Tweet

More from @miamalan

Mia Malan

@miamalan

May 10

@SAHPRA1

🧵1. BREAKING: @SAHPRA1 has approved a 3-month extension of the expiry dates of #Pfizer #COVID19 shots when stored at -70 °C. @HealthZA says it's stored the 92,370 jabs that originally expired on March 31 at -70°C, so they'll now only expire on June 30th and can still be used.

2. Why are there new expiry dates?

#COVID19 jabs have only been around for +/- 1.5 years. Manufacturers can only test if they stay stable 4 extended periods of time as the time moves on. They've now established that Pfizer jabs can be kept at -70°C for 12 (instead of 9) months

@healthza

3. How many #COVID19 #Pfizer jabs does SA have left?
@healthza says on May 9:
10,593,060 doses

When do these jabs expire? (next tweet)

Read 6 tweets

Mia Malan

@miamalan

May 3

@ProfAbdoolKarim

🧵1. Is SA in a 5th #COVID19 wave?
@ProfAbdoolKarim: It’s too early to tell. We don’t have reliable data 2 compare infections of the last 7 days with the previous 7 days. Why? SA = 2 holidays in the past week, so testing nrs = down + can’t reliably be compared 2 the previous wk.

2. Why do we need to compare data of the last 7 days with the previous 7 days?

- For a 5th wave the 7-day moving average would have doubled every 2-3 days (so we would have had 10,000+ cases by now)
- But we’ve seen only a 52% increase: from 3,097 (April 24) to 4,693 (May 1)

3. Does the lower-than-expected increase for a new wave mean we’re not in a 5th #COVID19 wave?

Not necessarily — it could just be that testing numbers are down because of the 2 public holidays in the past week (far fewer people go to test on public holidays).

Read 11 tweets

Mia Malan

@miamalan

Apr 22

🧵1. It's been 2 years of mostly only #COVID19 reporting. What has the pandemic taught me about journalism?

Lesson 1: Accurate information is pretty useless if people don't understand it. Explanatory journalism should be specialist field: bit.ly/36xvxWm

Lesson 2: Pandemics like #COVID19 make things happen faster. But to speed things up you need more hands and skills — you're going to get nowhere on your own.

The power lies in journalism oranisations sharing skills and resources. So learn to work together, or miss the bus.

@Bhekisisa_MG

Lesson 3: FOCUS + be strategic. If you try to cover everything during a pandemic, you'll end up covering nothing. Do the stuff you're best at + leave the rest to others.

@Bhekisisa_MG focused on explanatory + in-depth stories — we rarely covered news: bit.ly/36xvxWm

Read 10 tweets

Mia Malan

@miamalan

Apr 13

@ProfAbdoolKarim

🧵1. What will a potential next #COVID19 variant of concern look like?
@ProfAbdoolKarim:
We dunno but it's unlikely 2 look like #Omicron, Beta/Delta, unless it arrives only when immunity from Omicron infection = waned
Why? Omicron infection = good immunity @ itself, Beta, Delta

2. Since #Omicron = spreading so fast + widely vs. past variants of concern, there are many vaxxed people who became infected with omicron and now have good immunity 2 all existing variants of concern. Similar immunity = evident in unvaxxed people with past Omicron infection.

3. Since infection with #Omicron creates such good immunity 2 existing variants of concern it'll be difficult 4 Beta/Delta 2 come back + cause a new wave. The next wave has 2 be caused by a variant with little similarity 2 Omicron/will need 2 arrive when Omicron immunity = waned

Read 10 tweets

Mia Malan

@miamalan

Apr 8

@ProfAbdoolKarim

🧵1. Will SA see a 5th wave?

1. @ProfAbdoolKarim says likely, but we don’t know if it'll be big or small. What we do know, is that we will almost certainly see a new variant. Each wave in SA has been driven by a new variant.

So what will a new variant look like? (next tweet)

2. What will a new variant look like (let’s call it Pi)?

We dunno.

But for Pi to become the dominant variant it will have to be more transmissible than #Omicron, or it won’t be able to replace/out-compete it (if they were athletes, Pi would need to run faster than Omicron).

3. Even if Pi (potential new variant) can outsmart our immune systems to some extent, it will likely still need to be more transmissible than #Omicron in order to overtake it.

Read 9 tweets

Mia Malan

@miamalan

Mar 16

@Dr_Groome

🧵1. What's happening with #COVID19 in globally + in SA?
@Dr_Groome, @nicd_sa:

Globally:
- Europe's had a relatively big 4th #Omicron wave, which seems to have stabilised
- Western Pacific countries (Hong Kong, China, Singapore) have seen huge increases in #COVID infections

@Dr_Groome

2. Which variants caused a spike in infections in Western Pacific countries?

@Dr_Groome: Mostly #Omicron and here and there #Delta. So new variants haven't been the cause.

3. Why did China, Hong Kong, see increases in #COVID19?

They've had strict lockdown + non-pharmaceutical measures. Exposure to infection = therefore low, so natural immunity = low.

SA = different. We have high levels of immunity (combination of previous infection + vax)

Read 16 tweets

Share this page!

Mia Malan

People who liked this thread also liked...

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @miamalan

Mia Malan

Mia Malan

Mia Malan

Mia Malan

Mia Malan

Mia Malan

Did Thread Reader help you today?

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