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Dr. Saskia Popescu Profile picture
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10 Jan, 4 tweets, 1 min read
For everyone dumping on vaccine rollout- yes there have been a lot of issues & bottlenecking, but please know that a population-wide vaccine distribution is *tough*. Especially as hospitals and health dpts are doing the heavily lifting while under the weight of this surge.
We absolutely need to improve it and this has been another item in a long list of things the US has struggled with during COVID-19, but please note just how challenging and fractured a population-scale effort is.
Really, what this emphasizes is the need to provide more sustainable resources for these efforts (ahem, and public health in general). In short - critique and analyze the failures, but also acknowledge the Herculean effort this work requires.
Adding - this in no way is me saying we didn’t monumentally drop the ball on COVID-19. The utter lack of national leadership in response has been detrimental. Rather, I’m saying that this is a huge task and is being carried by some already really burned out folks/resources.

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More from @SaskiaPopescu

Dr. Saskia Popescu Profile picture
29 Dec 20
Breathtakingly honest and spot-on, @edyong209 brings 2020 full circle with this recap of our pandemic year and what 2021 might hold.
“People have been doing this for almost a year without backup.” Each COVID-19 peak has sapped more energy & morale, & afterward, fatigued HCWs have had to deal with a backlog of postponed surgeries, as well as new pts who have been sitting on their medical problems..”
Dr. @drjessigold -“In a crisis, you can say, ‘It makes sense that I’m anxious, sad, and not sleeping.’ But there’ll be a surge of problems once people finally get a chance to breathe and realize what the toll has been.”
Read 4 tweets
Dr. Saskia Popescu Profile picture
21 Sep 20
In terms of aerosols, droplet, & “airborne”- the best approach to communication I’ve found is that this requires enhanced respiratory protection in a healthcare setting. It’s not entirely airborne and it’s not entirely droplet, but rather something in the middle. (1/n)
We know this means different things for AGMP. For the public, I think it’s a good lesson in that the “6 ft” rule isn’t a hard rule in that there’s no magic force-field that prevents the virus from going further. Infection prevention involves multiple things simultaneously (2/n).
That Swiss cheese approach comes to mind - ventilation won’t do it all. Just like masks or distancing alone won’t. When we describe transmission it’s important to discuss these principles. Scicomm is critical & I’m hoping the CDC is working to explain these pieces better (3/n)/
Read 5 tweets
Dr. Saskia Popescu Profile picture
16 Aug 20
It's increasingly worrisome that we're not talking about healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in COVID-19 patients. Across the country we are seeing spikes and several studies have shown elevated risk for HAIs, especially bloodstream infections. 1/
COVID-19 patients, especially those in ICUs, are more likely to have invasive medical devices (urinary catheters, ventilators, central lines, etc.) - these are wonderful medical tools but also increase the risk for infection. 2/
These pts are medically complex, fragile, & we are still learning about how to improve their quality of care. For example -placing them in the prone position makes line care in pts with vascular issues that much more challenging, especially w/respiratory secretions. 3/
Read 5 tweets
Dr. Saskia Popescu Profile picture
28 Jul 20
And this is why we read the whole study - "The temporal, spatial, and exposure evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 transmission may have occurred during the flight. However, the majority of 16 cases in the outbreak were not attributed to transmission on the flight.”
“Exposure to the virus in Wuhan or by infected members within the same tour group account for most cases in the outbreak."
"Our investigation suggests that it is important to take measures such as wearing a mask, temperature screening, and quarantine of close contacts to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 before, during, and after flights.” - Again something we know and have been emphasizing.
Read 5 tweets
Dr. Saskia Popescu Profile picture
19 Jul 20
Folks, it's SO important to differentiate masks in terms of efficacy/wearability/medical contraindications. This is a prime example of why we need to explain that sure, N95s are higher particulate filtration, but they also require fit-testing to *truly* work + health screening.
I'm a trained fit-tester to help expedite mask-fitting in our hospitals during this pandemic. It is dangerous to push N95s on people without explaining that they require a TRUE fit to work effectively and ultimately, many people can't wear them due to medical conditions.
cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/to…
Read 4 tweets
Dr. Saskia Popescu Profile picture
7 Jul 20
A few thoughts on the “airborne" conversations right now…First, I ultimately think this comes down more to scicomm & our ability to communicate nuanced situations & data. How we approach airborne vs droplet is antiquated & even more so in how we communicate it… (1/x)
So much of this really plays into healthcare infection control where these situations are approached extremely different. In the community, as @apoorva_nyc @BillHanage emphasized, it's really the indoor, close setting that sees the super-sreader events involving aerosols (2/x)
This isn't profoundly new and something @CDCgov @WHO have noted before. To me, this gives us better insight into those super-spreader events and potentially expanding the “exposure" criteria we heavily rely on. (3/x)
Read 9 tweets

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