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Dear Pandemic

3 Dec, 9 tweets, 4 min read

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.

4/ Those who don’t get tested should self-quarantine for the full 14 days. These recommendations were put in place in reference to int'l travel, but given current levels of #COVID circulating it makes sense to consider domestic travel/extended family gatherings as “high-risk”.

5/If you can’t quarantine due to work/school, it is all the more important to wear a mask, maintain space from others & avoid indoor, poorly ventilated spaces to the extent possible to help prevent spread to others when you do leave the house, in case you are in fact infected.

6/ If you live with individuals that are older or have other conditions that put them at higher risk for complications of #COVIDー19 who didn't travel, you should consider wearing a mask inside the house & minimize close contact as much as you can for the next two weeks as well.

7/ Given individuals are infectious starting ~2 days before they develop symptoms, taking these steps will reduce the chances that you pass SARS-CoV-2 to others before you realize you have #COVID19.

8/ If you do develop symptoms of COVID-19, which can take 2-14 days, you should begin to isolate from others in your household immediately, contact your doctor, and get tested for COVID-19. cdc.gov/.../symptoms-t…

9/ Bottom line, it is not too late to minimize further spread of #COVID if you traveled or gathered with others outside your household over the Thanksgiving weekend.
npr.org/.../2020/11/30…

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More from @DearPandemic

Dear Pandemic

@DearPandemic

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.

Read 7 tweets

Dear Pandemic

@DearPandemic

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.

Read 6 tweets

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

Read 10 tweets

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…

Read 6 tweets

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

Read 7 tweets

Dear Pandemic

@DearPandemic

25 Nov

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.

Read 10 tweets

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