Let this irony sink in—CDC advises folks to all wear N95 to protect against wildfire smoke aerosols, yet @CDCgov still doesn’t recommend everyone to wear N95’s to protect against coronavirus aerosols of super infectious #Omicron?
3) CDC needs to revamp its credibility. But it has a big hole to dig out of after @CDCDirector’s horrible policies this past week to lift isolation early without testing— unscientific in every way. See thread 🧵 below 👇
4) CDC messaging that over-touted the “it’s mild” false image of #omicron was also extremely extremely harmful… it is a Trojan horse for #LongCovid. It’s not really intrinsically milder anyway either.
🔔NEW VARIANT—French scientists have “rung the bell” after discovering a cluster 12 cases of a variant of “atypical combination” with **46 mutations & 37 deletions** in southern France after index case returned from Cameroon🇨🇲—dubbed #B16402.🧵 #COVID19 msn.com/en-gb/news/wor…
2) The mutations have caused “Fourteen amino acid substitutions, and 9 amino acid deletions—which are located in the spike protein.” medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
3) the French scientists continue: "these observations show once again the unpredictability of the emergence of new #SARSCoV2 variants and their introduction from abroad, and they exemplify the difficulty to control such introduction and subsequent spread”
BREAKING—42%⬆️—Pandemic profiteering @Walmart just increased the price of 2 rapid #COVID test kits from $14 to $19.88… by 42%! Meanwhile rapid tests are either free or $1.20 each in Europe. Or if its @AbbottNews, can’t they lower damn price?! Asking for the 🌎 in pain.
2) And @cvspharmacy & @Walgreens are worse — they are charging $23.99 for a 2-pack. Shameful considering rapid tests are just $1.20 — if you even pay anything in Europe. @AbbottNews is also complicit in this price gouging racket.
3) Wondering also@why the price of rapid tests are so damn high? Read this👇
It mentions the name Tim Stanzel— remember it. He may be an FDA employee now—but he also famously worked for Abbott & Quidel… even founding one of Quidel’s science divisions. propublica.org/article/heres-…
⚠️Totally “mild”—US pediatric #COVID19 hospitalizations nearly 2x last year’s all-time high. Kids shouldn’t be hospitalized—kids shouldn’t be getting #LongCovid. Kids have their whole lives ahead of them. Let’s protect the kids. 🙏
2) What a sad way for kids to spend Xmas vacation—moreover these infected kids will go back to school next week and infect more kids - tragic. ➡️ The worst pediatric COVID hospitalization state isn’t Florida — #1 is Texas.
Why you should #SwabYourThroat…. Negative via nose… Positive via the throat. #Omicron is very different from all other variants. We need to adapt to changing testing strategies.
2) here was my tweet 🧵 yesterday morning that led @tweetmommybop to try out the throat swab rapid test after her husband has negative nasal results. RAT tests of Omicron are being compared using nasal tests vs Delta. I think they need to do throat swabs too with #Omicron
3) The throat swab positive while nasal swab negative testing story is becoming quite common. Here is another person with 3 negative nasal tests but got an immediate positive when she switched to a throat swab. 👇 #Omicron is different - we must adapt.
⚠️NOT MILDER FOR LONG COVID: “#LongCovid can happen no matter what virus variant. There's no evidence that there's any difference between delta or beta or now omicron” ~Fauci.
“10-30+ % of people will go on to have persistence of symptoms”—of billions 👀 ny1.com/nyc/all-boroug…
2) #omicron is a potentially really dangerous Trojan horse for lulling folks into complacency but ultimately hitting them hard with #LongCovid!!! That’s the exact worry many epidemiologists and scientists have… a very sinking feeling 👇
📍REJECTING THE CDC ISOLATION RULE—Taiwan🇹🇼’s Central Epidemic Command announced it will not follow @CDCgov guidance on shortened 5-day isolation because #Omicron cases have been found to be infectious *up to 12 days* after positive. @CDCDirector is wrong. taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4393548
2) “He warned that if a cluster infection appears in a quarantine center or epidemic prevention hotel and is not detected in time, it could quickly spread into the community—& would be a daunting task to contain, and the risk to society would increase substantially”
3) “Regarding the U.S. CDC's recommendation to shorten quarantines from 10 to five days, Lo said 23 imported #Omicron cases have been tracked for more than five days—of these cases, 17 had a Ct level of 30+, the standard to be released from quarantine.” (🇹🇼 reqs PCR for release!)