Fatima Tokhmafshan Profile picture
Nov 26, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read Read on X
👩🏾‍🔬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/
All that to say that yes, we must 💯 be vigilant, which is why we have a Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network @CoVaRR_Net, but at the moment claims of immune escape, etc. are based on very little evidence. The honest response is we don’t know yet but we will soon 😉
4/
In the meantime, let’s focus on things we know:
📌vaccines ⬇️ transmission & are an important tool in hampering viral evolution #SayYesToVaccines

📌we have a SERIOUS #VaccineEquity problem ➡️ FIX IT, FOR THE LOVE OF CHEESECAKE PLEASE FIX IT‼️
#GlobalHealth #PeoplesVaccine

• • •

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

Keep Current with Fatima Tokhmafshan

Fatima Tokhmafshan 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

Jul 22, 2022
👇🏾 mischaracterization of polio detected in sewage and what it actually means‼️

Here are some facts about polio vaccines and the complexities of polio eradication:
1- humans are the only known reservoirs of polio ➡️ it’s a good candidate for eradication
2- currently there are 2 types of polio vaccine:
📌 IPV: inactivated, non-replicative virus
📌 OPV: attenuated (weakened) but replication competent virus

Both have been around for decades and have pros and cons!
3- IPV for instance, whilst being a great at 🛡 against disease doesn’t give good mucosal immunity ➡️ not very effective at stopping transmission
Read 7 tweets
Dec 27, 2021
Pandemic of #unvaccinated, more like #PandemicOfInequities‼️
🧵Below are a few interactions I’ve had in the past year with people who have been left behind by our inequitable approaches and deficit model assumptions and labels.
Shared with consent on the condition of anonymity
1/
Case1️⃣: recent refugees, husband works min-wage in a bakery, wife pregnant and earns VERY modest income through knitting. Have 3 children < 12 yrs old.
Whole family was unvaccinated until recently.
Few months ago, one child was exposed in school. Family didn’t have access to
1/
Case1️⃣ cont’d: #RapidTests & frankly didn’t even know that was an option. Husband couldn’t afford to take a half-day off to get tested even when symptoms emerged. He ended up in ICU—sole bread winner for the family.
Even then the wife was hesitant to vaccinate herself or her
2/
Read 14 tweets
Dec 25, 2021
🔬 Very nice study showing that #Omicron isn’t as efficient in entering cells compared to Delta & ancestral lineages.

👩🏾‍🔬 Why I find this cool: unlike other recent datasets, they’ve used an actual viral isolate (not pseudovirus) in an appropriate cell line & an animal model.
1/
In science using the right models & methods matters, but not all models recapitulate human conditions & no single method can give us the whole picture.
Why does this matter: b/c we tend to over-interpret & over-extrapolate.
So here the only appropriate conclusion is that…
2/
Omicron is not as efficient in cell entry & maybe infecting lung cells.
Does it mean the overall disease is less severe: we don’t know, remember that multiple systems get affected by the disease, looking at lungs alone won’t tell us if for instance clotting is also reduced
3/
Read 4 tweets
Nov 27, 2021
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
Nov 25, 2021
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
Read 4 tweets
Nov 18, 2021
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

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

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(