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Dr. Deepti Gurdasani Profile picture
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Mar 15 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Really? You don't get why masks are needed when 1 in 18 people are infected (the highest *ever* prevalence in Scotland), hospitalisations are rising rapidly to almost the Jan 2021 levels? Let me explain it to you. It's a vital public health measure.
I just don't understand how politicians who don't seem to have any understanding of public health 2 years into the pandemic feel free to wade in and put out completely uninformed and unhelpful rhetoric. We should be doing more not less...
And yes, waves will happen at different points in different nations. England had a worse initial omicron wave than Scotland because they had more measures in place, but Scotland saw an earlier resurgence as they opened up & now both are seeing rapid rises.
And England is not a good standard for comparison for anything. Yes, England doesn't have mask mandates because of the sheer stupidity of politicians, not because they're not needed!

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More from @dgurdasani1

Dr. Deepti Gurdasani Profile picture
Mar 16
.@TheTelegraphUK has played a key role in putting out misinformation, undermining trust in experts, at critical points during the pandemic when action could've saved lives. Casting doubt on experts meant that govt inaction was normalised. Sadly, the damage is already done.
Worth remembering that MSM doesn't just report the news- it creates the narrative it wants. As the role of the media misinformation is discussed in the context of Russian oligarch ownership of newspapers, it's worth remembering the distortion of truth that pervades our news.
It's not just the distortion of truth in one respect- it's distortion in all respects. COVID-19 has been a clear area of propaganda and misinformation to justify govt policy. As a scientist I can say honestly that much of the media doesn't represent scientific consensus at all.
Read 22 tweets
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani Profile picture
Mar 14
It's a tragedy when govts, rather than using vaccines & therapies to improve outcomes (by using a vaccines plus approach), use them to promote policies that cause a much higher level of infection, long COVID & unacceptable levels of 'acceptable deaths'.
theguardian.com/world/2022/mar…
Shouldn't we expect better given we've had 2 yrs to do better? Vaccines, therapies, and evidence on so many airborne precautions that reduce spread? Or should we just tolerate higher infections? 27,000 deaths involving COVID-19 as per ONS in the UK since 'freedom day'.
>9,000 just this year in the 'mild' omicron wave. 1.5 million people with long COVID - with 685,000 having had symptoms for *more than a year*. 21,000 of these with symptoms more than a yr are children. Impacts of omicron not even fully felt yet on long COVID figures.
Read 6 tweets
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani Profile picture
Mar 11
UKHSA tech report out - TL;DR:
-BA.2 now represents >80% of omicron in England
-Growth rate 80% greater relative to BA.1 per wk
- regional growth seems to correlate with BA.2 frequency
-?lab reports indicating that BA.1 infection may lead to lower neutralisation against BA.2
🧵
BA.2 does not produce the spike gene failure (SGTF) on TaqPath PCR tests that BA.1 did, so it can be detected on some routine PCR tests. Looking at this 'SGTP' signature, it looks like 83% of cases are BA.2. This won't be fully representative of England but in the ballpark.
There are regional differences - which may at least partly explain the differences in prevalence and rises of cases in different regions. Highest in London, and the SE and EoE south, and lowest in the North.
Read 21 tweets
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani Profile picture
Mar 9
Really worth looking at what's happening in the 8-11 yr group- infections have continued to occur at a high rate (as per ONS data) in this age group- yet antibodies appear to be plateauing, and early declines being seen. This is well-described in the literature.🧵
Children *do not* develop sustained antibody responses- and the rate of seroreversion (going from antibody positivity to negativity) and antibody declines are faster than adults. Remember antibodies don't mean immunity in the first place (given the level of escape with omicron)
It is unlikely children develop lasting immunity to infection. The UKHSA data also shows this clearly, with re-infections being highest among children, with a significant proportion of BA.2 re-infections having occurred within just 3 months.
Read 5 tweets
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani Profile picture
Mar 8
A brief discussion on the impact of omicron we're seeing in some countries currently - e.g. HK - which may seem surprising given the impact observed in South Africa and even perhaps the UK - which while v. significant, seems lower on the face of it.🧵
Some of this will no doubt stem from different vaccination rates by age in different regions - but there is possibly another important factor that may not be immediately apparent.
I want to revisit the discussions on the severity of omicron relative to delta here. As many of us discussed earlier - there are two aspects to severity:
1. intrinsic severity - what is the severity if omicron compared to delta if they infected the same people
Read 22 tweets
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani Profile picture
Mar 8
As hospitalisations increase, it's worth again noting that testing has massively reduced as positivity has risen to 20% in England (similar to the Dec omicron wave). So cases are *massively* underestimated - and looking at dashboard numbers will underestimate risk.🧵
I worry that this is providing false re-assurance about where things are at. ONS data suggests infection rates remain high. And hospitalisations with COVID-19 are clearly rising across all age groups. BA.2, a more transmissible sub-variant of omicron has also gained dominance.
Vaccines will provide protection, but we know this protection wanes, and isn't absolute. So other additional layers are important to protect yourself
& others. While the govt no longer mandates any measures, it's important to continue to be cautious.
Read 8 tweets

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