"The number of reported cases of #COVID19 globally has now declined for the fifth consecutive week”, says @drtedros at @WHO presser.
"The number of weekly reported cases has fallen by almost half” in 5 weeks, from more than 5 million to 2.6 million cases."
@DrTedros @WHO "What matters now is how we respond to this trend”, says @DrTedros.
"The fire is not out, but we have reduced its size. If we stop fighting it on any front, it will come roaring back."
@DrTedros @WHO Good news:
"Today, @WHO gave emergency use listing to two versions of the Oxford-AstraZeneca #COVID19 vaccine, giving the green light for these vaccines to be rolled out globally through COVAX”, says @drtedros.
@DrTedros @WHO The two versions are the vaccine produced in South Korea by SKBio and in India by Serum Institute India. "Although both companies are producing the same #COVID19 vaccine, because they are made in different production plants, they required separate reviews and approvals.”
@DrTedros @WHO "These are now the second and third vaccines to receive emergency use listing”, says @drtedros. "We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production."
@DrTedros @WHO "I'm pleased that the G7 under the United Kingdom's presidency is meeting this Friday to discuss vaccine equity”, says @DrTedros. "And I encourage all groups to sign WHO's declaration” on vaccine equity.
@DrTedros @WHO #Ebola outbreaks are also mentioned by @DrTedros:
"The outbreaks in Guinea and DRC are completely unrelated. But we face similar challenges in both” incl. that they are "in hard to reach, insecure areas with some mistrust of outsiders."
@DrTedros @WHO Q about origins mission:
There may be some misunderstandings about the purpose of the mission, says @DrMikeRyan. It was a collaborative effort with China to better understand the origins, he says. "It was not as such an investigation of supposed wrongdoing."
@DrTedros @WHO " I think it is time that we look to the science now”, says @DrMikeRyan, "and then do our best collectively to work with all interested parties to identify further studies that will be needed to fundamentally and finally understand the animal origins of this virus."
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan Q about ivermectin as a potential treatment:
“The clinical team is looking at data right now on different studies that have been evaluating ivermectin” for a meta-analysis, says @mvankerkhove
Hope is that they will have some results in "4 to 6 weeks or so".
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Predictably, a lot of questions about origins mission.
@Peterfoodsafety clarifies the reported 13 #sarscov2 genomes from Wuhan in December. Says these were mostly patients but also environmental samples from the market and some double samples. So NOT 13 different patient genomes.
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety Genomes form cases linked to the market were very similar. Other genomes were a bit different and those were not linked to the market, suggesting the virus was circulating in both the market and the city, says @Peterfoodsafety.
(Also what he told me here: sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/p…)
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety Chinese reporter using his question time to mostly comment on what he perceived to be misinformation from US government, NYTimes, etc.
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety As usual, @HelenBranswell asks the important #Ebola question: What is known about the species and is it clear whether this was a new spillover or maybe an incidence of persistent infection?
It’s Ebola Zaire, but detailed genomes still to come, says @drmichelyao1.
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 "I believe we have a team en route to Nzérékoré right now to provide support”, says @DrMikeRyan. "We are moving vaccines in country from both Geneva and US stockpiles.” Therapeutics will also be shipped: mAB114 and Regeneron antibody cocktail.
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 So #Ebola situation in West Africa is different from 2014, says @DrMikeRyan.
BUT: “The disease is very much in the same area as before, it does threaten at least the three countries and therefore we have to be exceptionally vigilant, highly alert.”
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 Last q was from me: How to think about the decline in cases.
"I think we have to be very very careful”, says @DrMikeRyan. “When things go bad with an epidemic, it's never all our fault and when things go well, it's never all our doing."
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 “We haven't seen levels as low as this since last October”, says @DrMikeRyan. But why? Is it "the natural seasonality and wave like pattern of the disease”? Immunity building up? Are control measures having an impact? "I think all of the above to an extent are true."
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 "We're going to need to be exceptionally careful that we don't do the same thing as last autumn where we allowed the disease to reestablish itself, reignite and re-accelerate”, says @DrMikeRyan.
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 “If we can distribute vaccines equitably and the most vulnerable and highest risk people are protected, then the decisions we make around this disease will understandably change”, says @DrMikeRyan. “The consequence of transmission is different” with few deaths/hospitalizations.
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 "We need to avoid lurching from lockdown to lockdown, from peak to peak and get into a more stable relationship with this virus unfortunately,” says @DrMikeRyan. “We need to get control of this virus. The virus still very much has control over us."
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 "We need to take the heat out of the pandemic", says @DrMikeRyan.
“We can do that, if we're really smart about continuing our own personal measures, continuing to reduce our own chances of being infected, if governments support people in being able to do that”, plus vaccines.
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 “The downward trend in cases and deaths is definitely a hopeful sign”, says @mvankerkhove.
But there also challenges ahead:
"These virus variants and the changes, the natural evolution of the virus pose some uncertainty in terms of what is this virus going to do. "
@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @Peterfoodsafety @HelenBranswell @drmichelyao1 And fatigue: “The world is tired, all of us up here are tired as well and we want this to be over”, says @mvankerkhove. “We cannot become complacent. Even with downward trends we need to really stay the course, and we need to hold on to what works."

