1/ Where Are the Tests?

"Other countries are awash in Covid tests. The U.S. is not."

By @DLeonhardt in @nytimes

nytimes.com/2021/09/21/bri…
2/ Thanks to the @nytimes for bringing the focus onto this US problem, that @michaelmina_lab has been advocating for solving since the start of the pandemic.
3/ "Rapid testing — i.e. antigen testing — allows pplto learn within minutes whether they are carrying enough Covid-19 virus to be contagious.

With this knowledge, infectious people can stay home and quarantine before they infect others. Everybody else can carry on w/ life"
4/ "In Britain, France and Germany, rapid testing is widely available and inexpensive, thanks to government subsidies. People can visit testing sites and get tested at no charge. Many people also keep tests in their homes and self-administer them."
5/ "In the U.S., by contrast, ppl usually take a PCR test — which must be processed by a laboratory and sometimes does not return results for more than 24 hours. During that time, a person with Covid can spread it to others.

The shortage of testing may be contributing to spread"
6/ Why is the US in this situation? Bureaucracy!

"Biden has not broken through some of the bureaucratic rigidity that has hampered the U.S. virus response. The F.D.A.’s process for approving rapid tests is “onerous” and “inappropriate,”"
7/ "For the most part, the F.D.A. still uses the same cumbersome process for approving Covid tests that it uses for high-tech medical devices.

@POTUS @CDCDirector @US_FDA @CDCgov Please take rapid action to change this, and make rapid testing available in the US!
8/ It is clear (e.g. from the work of @DFisman, @PrasadKasibhat1 and others) that transmission is dominated by a small fraction of infected people with high viral load, often through airborne superspreading events.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33861198/
9/ Antigen tests are very good at detecting those high-spreading individuals. If we kept those people quarantined, we could greatly reduce transmission.

Together with measures to control transmission (bit.ly/FAQ-A), it could have a major impact.
10/ See this preprint (soon to be in press) how superspreading events are consistent with airborne transmission, and how we can reduce the risk quantitatively:

medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
11/ Para los que entendéis español y os interesa este tema de los test rápidos, os recomiendo mucho seguir a @mariaitapia

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jose-Luis Jimenez

Jose-Luis Jimenez Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @jljcolorado

15 Sep
1/ Prof. Lidia Morawska, the leader of our "Group of 36 Scientists" that challenged @WHO from April 2020 on airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2, has been selected as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2021 by @TIME

time.com/collection/100…
2/ "Lidia Morawska stands out among peers for her work in recognizing the importance of aerosol transmission and marshaling the data that would convince the World Health Organization and other authoritative bodies to do the same."
3/ This is a paper from our group and colleagues that Lidia led, and that was published in @ScienceMagazine earlier this year:

"A paradigm shift to combat indoor respiratory infection"

This paradigm shift has major implications for global health

science.org/doi/full/10.11…
Read 10 tweets
9 Sep
1/ AIRBORNE TRANSMISSION OF RESPIRATORY VIRUSES: THE COMIC VERSION

Supplementary multimedia prepared by lead author @ChiaWang8 to our recent @ScienceMagazine peer-reviewed paper

science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

@kprather88 @linseymarr @zeynep @Lakdawala_Lab @zeynep
2/ The cast of characters: aerosols & droplets
3/ So what are aerosols?
Read 23 tweets
30 Aug
1/ ¿CÓMO PREVENIR LA TRANSMISIÓN AÉREA DE VIRUS RESPIRATORIOS? (incluyendo COVID-19)

En artículo de @ScienceMagazine resumimos la evidencia científica q muestra que casi todos los virus respiratorios tienen transmisión importante por el aire (aerosoles)

science.sciencemag.org/content/373/65…
2/ En este hilo anterior he explicado la parte científica, revisando la evidencia, los errores de la OMS y la @CDCgov y la historia del último siglo que los explica, así como los procesos que tienen que suceder para que la transmisión aérea ocurra.

3/ ¿Qué podemos hacer para reducir la transmisión y protegernos mejor?

La mayoría de las cosas que funcionan son gratis o de bajo coste. Y sustituyen cosas que no sirven para nada (como desinfección de superficies y mamparas laterales) que también cuestan dinero.
Read 82 tweets
28 Aug
1/ TRANSMISIÓN AÉREA DE VIRUS RESPIRATORIOS

Articulo revisado por pares en @ScienceMagazine, evaluamos la evidencia científica. Concluimos que es importante no sólo para COVID-19, sino también para otras enfermedades respiratorias como gripe y resfriados

science.sciencemag.org/content/373/65…
2/ If you are interested in the English version of this thread, you can find it here:

3/ Un honor haber trabajado en este equipo multidisciplinar incluyendo virología, fisiología pulmonar, ciencia de aerosoles, y sociología, con @ChiaWang8, @kprather88, @Lakdawala_Lab, Josué Sznitman, @linseymarr, and @zeynep

Este hilo trata de resumir y dar contexto al artículo
Read 52 tweets
27 Aug
1/ TODOS LOS VIRUS RESPIRATORIOS SE TRANSMITEN POR EL AIRE

Algunos artículos periodísticos que resumen nuestro artículo de ayer en @ScienceMagazine

science.sciencemag.org/content/373/65…
2/ Ayer hice un hilo en inglés explicando el artículo y su contexto. Este fin de semana pondré el mismo hilo en español. De momento pongo aquí algunos artículos periodísticos que son más fáciles de leer.

Confirman que no solo el SARS-CoV-2, sino la mayoría de los virus respiratorios se propagan por aerosoles

Por @norabar vía @eldestapeweb

eldestapeweb.com/sociedad/cienc…
Read 13 tweets
26 Aug
1/ AIRBORNE TRANSMISSION OF RESPIRATORY VIRUSES

A new peer-reviewed paper in @ScienceMagazine, reviewing the scientific literature on this topic. We conclude it is important not just for COVID-19, but also for other respiratory diseases such as the flu

science.sciencemag.org/content/373/65…
2/ An honor to have worked in a multidisciplinary team across virology, pulmonary physiology, aerosol science, and sociology with Chia Wang, @kprather88, @Lakdawala_Lab, Josué Sznitman, @linseymarr, and @zeynep

Will try to summarize the paper and give some context in this thread
3/ Brief intro: what are droplet vs. airborne transmission?

"Droplets" are larger balls of saliva and respiratory fluid, that we emit when we talk, shout, sing, cough or sneeze.

They behave like projectiles, and fall to the ground within 1-2 m of the infected person Image
Read 83 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(