2) the new study also mentions 20% greater risk of hospitalization among kids with #Omicron compared to an older strain last year.
3) Also, the protective effects of prior infection has waned and further erode by #Omicron. ➡️ Bottomline: don’t rely on past infection immunity!
4) that said, analysis suggested a 29% lower severity versus the earlier D614G strain last year. But we don’t know if this is adjusted for critical factors— age adjustment of new cases today? Vaccine adjustment? Prior infection adjustment? Vaccine / infection recency? All key!
5) Other epidemiologists have concerns if this data is too optimistic given that a lot of South Africa 🇿🇦 is “effectively a 3 dose population” given how many past waves it has endured (IHME estimates 70%+ infected) and plus vaccinations = a boosted population.
6) the data is from 211,000 positive PCR tests, of which 41% had 2 shots of Pfizer.
7) CRITICAL REMINDER—small changes in severity isn’t what will hospitalize/kill most people—it’s the exponential cases via higher contagiousness. Even with 1/10ths the lethality and a modest 2x transmission will kill more very quickly. #Omicron is likely 4-6x more transmissible!
9) So I dug further & found they adjusted for age & vaccination for the 20% higher risk of hospitalization in kids, 29% lower risk in adults with #Omicron. ➡️But the data is also weird—it showed lower risk with Delta—which has been proven to be **more severe** many times before!
10) if we match up cases of each wave versus the mortality time lag… by shifting the time scale… we are still way too early to pick up the deaths yet. HT @stevenjfrisch
11) I do not think hospitalizations have even come close to peaking yet. In Gauteng province epicenter, there are a lot of delays in hospital reporting. nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-i…
12) this new SA study’s 33% Pfizer efficacy semi matches the significantly lower neutralization of #Omicron seem in the Innsbruck AT study below. See thread 🧵
⚠️BREAKING—ICU Hospitalized human bird flu case in Canada now officially confirmed as H5N1. Worse, it is the same 2.3.4.4b virus clade (variant group) as the one found in BC🇨🇦 poultry and in Washington state🇺🇸! The hospitalized teenager (with no pre existing conditions) had no animal contact, does not live on farm, had “deterioration quite rapid” and now critical in ICU with ARDS. Canada officials says infectious period is 2 days **prior to symptoms** (ie asymptomatic transmission) and infectious up to 10 days.
2) Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg confirmed that the individual has avian influenza H5N1 canada.ca/en/public-heal…
3) details…
⚠️BAD UPDATE—BIRD FLU HOSPITALIZATION IN CANADIAN TEEN
Summary 🧵 of the live press conference with Canada’s British Columbia health officer.
📌The teen is in intensive care.
📌Condition is ARDS
📌Teen was healthy prior; no underlying conditions
My god—Google Search for “what is a tariff” sudden spikes the DAY AFTER ELECTION DAY. 🤦🏻♂️
2) many folks simply don’t understand what a tariff is — unless you explain it several times to them with analogies. Even then, it’s hard for many to grasp. Eg 👇
📍HARRIS IS STILL AHEAD IN PA—in terms of votes yet to be counted. She’s still +2 of what is needed to win PA, given the outstanding votes still remaining in PA cities, according to @CBSNews @NorahODonnell
Plastic cookware should not be used. Period. Especially BLACK PLASTIC cookware, that often mixes in toxic recycled electronic waste materials. DISPOSE OF ALL PLASTIC COOKWARE, especially if black colored plastic ones. Pass it on to your family.
2) Because optical sensors in recycling facilities can’t detect them, black-colored plastics are largely rejected from domestic-waste streams, resulting in a shortage of black base material for recycled plastic. So the demand for black plastic appears to be met “in no insignificant part” via recycled e-waste, according to Turner’s research. TV and computer casings, like the majority of the world’s plastic waste, tend to be recycled in informal waste economies with few regulations and end up remolded into consumer products, including ones, such as spatulas and slotted spoons, that come into contact with food.
3) You simply do not want flame retardants anywhere near your stir-fry. Flame retardants are typically not bound to the polymers to which they are added, making them a particular flight risk: They dislodge easily and make their way into the surrounding environment. And, indeed, another paper from 2018 found that flame retardants in black kitchen utensils readily migrate into hot cooking oil. The health concerns associated with those chemicals are well established: Some flame retardants are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s hormonal system, and scientific literature suggests that they may be associated with a range of ailments, including thyroid disease, diabetes, and cancer. People with the highest blood levels of PBDEs, a class of flame retardants found in black plastic, had about a 300 percent increase in their risk of dying from cancer compared with people who had the lowest levels, according to a study released this year. In a separate study, published in a peer-reviewed journal this month, researchers from the advocacy group Toxic-Free Future and from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam found that, out of all of the consumer products they tested, kitchen utensils had some of the highest levels of flame retardants.
⚠️MASK MANDATE RETURNING TO ALL NIH PATIENT CLINICS—Effective November 4, 2024, masking will be required in all patient care & waiting rooms. Furthermore, testing for COVID, flu A, flu B, and RSV will be required for all inpatients & rooming-in visitors. cc.nih.gov/patient-servic…
2) This means wearing a mask will be REQUIRED in all patient care areas, including waiting rooms. ➡️This change is due to an anticipated increase in COVID-19 and other respiratory virus activity in the community. 😷
3) I think people should stock up on COVID tests again. The Cheapest COVID test on the U.S. market is now as low as $1.50 with special promo code “COV20”… expiring Jan or March 2025.