Wonderful to be back in #Wengen last night for the @ISPMBern#SwissEpiWinterSchool - to talk about Wengen! Specifically, the Alpha #SARSCoV2 outbreak in Dec 20 - Feb 21 - bringing together 3 different data sources! Alongside @nicolamlow Chris Kosok @JulRiou! 1/4
Thanks to tireless work of many, the #Wengen outbreak was swiftly identified & action was taken. Chris' field observations, cantonal teams of contact tracers, & of course testers & sequencers, mean we're able to bring together sequences, contacts, & observations for analysis! 2/4
The ability to overlay these three types of connections (an example shown below) means we are able to see how multiple layers can contribute to our understanding of the outbreak, & compare the strengths & shortcomings of different approaches! 3/4
Of course, I'm thrilled to be able to bring the phylogenetics side of this together -- it's rare & exciting to have much more to work with than just basic sequence data! We're still analysing, but are also starting to write up - stay tuned! 4/4
Wengen & Lauterbrunnen are some of my favourite places in Switzerland, so I don't need much convincing to return 😁 - & made the most of my short trip to enjoy a winter hike & idyllic scenes! 🏔️❄️
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Well, after almost 3 years of a dizzy dodging dance - #SARSCoV2 finally got me last week. 🦠🤒 Happy to say I'm on the road to recovery now! 🛣️
It seems many of us 'hold outs' have been caught out in the last few weeks - be safe out there this Xmas!
1/5
I've generally been quite careful, but with the resumption of in-person meetings (& all the activities that go along, like dinners & aperos!), there was always a risk - one I accepted knowingly. I think online working is great TBH, but in-person really is different.
2/5
To pre-empt some comments I know I'll get, I'm being open about getting #COVID19 because being open is something I've always tried to do! We're all trying to make the best decisions for ourselves, our risk levels, our health, & our lifestyles in a complex world.
3/5
In spring 2020, I crafted myself 5 rules for how I would engage on Twitter. Generally, I think they've worked well for me:
1. Tweet with intent 🖋️ 2. Stay positive 🙂 3. Engage in good faith 🫱🏿🫲🏻 4. You don't owe anyone a response 💁🏻♀️ 5. Never feed the trolls 🧌
1/9
First, a disclaimer: These are the rules I try to follow. But I'm not perfect - I've broken them; I've made mistakes.
But in general, I've stuck to them. I do think they've allowed me to have a better social media experience in the last 3 years than many, & I'm grateful.
2/9
1. Tweet with intent 🖋️
I try to not to tweet reactively or randomly. Doesn't mean everything has to be science, but does mean I try to ask, "why am I tweeting this? what am I trying to accomplish?" This keeps me more focused in what I choose to share.
3/9
22F (XBB) is now available on CoVariants! It's visible as part of Per Country & Per Variant plots, on the shared mutation page - and of course, has a page of its own.
As I tweeted earlier, 22F (XBB) is a recombinant variant - the first officially elevated using the Nextstrain clade designations. You can read more about what that means in the thread below!
I got verified when the option arose, to try to make it harder for others to impersonate me & spread pandemic misinformation under the guise of being me. That's all.
I think for that purpose, it's really useful. But I won't pay for it.
1/5
As others have said, I put a lot of work into my tweet threads - sometimes hours. That's time that is already taken away from my 'real' work. Though I consider it privilege to be able to do this public service work, I won't pay to do it.
I have no plans to stop tweeting for now. Though it will be a lot less rewarding if nobody gets to see those tweets. If that seems to be the case, I will probably stop, because I'm not doing this for myself. I love the connections I make on twitter!
You might be seeing a lot about XBB these days, & we're in the process of adding it to @nextstrain, Nextclade, & CoVariants.org (as 22F).
You might also be hearing it's a 'recombinant' - but what does that mean? Let's take a look.
1/9
We've been hearing of recombinants for a while now (remember 'Deltacron'?). They can sound scarier than they are!
The process itself is likely common, but we only 'see' recombinants when someone is infected with two distinct lineages, with different mutation patterns.
2/9
When a virus copies itself, it can 'template switch' between different genomes floating around. If those are all the same, the end product isn't different!
But if distinct lineages are there at the same time, we can spot these 'chimera' children - recombinants!
I'm pleased that case numbers & hospitalizations in many European countries have a downward trend - but hesitant to overinterpret this.
#SARSCoV2 is seasonal & while that isn't entirely due to temperature, some of it is - & this season in Europe has been... quite warm!
1/4
Here are the daily temperatures in Basel, & how they compare to average (black line) from @meteoschweiz. As you can see, we've almost been having 'August temperatures' in October! Much of Europe has enjoyed a similarly mild autumn 🌞🍂🍁
2/4
While this is great news for autumn walks & cutting #COVID19 transmission (eating outside, continuing outside activities, keeping windows open), it probably won't last - as temperatures do start to dip 🥶, we should be aware that transmission may be impacted!
3/4