Tweet

Ed Yong

14 Dec, 10 tweets, 4 min read

🚨I wrote the Atlantic’s next cover story on the COVIDization of science. No other disease has been scrutinized so intensely, by so much combined intellect, in so brief a time. This piece is about both the victories achieved & the weaknesses exposed. 1/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

A year ago, zero scientists were studying COVID‑19. Since then, the COVID-19 papers submitted to 1 journal (NEJM) outnumber all Ebola papers ever published. Researchers worked wonders at a time when research was harder than ever to do. 2/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

We have effective vaccines against a virus that, a year ago, was still unknown. That is an *astonishing* feat, not least because it validates technologies that will make it easier to build vaccines against future pandemics, too. 3/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

The benefits of this scientific pivot go beyond this pandemic. COVID-19 research has taught us lessons about long-haul symptoms, aerosol transmission, and more, which should make us better positioned to deal with other diseases. 4/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

But there were problems aplenty. A lot of important research ground to a halt. The quest to find new treatments was dogged by wasteful & badly designed studies. Inequities for women & scientists of color widened. 5/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

Academia’s perverse incentives pushed overconfident poseurs towards sloppy work, which then got international attention. Many people swerved out of their scholarly lanes and plowed into unfamiliar territory, making life harder for actual experts. 6/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

The final part of this piece is the most important. It's about how science lost sight of the social side of medicine, focusing on drugs, vaccines, & technofixes while ignoring inequity, trust, & politics. It’s about the pivot that still needs to happen. 7/
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

I hope this piece, using the pandemic as a lens, shows how science actually works; how research is funded, done, assessed, and discussed; and how the noble pursuit of knowledge collides with messy reality of an all-too-human endeavour. 8/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

"At its best, science is a self-correcting march toward greater knowledge for the betterment of humanity. At its worst, it is a self-interested pursuit of greater prestige at the cost of truth and rigor. The pandemic brought both aspects to the fore." 9/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

One thing about this piece: I wanted to avoid hero (or villain) narratives involving individuals. Science itself is the protagonist here--struggling, overcoming, falling, and finally returning to where it came from (hopefully) having changed. 9/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @edyong209

Ed Yong

@edyong209

5 Dec

Well, rewatching Lord of the Rings this year was... different.

Consider BILBO: just wants to finish his damn book; “butter spread over too much bread”; ages dramatically

GANDALF: would rather be doing pretty fireworks; instead has to ride around shouting policy advice at inexplicably reluctant leaders; can’t get a day off even when dead

THEODEN: “What can men do against such reckless hate? A THREAD 1/“

Read 19 tweets

Ed Yong

@edyong209

4 Dec

@sarahzhang

At the Atlantic, the peerless @sarahzhang has been leading our coverage of COVID-19 vaccines. Here's a thread of her amazing work.

1) A great big-picture look at the Moderna & Pfizer vaccines, which also explains mRNA vaccines are. theatlantic.com/health/archive…

2) Here, Sarah looks at the results from the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine trial and why they're a little weirder and more confusing than those from the other two.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

3) Here, Sarah looks at the challenges posed by the transition between two administrations, and the problems that Biden may face as a result.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Read 7 tweets

Ed Yong

@edyong209

22 Nov

It has been too long since I’ve done this, but here are some great pandemic-related pieces from the last month or so, from people whose work I respect.

If you’ve liked my work, perhaps you’ll also like the work that I like.

@rkhamsi

.@rkhamsi, who's consistently been one of the best pandemic reporters, wrote about the absurd policies that are doing the rounds: wired.com/story/a-lack-o…

and about whey we need to SEE what COVID-19 is doing to people. wired.com/story/this-pan…

@CarolineYLChen

.@CarolineYLChen wrote this searing piece about how frustrated health-care workers are. They "don’t need patronizing praise. They need resources, federal support, and for us to stay healthy and out of their hospitals."

propublica.org/article/the-en…

Read 16 tweets

Ed Yong

@edyong209

20 Nov

🚨I wrote about UNMC--the hospital that, perhaps more than any other in the US, had prepared for a pandemic. It has amazing facilities. Its staff anticipated, planned, drilled.

And now?

“I don’t see how we avoid becoming overwhelmed,” one doc said. 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Here’s what the current surge is doing to the best-prepared hospital:
➡️One building is now a COVID tower.
➡️10 COVID units; 1 solely for patients to die.
➡️Some days, they’re short 45-60 nurses.
➡️“We’re watching a system breaking in front of us." 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Hospital staff are *exhausted*. A nurse who normally works in oncology told me she can barely comprehend the amount of death she has seen in recent weeks.

Work "follows me everywhere I go. It’s all I see when I come home, when I look at my kids.” 3/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Read 10 tweets

Ed Yong

@edyong209

17 Nov

The coronavirus bursts into a bar at 10.01pm but it's empty. It sulks off, thwarted.

The coronavirus enters a room to find only 14 people. "Curses," it says, "foiled again."

The coronavirus finds *15* people but they leave after 14 minutes. "DAMMIT."

iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/2020-…

@rkhamsi

This is a good time to read the latest piece from stellar reporter @rkhamsi on absurd pandemic polices. wired.com/story/a-lack-o…

@rachgutman

And then read @rachgutman on how to think about safety. theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Read 5 tweets

Ed Yong

@edyong209

15 Nov

Here's a thing I want everyone to understand.

There is a roughly 12-day lag between rising cases rising hospitalizations.

So the 1.5 million (!!!) confirmed cases from the last 2 weeks have not yet factored into stories about packed emergency rooms.

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

In this story, I noted Iowa is already out of staffed beds. ICUs are at capacity. theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Here are Iowa's cases. The 12-day lag between cases & hospitalizations means people in the blue portion will be trying to enter those full ICUs over the next 2 weeks.

HOW?

I say Iowa, but you could do this same analysis for any number of states, especially in the Midwest. The near-term future is already baked in, which is why you have to act *ahead* of the virus. (See Problem #8 in this story about 9 intuitive fallacies.)

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Read 5 tweets

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!