how big & who you might be sharing germs with, think like a contact tracer & sketch out your contact network. nyti.ms/361Y1EH

2/ Try this exercise:

🟢 List the people you had close contact with in the last 10 days--your first-degree contacts. That includes the people you live with & anyone else you spent a lot of indoor time with.

3/ There is not a hard & fast cutoff for what “a lot” means here, but we can lean on the CDC definition of exposure: count everyone with whom you spent more than 15 min in the same room.

4/ 🟡 Now for each of these people, list everyone *they* were exposed to. For ex, include the other 5 kids in your child's learning pod plus whatever adult(s) were helping with their learning; or everyone in their classroom.

5/ If you saw clients in-person in the last 10 days, include those clients' household members. These are your second-degree contacts. You might end up listing some ???'s if you don't know precisely who all those people are.

6/ 🔴 Now, for each of your second-degree contacts, list everyone *they* had exposure to. That’s everyone in your child’s classmate’s dance class, your piano teacher’s roommate’s girlfriend, your nanny’s roommate’s drinking buddies, & all your spouse’s clients’ families.

7/ It’s easy to think that our “bubble” stops at first- or second-degree contacts. We have a tendency to think that the people we know & love couldn’t or wouldn’t give us #COVID, or wouldn’t put us at risk. After all, we love them and trust them.

8/ This error is called the halo effect: when we have a positive opinion of someone in one area, we tend to have a positive opinion of them in another, unrelated area, even if that is unwarranted.

9/ In this case, we like & trust our friends to be good friends, but that DOES NOT mean they are exempt from #COVID19 transmission facts! We can give the people we love COVID even though we like & trust them. It happens without us even knowing!

10/ If you mapped out your network using this exercise & you had to get a piece of paper, or fill in a bunch of question marks, your network is large & you can’t properly call it a “bubble.” Perhaps using the word germosphere will give a more realistic picture of your exposures.

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Dear Pandemic

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3 Dec

1/ Q: If I traveled over the holiday weekend, should I be taking any steps to protect others around me?

A: If you traveled/spent time in close contact with others outside your 🏠 over the holiday, it is safest to assume you were exposed.

2/ It is best to minimize contact with others for at least the next 7 days with a negative test and ideally for 2 weeks.
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20….

@CDCgov

3/ While no specific guidelines for what do to after Thanksgiving travel have been issued by @CDCgov, they do currently recommend that individuals who engaged in “high-risk” travel get tested 3-5 days after returning home AND stay home for 7 days, even if they test negative.

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2 Dec

1/ Q: How is it possible that my friends are social distancing & yet have colds??

A: The interventions we use to reduce #COVID19 transmission--such as wearing masks, improving ventilation, & keeping physical distance from other people--don’t target the common #cold as well.

2/ Unlike the virus that causes #COVIDー19, which is transmitted through sharing air with infected people, most of the many viruses that cause the common cold--called rhinoviruses--love to hang around on surfaces.

3/ Especially in settings where a lot of children congregate, surfaces can become highly contaminated & dirty hands spread the common cold very effectively. All it takes is one dirty hand on one sandwich.

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1 Dec

1/ Q: How is #COVID19 affecting international slum communities?

A: TL, DR. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the lives & health of residents of slum communities, or informal settlements characterized by poverty, lack of basic services, crowding, unstable homes.

2/ Unfortunately, we don't have great data on what's happening in most of the informal settlements around the 🌎. One study found that nearly 57% of 7000 Mumbai slum residents tested + for antibodies in July, compared to only 17% in its non-slum regions. cnn.it/3qkEdEL

3/ This highlights the vast disparities in who is likely to contract #COVID in Mumbai. While some have interpreted high seroprevalence to indicate that these communities are approaching herd immunity, others have cautioned that this result may reflect a high # of false positives.

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Dear Pandemic

@DearPandemic

28 Nov

1/ Q: How do COVID-19 & the flu compare?

A: They are VERY different. In short – COVID-19 is more deadly, more people are susceptible to it, we have fewer treatments, and even “mild” bouts can leave long-term symptoms.

2/ To address the elephant in the room: **COVID-19 is MUCH deadlier than the flu.** In fact, since December 2019, #COVID19 has killed more people in the U.S. than influenza has in the past 5 years combined. mck.co/3qh350b

3/ Of course, the burden of COVID-19 is in ADDITION to all the other causes of death around the world, including continuing deaths caused by the flu. bit.ly/2VcB2k2

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Dear Pandemic

@DearPandemic

27 Nov

1/ Q: I like hearing about pandemic response success stories. Can you share another one?

A: We want to share the impressive an&d successful public health response of the Cherokee Nation.

2/ Their recipe: strong leadership, early decisive action, data-driven decisions, widespread testing, and a mask mandate. Compared to surrounding areas of Oklahoma State, the Cherokee Nation has experienced much lower case and mortality rates.

@statnews

3/ We highly recommend a recent @statnews article by @ushamcfarling. In McFarling's article, you'll meet leaders like Lisa Pivec, a member of the Cherokee Nation & senior director of the Cherokee Nation Health Services. statnews.com/2020/11/17/how…

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Dear Pandemic

@DearPandemic

26 Nov

Dear Pandemic community-We are so grateful to each and every one of you for coming along with us on this strange, surprising, and often difficult journey. We’ve grown so much this past year--as individuals and as a community. #HappyThanksgiving #scicomm #Nerdygirls

We are so grateful for our readers and especially all our volunteers. Dear Pandemic’s contributions wouldn’t exist without all of you. Thank you to our followers for trusting us. You give us purpose every day.

Thank you for your commitment to facts. Thank you for asking questions instead of making assumptions. Thanks for laughing at the absurdities of our situation along with us. & most of all, thank you for keeping the candle of hope burning for a brighter future. #hope