Tweet

@SSI_dk

@SSI_dk

@SSI_dk

@SSI_dk

@SSI_dk

More from @kakape

Kai Kupferschmidt

@kakape

7 Jan

@hans_kluge

"Without increased control to slow its spread, there will be an increased impact on already stressed and pressurized health facilities”, @hans_kluge said at @WHO_Europe press conference this morning, talking about #B117.

@hans_kluge

@hans_kluge @WHO_Europe "It is our assessment that this variant of concern may over time, replace other circulating lineages, as seen in the United Kingdom, and increasingly in Denmark”, @hans_kluge said. “With increased transmissibility, and similar disease severity, the variant does ... raise alarm."

@hans_kluge

@hans_kluge @WHO_Europe He urged countries to act by:
1. "investigating unusually rapid transmission and unexpected disease presentation or severity”
2. “increasing the sequencing of systematically selected subsets of #SARSCoV2 infections”
3. sharing this data

Read 5 tweets

Kai Kupferschmidt

@kakape

5 Jan

I’ve written a lot in the last two weeks about #B117 and the uncertainty surrounding its exact effects.
So let me talk about something that we can be pretty certain about: what we should be doing.
New story is here: sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/v…
Quick thread to come.

@AdamJKucharski

First: How good is the evidence that #B117 is more transmissible? It’s still far from a slam dunk. But as @AdamJKucharski told me: “We're relying on multiple streams of imperfect evidence, but pretty much all that evidence is pointing in the same direction now.”

@EvolveDotZoo

At this point we probably have to look to countries other than the UK for confirmation that #B117 is more transmissible.
“The dynamics and the spread of this strain internationally is probably going to be the strongest evidence we will have”, @EvolveDotZoo told me.

Read 12 tweets

Kai Kupferschmidt

@kakape

5 Jan

@DrTedros

"We have entered a new phase of the pandemic where solidarity is needed like never before”, says @DrTedros at @WHO presser on #covid19.
"We are in a race to save lives right now."

@DrTedros

@DrTedros @WHO “Case loads are so high in several countries that hospitals and intensive care units are filling up to dangerous levels”, says @drtedros. People mixed more indoors during holidays, he says. “New variants which appear to be more transmissible are exacerbating the situation."

@DrTedros

@DrTedros @WHO "We are in a race to prevent infections, bring cases down, protect health systems and save lives, while rolling out highly effective and safe vaccines to high risk populations”, says @DrTedros. "his is not easy. These are the hard miles, we must tread together."

Read 18 tweets

Kai Kupferschmidt

@kakape

2 Jan

We’re in a new year and we have also entered a new phase of this pandemic. So I thought I’d start off the new year with a quick catch-up thread on the UK variant B.1.1.7 and where we are at in this pandemic.

The variant caught scientists' attention in early December based on a surge in cases around Kent and sequencing data showing it carried a host of mutations. (I wrote about this and how a quirk in the PCR is helping track it here: sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/m…).

CAVEAT: The pace at which we have learnt about this new variant is astonishing. But it’s important to realize that a lot of crucial lab experiments take longer. Most data now is looking at noisy epidemiological data and making inferences based on that.

Read 19 tweets

Kai Kupferschmidt

@kakape

29 Dec 20

@ECDC_EU

"Although there is no information that infections with these strains are more severe, due to increased transmissibility the impact of #COVID19 disease in terms of hospitalisations and deaths is assessed as high."

@ECDC_EU risk assessment of new variants:
ecdc.europa.eu/en/publication…

@ECDC_EU

@ECDC_EU "The probability of increased circulation of any SARS-CoV-2 strains and this placing greater pressure on health systems in the coming weeks is considered to be high due to the festive season and, higher still, in countries where the new variants are established."

@ECDC_EU

@ECDC_EU "The UK has demonstrated that their sequencing programme is able to detect emerging variants. Ideally, Member States should aim for a similar timeliness and fraction of samples sequenced, although this will depend on the availability of resources."

Read 5 tweets

Kai Kupferschmidt

@kakape

29 Dec 20

Finally read the new update on UK variant B.1.1.7, posted yesterday, which includes a study suggesting the variant is no more (or less) severe than prior virus variants.
Just a very brief thread (or read the entire document here:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…)

Researchers took 1769 cases of people infected with the new variant and then looked for 1769 cases of people with “normal” virus to compare them to. They chose these so that median age and proporion of females was the same. That’s why it’s called a “matched cohort study”

They then compared hospitalizations for the two groups:
Overall 42 people were hopsitalized,
16 with the variant
26 with wild-type
The difference between the two was not significant.

Read 10 tweets

Share this page!

Kai Kupferschmidt

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @kakape

Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?