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Abraar Karan Profile picture
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14 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
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1/ One of the weirdest things about our quarantine policies in this country is that they were never actually enforced

We’ve been functioning on scout’s honor for 11 months & it doesn’t seem to be working? #covid19
2/ I personally know a number of people that traveled south for the holidays & did not quarantine upon arrival to Massachusetts- hell some even went to bars when they got back (@marty_walsh - one reason why these should be *temporarily closed*- not limited capacity)
3/ And for those that are staying home to quarantine, unclear what % are actually full on in quarantine in the house (essentially pretending you’re infectious, masking if you leave the room, eating/sleeping separately etc) #covid19
4/ I don’t blame people that aren’t doing this 100% — quarantining effectively is hard!

And many cannot even do it safely bc of their living situations.

But it’s def time we acknowledge that this is a problem. #covid19

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More from @AbraarKaran

Abraar Karan Profile picture
15 Jan
1/ #BetterMasks - why and how

First, why do we even need high-filtration masks right now?

Increasingly, we are going to be (or already are) in crowded, poorly ventilated spaces- groceries, public transit, work, school etc
#covid19

2/ If can agree that we need these...what qualities should these masks have?

We talk about that in our @HarvardBiz piece on #BetterMasks

Fit
Filtration
Comfort
Affordability
Scalability
Style

#covid19

hbr.org/2020/06/we-nee…
3/ Given huge delays in getting any of this done...what options are available right now, off the shelf?

One of these - elastomeric (eN95s) which are used in different industries and were used by some hospitals can get job done

#covid19
hbr.org/2020/10/essent…
Read 15 tweets
Abraar Karan Profile picture
15 Jan
Short🧵
1/
So @CDCgov on their “Your Guide to Masks” has a section saying don’t use N95s or surgical masks for the general public bc they are reserved for healthcare workers. That is their reason. They invoke a *shortage of supply* as their main rationale
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20… Image
2/ On a separate page, they talk about the presumption that most transmission of #covid19 is happening via droplets but in *special circumstances* transmission happens via aerosols as well

What are those?

Enclosed spaces w/ poor ventilation

cdc.gov/coronavirus/20… ImageImage
3/ In those situations, N95 & other high filtration masks are key. @CDCgov if there’s a supply issue then *fix* it

Bc being in enclosed crowded spaces is not a *special circumstance*

Many Americans find themselves in these situations every single day, from transit to groceries
Read 8 tweets
Abraar Karan Profile picture
14 Jan
Southern German state of Bavaria makes N95 masks *mandatory* (their version called FFP2) when using public transport or entering retail stores.

#covid19 h/t @sri_srikrishna
dw.com/en/covid-germa… ImageImage
Agree w/ this— need to make sure these masks are free to the public! #covid19 #betterMasks #Bavaria

spiegel.de/international/… Image
Cc @carlzimmer @zeynep @jeremyphoward @KatherineJWu @apoorva_nyc @linseymarr @jljcolorado @MonicaGandhi9 @kakape @j_g_allen
Read 4 tweets
Abraar Karan Profile picture
13 Jan
1//
Let's break down the new US federal policy requiring a negative #covid19 test before boarding announced today because it covers a few important concepts

It requires that people flying into the US have a negative test within 3 days of flying

nytimes.com/live/2021/01/1…
2/ First, this reminds me of the recent outbreak from September on the Dubai-NZ flight.

The index case tested negative 4 days before the flight.

In theory, had they tested within 3 days, infection may have been picked up, but possibly not

3/ This highlights the "one test is one test" point: all that test is saying is that you are negative when you got it

That is not a reason to not test-- but it is a reason to want a neg result as close to whatever event it is (flight or otherwise) that you can #covid19
Read 10 tweets
Abraar Karan Profile picture
11 Jan
THREAD
1// Have been saying this for months— and have actually have been doing this for the entire year any time I went back to LA to see family, even with a negative test.

High risk workers should mask at home if they have regular exposure. Every layer matters. #covid19
2// Increasingly colleagues of mine are incidentally testing positive without known exposure- takes 1-2 days to get PCR result back; end up exposing whole family in that time.

Nothing inherently safe about the home unfortunately.
3// In fact, may end up being most dangerous given less likely to mask here; very close prolonged exposure; crowding; ventilation variable

Now I’m going to accept that pragmatically speaking, most people are not going to mask at home BUT here are some personal recommendations...
Read 5 tweets
Abraar Karan Profile picture
10 Jan
One concept that doesn’t seem to have fully caught on in dialogue— we don’t need to get any single intervention to work 100% effectively, nor is that an achievable goal.

Even if we got every layer of prevention to work 25% better, could still get R<1 and keep it there
2/ What won’t work is doing a whole bunch of different things half-ass w/ none of them really working.
3/ Why I’m bringing this up: as people criticize idea of getting the administration to ship us better masks (ex “not everyone wears masks”)— we don’t need *everyone* to wear masks to stop the epidemic. We do need more people to have access to better PPE along w/ everything else
Read 4 tweets

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