Lazarus Long Profile picture
Sep 20, 2021 12 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Here's a true CoVid story from the Chicoutimi Hospital in Quebec, Canada. From catastrophe to redemption.

Huge outbreak of 400 employees over 2.5 months, directly linked to nosocomial infections. 70 HAI patients.
To be frank, at first the employees were blamed.

Because of overtime due to CoVid - but the employees were blamed.

lequotidien.com/actualites/dur…

Was that the end of the story?
No. The workers did not want to catch CoVid. They were careful.

See the quote below from Anne who caught CoVid below.

And the outbreak continued, until someone decided to test the ventilation.
Right now, you just raised an eyebrow.

"Why test the ventilation? It's not airborne!"

But, as you can see above, Anne was wearing her droplet protection.

So, here were the ventilation results as measured in CO2 (a decent aerosol stand-in).

Up to 1611 ppm. In a hospital!
So, what did they do?

Spent $200,000 to improve the ventilation (bring in exterior air) and bring in negative pressure rooms.
The ventilation improved, as expected. But it wasn't quite enough.

Why? Ventilation/ filtration solve far-field aerosols, but cannot act quick enough to remediate aerosols that are up close (near-field aerosols).

Those can only be remediated by airborne PPE.
In February, N95's were mandated.

ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emiss…
N95's are great - but they can be expensive if replacing them all the time, right?

N100 Elastomeric respirators, though - a little more expensive up front - but within a few days much, much cheaper.

Have these been deployed anywhere? Yes- at the Alleghany Health Network.
13 hospitals, 250 locations, 21,000+ employees.

Here is Dr. Chalikondra, CMO of AHN (ahn.org/about/leadersh…), talking about that roll-out:


Or here is a study that was done on that roll-out:
journalacs.org/article/S1072-…
Here's a cost-save calculator from MSA for elastomeric respirators over N95's:
webapps.msasafety.com/apr-calculator/

But besides the cost-save that will make you the hero of your administration?

You will be the hero to the HCW's under your charge. Why?
After the AHN roll-out, guess how many wanted to go back to N95's? 0.

facs.org/media/press-re…

N100's medical grade silicone is much more comfortable than scratchy N95 material.

And safer since they protect against 99.97% of particles vs. 95%.

cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/to…
What about the patients? Like anything new - it's just a matter of education.



My DM's are open for any questions that you might have - not just HCW's! Regular people wear N100 elastomeric respirators, too:

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More from @LazarusLong13

Apr 18
Trump is trying to distract from the economy. He just pumped out the Lab Leak from the official whitehouse.gov website.

Simultaneously making masking advocacy both more difficult and easier.

The Shrodinger Presidency. If only he had.... /+

whitehouse.gov/lab-leak-true-…
Of course I don't wish him dead in a box. That is against Twitter's TOS.

But, anyway, what do I mean? On the one hand, pointing out that Covid is probably a bioweapon means that you can point out the silliness of not protecting yourself against it.

On the other hand, this: Image
Which, of course, is silly as workers in BSL2-4 labs wear N95s and better to protect against bioweapons.

Heh. I can tell an antimasker wrote that because they screwed up the logic on it.

Mask mandates do NOT equate masks.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 2
@TheAtlantic @danengber Heh - I suspect Mr. Engber has been eavesdropping on my (and my fellow Covid Conscious) swimming safer threads. I have a new solution for showering safer for that I will be rolling out tomorrow.

For future articles by those who will come along, let me point out a few things /+
@TheAtlantic @danengber Thank you very much for pointing out that 4% of America is still masking 100% of the time! That is 13.2 million Americans.

The Masking Nation is larger than 38 states. :)

But, 18% of us masking some of the time in the SAME PEW POLL (tch tch). You would think that would be/+ At a basic level, their COVID-conscious attitudes may not be so far from the mainstream. Twenty-one percent of Americans still think of the disease as “a major threat” to public health, according to a recent poll from Pew Research Center. Thirty-nine percent say we’re not “taking it seriously enough.” But if 50 million to 100 million adults harbor such concerns, very few are doing much about them. Masking rates were once as high as 88 percent; now they’re close to nil. For those who still maintain their masking habit—4 percent, says Pew—the whiplash in social norms has been a shock.
@TheAtlantic @danengber be mentioned, @TaylorLorenz, by Mr. Engber, since 18% lines up pretty closely to the 21% still worried that Covid is a big deal (it is) - that he mentioned.

And suddenly, Masking Nation has 59.4 million residents. We are the largest state. Canada /+

Read 14 tweets
Mar 22
This may be one of the most important studies in a decade.

#LongCovidBinder.

