I absolutely hate this title in @TheAtlantic
To say we know nothing completely neglects the research, learnings and experience of past 2 yrs.
We know SO much about Omicron.
Relative to ALL we DO KNOW, the things we don’t know are minor
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theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
To say we know nothing completely neglects the research, learnings and experience of past 2 yrs.
We know SO much about Omicron.
Relative to ALL we DO KNOW, the things we don’t know are minor
1/
theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
This reminds me of early 2020 when we forgot so much of what we knew of epidemiology, immunology, infectious disease & thought we needed to rewrite textbooks. But we knew so much about this before it was ever detected
It is a textbook resp virus
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coronavirus.medium.com/sars-cov-2-is-…
It is a textbook resp virus
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coronavirus.medium.com/sars-cov-2-is-…
The reporting is really nice. But the title attached to it is frustrating to say the least.
It screams loudly and demonstrated well how we have thought about the importance of the unknowns compared to the knowns of this virus this entire pandemic.
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It screams loudly and demonstrated well how we have thought about the importance of the unknowns compared to the knowns of this virus this entire pandemic.
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We have, and we continue to allow the UNKNOWNs to dominate our decision making when the KNOWNs are often MUCH more important
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For example, we KNEW that high virus loads are bad and mean you can spread the virus.
We KNEW that rapid tests turn positive when ppl have high virus loads.
Yet we failed to use rapid tests just Bc we weren’t sure how to interpret very LOW virus loads detected on a PCR
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We KNEW that rapid tests turn positive when ppl have high virus loads.
Yet we failed to use rapid tests just Bc we weren’t sure how to interpret very LOW virus loads detected on a PCR
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So we chose to allow our incomplete knowledge about something that was *Relatively* less important prevent us from crucial tools that could at minimum identify every superspreader in real time.
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And Instead we used tools that we believed we understood and were therefore deemed the safer option, even if they were effectively useless for public health and what were trying to do - stop transmission.
We let our uncertainty get the best of us, and outshine all we know
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We let our uncertainty get the best of us, and outshine all we know
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Back to this variant though, this is the most studied virus in history - easily (I think >HIV)
We know a lot about various mutations, we know direction that transmission will change. We know direction that immune evasion will occur. We know severity isn’t 10x different.
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We know a lot about various mutations, we know direction that transmission will change. We know direction that immune evasion will occur. We know severity isn’t 10x different.
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We know this is an aerosolized virus.
We know we can make vaccines that will help against severe disease
We know that this virus is not Ebola and we know that this virus will not have a 10% mortality
We know that fomite transmission is minimal
We know it’s structure!
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We know we can make vaccines that will help against severe disease
We know that this virus is not Ebola and we know that this virus will not have a 10% mortality
We know that fomite transmission is minimal
We know it’s structure!
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This 👆 is just a small snippet of so much that we know…
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