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.
⚠️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.