Again, a cable news host has used an anti-vaccine trope that discourages vaccination. This time "If you are #vaccinated, why do you care if others aren't." This thread explains herd immunity & why high #vaccine uptake matters. #tuckercarlsonmustgo 1/7
If you are less likely to get sick because you are #vaccinated , you are also less likely to get others sick. You could break the chain of transmission, and your #vaccine protects those around you! (And if your car brakes work, you won't plow into other cars!) 3/7
When lots of #vaccinated folks live together, #COVID19 (or any other VPD) cannot find a home for replicating and spreading--stopping the chain of transmission! 4/7
Taking that back to you and your body, if people around you are not spreading disease because they are vaccinated, you are less likely to get sick. Sweet! 5/7
Even if you are #vaccinated, having less disease around you matters. #Vaccines are wildly effective, but not 100%. If you're living where the virus is going bananas, your chances of catching #COVID19 exist even for the immunized. (Also true for measles, polio & so on.)
Herd Immunity (community immunity) is real and works best when we can achieve it without people getting sick. Our communities can be stronger, healthier, and more normal if we ALL get vaccinated. So yes, vaccinated people want you vaccinated, too.
And yes, I see the irony of explaining #HerdImmunity to one of the guys who thought it was a great idea to achieve it by letting folks get sick and die. What a topsy-turvy world we live in.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Last week, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis convened a panel of 'experts' to try and prove mRNA vaccines are unsafe.
We wanted to point out some key myths which illustrate how they continue to mislead people. 🧵
Many of their claims center around distorting the real side-effect of myocarditis. The first is this narrative that history has shown that this side effect is riskier for kids than the virus.
We *know* this is false. AAP data show most kids 12-17 were fully vaccinated by August.
At this point, national data showed only 543 confirmed cases of vaccine-associated myocarditis in kids. And since 0-11 year olds are at very low risk for this event, there would be a limit to its scale.
Contrast this with 170000+ reported pediatric hospitalizations from COVID.
The Hep B vaccine is now given at birth, but starting *this year* all adults <60 are recommended to get it.
I talked to the CDC's former viral hepatitis lead Dr. John Ward to understand why 🧵
First, what is viral hepatitis?
Viral hepatitis comprises a few different infections caused by viruses Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. While A and E mostly cause acute disease, the others including B often lead to chronic infection.
HepB in particular is a lifelong infection.
HepB is harmful because chronic infection is a leading cause of liver cancer.
In the US, between 1-2 MM people have chronic HepB. Most are unaware. And while it travels through body fluids, it's so infectious that transmission can happen through casual contact. (Dr. Ward ⬇️)
Since the EUA for COVID vaccines for kids under 5, there have been some high-profile misconceptions about the recommendation.
It's an issue because this virus isn't going away and newborns have a chance at immunity before infection. So here's why we recommend the vaccine (🧵)
First, authorization.
The concern here has been that the vax trials were too small to detect many severe outcomes. And so some people say we "don't know" whether vaccine works.
That's misleading. The stated basis for the EUA was what's known as immunobridging. (2)
Immunobridging is when you have a new use for an effective vaccine and want to get the dose right.
Both the Pfizer + Moderna trials showed good immune response in kids (>=1 GMTR) with high statistical confidence. This—not efficacy—is why the vaccine was unanimously approved. (3)
My repeated attempts to address concerns about long-term effects from vaccines have led me to believe that people must not know what infectious diseases can do.
So in this 🧵 I will cite a variety of sources to show they are what cause such effects. (3)
Recently, a paper in Scientific Reports began circling that suggests mRNA vaccines may have yet undetected heart risks. The authors used EMS data in Israel looking at calls for cardiovascular events.
They also draw some conclusions that go beyond their data. A 🧵 (1)
First, it should be noted that some people are saying this was published in Nature.
It wasn't. Scientific reports is a mega journal, publishing the largest # of articles in the world and specifically selects papers for their methods rather than their immediate importance. (2)
That's not a knock against the authors, because for the most part we're not looking at their methods.
So what did they do?
They looked at rates of emergency medical calls for two conditions--cardiac arrest (CA) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS)--across Israel during COVID. (3)
One common objection to vaccination goes like: "I'm healthy. I'll overcome disease naturally."
People believe that because we evolved to deal with viruses, we don't need to immunize.
Turns out this isn't true. Today you face viruses a caveman would never dream of. 🧵 (1)
This thread is about a term we hear often, natural immunity 🍃
There's a certain ring to it as if getting sick is what your ancestors would have wanted.
And while it is true that we have an *amazing* immune system, the world is much, much different than it used to be. (2)
Let's start with some facts. You obviously did evolve to handle a lot of exposures throughout your life.
We know this because even your average baby--with an immature immune system--fights off millions of potential microbial threats every single day | kqed.org/stateofhealth/… (3)