Worried—We are now seeing lots of outdoor-only #DeltaVariant transmission between strangers with no direct contact. These sports attendees weren’t even sitting together—likely fleeting transmission at “pinch points” (bottlenecks) at stadium🏟 gates. This would change everything.
4) Sporting events also very risky due to after parties and side pub gatherings. This was my main worry before. But seeing the NSW 🇦🇺 cases of sport spectators having no other contact worries me.
5) the Netherlands concert was part of this surge. We can’t have these large gatherings amid #DeltaVariant I worry. India 🇮🇳 epidemic was also spurred by religious gatherings — which were almost all outdoors too. Now making more sense how India had such a huge outbreak.
7) How is outdoor transmission even possible with #DeltaVariant but wasn’t possible before? Well, bad news from Guangdong CDC—“The viral loads in Delta infections were ~1000 times higher than (earlier) strain infections [on day 1 of positive test].” ⚠️wow. virological.org/t/viral-infect…
8) #DeltaVariant also yields faster peak viral load—“results showed the time interval from the exposure to first PCR positive in the quarantined population was 6.00 (IQR 5.00-8.00) days in the 2020 epidemic and was 4.00 days in the 2021 epidemic (peak at 3.71 days).” 👀 damn.
9) as result, “In response to this notable viral parameter, the government required people leaving the Guangzhou city from airports, train stations and shuttle bus stations to show proof of a negative COVID-19 within 72 hours on June 6 and further shorten into 48 hours on June 7”
10) in light of the above #DeltaVariant data, these partying at a nightclub in London as coronavirus restrictions are lifted by callous Boris Johnson and @sajidjavid are pretty insane.
11) several other “fleeting exposures” traced in NSW Australia are pretty worrisome - all were strangers. This has been found multiple times now.
12) This follows the other shopping mall case in which the index case passed within 60 centimeters of another man for mere “seconds”. This is the #DeltaVariant that is dominating UK 🇬🇧, ravaged India 🇮🇳, and surging across Europe and US right now.
13) Want proof of another outdoor fleeting transmission case? Here it is — an outdoor cafe infection of fleeting contact — confirmed via even genomic sequencing to match the exact virus strain!! This is very strong proof it happened. This is why I worry - multiple bad signals.
14) And as reminder — #DeltaVariant is leaps and bounds faster transmission than any other variant. Dr @larrybrilliant, who led smallpox eradication, even says Delta is more transmissible than smallpox!!! And it took his team years to eradicate smallpox!
15) we must be much more vigilant with of our pandemic restriction and be very wary of lifting them when #DeltaVariant is surging. It can quickly get out of control very easy given how infectious it is.
BREAKING—FDA suddenly cancels meeting to update next season’s flu vaccines, with zero explanations. Any delays will jeopardize next year’s vaccine supply chain.
2) Folks who follow me know that I’m no bullshitter. I criticized past pandemic response right and left, and have called balls and strikes without bias. And I often say things that doctors & epidemiologists are whispering among themselves but don’t say publicly. (Cough cough) ⬇️
3) While I don’t recommend hoarding… I think stocking up on flu antivirals, which you can obtain prophylactically (preventively) from doctors if you ask nicely why you’re high risk, can be a good idea. I know many doctors, epidemiologists and virologists who do for their family.
Doctors are debunking RFK Jr’s claim that 20 hospitalized measles cases in Texas are there for mainly quarantine. Doctors on the ground say the 20 kids hospitalized are having trouble breathing. Oh and they are all unvaccinated against measles, which RFK Jr neglects to mention.
2) RFK Jr told Trump today there’s now 2 measles deaths.
Woke or biology? There are actually more than the basic “male” XY & “female” XX sexes. Why? Because biology also creates people with single X chromosomes, or extra chromosomes like XXX, XXY, XYY, or XXX+, plus many 🧬genes. 👉All I’m asking is— please be kind to others. Thanks🙏
2) “The most frequent SCAs include Turner syndrome (45,X), Klinefelter syndrome (47,XXY), Trisomy X syndrome (47,XXX), and Double Y syndrome (47,XYY).”
3) “The phenotype seen in SCAs is highly variable and may not merely be due to the direct genomic imbalance from altered sex chromosome gene dosage but also due to additive alterations in gene networks and regulatory pathways across the genome as well as individual genetic modifiers.”
I'm shocked a lot of doctors don't know about this newer flu antiviral drug called Baloxavir (XOFLUZA)... that shortens your flu illness by 33%, and reduces your viral load by day 2, versus what a placebo takes 5-6 days to achieve. Baloxavir also seems superior to TAMIFLU (oseltamivir) for smashing your viral load on 2 day, achieving what takes Tamiflu 3-4 days. CDC even lists Baloxavir on their website as one of the top 4 drugs that it tracks whether it works against new flu strains (it works)
2) "Baloxavir was associated with significantly more rapid declines in infectious viral load than placebo or oseltamivir (Figure 3A and 3B)." nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
3) Adverse events for baloxavir were no different than placebo. in fact theres even hints that it could be lower than Tamiflu.
"Adverse events that were considered to be related to the trial regimen were more common in oseltamivir recipients (8.4%) than in baloxavir recipients (4.4%, P=0.009)"
⚠️WORST FLU SEASON ever since 2002-2003 when we began to track flu (red, first graph). Worst hit this year are children ages 0-4 and 5-17. ▶️We also have significantly LOWER flu vaccine uptake this year, one of the lowest flu vaccine coverages (red 3rd graph). Indisputable facts.
2) I don't need to tell you that certain US states have vastly lower vaccination rates than others. See map (lighter green, less flu vaccination coverage), and which have higher (darker green)...
If you want to see details and demographics on which state has the LOWEST flu vaccine coverage rates... the data is here. cdc.gov/fluvaxview/das…
3) It’s not just the flu that is going around… Gaines County, TX, where the epicenter of the measles outbreak is, has one of the lowest measles vaccination rates too.