MUCH SHORTER EXPOSURE— #B117 is so infectious—very short exposure can lead to #COVID19. Many infected via just a few minutes inside a store. 🇨🇦 local health dept has shortened the exposure time to as little as ***1 second if not wearing face masks**. 🧵 theglobeandmail.com/canada/article…
2) spokeswoman for Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Sunday that the government has provided interim guidance to the province’s public-health units for screening and tracing contacts of cases associated with COVID-19 variants of concern.
3) “This guidance does include a lower threshold for classifying contacts as high risk of exposure and requiring quarantine,”
4) Contact tracers in York Region are finding that some individuals who have tested positive for the highly contagious variant have been in a retail store for just a few minutes. ⚠️
5) “Right now, we’re struggling to get to each person within 24 hours,” Dr. Lee told reporters on Friday. “I honestly believe that we are going to be continuing to be overwhelmed with more and more cases.”
6) Meanwhile in UK, #B117 has taken over the country’s cases. Literally. Just that more infectious than the old.
10) I want to take a moment to contextualize — it’s not that we ever thought <15 minutes of contact within 6 feet was safe & 15:01 was not, but that we had to create an arbitrary gradient for reasonable definition for close contact for the original virus, to capture highest risk.
11) And it was to make contact tracing & quarantining manageable scale. But we have known for a while that the 6 feet (2 meter) rule is not very meaningful if there is aerosol transmission, especially indoors with poor ventilation. The coronavirus is very much airborne folks.
12) And thus, the 6 feet rule should have been taken out / guidelines updated long ago for indoor transmission and definition of close contacts. And that was to a degree a failure of leaders to acknowledge and act on that, in the name of managing contact tracing.
13) At this point, with more infectious #B117 variant, it is high time we recognize a new definition of close contact, depending on: masking, indoor/outdoor, time if indoors, ventilation indoors; distance outdoors—and then assign gradients on red, orange, yellow close contacts.
14) And then take precautions for each type of red/orange/yellow “close contacts”. Trace certain ones quicker, quarantine certain ones longer & more aggressively, tests certain ones more repeatedly, and require greater monitoring for the first degree “redder” contacts.
15) As for schools, we DEFINITELY need kids to mask if we reopen. Kids, even if less susceptible than adults, do transmit (@dgurdasani1 and I have entire long long 🧵s on this) and transmit more. And as an epidemiologist, I cannot endorse indoor cafeterias. Outdoor tents please.
16) Wedding dinner parties (god forbid) should avoid indoor events too. So crowded school cafeterias cannot be possibly safe — I have seen ZERO evidence or arguments how cafeterias can be safe without major overhaul. Why can’t we construct / assemble more outdoor tents meantime?
17) And yes, outdoor tents cost money, but they cannot be THAT much more to acquire—and cities/states/federal govt should fund them. If it means we can reopen schools — with outdoor (well ventilated) tents for lunch cafeteria— I’m sure there is a way if we can then open schools.
18) Like every parent with young kids can understand—getting kids back is school is of paramount importance. We can mitigate risk in classrooms with HEPA filters, masks, & maybe safe UV HVAC upgrades if we can afford—but SCHOOL CAFETERIAS we likely can’t without outdoor tents ⛺️!
19) And for those who say “just send kids to school for half days without cafeteria lunches or classroom lunches”—that’s not enough schooling for kids for just half day. I1st-12th graders cannot do half days like kindergarteners and get enough education. We need real solutions.
20) Thus, going forward—We should demand to see real solutions in school reopening plans to address LUNCHROOM SAFETY. Kids can’t mask while eating lunch, and you can’t do no-mask indoors. Either uber-ventilate/disinfect cafeterias or just MOVE LUNCHES OUTDOORS’
21) Another idea if we have school indoor cafeterias, is to either install upper air UV (used in many restaurants that circulates air to ceiling where UV lights are safely pointed), or bring a pair of huge air flow tubes to outside that ventilated the cafeteria at high speed.
22) I also like the idea of summer schools with outdoor learning. Also, more people vaccinated by summer too. But cafeteria / lunchroom dining safety still key.
