Alina Chan Profile picture
26 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Great article by @sciencecohen
"Not urgently needing the vaccines at home to fight a virus it has largely quashed, (China) is playing a global game.. using the vaccine to promote the diplomacy of foreign policy objectives."
sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/g…
In-depth discussion of China vs the West's vaccine approaches: which can induce broader immunity, is easier to manufacture and distribute, has the risk of antibody-dependent enhancement of covid, and, importantly, can be readily manufactured locally in other countries...
"crucially for China’s vaccine diplomacy, many.. countries have manufacturers that have produced inactivated virus vaccines for decades.. (those) that cannot access vaccines bankrolled by Warp Speed—especially those that hosted China’s.. trials—might have a more secure vaccine.."
From China's POV, because there seems to be significant risk of novel SARS virus spillover in some regions (South China and apparently Wuhan), the full inactivated virus vaccine may be the more useful approach if it induces broader immunity against different SARS viruses...
Unfortunately, it is still unclear whether vaccinated individuals can still be infected with the virus and pass it onto others who are not vaccinated/have no virus immunity. wired.com/story/does-the…

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More from @Ayjchan

27 Nov
“With publication count highly valued, analysis may also be delayed as teams ‘salami slice’ the underlying results into multiple papers.” 🤣
Been in research for 12+ years and can say that the inability to reproduce a considerable amount of work published even in high IF journals has real costs - to scientists' careers, the research ecosystem, and taxpayers who are ultimately paying for the vast majority of research.
Research publishing can be compared to a game of bluff, where the biggest winners are not necessarily the most honest. But in research, there's no reward for calling someone's bluff, which can likely drag you through years of hell, stalling your own career.
Read 4 tweets
25 Nov
A lot of interest in the D614G mutation comes from whether it made SARS-CoV-2 significantly more challenging for other countries, including Europe and the US, to stop the spread of the virus compared to when it first emerged in China.
For instance, Malaysia's Health Ministry Director infamously said that the D614G variant is 10x more transmissible.

Even though D614G was also present in China in January. See thread:

news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-1…
Two peer-reviewed papers were just published discussing D614G and whether more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged since late 2019:
cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092…

And nature.com/articles/s4146…
Read 27 tweets
24 Nov
Also people asking me about this @nytimes article about Dr. Limeng Yan, Steve Bannon & Miles Guo.

My stance has not changed. We need a way for whistleblowers to get out of China without Bannon and Guo standing in their way and damaging their credibility.
nytimes.com/2020/11/20/bus…
My original thread response when Dr. Yan released her first preprint is here: "If there is one thing that this entire saga has made clear - it is that whistleblowers (as it pertains to SARS2) have no obvious safe route of sharing their information."
For those who aren't too familiar with Dr. Yan's story, here is a quick summary:

In Jan 2020, Yan was helping her supervisor to investigate the new covid outbreak. She heard rumors about the dangerous new virus that the Chinese gov was playing down, and blew the whistle...
Read 17 tweets
24 Nov
People keep messaging me with this @NatureNews article about SARS-CoV-2-related viruses discovered in Japan and Cambodia.

What does this mean in regards to the search for the #originsofSARSCoV2 ? nature.com/articles/d4158…
First, kudos to the article: "Strong evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 originated in horseshoe bats, but whether it passed directly from bats.. or.. an intermediate host, remains a mystery."

Scientific consensus is that bats are the ultimate source. But how did it get to Wuhan?
The Cambodian virus from 2010: "The virus’s genome has not yet been fully sequenced — nor its discovery published — making its full significance to the pandemic hard to ascertain."
Read 12 tweets
21 Nov
USA getting close to 200,000 new daily covid cases and ~1000 covid deaths per day.

An estimated 50 million travelers this Thanksgiving. Some may have already started their trip home this weekend.

Don't need magical powers to see this will won't go well.

technologyreview.com/2020/11/14/101…
For those still on the fence, please consider alternatives to in-person Thanksgiving.

On top of the regular Zoom, Skype, Facetime, Whatsapp meetings, you can:

(1) Watch movies and Netflix with your family using Teleparty netflixparty.com
I recommend Crash Landing on You.
(2) Play super fun app/online games.

Jackbox games - I like Drawful and Trivia Murder Party. jackboxgames.com/how-to-play/

Among Us - Murder your family and friends digitally instead of at Thanksgiving dinner. cnet.com/how-to/among-u…
Read 18 tweets
20 Nov
Went from helping to co-organize the @sciencepolicy conference to being a #CSPC2020 topic.

How can scientists address questions that have been painted as conspiracy theories? And without amplifying or legitimizing misinformation related to these questions.

Thanks @Sciencish
Good tips in this graphic by @CaulfieldTim
Definitely: Always consider the body of available evidence on the topic, recognizing that science evolves.
As a scientist who has been washed out to sea on a contentious covid topic, I find it safest to talk to science journalists for news articles - professionals with some extent of scientific training, who know what to ask scientists, how to probe their reasoning and evidence.
Read 5 tweets

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