Vivek's piece in the WSJ argues that policy makers must tolerate the spread of "milder" variants like #Omicron. @angie_rasmussen & others rightfully criticized this Very Bad Idea. There are many things wrong with Vivek's arguments. 🧵 1/n
Firstly, he is just gloriously wrong on the facts. Yes, variants can emerge in the U.S., there are immune compromised (IC) people here & #Omicron and other variants can and do find their way to replicate in IC hosts in USA. (There's also endemic SARS-CoV-2 in Deer). 2/
Vivek says U.S. "enjoys widespread vaccination" so variants won't emerge / evolve while we let Omicron "rip".. Widespread vaccination: Maybe.. But U.S. vaccine uptake is PATCHY.. Does this look like great vaccination rates? 👇usnews.com/news/best-stat… 3/
Another big big problem is his absurd idea that #Omicron is so "mild." As @stgoldst points out, we do not know how mild it is relative to the original 2019-Dec virus -- only relative to Delta, which was more virulent than the original. No.. you don't want to catch Omicron! 4/
Omicron is also better at infecting children. Do we want kids to catch Omicron? Many of them might get it anyway, despite our best efforts. But do we want this to happen all at once? Or wait til we can get more vaccines out.. & until Paxlovid is available for severe cases? 5/
There are myriad other problems with the idea of letting it rip. Omicron is not a live-attenuated virus vaccine.. it's a pandemic sarbecovirus .. as is, it will harm plenty of people.. it will kill thousands in the U.S. alone... 6/
No we can't tolerate lockdowns, and yes we need to try our best to keep schools open, learn to "live with it" while doing our best to prevent (not tolerate!) infection.. but this does not mean policy makers should see unfettered spread of Omicron infection as a "good thing" 7/
The 2009 H1N1 flu was "mild" compared to some other pandemic flu's. Not a good reason to catch it. Or to "tolerate it." There's not a good reason to catch omicron, even if catching it & recovering from it may make your immunity stronger..Thing is some won't recover fully.. 8/
Some of the sick will strain hospital systems, some kids will be home w/ fevers & w/ parents unable to work. Many #Omicron cases can be avoided if policy makers ignore WSJ OpEds and treat a pandemic coronavirus like.. well, a pandemic coronavirus. Don't tolerate its spread. 9/9
More on how “great” the U.S. isn’t doing w/ COVID-19 vaccination.
Too early to say what this means for @Moderna's #CMV (cytomegalovirus) mRNA vaccine candidate, which is already in Phase III trials. However, this preprint suggests CMV's pentameric gH/gL complex is not important for transplacental infection. #StopCMV 🤰 🧵biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
CMV is notoriously difficult to vaccinate against. When he was still @pfizer, Phil Domitzer & colleagues "threw the book" at rhesus CMV --trying all leading vaccine strategies. The virus still infected, shed and transmitted horizontally just fine. 2/ academic.oup.com/jid/article/22…
Moderna has focused its mRNA vaccine on gB (the viruses' membrane fusion protein, functionally analogous to the S2 domain of a coronavirus' Spike)..and on the receptor binding gH/gL complex that's commonly referred to as "the Pentamer" because it's made up of 5 glycoproteins. 3/
1/ Every person who rapidly shares viral genome sequence data should be celebrated & I'm proud to have helped @GISAID grow. I believe in the platform & its cause is noble. Most of all, I believe in the global community that is the true fabric of GISAID. But there's a problem.. 🧵
2/ The person who is in effect, CEO of GISAID, Peter Bogner, acts as judge, jury & executioner of all decisions at GISAID, has made big mistakes, including acts of overt dishonestly. His mistakes now threaten the platform's credibility all over the world. science.org/content/articl…
3/ However, it's critically important that we do not conflate Mr. Bogner with GISAID. GISAID's global data sharing community are in large part orphaned now. This is a serious threat to global health security. We still need to know about new viruses promptly ...
1/ My Israeli friend once told me a Bedouin proverb that his father told him: “Lies don’t have legs…” they don’t walk on their own.. you have to remember them and there’s a weight to keeping your story straight. 🦵🏽🦵🏽
2/ GISAID is a fantastic platform built by a visionary. Hugely important for global health. Tragically, the visionary in charge doesn’t care about truth & the lies are getting too heavy to bear. I hope GISAID survives. But it’s in desperate need of reform. science.org/content/articl…
3/ Lies don’t have legs. Truth generates its own receipts.
When an organization doesn’t have sufficient internal oversight to prevent bad decisions, you’ll see good feedback coming from outside. Either way, @GISAID should not be changing the terms of use in a hasty & non-transparent manner.
In this case, it looks like Peter Bogner (he alone is in charge) is going out of his way to accommodate the needs & wishes of a single data submitter: The Chinese CDC. WHY DOES HE INVENT TOTALLY NEW POLICIES FOR THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT?
Mind you, GISAID’s March 21 official statement re: @flodebarre@acritschristoph et al’s Zenodo report is a verifiably false misrepresentation of the facts. Why hasn’t Bogner apologized? What motivates him to risk so much for George Gao & the China CDC? gisaid.org/statements-cla…
1/ GISAID can’t unilaterally release these data. That’d severely hurt the platform. But Peter Bogner —the “data diplomat”— is M.I.A. Why wasn’t he working the phones to broker a solution here? In 2006, he came to the rescue after Indonesia refused to share bird flu samples. 🧵
Indonesia was rightfully upset that weathy ‘Western’ countries in the “Global North” were the only ones benefitting from the influenza vaccines that pharma companies would develop. Together with Nancy Cox of @CDCgov, Bogner launched GISAID to help resolve the impasse.. 🧵 2/
Bogner was widely credited with helping broker an agreement wherein Indonesia would share flu samples again. @ggronvall & @RickABright know better, but this dispute might also connect with how @WHO’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness framework began.. who.int/initiatives/pa… 🧵3/