1/ And... I'm back off the fence.
One dose of Pfizer vaccine useless against B.1.351 and significantly less effective against B.1.1.7.
Two doses of Pfizer vs B.1.351 better. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33772244/
3/ I think we have enough vaccine supply in the U.S. right now. 205M doses delivered and almost 158M doses administered. Delaying for 2nd doses is solving for the wrong problem if you're trying to speed up vaccination and get more of the population covered.
4/ The current surge is very concerning. But we have enough vaccine supply.
What we need to be doing is distributing more quickly and continuing to mask up, socialize outdoors, and test.
1/ To be clear... I've only moved from being firmly against delaying 2nd doses to reconsidering / being on the fence. statnews.com/2021/04/02/dem… -@levfacher
2/ As a scientist, I think it's really important to reevaluate your conclusions as more data comes in.
Models help us think through and weigh different scenarios, but are not the same as empirical evidence.
3/ This model finds that the strength of vaccine neutralizing antibody responses may be less critical than slowing the rate of viral transmission in preventing the emergence of mutant variants. nature.com/articles/s4157…
1/ My father came to the US from India in 1972. He changed his last name to his caste name because it was easier for Americans to pronounce. And yet, Americans still find a way to get it wrong... throwing in extra letters, etc. Names matter. They’re us. newyorker.com/culture/person…
2/ We shouldn't have to change our names because other people can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce our names or to "avoid the shame of the American gaze." We can't let people ruin our names for us.
3/ "My earliest memories of school include the tension of roll call, when I would try to volunteer my name to stop the teacher from attempting a pronunciation."
1/ In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, my team at justhumanproductions.org and I produced season 3 of the @AmericanDxFM podcast: 36-episodes on gun violence in America.
Here are some important lessons that the media seems still not to have learned:
2/ We spend too much time focused on the shooter and not enough on the victims. Shooters want notoriety. We should never name them. justhumanproductions.org/podcasts/e25-g…
3/ The media focuses too much on the perpetrator's motive and not enough on evidence-based solutions. nytimes.com/2021/03/27/bus…
Do NOT politicize a public health crisis.
Politicians need to get out of the way & let public health workers, doctors, nurses & scientists do their jobs & lead the response.
This applies to ALL politicians.
2/
Politicization can cut both ways.
The harms of politicization are not unique to any political party.
Republicans now say they fear the pandemic was weaponized against them and are uncertain whether they want to be vaccinated.
That fear harms us all.
3/
When people don't trust public health, they don't follow public health guidance (e.g. masking, social distancing, vaccination).
If people don't follow public health guidance, it will take that much longer to get back to life and recover from the pandemic.
1/ We can't underestimate SARS-CoV-2.
We've been wrong time and again. science.sciencemag.org/content/371/65…
- Viruses evolve through mutation PLUS natural selection
- When the virus replicates, it mutates.
- The more people the virus infects, the more it replicates, the more it mutates.
2/ Natural selection favors traits that allow the virus to
- replicate better
- transmit better
- and evade our immune systems better.
3/ So it makes sense that the mutant COVID variants are more infectious (e.g. B.1.1.7, B.1.526), more virulent (B.1.1.7), or evade immune responses to natural infection (e.g. B.1.351, P.1).
1/ Pregnant and breastfeeding women have a robust responses to the Pfizer & Moderna COVID vaccines and pass the immunity on to their babies: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33758889/
2/ Importantly vaccinated women pass on much higher levels of protective antibodies to their fetus or newborn than do women who've had COVID.
3/ As with influenza, pregnant women are at higher risk for severe disease when they get COVID. Women are also at higher risk for pre-term birthif they get COVID while pregnant.