Really interesting story from @mjruehl in Singapore (82% of population fully vaxxed), where the transition from Zero Covid to living with the virus is not going smoothly to say the least. on.ft.com/3maIJnW

Lots of lessons here for Australia, New Zealand and others
As @mjruehl writes, Singapore's problem stems from the interplay of two factors:
• A population that has become extremely nervous and worried about *any* Covid
• A policy of mass testing asymptomatic people, many of whom rush to hospital after a positive, even if symptom-free
The local reaction has been, as ever, polarised. Healthcare professionals have criticised the mass testing policy [given the context in which it's being rolled out], while 25% of the population want a return to lockdown, and there are petitions to reintroduce quarantine hotels.
The government has now reintroduced some restrictions, closing primary schools and limiting indoor dining and household mixing to two people.
My guess is in the medium-term (3-6 months) people will gradually grow less worried, but it's striking how much harder "learning to live with the virus" may prove to be in countries that have succeeded in only recently having to coexist with it.
FWIW I think both original goal of keeping Covid out, and new decision to reopen (82% of population fully vaxxed — among highest worldwide) are/were good decisions, but it's clear that the transition from A to B is very tricky, and communication/messaging will be a critical part.
(Side-note: it's worth noting that XX% vaxxed in Singapore, Aus, NZ etc is not the same as XX% vaxxed in European countries in terms of population immunity, since the latter also have a lot of naturally-acquired immunity)

• • •

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

Keep Current with John Burn-Murdoch

John Burn-Murdoch 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 @jburnmurdoch

15 Sep
NEW: lots of news recently on waning immunity against infection, but a study has now landed from Public Health England on how vaccines are faring against *severe disease & death*

This chart summarises key findings, but the paper is a real goldmine, so let’s dig into more detail:
First up, fresh data on protection against symptomatic infection. Key results:
• We knew protection started out lower among older groups. Now we know they also see the most waning
• Waning much more muted (if happening at all) among under-65s
• Moderna > Pfizer > AstraZeneca
Sticking with symptomatic infection, they also looked at a hot topic: the impact of the interval between first and second dose

Very short intervals (3 weeks, e.g in US) produce lower protection than longer intervals (e.g UK & Canada), though note overlapping confidence intervals
Read 23 tweets
23 Aug
NEW: in the last couple of weeks there have a *lot* of new studies out assessing vaccine efficacy, many of which have touched on the question of waning immunity.

Unsurprisingly, these have prompted a *lot* of questions.

Time for a thread to summarise what we do and don’t know:
Let’s start with last week’s Oxford paper, the most significant study to date on waning immunity to Covid.

The researchers found signs that vaccine efficacy against symptomatic infection erodes over time, and that waning may occur faster in some vaccines than others.
Unsurprisingly, this prompted a lot of questions.

Could it just be that the first people to be vaccinated were older, and perhaps more vulnerable to waning?

Nope. The study controlled for age.
Read 33 tweets
30 Jul
NEW: lots of attention on ONS Infection Survey today, but some confusion over how it should (and should not) be used to asses whether England’s fall in cases is "real"

Quick thread:

Most attention has gone on ONS “% of people testing positive” metric showing a continued rise
But "testing positive" is a lagging indicator of cases. It estimates how many *have* Covid today, not how many are *catching it* today.

Fortunately, ONS has re-introduced its incidence data (blue line), which is a much better yardstick for cases, though always 2 weeks old 😩.
So how to resolve issue of one lagging indicator, and one that’s 2 wks old?

Look to Scotland, where cases peaked 2 wks before England, so ONS indicators have had time to catch up

Turns out ONS incidence fell at exactly same time as cases 🙂. ONS positivity likewise, just lagged
Read 10 tweets
27 Jul
There’s a wild story about the women’s gymnastics at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, which I think is very relevant to what we’re hearing about Simone Biles, and the wider point of how the top level of elite sport is just as much mental as it is physical.
In the women’s all-round final in 2000, the organisers set the vault at the wrong height. Two inches too low. This was a pretty huge deal.

For competitors who have done thousands, maybe tens of thousands of vaults at a specific height, a two inch difference is night and day.
In the first round, 17 of 36 finalists fumbled the vault

One landed on her back. Clear gold-medal favourite, Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina (comfortably won qualifying) landed on her knees.

Total chaos, and nobody knew why. Athletes second-guessing themselves.
Read 13 tweets
27 Jul
Correcting an important misconception (this is my chart, but misleading commentary):
•There were thousands more cases among young men than women after ⚽️ matches, showing impact of Euros on transmission
•But not due to attending matches. It was indoor gatherings to watch games
Of course, that still means the transmission bump was driven by the football, but match attendance is only a small part of the cause. The bulk is mixing in pubs, bars, homes etc, plus some from crowded transport to and from those indoor gatherings (and matches).
Thoughts on implications:
• I would guess these watch parties happen at a much larger scale for England games at major tournaments than they do for typical club games, but we've not had pubs fully open during the season yet so that will be worth monitoring.
Read 5 tweets
25 Jul
I feel like I've seen this before somewhere 🧐🤔
Lol that they couldn't even be bothered to change a single one of the numbers.
Read 4 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!

:(