2) It’s critical to recognize that the #DeltaVariant is rising underneath the decrease of the #AlphaVariant#B117. Many have been complacent about this. But Delta is doubling every week now in 🇬🇧!
3) India 🇮🇳 doctors have been sharing concerns that #DeltaVariant is more severe / affecting more kids. Singapore 🇸🇬 MOH is also warning it is affecting children a lot.
4) Yet UK 🇬🇧 govt made a critical mistake of no masks in schools and no improvements in ventilation or air quality.
5) So what do we now do? Here is what this means for infection control of the new #DeltaVariant worldwide. Do not get complacent.
7) Here are the warnings from UK experts. The details of how #DeltaVariant has 2.5x higher hospitalizations risk than #AlphaVariant#B117 is detailed in the below thread 🧵
9) While the vaccines do mostly work on the #DeltaVariant, the main problem is that 1 dose simply just isn’t enough anymore. Here is the latest LANCET published study. It walks thru the evidence how 1 dose is so weak. 1 dose strategy countries (cough Canada 🇨🇦, cough) must adapt.
10) Because #DeltaVariant starts at a much lower neutralization, its efficacy drop when adding co-morbidities could be even more steep. See below how these two compound together…
11) for those who still don’t believe it… “show me the hospitalizations” you ask? Well here it is… exponential rise in hospitalizations in the UK 🇬🇧 now because of #DeltaVariant despite >70% one dose, and 42% full vaccinated… hospital numbers don’t lie.
12) So…. Is it surging in the US? Ummm, yeah. Really damn fast too. It’s the fastest growing variant currently, and #DeltaVariant projected by models to become dominant in the US by July… just like in UK’s footsteps. Hence let’s watch carefully what happened in UK and India.
13) In case the above graphic wasn’t clear… #DeltaVariant#B16172 is colored with magenta in the modeling of how dominant it will soon become in across many states.
14) There is also some concerns about reinfections… not definitive yet, but usually reinfection risks correlate with vaccine efficacy/neutralization changes
15) As Dr Fauci warned recently: “The problem you get into … is that a single dose only provides about ~30% effectiveness [against #DeltaVariant]—so that is really an issue you gotta be careful”, as Fauci tells @nehakhanna_07 on @IndiaAheadNews.
16) Here is the awesome full length 5 min video on the #DeltaVariant (threaded in 3 parts above) on YouTube by @VickiGSP of @IndependentSage. Hats 🎩 off to Vicki!
17) In case you need more data on the #DeltaVariant and kids in UK… this is the contact tracing of positive cases.
21) Bad - #DeltaVariant is now up to 91% of all #SARSCoV2 samples in the UK 🇬🇧. Total domination of the #B16172 is in sight. It replaced the previously fast #alphavariant but which is not fast enough anymore compared to Delta.
22) politicians often act too late. Scientists often too shy to shout from the roof tops early…. What you get is inaction by politicians and vocalization by scientists until too late.
So I’m here trying to raise the alarm— because there is a critical need for early action.
23) Cases are rising, especially in the unvaccinated. This is why we need urgently 2 doses + mitigation.
24) is it a coincidence that UK 🇬🇧 govt always falls behind in reacting to #COVID19 surges? No. It’s bad leadership.
25) look at this sharp takeover of #DeltaVariant in becoming dominant in the UK 🇬🇧 — we are rather certain it will happen in many other countries too. We cannot ignore this.
27) I keep staring at this table… 23 deaths among unvaccinated, while 12 deaths in fully vaccinated. Approximately ~40% of UK is 2-dose vaccinated (lower earlier)… but that is still a quite a vaccine breakthrough number… 12 vs 23. Have to keep eyes peeled on #DeltaVariant
28) I’m not the only one worried about these weird numbers with breakthrough cases with the #DeltaVariant. 30% among fully 2-dose vaccinated is a lot… granted that elderly are more likely fully vaccinated but then that points to waning immunity in elderly.
30) welp—The #DeltaVariant is soon going to take over Europe says WHO Europe chief, who just urgently issued a new warning. Delta is surging in the US as well now.
