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Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
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9 Jun, 4 tweets, 2 min read
"COVID-19 is not yet the worst pandemic in history. But we should not tempt fate."

Darn sobering when @larrybrilliant, one of eradicators of smallpox, writes that SARS-CoV-2 cannot be eradicated. This is a grave read with a number of solutions listed.

foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite…
Why won't Covid end? One reason is indifference. "Americans were taking off their masks and preparing for summer vacations, while India, with only three percent of its 1.4 billion inhabitants fully vaccinated, was ablaze in funeral pyres." foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite…
Another reason why it won't end, says @larrybrilliant et al, is that SARS-CoV-2 will live on in multiple animal species (more than 200 people contracted COVID-19 from minks). So that's why the world must work together on surveillance & mitigation w/vaccines.
"As a wealthy, powerful, and scientifically advanced country, the United States is optimally positioned to help lead the long fight against COVID-19. To do so, the country must recover its reputation for global public health leadership."

foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite…

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More from @amymaxmen

Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
7 Jun
The WSJ is now feeding the news cycle another article claiming to have "damning" evidence that COVID was created in a lab. It's a scientific claim, so one I can assess. 🧵
I value scientific experience (the kind that brought you the vaccine), so note the authors are (1) a self-proclaimed entrepreneur in breast health & coronavirus, who has received FDA warning letters (2) a Koch-funded climate denying physicist, albeit one who changed his position.
They reference the CGG codon that David Baltimore called a "smoking gun" in Nicholas Wade's piece. Baltimore told me he only meant to point out that we should consider a lab-origin hypothesis (uncontroversial). He told @profvrr that Wade twisted his words.
Read 11 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
27 May
"More studies needed" is a constant refrain in science. But this debate over a lab-leak has become toxic and risky.

“We need to look at the big picture and focus on incentives that get us where we want to go," says @glassmanamanda

By me @Nature
nature.com/articles/d4158…
Allegations aren't a great way to encourage collaboration on an origin study. And beyond origin studies, countries must work together to curb this crisis and prepare for the next one.
The toxicity of the debate is also fueling shameful online harassment, and @angie_rasmussen can tell you that's not fun.
Read 5 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
25 May
Dear @washingtonpost "Fact Checker," who checked your fact that the natural origin investigations have failed?

Please name emerging infectious diseases whose sources were nailed down in <5 years. I'll wait.
For fun, posting a photo I took in northern Liberia in 2019, of researchers searching for bats carrying Ebola in an abandoned mine where bats roost. We STILL don’t know the origin of the 2014 outbreak.
Relevant note from the trip: Some Liberians I met near this mine blamed the Ebola outbreak on the US. US scientists were there studying viruses, then US troops came to “help” with the outbreak. They seemed to be making 💰 from it. Fishy.

+ Another 🦇 study photo from the trip
Read 4 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
23 May
🌎Here is the most important #lableak question:

Where will mounting US demands for an investigation of Chinese labs lead?

Foreign policy experts see few potential gains, and HUGE losses.
In a letter to Science, @DavidRelman & other earnest scientists request all primary data from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Eg. the specs of the antibody tests used to test all staff at the lab, number of tests & proof of the result.

science.sciencemag.org/content/372/65…
The letter lends credence to demands from Congress, Fox News, Pompeo. Will the demands convince China to fork over its lab notebooks, re-test Wuhan scientists, etc?

Why? Even US & EU threats of sanctions haven’t curbed China’s abuse of Uighurs. China sanctioned back.
Read 10 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
28 Apr
I spent 8 months investigating how exploitation, poverty & discrimination drove COVID—and why scientists haven’t really addressed these issues, despite studying them for 150 years.

“Where is the urgency?” asks @Arrianna_Planey.

My latest #longform + 🧵 nature.com/immersive/d415…
In October, I went to Cali's San Joaquin Valley as it surged with COVID.

Many people impacted by the virus were immigrants who worked at farms & in meat plants. They felt their work was of value to society but not their lives. Low wages, no protection & blatant discrimination.
What I heard from agriculture workers reminded me of an investigation by Rudolf Virchow, 1848:

“The plutocracy…did not recognize Upper Silesians as human beings, but only as tools.” His radical solution was that “the worker must have part in the yield of the whole.”
Read 19 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
6 Apr
Media: Stop freaking people out with scary variant headlines! They're frazzled & we want the public to know when a variant *ACTUALLY* escapes vaccines regularly.

Questions to ask when you see a press release 🧵:
-Why do scientists think it's deadlier, etc?
("Double mutant"👇🏼🙄)
-If scientists think a variant is contagious because cases are up, ask about the correlation. At UC Berkeley, @staciakwyman found that outbreaks on campus were from parties, not B117.

-Behavioral reasons for surges are less newsy than Scary Mutant, but people can change behavior
-If scientists think variants evade an immune response because of studies in petri dishes or in mice, put that in the headline. eg biorxiv.org/content/10.110… This isn't the same as finding that vaccinated people get COVID.
Read 5 tweets

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