Thread by @MonicaGandhi9

Great discussion today with me, Dr. Paul Offit, @EricTopol, @DrOnyemaOgbuagu and me on the 1-year anniversary of the date WHO declared @covid19 a pandemic about "COVID-19 Vaccines and the Return to Life".@leaps_org and @aspeninstitute
leaps.org/covid-vaccines…

Still working on recording but highlights we all agreed upon
-@DrOnyemaOgbuagu and I agreed how amazing it was to work in a hospital as ID doctors and to see the plunging hospitalization rates from #covid19 (we had 1 admission last week) in real-time from vaccines
-We agreed with

@EricTopol on his coined term of "scariants" for variants and were reassured by falling numbers in S. Africa, despite the scary variant.
-We reviewed the accumulating data of viruses reducing asymptomatic infection and @DrOnyemaOgbuagu and I agreed the CID paper I tweeted this am

would have implications for infection control in hospital (80% reduction in asymptomatic infection with swabbing after vaccines in Mayo Clinic patients)
-@EricTopol and I agreed rapid antigen tests if someone is positive after vax would help in determining if infectious
-All 4

of us were very happy with the effectiveness of the vaccines against severe disease, not just in the clinical trials where sample sizes were limited but in real-world, especially in nursing homes in the U.S.
-All 4 of us liked easing restrictions over time but noted that nursing

homes locked down and still plummeting hospitalizations in that vulnerable population great to see with mass vaccination
-We don't know how long immunity from vax will last although intrigued by germinal center preprint I tweeted today
-Pretty optimistic; add anything, men