1/8 Fascinating and important study here. Finds that a Delta-specific vaccine could leave us vulnerable to Beta & similar variants, while a Beta-specific vaccine would leave us vulnerable to Delta. What can protect us from both? The Original Recipe D614G vaccine.
2/8 Beta and Delta are far apart in evolutionary terms, so the effectiveness of antibodies against each are much reduced against the other—a 34-fold decrease in the case of Delta nAb's against Beta.
3/8 Delta-specific antibodies also saw a 27-fold reduction in neutralization against a SARS-CoV-2 virus isolated from an HIV patient w/long-term infection. This virus had presumably evolved to evade the host's immune response. It's thought the Alpha variant originated this way.
4/8 But the current vaccines saw much less reduction in neutralization, seeing just a 2-fold reduction against Delta (somewhat smaller than the reduction seen in some other studies).
5/8 This confirms what @profshanecrotty said in an excellent interview on TWiV w/@profvrr & friends: each vaccination dose improves our antibody response against variants, even if it uses the original D614G spike. See 54:08-55:48 (link starts at 54:08).
6/8 Another excellent segment from that @profshanecrotty interview discusses how our immune system creates variations of B cells designed to combat possible variants, yet another aspect of our immune system that amazes me. 40:10-42:36 Transcript below
7/8 Also a great discussion on boosters from 49:18-54:07. Transcript of the part from 49:18-51:24 below. Whatever you think of 3rd doses, I think it's hard to argue that they won't greatly decrease breakthrough infections this fall/winter and likely far beyond.
8/8 The whole germinal center discussion on that TWiV episode with Prof Crotty fascinated me, but I'm still fuzzy on the details of the process. Can anybody point me to a good primer on the subject?

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More from @LongDesertTrain

25 Sep
1/19 Hand hygiene & surface cleaning as tools to prevent respiratory infections should go down in history as the "miasma theory" of the 21st century. Both captured something true but caused great harm when applied to the wrong category of disease.
2/19 The miasma theory accurately identified air as the source of much disease transmission but opposed germ theory and famously led experts to overlook contaminated water as the source of important GI diseases like cholera.
3/19 Similarly, hand hygiene (and maybe surface disinfection) help to control spread of GI pathogens but appear to do almost nothing to prevent transmission of respiratory infections. The disproportionate emphasis on them has likely done harm by... nature.com/articles/d4158…
Read 19 tweets
29 Aug
1/10 This shouldn't even be a debate. Who could argue against this? Knowledge is the ultimate public good, & to restrict access to scientific papers to those at academic institutions w/subscriptions to journals is a crime.
2/10 Out-of-control, continually strengthening copyright & patent laws are an economic weapon wielded by the rich against the poor and by enormous, monopolistic firms against small firms. This is a major driver of inequality that receives scant attention.
cepr.net/technology-pat…
3/10 The alleged justification for strong IP laws is that they incentivize & facilitate innovation. But as @DeanBaker13 points out in his indispensable (& free) book Rigged, in their current form, IP protections greatly impede innovation. See Ch. 5 deanbaker.net/books/rigged.h…
Read 10 tweets
27 May
1/ This is unreal. The study title is "Same-day SARS-CoV-2 antigen test screening in an indoor mass-gathering live music event: a randomised controlled trial." It is being cited as evidence that rapid antigen tests can make social events safe. But there are a couple problems...
2/ They gave rapid tests to over 1000 people and randomly divided those who tested negative into two groups. One went to a concert, where they were encouraged to dance and sing, and the others stayed home. I encourage you to read the entire abstract in the 2 pictures below.
3/ Results: None who went to the concert tested positive for Covid eight days later, but two of those who stayed home tested positive. Yay for rapid tests, right? Not exactly.
Read 12 tweets
26 May
1/5 Phenomenal thread here on the noxious effects of competitive grading on education, even on those who appear to benefit the most from such a system.
2/5 Difficulty lies in

1. Convincing enough people competitive grading is harmful &

2. Transforming our education system into one that "meets students where they are, helps them build their interests & skills, teaches them they ARE valuable by being."
3/5 In Finland, "hustle culture" scorned & competition in academics minimized from the very beginning. How did Finland create such a healthy, non-competitive culture? It's certainly worth looking into.
Read 5 tweets
26 May
1/7 Satan is trending on Twitter. I recall what Mark Twain said about him.
"I am quite sure that I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it..."
2/7 "I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being—that is enough for me; he can't be any worse."
3/7 "I have no special regard for Satan; but I can at least claim that I have no prejudice against him. It may even be that I lean a little his way, on account of his not having a fair show."
Read 7 tweets
22 Apr
1/ The @nytimes has a good interactive story on the safety of flying during the pandemic, but they didn’t discuss boarding & deboarding. Judging by CO2 readings I saw on recent flights, this is the most dangerous part of flying. #covidco2 #COVIDisairborne
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
2/ By now there is overwhelming evidence #COVIDisAirborne. It’s transmitted mainly by shared air, i.e. inhaling the air others have exhaled, which contain aerosols—tiny, liquid particles that float suspended in air for seconds to hours, depending on size.
3/ There’s no easy way to measure virus levels in the air, but CO2 is a good proxy measure of risk. Outdoor CO2 levels are ~410 ppm, but since we exhale CO2, indoor concentrations are higher. The higher the CO2 level, the more air you’re sharing.
Read 17 tweets

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