Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
Oct 18 10 tweets 6 min read
So I managed to keep myself from live-tweeting my own session at #WHS2022 this morning, but wanted to collect a few points/quotes from it here.
The session was on "Global Health Communications". Full recording is online:
His father, a policemam in Ireland, taught him one thing, says @DrMikeRyan: ‘Always answer the question you’re asked’
“I’ve kept that in my mind the whole way through this.” (I have to say that really shows!)
Hardest part were personal attacks (for instance on FoxNews), says @DrMikeRyan:
“When you're being attacked yourself, you have some sense that you have agency in that. It's when you see others around you being attacked, that you really feel resentment, your blood really boils.”
@DrMikeRyan "We've created lots of shouting platforms, we haven't actually created communication platforms", says @DrMikeRyan. "It's not a very safe place for the ordinary person to engage. We have not created engagement platforms. It's unsafe. And people feel unsafe. I feel unsafe."
@DrMikeRyan "I felt more at risk in the communications job at @WHO than I ever felt in Afghanistan or Sierra Leone or in Kosovo", says @DrMikeRyan. "Then how does a teenager feel safe? How does an ordinary health worker feel safe?"
“It's interesting to me in our negotiations back and forth with media companies over the last couple of years, how much companies have been prepared to change the content of a story, but very rarely will change the headline”, says @DrMikeRyan. “Because that's the click.”
“Everything is about that soundbite”, says @DrMikeRyan. “We've ended up in a world of sound bites now, not a conversation, not a dialogue. I don't know how we fix that.”
@DrMikeRyan "In the pandemic, misinformation is not a victimless crime", says @RoopaDhatt.
"I have seen that firsthand, practicing in the United States, a high income country where vaccines were available, but patients were refusing because of misinformation."
@DrMikeRyan @RoopaDhatt "In a world where numerous countries do not prioritize sex education, and I would include my own United Kingdom in that, there is a vacuum of information", says @sophiasgaler who labels it the "sex misinformation crisis".
@DrMikeRyan @RoopaDhatt @sophiasgaler Even trying to counter this type of misinformation is challenging, says @RoopaDhatt, because experts putting correct information out using terms like "penis" or "vagina" often see their content removed " for politicised reasons, not scientific aspects".

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More from @kakape

Oct 19
It's been a while since I've written an update on #monkeypox. But @ECDC_EU yesterday put out a new risk assessment, so a quick thread on what we know and where we are...

Full updated risk assessment is here: ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/…
@ECDC_EU First off:
There have been more than 20,000 monkeypox cases in the region (that's EU countries plus Norway and Iceland) and 4 deaths.
But the number of new cases has declined 90% since the peak in July: Image
@ECDC_EU There are likely several factors at play:
- behavior change
- immunity from immunizations as well as infections
- end of summer travel
- less testing?

I’ll write more about this and what the future may bring in the next days.
For now, a few points on risk and transmission:
Read 11 tweets
Oct 17
COVAX did not fail because it was badly designed says @DrMikeRyan at #WHS2022:
"We failed because of the greed of the north. We failed because of the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. We failed because of self-interest in certain member states, who were not prepared to share"
@DrMikeRyan "The view of the independent panel was not that @WHO failed the world. No, member states failed the WHO. This is clear. The WHO does need more powers to deal with pandemics", says @HelenClarkNZ at #WHS2022.
@DrMikeRyan @WHO @HelenClarkNZ "Isn't there something ridiculous about the fact that @iaeaorg can go into a war zone and inspect what's happening in a nuclear power plant and @WHO doesn't have an absolute right to get visas to go to the site of any outbreak anywhere in the world?", asks @HelenClarkNZ. #WHS2022
Read 8 tweets
Oct 15
This government has come up with a LOT of bad ideas in a very short span of time, but this still has to rank as one of their worst ones. #AMR
Read 4 tweets
Oct 12
The @ECDC_EU sent out a brief assessment of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda this morning:

“The outbreak is still relatively limited in size (48 cases). More importantly, transmission has not been documented in densely populated areas.”
“While one death has occurred in the capital city of Kampala, it concerns an individual who fled from the affected districts and passed away in the capital. …A total of 42 contacts have been identified. No other cases have been recorded in the city.”
Risk for travellers is low says @ECDC_EU:
“Transmission requires direct contact with blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of dead or living infected persons or animals; these are all unlikely exposures for the general EU/EEA tourists or expatriates in Uganda.”
Read 7 tweets
Oct 10
In April 1979 dozens of people died in the deadliest anthrax outbreak on record. What happened in the city of Sverdlovsk?
A new @pandemiapodcast episode on anthrax, bioweapons and the search for the truth is out.

Full episode (in 🇩🇪) here:
viertausendhertz.de/pan49/
Thread to come:
@pandemiapodcast Anthrax is a deadly disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The pathogen can form spores that can survive decades and usually infects and kills grazing animals. But anthrax (particularly inhalational) can also kill humans. And it has long been studied as a bioweapon.
@pandemiapodcast Pathogens are attractive for weaponisation if they are (amongst other things) dispersible as an aerosol, their production can be scaled and they are stable and deadly. “Anthrax is one of those pathogens that tops every list for those characteristics”, says @FilippaLentzos.
Read 12 tweets
Oct 7
Die Deutsche STI-Gesellschaft (DSTIG) hat gerade ein Positionspapier zu Affenpocken (MPXV) verschickt.
Das dürfte alles niemanden überraschen, der mir oder dem @pandemiapodcast folgt, aber in Kürze die wichtigsten Puntke der DSTIG:
Affenpocken sind eine sexuell übertragbare Krankheit
“Wir sprechen immer dann von einer STI, wenn die sexuelle Übertragung des jeweiligen Erregers –in diesem Fall MPXV– für das Infektionsgeschehen relevant ist. Fast alle STI-Erreger werden nicht ausschließlich sexuell übertragen”
Eine Isolation von Patienten ist in der Regel nicht nötig:

“Bisher werden nur in seltenen Einzelfällen Infektionen über Haushaltskontakte berichtet. Eine Quarantäne von im selben Haushalt lebenden Personen ist daher obsolet.”
Read 8 tweets

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