Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Jan 23, 2022 18 tweets 11 min read Read on X
I’m concerned about the new #BA2 sub variant of #Omicron. In the left panel, you see it is surging (light green) to almost half of all Danish 🇩🇰 #Omicron cases—surpassing the old Omicron BA1 variant by a lot. Either it’s much faster transmission or it evades immunity even more.👇 ImageImage
2) Elsewhere in 🇬🇧, while still early, #BA2 Omicron subvariant is doubling now every ~4 days right now… while every 4 days is slower than original #Omicron displacing delta every 1.5-3 days, BA2 displacing Omicron BA1 is a really bad sign. Image
3) Denmark, #BA2 passed BA1 on Jan 12th it seems (we are only knowing now due to sequencing delays). Image
4) here again is #BA2 in the UK 🇬🇧 - early but fast. Image
5) here is Germany’s rise of BA2 as well. Early but looking exponential too.
6) here is BA2 in Netherlands 🇳🇱— already at 5%. HT @LongDesertTrain Image
7) UPDATE— we now have an estimate of BA2 transmission growth advantage over vanilla #Omicron BA1. It’s not good… see thread 🧵 below… it’s approximately *DOUBLE* of omicron. Unclear if contagiousness or if immunity evasiveness. Either way it’s growing faster… 👇
8) the other bad news on #BA2 is that our old friend, S-Gene dropout shortcut (PCR) test, cannot identify the BA2 sub variant easily—while BA1 #Omicron is easily found these days with SGTF. This might make deciphering BA2 and Delta & other strains harder. github.com/cov-lineages/p… Image
9) Danish scientists have warned that BA2 is trouble. We should heed their warning. I want this pandemic over but wishing it away doesn’t solve anything. Only through collective action can we end it.
10) there is no proof newer variants will necessarily become milder & endemic as if by magic. That’s bullshit wishful thinking. I trust Professor Gregory on this — don’t listen to TV pundits who are paid to sell you “reopen everyone and let it rip” propaganda.
11) do no listen to folks who claim endemic means normality and the disappearance of COVID worries. They don’t explain to you what endemic really means. There are really bad endemic outcomes too. 👇
12) Virus researcher & chief physician of Denmark 🇩🇰’s CDC @SSI_dk says you can get **reinfected with #BA2 sub-variant** of #Omicron after being infected with Omicron BA.1. ➡️ This is why we shouldn’t risk COVID or chase mass infection. nyheder.tv2.dk/2022-01-21-ny-… Image
13) UPDATE— Denmark 🇩🇰’s #BA2 Omicron subvariant has now fully taken over — dominant with 65% of all sequences #Omicron… Germany and Netherlands and UK not far behind. US has a handful of cases but likely rise soon too.
14) is COVID slowing in Denmark 🇩🇰? Absolutely not. #COVID19 continues to spike along with deaths. ImageImage
15) there are naysayers who point to ICUs dropping. But that’s misleading — because instead of hospital ICUs, Denmark relies on long term care nursing home facilities - which deaths are going up. Hence you need to look at deaths not partial ICU numbers in 🇩🇰
16) here is a better graph showing deaths surging in Denmark 🇩🇰 — pretty clear #Omicron isn’t “mild”.

ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-da… Image
17) UPDATE— Denmark’s CDC says BA2 subvariant of #Omicron is about ~1.5 times more contagious than BA1 (original Omicron). This makes it much higher than prior estimates and could “extend” the Omicron wave into February, says Denmark 🇩🇰 officials. ssi.dk/-/media/arkiv/… Image
18) not good - Denmark (where BA2 is most common) is seeing really bad hospitalization surges. Many even with boosters. BA2 could be quite evasive against past immunity I’m thinking as well as more contagious.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Eric Feigl-Ding

Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DrEricDing

Mar 26
HOLY CRAP! The Francis Scott Key Bridge has collapsed after a ship collision in Baltimore. The 1,200 feet (366 m) span bridge was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world.

2) my god— The Francis Scott Key bridge is one of the main highways that forms the beltway of Baltimore. The collapse has been called a mass casualty incident and it is unknown at this time how many vehicles may have been on the bridge at the time of the collision & collapse. wtop.com/baltimore/2024…Image
3) Multiple vehicles have fallen into the water. This is not a small bridge folks - it’s one of the largest truss bridges in the world - and facilitates much of the flow of shipping in the port of Baltimore - which is now likely toast for a while.
wtop.com/baltimore/2024…
Read 16 tweets
Mar 19
Dear @CDCDirector Mandy Cohen… you’ve completed abdicated the “control and prevention” in CDC’s name. Countless have been maimed by #LongCovid, and continue to be harmed.

