Maria Van Kerkhove Profile picture
Dec 10, 2020 14 tweets 9 min read Read on X
🤔 Want to know how @WHO guidance is developed?

Here’s a brief explainer and🧵⬇️:



1/
@WHO is an evidence-based organization.

The prevention, detection & control strategies & technical guidance that we develop are based on robust science, generated through extensive, collaborative research, & evaluated by a broad network of experts

2/
@WHO works with scientists, clinical and public health professionals, people affected by public health challenges, across the world

3/
@WHO works with many different technical disciplines from different settings, avoiding conflicts of interest. WHO bases its guidance on critical reviews all the available research.

4/
For new 🦠, it takes time for research to be conducted, so we draw experience from related infections, & reach out to researchers to access new data asap. Where there are gaps, we work w partners to develop research agendas for everything from epi to R&D (@rd_blueprint)

5/
@WHO coordinates international technical networks, which have been working together for decades on various pathogens, across a range of technical areas, from outbreaks to pandemics.

These networks are expanded & strengthened all the time.

6/
@WHO relies on the expertise of guideline development groups who review all of the research and develop the guidance

Guidance is not based on one study, one discipline

7/
@WHO works with patient and civil society groups, implementers, and others to ensure guidance is practical and meets the highest ethical standards.

8/
@WHO's guidance (on all topics) is reached through consensus based on existing science, benefits and harms as well as other considerations such as feasibility and acceptability, values & preferences of affected groups & cost.

9/
@WHO guidance development is based on:
➡️evidence generation
➡️evidence synthesis & critical appraisal
➡️recommendation writing
We continue to review new evidence & update guidance as necessary

This is @WHO

@DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @SCBriand @doctorsoumya @diazjv
Thanks @mrigankshail for this video summarizing “how we science”

Science is a process

Its been an incredible & heartbreaking year for #Science #Solutions #Solidarity

Hang in there, we will get through this

@DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @doctorsoumya @SCBriand @gabbystern
@WHO Leads in Using Solid Science to Draft #COVID19 Policy: Study

the-scientist.com/news-opinion/w…
Another helpful & descriptive ppt by @WHO #EpiWin on how we develop guidance

1000s of scientists work w WHO to review,assess&synthesise data, write recs (did you know that WHO doesn’t write recs?) & update regularly

@DrMikeRyan @GroveJohn @doctorsoumya

tinyurl.com/xx7pz2su

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More from @mvankerkhove

Mar 29
For the last few years, @WHO and @CERN have been developing a risk assessment tool to estimate indoor airborne transmission of #SARSCoV2 to better advise on risk mitigation measures for #COVID19.🧵

home.cern/news/news/know…
Note: The risk assessment tool itself has been online for more than a year, helping our member states and partners reduce the risks of airborne transmission indoors. 

partnersplatform.who.int/aria
The model behind the tool and updated data from literature reviews were published this week.

We are grateful for the collaboration with @CERN and our ARIA Technical Advisory Group on this incredible work.

iris.who.int/handle/10665/3…
Read 4 tweets
Mar 11
Short 🧵

Many use today as a day to mark significance in the @COVID19 pandemic.

I welcome any way in which we can raise attention to COVID-19, to remember our loved ones lost-and still losing- but also to ensure that we continue to act to tackle the current threat of COVID-19.
It was the day, 4 years ago, the Director-General of @WHO @DrTedros characterized #COVID19 as a pandemic. I remember that day vividly...because it was significant in the lives of everyone on the planet and in mine personally…
But let's accurately mark history here: it's not the day @WHO "declared" a pandemic.

For me, what is heartbreaking is that this day-arguably-marks when the world woke up to the threat of #COVID19, when that awakening should have been at least 6 weeks earlier when DG declared…
Read 8 tweets
Jan 11
Sadly at the end of 2023, we passed the 7 million mark for the number of #COVID19 deaths reported to @WHO. 7,010,586 to be exact. The true death toll is higher, with estimates of at >3 times more deaths globally.

7 million… devastating.

data.who.int/dashboards/cov…
From Oct to Dec, #SARSCoV2 %+ from sentinel sites from @WHO expanded GISRS was 6-10% & from non-sentinel sites was 18% in Dec. Wastewater surveillance systems suggest actual cases are 2-19 times higher than what is reported to WHO.

data.who.int/dashboards/cov…
Worryingly, #COVID19 hospitalisations & ICU admissions are up 42% & 62%, respectively…though data is only available from 29 & 21 countries (out of 234 countries/territories), respectively. We expect these trends to continue following the holidays, but we have limited visibility
Read 7 tweets
Dec 31, 2023
Long🧵 #COVID19 and where we are. I’m worried.

We are entering the 5th year of the pandemic and we are certainly in a different phase. This phase is marked by an evolving virus (with the XBB and BA.2 sublineages circulating and JN.1 becoming dominant).
It’s marked by reduced impact compared to the peak of #COVID19 a few years ago, but it’s still a global health threat and it’s still a pandemic causing far too many (re)infections, hospitalisations, deaths and long covid when tools exist to prevent them.

data.who.int/dashboards/cov…
It’s marked by co-circulation of many other pathogens eg flu, mycoplasma, RSV, etc.

Cases and hospitalisations for #COVID19 have been on the rise for months. Hospitals in many countries are burdened and overwhelmed from COVID and other pathogens, and deaths are on the rise.
Read 24 tweets
Dec 19, 2023
🆕 @WHO TAG-VE Risk Evaluation of JN.1

Due to its rapidly increasing spread, WHO is classifying JN.1 as a separate variant of interest (VOI) from the parent lineage BA.2.86.  It was previously classified as VOI as part of BA.2.86 sublineages.

Short 🧵

who.int/activities/tra…
JN.1 is a descendent lineage of BA.2.86, with the earliest sample collected on 25 August 2023. In comparison with BA.2.86, JN.1 has the additional L455S mutation in the spike protein.

Full @WHO risk evaluation of JN.1 is available at link below
who.int/docs/default-s…
As of 16 December 2023, 7344 JN.1 sequences had been submitted to @GISAID from 41 countries, representing 27.1% of the globally available sequences in epidemiological week 48 (27 Nov to 3 Dec 2023). See Table 1 in risk evaluation.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 29, 2023
🧵Anyone who knows me knows that I despise the phrase “living with COVID”. We are living with #COVID19 & we must do it better. Governments must better manage COVID-19: prevent infections especially among those most at risk for severe disease & treat those infected & suffering…
…. This virus continues to circle the globe. It’s changing, it’s (re)infecting, it’s killing, it’s causing long term harm (#LongCOVID).

We will not ignore those suffering from LongCOVID and work harder to ensure better prevention and treatment.
Governments need to sustain critical actions to prevent infection (self test, ventilate, mask, etc), early detection w/ clinical care, vax/boosting those most at risk, sequencing to track variants and strong surveillance with continued reporting to @WHO
⬇️
who.int/emergencies/di…
Read 6 tweets

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