CASES SPIKING UP ⬆️52.9% in one week in England 🏴—Clear trend now there is new wave happening, despite 98% with antibodies. Hospitalizations also across 🏴. #BA2 subvariant >50% too.
3) Hospitalizations is up across all regions of England 🏴 too. So this isn’t some isolated thing. What is uniformly increasing across England? #Ba2 prevalence.
5) Here is what difference one month makes. I don’t want to hear anymore damn excuses that we never saw this coming when cases surge later in the US next month or two.
📍NEW—The #BA2 now has a 80-90% growth advantage versus old #Omicron in the US. Expect uptick by April, and cases to surge more in late April / May. Wastewater #SARSCoV2 level from @BiobotAnalytics also shows plateauing nationwide & reversal soon🧵. #CovidIsNotOver
2) We already see wastewater signals in Palo Alto uptick for 3-4 consecutive days now. And this is likely almost all #BA2 by genetic signals found in the wastewater.
📬MAIL DELIVERY OUTBREAK—China’s CDC reports an outbreak of #Omicron “likely caused” by an international postal letter. Genetically distinct from other cases, but linked to SE Asia & N America. If true—this is the first outbreak cluster spread such way.🧵 weekly.chinacdc.cn/en/article/doi…
2) Study concludes: “we reported the first local cluster caused by Omicron variant in Beijing and showed this cluster was likely caused by a contaminated internationally mailed document, which has not been reported before.”
3) “Our data emphasized the surveillance and disinfection of imported express cargo in COVID-19”
Aside—I think seasonality here matters. January is dead of winter and Beijing is very cold then.
👀Watching—A suddenly 3-straight days of wastewater #SARSCoV2 ⬆️ increase found in Palo Alto & Mountain View (home to Stanford & Google)—similar to late Jan levels. Such signals usually foretells rising #COVID19 cases 1-2 weeks later. #CovidIsNotOver covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-wast…
Wastewater is one of the best ways to track early warning signs of coronavirus rise. Here is the best national dashboard from @BiobotAnalytics. Their data is not comprehensive like a census because not all counties & cities participate. (But they should). biobot.io/data/
Good time to remind folks that masks work — and reduce transmission by 72% in schools that require them. Huge study 👇
2) The study included 61 school districts (kindergarten through grade 12) that provided data from July 26, 2021, through Dec. 13, 2021, a period encompassing the Delta surge and preceding the Omicron surge.
3) In total, there were 40,601 primary infections acquired in the community (36,032 among students, 4,569 among staff) and 3,085 secondary infections acquired in school (2,844 among students, 241 among staff).
This is not random paranoia— this piece is dedicated to just this tricky Putin decree. And the @BulletinAtomic is one of the most prestigious journals in nuclear nonproliferation & nuclear security. Read— thebulletin.org/2022/03/read-t…
3) Putin adds: “This is not an exaggeration; this is a fact. It is not only a very real threat to our interests but to the very existence of our state and to its sovereignty”
Ever wonder why kids don’t get smallpox vaccine anymore? Because we once decided to eradicate it with #vaccines & 100% containment—& fully EXTINGUISHED smallpox off the face of the Earth 🌍. ➡️ We chose to go **ZERO SMALLPOX** because 500,000,000 deaths in 100 years was enough!!
2) So, was the smallpox vaccine some magical miracle 100% efficacy for a lifetime efficacy protection? No, it was 95% and for only 3-5 years, with waning after. It had to be used with contact tracing & village lockdowns to eradicate it—a PLUS strategy. health.ny.gov/publications/7…
3) The eradication of smallpox was no small feat. It took 10 full years to extinguish smallpox off the face of the planet. It was led by the legendary DA Henderson of @JohnsHopkinsSPH@CDCgov and @WHO.