"The models produced correctly classified those with severe ME/CFS from recovered controls with an accuracy of 97%, sensitivity of 94%, and specificity of 100%. "

THAT IS HUGE.
"We found that at Stage 1, those fated to develop ME/CFS 6 months following IM had low levels of IL-5 and IL-13 [25]. " We found that at Stage 1, those fated to develop ME/CFS 6 months following IM had low levels of IL-5 and IL-13 [25]. IL-5 enhances the production of B1 cells which are anti-inflammatory (impaired B1 cells have been found in multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis), and IL-13 has anti-inflammatory properties. Jason et al. [26] also found that students who failed to recover from IM had more restricted, inflexible cytokine networks whereas those who recovered had more flexible, less interconnected networks. Network analysis suggests that IL-5 and IL-13 influe...
So, this means ME/CFS can be predicted.

And what can be predicted - treatments can be found.

And they are studying LongCovid as well.

This study is easy to read, And everyone should.

/+

mdpi.com/2076-2607/13/4…
Read 6 tweets
Mar 13
A new study just showed what I have been saying since the start of bird flu. H5N1 is airborne.

Still in place?
USDA: YOU ONLY NEED TO TEST LACTATING COWS.

oops.

USDA: FOMITES (infectious objects) SPREAD IT.

oops.

WASHING YOUR HANDS WILL STOP IT.

oops. This new Federal Order does not override or supersede USDA's April 24 Federal Order, which still requires the mandatory testing of lactating dairy cows prior to interstate shipment and requires that all privately owned laboratories and state veterinarians report positive test results connected with those tests. The new Federal Order announced today is intended to complement and enhance this existing order.
Question [00:51:52]  Given the CDC's vaccination program, I'm wondering if this means you think it's no longer realistic to expect that the outbreak will be contained this year?  Eric Deeble, USDA [00:52:12]  Just on the animal side and all that Dr. Nirav speak to the human side, there's a lot about this disease that makes us feel as if we can arrest its progress.  And we've actually seen some success demonstrated to date.  With this disease, it does not appear to move by respiratory transmission. We know that there are high viral loads in milk, and we've identified through close, collabora...
In addition to testing, biosecurity is the key to containing this virus, and ultimately ensuring that it is eradicated so that producers do not have to deal with this virus in dairy cattle permanently. Good biosecurity including cleaning and disinfection of vehicle and equipment - is critical to minimizing the risk of disease spread. USDA works closely with state animal health official, producers, and industry organizations to provide guidance and resources for cleaning and disinfection not only on affected farms but for all livestock producers as a part of practicing good biosecurity. APHI...
The study.

✅ 20% of the cows showed up as sick. Had symptoms. But....

✅ It turns out that 89.4% were actually infected.

✅ 83.7% of those had no symptoms. Remind you of any other airborne diseases?

✅ 40.5% of the dry cows not being milked? Infected. So, no Image
Image
Image
fomites or milk aerosols involved, most likely.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 13
There is not much that scares me. Freaks me out.

I am freaking out.

You should be, too.

Do you know what this shows?

Do you know how to avoid this? Holy cow.
This is the continued accumulation of dementia-causing microplastics in your brain. Simple linear regression (shown with 95% CI represented by dashed lines) was performed for total plastics, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and styrene-butadiene rubber measured in normal decedent brains from 2004 (average of east coast samples), 2016 and 2024 (NM OMI samples).
See how it increased from 2016 to 2024?

And it actually is worse - they found less plastics in brains from a decade earlier.

ACCUMULATION. Simple linear regression (shown with 95% CI represented by dashed lines) was performed for total plastics, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and styrene-butadiene rubber measured in normal decedent brains from 2004 (average of east coast samples), 2016 and 2024 (NM OMI samples).
Read 28 tweets
Feb 23
Great interview of Ed Yong - I am just covering the C0V1D part.

/1 The Interview  Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World  Ed standing with his arms folded.  His eyes tell you COVID is not over.
You've been clear in saying that C0V1D has not gone away. You ask people to wear masks at your events..... You’ve been clear in saying that Covid has not gone away. You ask people to wear masks at your events. But that attitude is not necessarily where the rest of the world is. How do you think about continuing to take precautions and advising others to do so when it feels as if society has moved on? I do it for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, I have learned that I enjoy not being sick. I know that the cost of long Covid is real and substantial, and I don’t want to run that risk lightly.
"I think it makes a huge difference to them to have the person at the front of the stage wear a mask. It tells them, It’s not weird." . I also know that I have many friends and people I’m close to who are immunocompromised. So for the sake of the people around me, I also don’t want to get sick. When I do events, I wear a mask for those reasons, and because I know that every time I do a talk, while the vast majority of people in the audience have probably moved on, there are going to be other people who haven’t. I think it makes a huge difference to them to have the person at the front of the stage wear a mask. It tells them, It’s not weird. So I do it for that reason, too. In terms of holding this line at a point when a l...
Read 5 tweets

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