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.
4) It’s now becoming pretty clear that #Omicron is a very different beast. Saliva samples (hence throat swabs) are much better for detecting Omicron coronavirus. We need clear public health messaging (cough, CDC,cough) to adapt to this new reality. medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
5) LET THIS SINK IN—The 🇬🇧’s CDC for England (now @UKHSA) recommends taking a ***combined throat & nose swab** to test for #COVID19. ➡️However this is technically not authorized by the @US_FDA. Again, the FDA is a step behind 🇬🇧. Video how to swab 👇
6) Speaking of the US being a step behind other countries — 🇹🇼’s CDC completely rejects the @CDCgov’s shortened isolation without any testing rule. It is quite a mess that @CDCDirector caused last week. CDC is worse off now because of it.
7) Look how Jamaica 🇯🇲 swabs both throat & both nostrils 👃… and this was done in Sept of 2020. Other countries like US needs to catch up with the oral swabbing.
8) Annoyed — I just took my kid to get tested this morning— the drive-through swabbing techs didn’t swab the mouth or throat or even deep in the nose 👃—merely swabbed front only. My kid’s dry commentary— “welp, that’s gonna be a negative already”. Kids are smarter than adults.
9) Listen to testing expert @michaelmina_lab— he also endorses swabbing your throat + nose.
Incredibly frustrating that the @USDA again failed to include basic information about H5N1 genetic sequences from cows. All data had dates and locations scrubbed out—only saying “USA” & “2024”, which is useless for scientists to analyze for mutation rates. statnews.com/2024/05/02/bir…
2) The fact that basic information — called metadata — isn’t being shared about the samples “hinders our efforts a lot,” said Gytis Dudas, a senior researcher in genomic epidemiology and metagenomics. Dudas is working with a group of U.S. and international researchers to try to make sense of what the genetic sequences say about the H5N1 outbreak in cows.
3) A number of scientists have openly questioned whether the USDA is deliberately withholding these data, or even removing more specific information. 🔥
⚠️CDC WARNING FOR ALL VETERINARIANS, POULTRY, DAIRY & CATTLE FARMWORKERS, SLAUGHTERHOUSE WORKERS—New CDC guidelines now released to use PPE for high risk bird flu exposure occupations (all recommended):
📌N95 respirators
📌Goggles 🥽 or face shield 🛡️
📌Coveralls or fluid-resistant aprons
📌Head covering
📌Rubber boots with sealed seams
📌Gloves
Furthermore:
📍Designated areas for changing PPEs
📍Do not eat, drink, chew gum, chew tobacco, smoke, vape, or use the bathroom while wearing above PPE
📍Shower after work shift
📍(see full list for more details).
Glad the @CDCgov is taking this seriously. You should too. And please don’t drink raw milk 🥛! #AvianFlu #BirdFlu #H5N1 cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/h…
Don’t do raw milk 🥛 please, for the love of god. I know there are many raw milk enthusiasts out there. But just take a pause until this is over? Don’t try to be a macho man about this.
Seriously. Raw milk drinkers… don’t do it. We scientists are pretty damn sure there will be some degree of active virus inside raw milk. Cats have been infected on farms—via likely raw milk. And all 6 cats with bird flu have died of rapid neurological declines, says CDC.
⚠️Bad signal—CDC confirming—“cats having neurologic symptoms, rapid decline, and death” from H5N1 #birdflu. 3 more cases in cats 🐈 on dairy farms… now 6 total. ➡️The prior 3 bird flu positive cats? All dead now. Likely more. This is mammalian adaptation. bnonews.com/index.php/2024…
2) I suspect cats are drinking milk from the dairy cows on the dairy farms. This is why we shouldn’t drink raw milk 🥛 currently. Even pasteurized milk, some scientists are unsure of because of lack of safety data. See thread 🧵 below.
3) Not just cats — certain dog breeds (like beagles are highly susceptible to H5N1 avian flu too. And such dogs can facilitate their adaptation towards humans eventually (since more dogs are around people than dairy cows).
📍Let this sink in—a world leading virologist @RickABright who has studied H5N1 bird flu says he is pausing all his milk consumption until he sees proof from both FDA & USDA that pasteurized milk is safe to drink. Pausing milk because of his concern over lack of transparent data.
Why are scientists pausing milk intake? Because there still isn’t enough data on safety of pasteurized milk. There has been data on other viruses in the past that survive pasteurization. See detailed thread 🧵 below.
Testing conducted by the FDA on pasteurized commercially purchased milk has found genetic evidence of the H5N1 bird flu virus. ➡️But the testing, done by PCR cannot distinguish between live virus or fragments of viruses that could have been killed by the pasteurization process.
The FDA said it has been trying to see if it could grow virus from milk found to contain evidence of H5N1, which is the gold standard test to see if there is viable virus in a product. 📌The FDA *does NOT explicitly say FDA laboratories were unable to find live virus in the milk samples, but nevertheless it does state that its belief that commercial, pasteurized milk is safe to consume has not been altered by these findings.
(Sound familiar? Just like blanket assuming a virus “isn’t airborne”, “cannot transmit without symptoms”, “no human to human transmission” errors during COVID). That said, I will am hopeful that no live virus will be found in confirmation. But let’s be precautious. statnews.com/2024/04/23/h5n…
2) PPE and safety googles or face shield recommended for dairy farmers and anyone handling raw milk 🥛. Also they warn about poor fitting respirators for children (who may work near dairy— like I used to help on a dairy farm as a kid in rural Pa).
3) people working with cattle 🐄 should also “avoid eating drinking smoking chewing gum in contaminated areas or touching eyes.” And people exposed should wear PPE should be monitored for symptoms for 10 days.