23) When you watch the SuperBowl this weekend, remember the season was saved because the NFL knew the 15 minutes + 6 ft rule was wrong. The coronavirus gospel of ‘within six feet for more than 15 minutes’ wasn’t enough—and the NFL had the data to prove it. wsj.com/articles/super…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
📍 The New York Times Is Failing Its Readers Badly on Covid
📌“Example of ‘science opinion’ run amok in the [NY Times] is a piece… by Zeynep Tufekci, a commentator with no training in biological science or epidemiology… ➡️Tufekci plays into the hands of the anti-science politicians who now seek vengeance on the flimsiest of grounds.”
2) “Tufekci also adds to the ongoing pile-on about whether the directive to maintain a distance of six feet from others was needed. Although the precise distance was indeed somewhat arbitrary, there was no possibility of obtaining hard data in the relevant time frame. The six-foot distance was a reasonable assumption based on public health history, and the practice of social distancing for other respiratory pathogens, particularly those spread by droplets. It was also adopted in multiple other countries, for the same reasons.”
3) “The problem here isn’t that Tufekci is questioning the evidentiary basis of the six-foot rule—science and public health cannot progress if we don’t evaluate the results of our work. But that progress is more effective when grounded in good-faith inquiry, rather than the kinds of attacks Tufekci levels against government scientists for doing their best in desperate circumstances. This only serves to bolster the forces who seek to destroy the US public health infrastructure, not make it better.
Tufekci also leaves the impression that she alone realized SARS-CoV-2 was airborne early on. In fact, the debate about transmission was fast and furious within the scientific community at that time”
⚠️Whooping cough has smashed all records in UK🇬🇧 with barely any serious govt actions. These are NEW CASES PER WEEK, not cumulative. Each week smashing previous. Other countries rising too amid anti-vax. Pertussis is also airborne!
3) Whooping cough is also extremely contagious. For up to 3 weeks. With UK govt advising staying home for 3 full weeks if no antibiotic treatment. How many people being told that and doing that?
⚠️SURGING COVID cases & hospitalizations in Madrid, Spain🇪🇸—hospitalizations for COVID has now exceeded also 2022-2023. This is the globally surging KP3 variant (US too)—it is highly evasive against past immunity—you’re not immune. Take preventive action. comunidad.madrid/sites/default/…
2) New York City’s COVID cases are also increasing, as noted by @emmagf. June is not normal cold and flu season at all. This shows that this KP3 surging despite non-flu season means it’s a troublemaker.
@emmagf 3) Hawaii’s ERs also have gotten slammed hard by an off-season COVID surge. This isn’t normal at all for June. This is why we need to be on alert.
📍Breaking—MASK BAN PASSED AGAIN—North Carolina Republicans have again voted to pass a new ban on mask wearing. Only a weak partial medical exemption added for PUBLIC areas—but, on private properties, like at grocery stores or at a workplace, the bill now says people can still be “REQUIRED TO REMOVE MASKS” if demanded by employer or owner (your health be damned). But, thank goodness Halloween masks will still be allowed. motherjones.com/politics/2024/…
2) “Many healthcare professionals have expressed concerns that their patients would not be able to stay safe against the spread of Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.”
3) the scary thing is that “The bill, which was drafted in response to people wearing masks at Pro-Palestinian protests, can be passed by the General Assembly **even if Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoes** it through an override.”
⚠️Our future cancer risks of #COVID are emerging and likely real. SarsCOV2 induces several of the same carcinogenic cellular changes as other viruses known to cause cancers. Most cancers take 10-20 years to fully emerge (eg 🚬 or HPV-cervical), but some cancers may emerge sooner.
2) “We are completely under-investigating this virus,” said Douglas C. Wallace, a University of Pennsylvania geneticist. “The effects of repeatedly getting this throughout our lives is going to be much more significant than people are thinking.” wapo.st/3Rox991
3) We know from studies that Long COVID disease burden is already on par with the burden of heart disease and cancer. Now imagine if LC further stacks additional risks to these other major disease burdens in the decades to come.
Cool time lapse of a dozen rapid Covid tests—by @jeremyfaust over 11 days. Staggeringly high viral load = rapid bright test line. CDC would have said it’s okay to go out on day 2. What a load of crap, and every epidemiologist I know agrees. #COVIDisnotover
2) this is why I’ve been adamant that @CDCDirector Cohen has morally abdicated CDC’s duty to disease “control and prevention” with her horrible leadership. And yes she was on board with this—she was at the press conference for relaxing Covid rules.
3) here is the full story about how @CDCDirector Cohen has just about done the worst thing to torpedo @CDCgov’s normally stellar reputation. More than Walensky and more than Trump CDC director Redfield.