31) serious—Outbreak even w/ 2 dose of mRNA vaccines—🇨🇦 hospital—16 patients & 6 healthcare staff #DeltaVariant positive. 6/16 patients & 5/6 HCWs had received 2 doses of #COVID19 vaccine; 7 patients & 1 healthcare worker had 1 dose. 1 patient now in ICU. cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…
32) this #DeltaVariant emerging is why we need to still mask even if vaccinated. And there is suggested by top vaccinologist @PeterHotez that a 3rd shot booster is maybe even needed because of delta.
🧪T CELL DAMAGE—This doctor’s T-cells are way **below normal** on 5 different T-cell parameters after being #COVID19 infected 5 times! Several studies have found T cell suppression/damage after COVID. ➡️You do NOT want reinfections—don’t be blasé with mass infection! #LongCovid
2) so what is the evidence that #COVID19 is associated with T cell death? Here are some below. Notably one study even found more T cell apoptosis than even HIV according to immunologist @fitterhappierAJ
3) there used to be doubters on COVID’s negative effects on T cells. But those doubts are fading as it’s becoming slowly more clear there are major consequences on T cells.
📍“Super Gonorrhea… poses a major public health threat". #SuperGonorrhea is a type of antibiotic-resistant strain—some say it may be spreading from bad use of antibiotics like azithromyocin vs #COVID19 (remember that 2020/2021 trend?)
Is #monkeypox an emergency yet?—“Monkeypox is mutating up to 12X faster than expected, amid warnings 🇬🇧 could see as many as 60,000 new cases a day” by 2022 end.
2) “While a surge to tens of thousands of daily cases in six months might seem exteme, scientists have found the virus appears to be mutating at an unusual rate…”
3) “In a study published in journal Nature Medicine, Portuguese researchers found samples of the virus had 50 mutations in its DNA compared to 2018. That’s between six and 12 times the number scientists would normally expect over the same time period.”
⚠️DECLARE ASAP—@WHO is again weighing to declare #Monkeypox a PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY (PHEIC)—after declining last week. 👀“Children already infected”—@DrTedros is reconvening the panel—concerned MPX is moving "into high-risk groups—children, immunocompromised & pregnant women"🧵
2) @DrTedros will reconvene the emergency committee on #monkeypox "as soon as possible" due to the "evolving situation," after @WHO said last Saturday MPVX wasn't a PHEIC "at present" (a 3-11 vote to declare PHEIC last week). It took 9 days just to convene a meeting last time.
3) last week, @TheWHN aggressively declared #monkeypox a pandemic emergency— on June 22, 2022, a day before the WHO emergency meeting on the 23rd. Our goal was to urge WHO and others to act and prepare. WHO declined last weekend. I sure hope they don’t do so again!!
I don’t know if anyone cares about kids—but #COVID19 hospitalization in kids have been steadily increasing for 2.5 months— now matching hospitalization last seen in February. Adult hospitalization rising too. #BA5/4 is behind the latest surge. #CovidIsNotOver
2) Further, pediatric hospitalizations for #COVID19 are even more aggressively increasing in England among both youngest kids and older kids. England has even more #BA5/4 than US… it’s a bellwether of what is to come.
📍NEW DOMINANCE of “ESCAPE ARTIST” Variants #BA5 & #BA4–together topping 52% of all strains in the US, all while #BA2 family going extinct. ➡️BA5&4 are highly evasive against past immunity—matches rise in #COVID19 hospitalization in US & many countries.🧵 covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra…
2) this is why FDA has recommended for updates booster shots— The panel’s vote paves the way for F.D.A. to push manufacturers to make reformulated boosters in time for Biden WH to offer them later this year, before an expected winter surge of the virus. nytimes.com/2022/06/28/us/…
3) #BA5 has begun causing havoc in hospitalizations worldwide in many countries. Especially recently in Portugal that had a wave of hospitalization that neared it’s winter peak. UK is now being squeezed by BA5/4 too. 👇