Concerning if true—the coronavirus variant #P1 identified in the Brazil 🇧🇷 Amazon may be **3 times more contagious** but early analysis suggests vaccines are still effective against it, 🇧🇷 health minister said, albeit not published yet. #COVID19
aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/12…
2) Brazil began immunisations with vaccines made by China’s Sinovac Biotech and Britain’s AstraZeneca about three weeks ago. Pazuello did not explain how their effectiveness against the Manaus variant was analysed.
3) “Thank God, we had clear news from the analysis that the vaccines still have an effect against this variant,” Pazuello said. “But it is more contagious. By our analysis, it is three time more contagious.”
4) The Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, which has partnered with Sinovac to test and produce the Chinese vaccine, said in a statement that it had begun studies regarding the Manaus variant but would not have a conclusion for two weeks.
5) The Fiocruz biomedical centre in Rio de Janeiro, which has paired up with AstraZeneca to fill and finish doses of its vaccine developed with Oxford University, said it is studying its efficacy against the Amazon variant, sent samples to Oxford and is awaiting results.
6) Located deep in rainforest, Manaus was hit hard by a brutal 2nd wave of cases that has stretched emergency services to breaking point. hospitals ran out of oxygen in January, govt flew in supplies from across the country in an attempt to save people from suffocating to death.
7) My take—i caveats#ed “if true” because to say it is 3x more contagious would be astonishing if true. The #B117 is only 40-70% more contagious at most. For 3x, or 200% more contagious, is quite a claim. We need to see the data. And 🇧🇷 doesn’t have as good tracing as UK.

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More from @DrEricDing

14 Feb
“False sense of security”—high tech gathering of 49 tech thinkers was held in 4 day “bubble” without mask mandate after arrival+daily testing. Result? ~43% (21 of 49) of tech attendees got #COVID19 soon after, including organizer @PeterDiamandis. 0% of masked support staff. 🧵 Image
2) They were incredibly careful, including doing 452+ total tests (both PCR and rapid antigen), and excluding the 1 person who tested positive initially upon arrival and didn’t attend. Daily tests thereafter. But no distancing or masks after.
diamandis.com/blog/false-sen… Image
3) Dr @PeterDiamandis (an MD PhD innovator whom I’ve respected for years) expressed regret..

“I am sincerely and deeply sorry for the consequences of the choices we made. As scientist, engineer & medical person, I believed we were using the very best that science had to offer.”
Read 19 tweets
13 Feb
Rise in pediatric proportion of Israel 🇮🇱 #COVID19 cases over 2020. Shows the fall/winter trend toward much more cases relatively in children. This data continues into January too. Many reports of relative pediatric surge in Israel continuing in Jan 2021. We need to watch this. Image
2) We’ve also this relatively higher positivity of children age 5-9 in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 in January as well. We need to pay attention. @dgurdasani1 believes it is related to gradual primary school reopenings after winter break.
3) Israel 🇮🇱 is seeing a sharp rise in the number of children and teens getting #COVID19, where #B117 rising.

>50,000 children have been diagnosed with #COVID19 since start of Jan, many more than Israel saw in any month during the first or second waves. jpost.com/health-science…
Read 5 tweets
13 Feb
We need to call Moderna vaccine by the true proper name of “NIH-Moderna vaccine”. It was mainly developed at Fauci’s NIAID. Moderna honed its mRNA tech via DARPA grants & also didn’t disclose federal support in patents, violating Bayh-Dole Act. HT @mattbc.
2) @mattbc is right in calling out this nonsense by Moderna to hide it got tremendous federal support for the vaccine in its patent. This is a violation of the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act. And @moderna_tx possibly violated it by not disclosing in 154 patent apps.
washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…
3) Moderna vaccine works folks. @KizzyPhD from the NIH is famously one of the co inventors of the vaccine. But this doesn’t change that Moderna needs to publicly acknowledge in its patents that its vaccine was taxpayer funded and NIH co developed, akin to Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Read 4 tweets
12 Feb
What is missing from this CDC school reopening priority list? Airborne virus guidance! Like almost nothing in 33 page document on ventilation except 1 paragraph on open the windows, but only if feasible. Ventilation should be #2 behind masks! #COVID19
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…
2) Notably absent from new CDC guidance was ventilation. In one short paragraph, CDC suggested schools open windows & doors to increase circulation, but said they should not be “if doing so poses a safety risk or a health risk.” #COVID19 nytimes.com/2021/02/12/hea…
3) “C.D.C. gives lip service to ventilation in its report, and you have to search to find it,” said @j_g_allen, an expert on building safety at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “It’s not as prominent as it should be.”
Read 13 tweets
12 Feb
Worrisome—UK 🇬🇧 data shows suddenly higher #COVID19 positivity % in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (where #B117 highly dominant) in children ages 5-9, in both boys and girls, sustained each week over 4 consecutive weeks. Ages 0-4 positivity also increasing. Israel 🇮🇱 has also seen kids case trend.
2) As noted by @dgurdasani1, this is all despite these data really underestimating infection in children (as they are based on symptom based testing). And positivity rates appear highest in early year settings (fully open) & primary schools (20% attendance).
3) Dr @dgurdasani1 believe it is related to schools in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.
Read 16 tweets
12 Feb
⚠️REINFECTION WARNING from the WHO.

“We are now getting reports of people getting reinfected with a new variant—from 🇿🇦 (#B1351)—suggesting people who’ve had prior infection could get infected again.” says Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan. #COVID19
2) This comes on the heels of troubling data I highlighted last week from the placebo group of the Novavax 🇿🇦 trial that that people previously infected and have #COVID19 antibodies (seropositive) has no protection for #B1351 variant reinfection— not even for severe disease!
3) Last month, South Africa’s CDC also warned about likelihood of reinfection risk because of the lower virus neutralization seen by the E484K mutation in the #B1351 variant.
Read 13 tweets

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