BREAKING—US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has just tested positive for #COVID19. He recently attended the @whca dinner event with 2600+ people, where reporters from many media outlets have also now tested positive. ➡️ This Vf headline was on point. #WHCD#COVIDisAirborne
2) We epidemiologists and aerosol scientists have warned about the poor ventilation and high density being a bad setup for almost guaranteed transmission at @whca dinner if anyone in the audience had subclinical (undetected) virus. And indeed the superspreading event happened.
3) ’The nation’s most distinguished super spreader event’. @Trevornoah was spot on in his opening lines of his #WHCD speech.
4) Scientists had live updates of the CO2 levels in the the #WHCD ballroom the entire evening thanks to @nalticx’s volunteer who brought this digital CO2 meter. Anything over 1500+ ppm is really really bad ventilation.
5) In public health, there is an old joke saying— “The solution to pollution is dilution…” or ventilation. And #WHCD’s ventilation levels, indexed by CO2 levels measured by @nalticx’s attendee volunteer, was horrible no good very very bad!!! Normal outdoors is ~400. HT @JusDayDa
6) here is what happened—CO2 first rose in a private suite…. Then they exited the suite to goto the hallway before the ballroom. Then at 8pm, CO2 levels started spiking in @HiltonWash ballroom once everyone entered. And it stayed high ~2 hours except for a break.
7) Also, cases now discovered because symptom onset from Omicron can take time—see outbreak chart from an infamous Christmas Party event in Norway of 117 people. The WHCD meanwhile is a high density ballroom of 2600 people for 2 hours + many after parties. eurosurveillance.org/content/10.280…
8) some will desperately try to downplay the #WHCD outbreak. But the fact of the matter is that people are still dying of COVID. And being hospitalized and getting #LongCovid which will burden healthcare system for years.
9) the sheer size of the #WHCD superspreading outbreak is growing. I’ve learned of a couple more reporters who got it. It spans across all the outlets. So it doesn’t seem to be from any single after party. nytimes.com/2022/05/04/us/…
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BREAKING—FDA suddenly cancels meeting to update next season’s flu vaccines, with zero explanations. Any delays will jeopardize next year’s vaccine supply chain.
2) Folks who follow me know that I’m no bullshitter. I criticized past pandemic response right and left, and have called balls and strikes without bias. And I often say things that doctors & epidemiologists are whispering among themselves but don’t say publicly. (Cough cough) ⬇️
3) While I don’t recommend hoarding… I think stocking up on flu antivirals, which you can obtain prophylactically (preventively) from doctors if you ask nicely why you’re high risk, can be a good idea. I know many doctors, epidemiologists and virologists who do for their family.
Doctors are debunking RFK Jr’s claim that 20 hospitalized measles cases in Texas are there for mainly quarantine. Doctors on the ground say the 20 kids hospitalized are having trouble breathing. Oh and they are all unvaccinated against measles, which RFK Jr neglects to mention.
2) RFK Jr told Trump today there’s now 2 measles deaths.
Woke or biology? There are actually more than the basic “male” XY & “female” XX sexes. Why? Because biology also creates people with single X chromosomes, or extra chromosomes like XXX, XXY, XYY, or XXX+, plus many 🧬genes. 👉All I’m asking is— please be kind to others. Thanks🙏
2) “The most frequent SCAs include Turner syndrome (45,X), Klinefelter syndrome (47,XXY), Trisomy X syndrome (47,XXX), and Double Y syndrome (47,XYY).”
3) “The phenotype seen in SCAs is highly variable and may not merely be due to the direct genomic imbalance from altered sex chromosome gene dosage but also due to additive alterations in gene networks and regulatory pathways across the genome as well as individual genetic modifiers.”
I'm shocked a lot of doctors don't know about this newer flu antiviral drug called Baloxavir (XOFLUZA)... that shortens your flu illness by 33%, and reduces your viral load by day 2, versus what a placebo takes 5-6 days to achieve. Baloxavir also seems superior to TAMIFLU (oseltamivir) for smashing your viral load on 2 day, achieving what takes Tamiflu 3-4 days. CDC even lists Baloxavir on their website as one of the top 4 drugs that it tracks whether it works against new flu strains (it works)
2) "Baloxavir was associated with significantly more rapid declines in infectious viral load than placebo or oseltamivir (Figure 3A and 3B)." nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
3) Adverse events for baloxavir were no different than placebo. in fact theres even hints that it could be lower than Tamiflu.
"Adverse events that were considered to be related to the trial regimen were more common in oseltamivir recipients (8.4%) than in baloxavir recipients (4.4%, P=0.009)"
⚠️WORST FLU SEASON ever since 2002-2003 when we began to track flu (red, first graph). Worst hit this year are children ages 0-4 and 5-17. ▶️We also have significantly LOWER flu vaccine uptake this year, one of the lowest flu vaccine coverages (red 3rd graph). Indisputable facts.
2) I don't need to tell you that certain US states have vastly lower vaccination rates than others. See map (lighter green, less flu vaccination coverage), and which have higher (darker green)...
If you want to see details and demographics on which state has the LOWEST flu vaccine coverage rates... the data is here. cdc.gov/fluvaxview/das…
3) It’s not just the flu that is going around… Gaines County, TX, where the epicenter of the measles outbreak is, has one of the lowest measles vaccination rates too.