Brief update on Omicron, and its BA.1 and BA.2 lineages (sisters) 1. Origin—the 3 theories for how this hyper-mutated version of the virus evolved nature.com/articles/d4158…@nature
3. The BA.2 variant is spreading widely, throughout many countries in Europe and Asia, out-competing BA.1, indicating higher transmissibility. But the good news from yesterday's @UKHSA: vaccination + boost is holding up quite well; there's no indication of more immune evasion
4. Some countries where BA.2 (light purple) is making or has already made major inroads outcompeting BA.1 (purple) covariants.org
5. And there's a new thread from @trvrb covering these points and many others, with the conclusion that BA.2's impact of extending the length of time (longer tail) for the Omicron wave
7. A new BA.2 dedicated report today from @UKHSA
The secondary attack rate for BA.2 compared with BA.1 is roughly 30% increased, reflecting a transmission edge assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
And another invaluable @kallmemeg🧵takes you through the rest of it
If you're interested in how AI grew up over the past 15 years, and where it's headed, this new book tells the story in a riveting, page-turner way. In the new Ground Truths with @scmallaby
In 2010, when @GoogleDeepMind was formed, well before deep learning was taking hold, @demishassabis predicted AGI by 2030 and called out the use of agents
@GoogleDeepMind @demishassabis This is pretty striking
(please excuse typo, DeepMind's)
Physical activity and the reduction of all-cause mortality, from 2 very large prospective cohorts 1. The relationship is non-linear, suggesting a threshold effect for many types of exercise as seen below
2. Engaging in > 1 type of physical activity was generally correlated with better outcomes compared with 1 type (T1,2,3)
People age 70+ should not be taking aspirin at any dose for prevention. Results of randomized trials show higher risk of all-cause mortality, major bleeding events and deaths from cancer. p 153, SUPER AGERS book
President Trump takes 325 mg aspirin/day. The randomized trials tested 75-81 mg/day. His doctors recommended low-dose aspirin for heart event prevention. That recommendation is ill-founded based upon best evidence in older individuals. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10… academic.oup.com/eurheartj/arti…
As I wrote in SUPER AGERS, the immune system is the key to modulating our aging process and the opportunity to extend healthspan. Today @NatureAging 7 new articles, summarized here, that reinforce its central role nature.com/articles/s4358…
The new special issue @ScienceMagazine features Immunity with 4 outstanding review papers, 5★
Our immune system over the lifespan, sex differences, influence on physiology, and host antiviral defenses science.org/toc/science/cu…
We've learned a lot more about the principal drivers of age-related diseases in the past few weeks. And that leads to a unified model to pull it all together. (open-access)
I review 4 new reports, summarized here: 1. The proteins from senescent cells predict age-related clinical outcomes 2. A new epigenetic age clock connects the dots between aging, the immune system, inflammation and lifestyle factors 3. People with a fast pace of aging had an increased risk of cognitive impairment, age-related diseases, disability, and mortality 4. The Importance of “Immune Resilience” for Healthspan
And present a unified I/I model for what we now know