Thread by @SouthAfricanASP

Take a bow @mvankerkhove ##COVID19's rock star 🎉👏. Incredible wide-reaching analysis of where we are and where we need to be going forward in the pandemic @ISID_org #IMED2021. Some highlights in this thread

Drivers of testing diversity & strategies #COVID19 - I'd add the challenge of a health workforce to contact trace, as well as quarantining and isolating those exposed and those infected in #LMICs, where poverty and overcrowding in households/informal dwellings is so common.

Stressing the importance of public health & social measures (PHSM) and how they reduce as vaccination rates for #COVID19 increase in populations. But @mvankerkhove message at #IMED2021 is "Vaccines, NOT Vaccines ONLY" @ISID_org @ProMED_mail @BorisJohnson

#COVID19 infodemic - "Misinformation or mixed messages can kill" - have seen this again and again in patients dying on our wards, regretting not being vaccinated as a result of misinformation supplied to them over social media. @ISID_org #IMED2021 @ProMED_mail

Continued surveillance of #SARSCoV2 evolution essential. Already ~30 sub-lineages of Delta. Also integrated surveillance #influenza & #RSV (including out-of-season outbreaks) & use this opportunity to build on #GISRS to ⬆️ global surveillance @mvankerkhove #IMED2021 @ISID_org

Necessity for coordinated action to achieve global #COVID19 vaccination targets. @mvankerkhove "to achieve #VaccineEquity we need leaders to act on promises they have made". Agree with your call to see a moratorium on vaccine boosters for low risk populations #IMED2021 @ISID_org

Lessons for #COVID19 & future pandemics on #access - @mvankerkhove "It's not #COVAX that's failing but the leaders who are hoarding vaccines. I can't believe more people aren't screaming about this" - We are but we have smaller voices 😞 @BorisJohnson @JustinTrudeau @Europarl_EN

Take home message from @mvankerkhove - "We still need to remain humble to this virus". 👏👏👏
Thanks again for a great talk and thanks to @ISID_org @ProMED_mail at #IMED2021 for a tremendous programme. What a start! 🎉