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Kai Kupferschmidt

Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @kakape

12 Feb
“I wish to confirm that all hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and studies”, says @drtedros about origin of #covid19 at @WHO presser. Calls the origins mission "a very important scientific exercise in very difficult circumstances”.
@DrTedros @WHO "The expert team is working on a summary report which we hope will be published next week”, says @DrTedros.
“The full final report will be published in the coming weeks.”
@DrTedros @WHO “The number of reported cases of #COVID19 globally has declined for the 4th week in a row and the number of deaths also fell for the 2nd consecutive week” says @DrTedros. "This decline appears to be due to countries implementing public health measure more stringently."
Read 13 tweets
11 Feb
Good news (again) from the UK’s impressive Recovery trial:

Tocilizumab reduced deaths from #COVID19 by about 4% and that was on top of dexamethasone.
It means that giving 25 people this drug on top of the standard of care will lead to one saved life.
Tocilizumab also reduced the need for a mechanical ventilator and shortened the hospital stay.

All of this is from press release for now: recoverytrial.net/news/tocilizum…
Manuscript is working its way through medrxiv right now.
Tocilizumab is an anti-inflammatory drug, an antibody that targets the IL-6 receptor, dampening the immune system. It is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

It is also about 100x as expensive as dexamethasone, so it will probably increase the global inequities of this pandemic.
Read 4 tweets
9 Feb
Press conference on what @WHO-convened mission to investigate the origins of #SARSCoV2 found on their China trip is about to start in Wuhan.
(Was originally supposed to start an hour ago before being pushed back)
@WHO It finally started this minute.
@WHO After a lengthy introduction of the mission and its terms of reference, Liang Wannian, who leads the Chinese team of the joint mission, says he will now begin to talk about the key findings, starting with molecular epidemiology.
Read 29 tweets
8 Feb
“It seems increasingly clear that manufacturers will have to adjust to the evolution of the virus, taking into account the latest variants for future shots, including boosters”, says @DrTedros at @WHO presser. “We have to be ready to adapt vaccines so they remain effective."
@DrTedros @WHO "These developments highlight why it's so important to scale up manufacturing and rollout vaccines as quickly as possible and as widely as possible to protect people before they're exposed to new variants”, says @drtedros.
@DrTedros @WHO “We need to do everything we can to reduce circulation of the virus with proven public health measures”, says @DrTedros. "Several countries are succeeding in suppressing transmission including those where new variants are circulating."
Read 30 tweets
4 Feb
I‘m struck that it still hasn’t sunk in how much #b117 may change the course of this pandemic.

The initial shock about it being more transmissible seems to have worn off. But we are barely beginning to see its real-world impact.

A story: sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/d…
And a thread
After #b117 was identified in England and seemed to be taking off there, many people like me started looking at Denmark for clues.
Why Denmark? It sequences a lot! Here is a graph from @ECDC_EU from late December showing EU sequencing (look at B and note that it’s a log-scale):
@ECDC_EU Denmark has actually massively scaled-up its sequencing since then.
@MadsAlbertsen85 and his team, who have basically been doing all the sequencing for the whole country, are now getting close to 70% which is about as much as is possible (30% have low virus concentrations).
Read 15 tweets
3 Feb
COVAX facility just published a forecast of what country will receive how much of what #covid19 vaccine in the first half of this year.
Lots of caveats of course. This is mostly AZ vaccine, which does not have emergency use listing yet, for instance.
gavi.org/sites/default/…
Big picture:
Countries can expect to receive vaccine to cover on average 3,3% of their population in first half of 2021, "enough to protect the most vulnerable groups such as health care workers”.
Here is “A” to give you an idea (SFP are self financing countries)
Most vaccine here is AstraZeneca’s:
240 million doses of AZ vaccine licensed to Serum Institute of India (SII)
96 million doses directly from AZ (this was supposed to be 153 million, but some shipments delayed to Q3)
Read 17 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!