My thoughts on @Slate’s health podcast—13:30 min mark—



slate.com/podcasts/well-…
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wel…
2) What @CDCDirector did by dropping isolation rules for active #Covid infectious patients— to green light them to goto work and school and shopping centers to spread the virus is complete dereliction of duty to public health. See thread 🧵 on details why. 👇
3) of course I had to misspell “completely” in top post. But while to err is human…. To correct… divine. Maybe @CDCDirector Cohen should learn some contrition. Meanwhile:
Read 6 tweets
Mar 15
📰BREAKING UPDATE—A close friend of @Boeing whistleblower John Barnett who was found dead in his hotel parking lot last week (while still testifying against Boeing) said he had told her just before his court deposition—➡️”If anything happens to me, it's not suicide." See 🧵👇
2) "I know that he did not commit suicide," said Jennifer, a friend of Barnett's. "There's no way." ➡️Jennifer said they talked about this exact scenario playing out.

However, now, his words seem like a premonition he told her directly not to believe.

abcnews4.com/news/local/if-…
Image
3) "I know John because his mom and my mom are best friends," Jennifer said. "Over the years, get-togethers, birthdays, celebrations and whatnot. We've all got together and talked." When Jennifer needed help one day, Barnett came by to see her. They talked about his upcoming deposition in Charleston. Jennifer knew Barnett filed an extremely damaging complaint against Boeing. He said the aerospace giant retaliated against him when he blew the whistle on unsafe practices.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 13
📍Hey folks—on #TikTok—as an American born in China—I have a few thoughts in this post. First of all, I would NOT ever recommend allowing TikTok to access your contact book 📔 of friends, or let TikTok connect to find your Facebook friends, or add your phone number. TikTok claims to be a “global private company” but it’s a wholly owned Chinese company—how big of a deal is it? Well, years ago, Google hit the nuclear eject button and forced itself to fully pulled out of mainland China—why? Because Google got into a fight with Chinese govt—because any media company operating in China must be subject to CCP control and grant communications access (read: for censors/monitoring/data tapping) to the CCP government. Google refused—and hence Google doesn’t operate anywhere in mainland China anymore. For same reason… TikTok being owned by Bytedance, a wholly owned China company—they are subject to same CCP control. TikTok just needs to divested from China and become US owned. Do yourself a favor meantime — disconnect your address contact book 📕 and your FB from TikTok if you must use it, and try not to use your📱number if possible (but still use a 2FA). I don’t want a ban of TikTok but I do support the TikTok divestment from China (so that it is fully US owned). I think TikTok is useful and powerful, but we need to secure it for us fellow Americans by supporting the ***divestment*** so that US controls it. I hope people see I’m not anti-TikTok—I just want us to make it better and more secure to protect our freedom of speech, privacy, and civil liberties. Thanks for listening. And may there be peace ☮️ in the Middle East.Image
Image
Image
2) I recommend you disconnect as many access points to your phone as possible from TikTok, if you must use it. Trust me on this. I use a ton of social media (I run other large social pages besides Twitter)—but TikTok I don’t touch beyond the most basic limits. Image
3) Congresswoman @RepSpanberger knows what’s she’s talking about — she was a former CIA officer. TikTok will always be subject to Chinese data control as long as it is Bytedance owned.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 11
⚠️HOLY SMOKES—A famous whistleblower against @Boeing on safety issues, has just been suddenly found dead in his truck in his hotel parking lot—all while **testifying in the middle of his week of depositions** against Boeing. JFC. Many of John Barnett’s claims about dangerous Boeing practices have already been verified by the FAA. If we don’t hold accountability for his death, whistleblowers won’t come forward in the future—which would endanger publicly health & safety.
bbc.com/news/business-…Image
Image
2) WTF — “It said the 62-year-old had died from a "self-inflicted" wound on 9 March and police were investigating.” ➡️ people don’t suddenly commit suicide in a parking lot while at a hotel to testify against @Boeing for days and days.
@Boeing 3) Everyone needs to watch John Oliver @LastWeekTonight episode on Boeing immediately… it’s fire 🔥

Read 23 tweets
Mar 6
“We’ve known, there are lots of studies (that show) up to 50% of all cases are transmitted asymptomatically, which means fever is not the relevant thing here.” And many patients never develop a fever at all during a COVID-19 infection.

Read more at: miamiherald.com/news/coronavir…
2) This means if they are feeling kind of sick but don’t have a fever, they may not isolate at all based and may spread the virus to others. The guidelines are “wishy washy” at best and require people to self-diagnose… if an illness is COVID-19, flu, RSV

miamiherald.com/news/coronavir…
3) “Feeling better is subjective, right? What is ‘feeling better’ to one? If you have symptoms that aren’t better explained by another cause, we don’t have the testing for other causes. And what is ‘better explained’? All these things are just so nebulous and undefinable,”
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(