Thread by @AbraarKaran

1/ In the hierarchy of infection prevention, you have “more” & “less” effective ways to stop spread (used in hospitals)

But we can apply this concept to specific efforts aimed at reducing community transmission as well

2/ ‘Elimination’ or prevention of entry of a pathogen; I see rapid testing as a key part of this

If we could stop infectious people from entering public spaces, we could fundamentally stop super spreading

Cc @RanuDhillon @sri_srikrishna @michaelmina_lab @ADPaltiel

3/ In terms of engineering controls, restructuring spaces to improve ventilation = essential

People have tried to emulate this by moving activities outdoors when possible, opening windows, buying home filtration devices etc

@kprather88 @j_g_allen

4/ In terms of administrative controls, policies & procedures that are consequential: mandatory vaccinations & during surges, addition of mandatory masking

Easier to do this in a workplace; for society at large, many other factors at play incl & especially politics

5/ Last but especially critical because we have failed at creating a sustained response with the first 3 is PPE— fundamentally, one of the biggest reasons why #BetterMasks are so important is because our other levers haven’t been adequately utilized to obviate their need

6/ People are then left to figure it out for themselves

That hasn’t worked well, esp for masks

Improving mask quality is probably the easiest of the above measures to quickly fix

Which will buy time to fix the others too but it won’t stop #Covid19 on its own