Thread by @PeterHotez

1/10: My top 10 Covid 19 and related pandemic concerns (in no particular order except starting with short term and heading to long-term

2/10: The immunocompromised and early adopters of the bivalent mRNA vaccine. Based on durability of protection vs hospitalizations, it’s getting to that point for authorizing a second bivalent booster, hoping to hear from FDA or CDC about this

3/10: we may be heading onto the other side of the XBB1.5 wave in the coming weeks as we head into the spring. Unknown if we will see a new summer wave in Texas and Southern US, as we did in 2020 and 2021 (delta). So even though public health emergency may be ending, I propose…

4/10: I propose a heightened pandemic surveillance and preparedness initiative, which includes actions and vaccine/therapeutics availability for potential upcoming waves but also more comprehensive efforts. For instance

5/10: Even if and when we get on the other side of Covid, guess what…a 4th major coronavirus is percolating among bats and will be jumping to humans to ignite another epidemic/pandemic. The point is SARS MERS COVID19, get ready for COVID25, 26, or 27 the-scientist.com/news-opinion/b…

6/10: That means stepping up a US national virology program to build our virologic research capacity and training, as well as virus ecology and evolution research. This includes supporting orgs like @EcoHealthNYC. Unfortunately the opposite is happening in the House right now

7/10: Along those lines we urgently need a new NIH Director to help lead this, along with a new NIAID Director, together with White House OSTP, National Academies, scientific societies. We need a comprehensive government led national virology strategy to get us ready.

8/10: And there’s more. Don’t forget about seasonal flu and zoonotic/avian influenzas. That threat never disappeared. So this too needs to be folded into a national virology strategy.

9/10: Yet in the US the community of virologists is being attacked unfairly and without cause, exactly at a time when we need the US community of virologists now more than ever

10/10: More Covid-19 waves may arise, Covid-25, 26, or 27 is coming, and it potentially could be worse than the others (or not) we don’t know. Seasonal/zoonotic influenzas have us in their sites. Yet we’re attacking the experts and scientists we need to help us, makes no sense