Share this page!

Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 Profile picture
Twitter logo
25 Nov, 4 tweets, 10 min read
Worried about new variants?

We got you 🙌🏾

🔬🧬We are the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network @CoVaRR_Net working to accelerate & facilitate our understanding and management of #SARSCoV2 variants of concern!

Visit covarrnet.ca
#TeamCanada #GoTeam #GoScience
Science doesn’t happen in silos & is not one dimensional!
@Covarrnet is founded on the belief that the best science is one that is collaborative & #EDII-centred.
Here are some of the brilliant people who make up @CoVaRR_Net:
@langlois_ma @ninan_abraham1 @JenGommerman @gingraslab1
As well as @CeciliaJenkin17 @manishs_ @angie_rasmussen @sci_questions @KindrachukJason @SMubareka @SaganLab @corcoran_lab @EtienneCaron15 @nzmyachie @CaroQuach @bjesseshapiro @fionabrinkman @CarolineColijn @JorgHFritz @BetaScience @sarperotto @NavajoProf @CherylACamillo
there’s more: @ASPphysician @doug_manuel @GrimshawJeremy @lavisjn @JPresseau @CrawleyLab @guilbourque @DonaldVinh @amytmhsu & many others who are too smart to be here, all the research staff/students who make the science happen & allow me to bring it to you🙌🏾
#GoTeam #GoScience

• • •

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

Keep Current with Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈

Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 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 @DeNovo_Fatima

Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 Profile picture
27 Nov
Hearing the news of Omicron cases in Europe in people who travelled through various countries (Malawi, Egypt, Namibia, Dubai, etc.) indicates that Omicron was flying under the radar in undersequenced countries for some time until Botswana & 🇿🇦 detected it & alerted the 🌎.
The thing about pathogen evolution, particularly in obligate cellular parasites, is that detecting new lineages is difficult unless it is being transmitted AND someone is looking for it (biological samples including wastewater)➡️need capacity building in genomic surveillance
We’re lucky to have good genomics capacity (but always more can be done), many countries do not! We MUST help them develop these capacities so they can be continuously monitoring their regional evolution!!
Read 6 tweets
Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 Profile picture
26 Nov
👩🏾‍🔬Response to the most common question I got today:
The new variant has a lot of mutations, what does this mean in terms of epidemiology & vaccines❓

🧬 short answer: to early to tell‼️

🔬Long, more nuanced answer: whilst having too many mutations, some of which are known to
1/
affect for instance how fast the virus replicates inside our cells or how it interacts with our immune system, it is difficult to say what synergistic effect all those mutations could have when put together, without functional assays coupled with real-world data‼️
2/
Analogy: some vegetables on their own taste quite meh, some combination of those vegetables put together could make an absolutely awful meal, but sometimes you add in a bunch of other ingredients & you get something that’s tolerable‼️
(Can you tell I don’t like vegetables 🙃)
3/
Read 5 tweets
Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 Profile picture
18 Nov
This is an extremely difficult time to be a scientist & even more so if you are a minority #WomanInScience.

Last night I went on @globalnews radio thinking I was going to talk about the differences between PCR & other screening methods for COVID—basically science.
1/
The conversation was steered towards border policy & that some want more restrictions to be removed. Doing my duty as a scientist & using the best current evidence, I noted the rise in cases 🌍, the not so perfect💉 rate in some places & importance of using #RapidTest
2/
I then urged my fellow Canadians to be prudent & cautious when making travel arrangements.
The host then made an off-the-cuff remark on how “if I were in charge of making that policy I would probably close the border”—a completely inappropriate misinterpretation of my advice‼️
3/
Read 7 tweets
Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 Profile picture
9 Oct
📊 Ontario Science table’s survey shows significantly lower vaccination intention amongst groups who experience a disproportionate burden of COVID outcomes: low income & racialized.

As someone who belongs to this group & does literacy outreach I’d like to dissect it further 🧵⤵️
1️⃣
This phenomenon isn’t new. In every aspect of medicine, racialized, marginalized, underserved & low-income groups, who often experience the highest burden of bad outcome, also happen to be the most reluctant to seek medical intervention, including vaccination. But why⁉️
2️⃣
Barriers to access is at the root of the issue‼️

These barriers include:
📌 Mistrust
📌 Low health literacy
📌 Financial & logistical burden

Let’s take a look at these one-by-one:
Read 11 tweets
Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 Profile picture
28 Aug
1-Today there was a big protest in Montréal by healthcare workers opposed to mandatory vaccination.

As a healthcare professional & a bioethics I want to underline a few points about #VaccineMandates for healthcare provides
🧵👇🏾
2-In bioethics, autonomy is no longer that centuries-old belief that the individual can or does somehow stand apart from their community, social circumstances & political environment. Also, autonomy has a different scope when intervention in question has implications beyond self.
3-Dr Nedelsky(osgoode.yorku.ca/faculty-and-st…) calls the belief that autonomy is isolated from outside influence a “pathology”: “If we ask ourselves what actually enables people to be autonomous, the answer is not isolation, but relationships—with parents,
teachers, friends, loved ones.”
Read 16 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

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @DeNovo_Fatima has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @DeNovo_Fatima!

Read all threads by @DeNovo_Fatima

:(