On Singapore’s recent delta variant covid cluster: “The cluster’s index case, Case 62873, is an 88-year-old cleaner who worked at Changi Airport Terminal 3. He tested positive on May 5 despite being fully vaccinated.” channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore…
Another delta cluster in Singapore at a hospital: “A fully vaccinated 46-year-old female nurse at TTSH, or case 62541, became the first case linked to the cluster after she tested positive on Apr 27.”
“In the Delta variant clusters, Prof Leo has seen vaccinated cases with family members who have tested positive. This means it could still be possible for vaccinated people to spread the virus.”
“The experts stressed that new variant strains arise when viruses evolve to adapt and evade human defences”
“Disorganised, half-hearted attempts are exactly the prescription for viral mutants.”
Singapore’s tracking of covid cases is incredible. It’s only when you can clearly follow the chains of transmission that you can understand whether a new variant can infect and be spread by vaccinated individuals (only Pfizer and Moderna in Singapore btw).
The good thing is that full vaccination still confers protection against new variants, even if efficacy is slightly reduced. So it’s very important for people in high risk groups to get vaccinated, especially in places where there are low vax rates and new variants circulating.
For example, did any of the fully vaccinated airport workers who still got infected with the Delta end up transmitting it to other people?
@romeo_ph20 Looking at the Bukit Merah market cluster, you can see (if the data is indeed correct) that some vaccinated people are transmitting covid / SARS2 to other people.
Green = fully vaccinated (pfizer/moderna)
Yellow = 1 dose
The selected (blue) vaccinated person is 23 years old.
@romeo_ph20 The selected vaccinated person in this cluster is 39 years old. A chef working at Changi prison.
36 year old dealer at Marina Bays Sands Casino
18 year old national service man at the Civil Defence Academy
The site also tells you who was asymptomatic or symptomatic when they tested positive for covid-19.
For example, in this mini-cluster of 3 fully vaccinated people, the connector person was asymptomatic.
The purpose of getting vaccinated is preventing severe disease/death. And when your community has high vaccination rates, the likelihood of clusters is diminished. This protects the elderly/vulnerable who may not be fully protected even after vaccination.
This Covid-tracking app in Singapore is super useful for understanding how transmissible the virus is among vaccinated individuals.
Green = 2 doses
Yellow = 1 dose
The central person is 35 years old. This looks like a workplace cluster. 3 fully vaxed people transmitted to others.
I'm not too worried about vax'ed people being infected because ideally the vaccine would've protective effect. But I'm worried about the people who distrust the healthcare system and refuse to get vax'ed. The virus can spread via vax'ed people. covid.viz.sg
Wanted to give a shoutout to our own site @CovidCgcovidcg.org you can track the lineages and variants in each country over time.
In the USA you can see the % of sequenced SARS-CoV-2 that are the delta / B.1.617.2 / Indian (light blue) have also been growing, displacing the alpha / B.1.1.7 / UK (dark blue) over time. Gamma / P.1 / Brazilian is in green.
Not as striking as the UK. Delta has completely overtaken Alpha.
Plotting similar data for other countries, but measured in counts (like for Singapore above) as opposed to % (US and UK above).
Australia, Japan, S Korea, S Africa.
Another way to use covidcg.org is to plot the new % of sequences that are delta variant per month in each country of interest.
For example, in Singapore, 94% of the June sequences were the delta variant. UK 92%, Australia 60%, Japan 46%, USA 23% etc.
Switching the plot to show the new % of sequences that are the alpha variant per month.
The beta variant.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Dear @NSAGov I've just google searched several human transmissible viruses with the aim of understanding how many are not governed by the Federal Select Agents Program and can be used in gain-of-function research by privately funded groups.
I am not doing anything nefarious 🙏
@NSAGov The answer is there are a lot of human transmissible viruses that are not governed by the Federal Select Agents Program and can be used in gain-of-function research by privately funded groups.
@NSAGov Novel SARS-like and MERS-like viruses are not select agents. Meaning scientists in the US can bring these to their labs in major cities and enhance them without informing the authorities.
Leading science organizations and journals appear to be utterly tone deaf.
Up till last month, the National Academies kept Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance as head of their forum on microbial threats. Nature journal continues to play the mouthpiece of the Proximal Origin authors & friends.
There appears to be zero introspection that they created/are part of a system that incentivizes risky research including the work in Wuhan that likely caused the pandemic.
Just this month, another top journal published 2 studies where MERS-like viruses were used in human cell infection studies at low biosafety (BSL-2) in Wuhan. The journal did not attach notices of concern to either paper.
Are we just waiting for another outbreak of ambiguous origin to occur? And will we endure more years of "it was the pangolins/bats/raccoon dogs/name your favorite intermediate host?"
@CellCellPress when you publish papers that handle animal pathogens with unclear (human) pandemic potential at low biosafety, you signal to the rest of the scientific community that this is totally fine and will be celebrated in the best scientific journals.
@CellCellPress At the very least, there should be a note of concern. For example, pointing out that the human pathogen MERS coronavirus has a ~30% fatality rate and, in the US, has to be handled at BSL-3. And that researchers should take extra precaution when handling its close relatives.
When the SARS-CoV-2 sequence was released in Jan 2020, EcoHealth could've said
1⃣They planned to put furin cleavage sites in SARS-like viruses
2⃣In 2013, the Wuhan lab discovered a new lineage of SARS-like viruses that the covid virus belongs to
3⃣Work was done at low biosafety
Instead we had to go through 5 years of the lab leak hypothesis being painted as a racist, anti-science conspiracy theory and a ton of misinformation from EcoHealth about the work being done in Wuhan.
No punches pulled piece on #OriginOfCovid by @ianbirrell
"The pandemic revealed the arrogant and contemptuous behaviour of leading scientific figures, aided by prominent academic journals, patsy journalists and weak politicians." unherd.com/2025/01/chinas…
@ianbirrell I suggest one correction @ianbirrell please replace 'despite' with 'because of':
WHO "hired Sir Jeremy Farrar, despite the former Wellcome Trust boss’s exposure as a central player in... branding any suggestions Covid could have come from a laboratory as conspiracy theory."
@ianbirrell On Feb 19, 2020, the authors of Proximal Origin realized that Jeremy Farrar - who had convened them and led their efforts - had signed the Lancet letter by Daszak condemning all lab #OriginOfCovid as conspiracy theories.
5 years ago, the authors of Proximal Origin wondered where the pandemic virus had been transmitting *intensely* so that it gained a furin cleavage site and passed it on.
One said, "No way the selection could occur in the market. Too low a density of mammals." #OriginOfCovid
Until today, there has been no reported sign of intense transmission of the virus in animals prior to the detected outbreak in Wuhan.
Investigators, including one Proximal Origin author, searched fur farms in China - no sign of any SARS-like virus. nature.com/articles/s4158…
On the other hand, a 2018 research proposal surfaced, showing Wuhan and US scientists with a plan to insert novel furin cleavage sites into novel SARS-like viruses. theintercept.com/2021/09/23/cor…
"5% chance that H5N1 starts a sustained pandemic in humans in the next year. 50% chance that H5N1 starts a sustained pandemic in humans in the next twenty years..."
@slatestarcodex In addition, under the new US gov policy on research that enhances the pandemic potential of pathogens, it will be the funding recipient (not the funder) who is responsible for flagging their own federally funded projects for review. liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.108…