2) This 🇬🇧 report was done on Dec 17th, released on Dec 31, based on data before Dec 2nd. In other words, before new variant has dominated UK 🇬🇧 in Dec.
Good news is that kids are less susceptible—less likely to contract virus in the household. #COVID19 gov.uk/government/pub…
3) As for teachers, it seems positivity % is similar between teachers and other professions. This is neither good, nor bad. It just means teachers are no worse or safer as an occupation.
4) What about positivity in students compared to teachers in primary (elementary) schools vs secondary schools?
📌It seems secondary schools may have somewhat higher infection levels (though CI’s overlap slightly).
📌Students and teachers similar though within school.
5) What about HIGH vs LOW RISK area schools?
📌Students vs teachers seem to have very low risk in primary schools—but only in the **low risk** geographic areas (green).
📌In the high risk area primary schools, they are similar to low risk area secondary schools (blue).
6) Furthermore, in secondary schools + in high risk areas, students and teachers had together the highest risk, shown in red color.
Also notable is that in all the scenarios, green or blue or red, pupil and teachers always had similar positivity %.
9) Furthermore, UK data shows that prevalence of #COVID19 in children (2-3%) is higher than all other age groups over age 25, according to @Dr2NisreenAlwan.
10) And how does school closures compare among all the non-pharma interventions? It’s one of the most effective containment measures, **lowering R value by -0.15 to -0.21**.
11) Look, I hate hate hate school closures just as much as anyone else with kids. I don’t share it for doom and gloom or any agenda—other than stopping then pandemic so that we can return to normal lives sooner and send kids back to school **sooner**. #ZeroCovid is the way.
12) If we have enough vaccinations delivered to keep the current virus transmission R below 1, then I think we can open schools. But we all know that vaccine rollout is too slow now, & the epidemic is just too hot, and we don’t have much hospital space left. Out of good options.
13) UK experts now say the pandemic is “out of control”. And recommends new measures. And takes bold step to prioritize the 1st dose.
15) ⚠️the new 🇬🇧B117 is a beast of a #SARSCoV2 variant. The variant adds ~ 0.4-0.7 to the R (Reproductive number). What could keep in check via containment, R<1, now with +0.5 added infectiousness, means the virus will go unchecked—very bad. #COVID19
16) and now we know the relative increase in children vs old strain compared to adults. It’s relatively greater increase in kids 0-9.
⚠️NO RARE BEEF!—@USDA suddenly admits (after Q&A pestering) that 120F cooked beef🥩patties experimentally inoculated with H5N1 virus still had surviving virus.
➡️“Cooking to… 120° F did show that there was virus still in the cooked hamburger patty, although at reduced levels."
2) Initially the @USDA only stated that no virus survived cooking to 160 F and 145 F. But they didn’t volunteer the 120 F rare cooking temperature results! Only after more questioning did they reveal 120 F virus survival. But so many folks eat rare meat! 🥩 DISCLOSURE CRITICAL!
UPDATE—Solar Storm hits the highest level of G5, the first in over 2 decade, which could knock out power to grids and disrupt GPS. A coronal mass ejection of G5 was also what the infamous “Carrington Event” was in 1859. But it depends on magnetic 🧲 polarity of each CME wave. NOAA warned earlier today that CME storms tend to be even stronger on the latter half of a storm wave. Let’s hope the next two days won’t be as extreme as the Carrington Event. #solarstorm
3) We are potentially in for a wild weekend. We haven’t been hit with this many CMEs in a long ass time. Nor has NOAA alerted with a GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH in over 20 years.
⚡️INBOUND SOLAR STORMS—5x mega coronal mass ejections - CMEs - that can knock out power are going to be slamming at Earth 🌍 between Friday and Sunday this weekend. Earth has only been hit with 3 previous severe CMEs in last 4 years. But we are gonna get 5x G4 CMEs in 3 days!😳
2) Let this sink — this is the first GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH since 2005!
Folks - this is serious - it can knock out not only electricity but it can theoretically knock out airplanes ✈️ too!
3) Folks- it’s possible. Not only can it cause higher radiation and knock out communications, but a strong CME can knock out airliner avionics. “according to reports by aviation regulators, the issue is not whether it will happen, but when” 😳 thedailybeast.com/how-a-solar-st…
Things are not going well with whooping cough (pertussis). Childhood vaccinations plummeting in the UK 🇬🇧, and kids also have weakened immune systems post-COVID. And it’s not even autumn 🍂.
HT @1goodtern
2) Also… let’s not forget the “m” word. Because masks do work if society takes it seriously.
3) unless we systematically solve the. chronic lack of public health infrastructure, new outbreaks will continue. We shouldn’t just learn to live with it.
⚠️New sudden outbreak of MERS coronavirus with HUMAN TO HUMAN transmission—WHO has put out an outbreak bulletin regarding 3 cases in Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 who contracted MERS (with zero contact with camels). All 3 were hospitalized and intubated. Index case has died in just 11 days from the onset of cough and a runny nose. ➡️Here where it gets interesting—the other 2 cases, found via vigorous contact tracing—both likely contracted it from the index case in the hospital—one shared a hospital room with the index case, while the other merely visited the same hospital’s ER—but he was NOT in the same hospital ward as the index case! Given second case was in a completely separate ward of the hospital, it makes me think it was likely #airborne transmission.
Shouldn’t we all masking in hospitals? @CDCgov’s idiotic HICPAC committee that sets hospital safety standards meantime wants to water them down. Someone should share this with the HICPAC folks, thanks. And demand @CDCDirector to get serious about public health again.
2) previously, WHO’s Feb bulletin of Aug 2023-Feb 2024 only reported 4 cases, 2 had camel🐪 contact. None of the previous 4 had any linkages (ie no human to human transmission evidence). Thus, this new hospital-derived outbreak is concerning. who.int/emergencies/di…
3) it seems the Index case’s only overlap with Case #3 was on April 4th— the day they both went to the same hospital’s ER. But otherwise they were in different wards. And by the time the 3rd case went to the ICU on April 15th, the index case was already dead (died on April 11th). So it wasn’t ICU exposure. It was the ER—➡️why which why EVERYONE NEEDS TO WEAR MASKS IN THE ER DAMNIT! 🔥