Hey, y'all.. I deleted my earlier tweet relaying a concern that #Molupiravir might also mutagenize our own DNA. Why did I delete it? Because I was wrong. An expert who I absolutely trust DM'd me to say the following: 🧵 (TL;DR: my concern is unfounded)
"People don’t realize how much sequencing & safety studies have been done just to get to this point. And it is far far less mutagenic (if at all) than the deoxy nucleotide analogs that have been used long-term for HIV patients for decades!"
My colleague added: "Molnupiravir is only used temporarily and has a short window of therapeutic efficacy (as for any respiratory pathogen drug). This will be more life saving for flu treatment than oseltamivir when it gets finally approved for flu." #AntiviralsWork
It's really important that we follow the science & trust the people who actually have real data & experience working with viruses, antivirals, vaccines, antibodies, et cetera. #Misinformation is already HUGE problem. I don't want to contribute to mistrust of an effective drug.
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The only problem is there isn’t just one route to disease susceptibility. There are lots of things that matter besides your “general health” (1) dose of virus you’re exposed to (2) genotype .. eg can you express prenylated OAS1, (3) do you have interferon auto-antibodies? 🧵
One of my favorite —but sadly, quite common —misconceptions is that people who eat a healthy diet & exercise a lot are naturally resistant to influenza & coronaviruses…
NO YOUR VITAMIN D, CROSS FIT ROUTINE, & FRESH GOJI BERRY SMOOTHIES WON’T HELP YOU… the virus likes to replicate in well fed cells. 🦠 😋
Even though immune suppression, high blood pressure, and chronic disease in general does predispose to worse outcomes, a virulent virus by definition can make a healthy person sick or even kill them.
Interesting B.1.1.1.0 sub-lineage, short PANGO name: "L.3" uploaded to @GISAID from Nigeria by @WHO pandemic hub leader, Dr. @Chikwe_I, & co-authors. It has Delta-convergent S mutations L452R & P681H.. plus S98F, and D614G, of course.. Accession: EPI_ISL_4578066
I've been keeping my eyes peeled for anything non-Delta that might begin to show up. . so far not much "new" out there.. we need more non-Delta subsampled / enriched trees!
If you search @GISAID for all complete/ high coverage SARS2 sequences collected globally since Sept 15, 2021, the only non-Delta lineages that show up are: B.1, B.1.1.519, B.1.1.7, B.1.361, B.1.429, B.1.526, B.1.621, B.1.637, L.3, P.1, P.1.11, P.1.2, P.1.4, P.1.7, & Q.3
Clickbait Variant Porn: R.1 has not been detected in the USA since mid-July...Most recent collection date for any R.1 sample in USA was July 16, 2021 in Kentucky. EPI_ISL_4172126
Here's the receipts.. So what happened? On Sept 14th, someone finally got around to submitting a sequence from the July 16 sample.. Is the SF Chronicle hard up for Clorox ad dollars?
R.1 doesn't even have that many Spike mutations! Aside from good ol' D614G, it's just del H69-V70, I100K, F342L, T716I, K1181N. This is nothing like Delta. CHILL THE EFF OUT, @sfchronicle!
The Wild West situation with how coronavirus (and other microbial pathogen) genome sequence data are acquired, shared and monetized is in desperate need of professional #bioethicists & open, transparent debate.
Currently patients are not told their tests are being flipped around and turned into viral sequence data. Though it makes sense in certain setting, I disagree with this approach in terms of its long term sustainability…
Microbial pathogen genome sequence data are inherently valuable when rapidly generated & shared after a sample is collected from a patient.