We have sequenced ~60% of all Louisiana SARS-CoV-2 since beginning of pandemic. No funds from CDC... no serious discussions with contracting officials. Just talk talk talk talk talk. tick toc...
... meanwhile.. why should @dmaccannell fund university labs to sequence SARS-CoV-2? When he pays your tax dollars to @Labcorp et al, he is senior author on all the sequences they deposit in GenBank & @GISAID .. probably 50,000 by now.
That is what I call clear “appearance” of a CONFLICT OF INTEREST.
Just one example of what the AUTHORSHIP on these sequences you tax $$ are paying for look in GISAID.. why would @dmaccannell or the office he is CHIEF SCIENTIST of want to fund me or any other academic lab to sequence in Louisiana?
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..@nextstrain (Auspice + Augur) and @GISAID (EpiFlu + EpiCoV) have worked together to revolutionize how we understand outbreaks and have led to virtuous cycles of enhanced genome sequencing around the world 🌍
There are great things in store for all of us when we each get past our disagreements and/ or misunderstandings...
Should @Tuliodna and @houzhou be “reimbursed” for “filling the void,” too.. and discovering B.1.351 and many other emergent variants? Is that our role? A raw materials producers those like you who refine pretty phylogenetic trees?
Or maybe local virologists want to engage with their local & international collaborators like @VirusWhisperer to develop viral neutralization assays?
Francis Collins discussed our work (positively) with the Washington Post.. and your boss, Greg Armstrong, presented to on the Q677 variants we helped discover
But we have seen no direct support from @CDCgov@CDCemergency@CDCDirector ... instead you take Louisiana $$$ and send it to @Labcorp & Quest & Illumina and stamp your name as SENIOR AUTHOR every time they publish a sequence under the CDC contracts you cut for them.
Sequencing pathogens & sharing the data is a public health utility. It needs to be distributed and decentralized to avoid the next COVID-19. And also, let’s face it.. to modernize how we move forward against all community transmitted infectious diseases.
Academia has huge role in community outreach, education & microbial genomic surveillance. CDC OAMD support for this has been ALL TALK. NO WALK.
In the near future, ongoing community-based surveillance sequencing will release daily / weekly reports on the viruses 🦠 and bacteria that are actively causing illnesses in our schools, workplaces, care homes, et cetera
The technology is here but a few challenges remain.. we need to make sure to build trust in communities & be transparent about what we are doing when we obtain samples from communities