Post

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1846932556836430170

More from @brownecfm

Conor Browne

@brownecfm

Dec 15

1. As a result of the current high prevalence of influenza and the accompanying media coverage of the spread of the disease, I've been asked about mitigations by a number of friends who take *no precautions against SARS-CoV-2*. A few observations regarding these conversations:

2. Very few people understand just how vastly more effective an FFP2 / KN95 respirator is versus a blue surgical mask. Interestingly, the fact that Boots (a UK pharmacy chain) actually sells own-brand FFP2s is a convincing point for some people: the power of a trusted brand.

3. The false binary nature of influenza vaccination is also obvious in these conversations. Some people seem to have difficulty with the fact that vaccination significantly reduces risk of infection and severe disease, but does not necessarily eliminate it.

Read 6 tweets

Conor Browne

@brownecfm

Nov 22

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1992063250691662069

1. The growing prevalence of H3N2 subclade K influenza - the strain driving this year's flu season - combined with the increasing prevalence of H5N1 and now H5N5 (I doubt the WA fatality is the sole human case) is a dangerous recipe for reassortment.

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1992063250691662069

2. Influenza surveillance at the federal level in the US has been drastically reduced as a result of the current administration's very unwise budget cuts; human cases of H5N1 and potentially H5N5 are very likely not being detected.

3. As such, the first warning the US could have should a new, severe influenza strain emerge as a result of a reassortment event could well be an emergency room suddenly full of patients in acute respiratory distress.

Read 4 tweets

Conor Browne

@brownecfm

Nov 2

1. My background is in CBRN defense. I was involved in the field long before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2.

I used to essentially discount comments on social media - especially this platform - as fringe, not representative of the real world. Sadly, this is no longer the case.

2. The current US administration communicates, and arguably governs, through social media. This means that comments on this platform from Americans can no longer be discounted as simply bots; they are representative of the views of a significant proportion of the US population.

3. With that in mind, let me be very, very clear.

The mainstreaming of anti-vax ideology and the disregard and vilification of non-pharmaceutical interventions, including masking, has rendered the US more vulnerable to biological attack than at any time in its history.

Read 4 tweets

Conor Browne

@brownecfm

Nov 1

1. Fundamentally, a significant part of what I do is the prediction of both the behaviour of pathogens in the future and our likely collective response to future pathogenic threats. I have an excellent track record in this regard for two main reasons:

2. First, while I recognise the enormous value of quantitative data - and it *is* incredibly valuable - qualitative data is often overlooked by other individuals and organisations in this space.

3. Small outbreaks of unknown diseases are often not picked up in surveillance data; sometimes they appear and disappear in one discrete location, seen as an anomaly by an individual healthcare professional.

*All outbreaks of novel diseases begin as anomalies*.

Read 9 tweets

Conor Browne

@brownecfm

Oct 8

1. I've had a surprising number of conversations about Covid-19 over the past week or so, all sparked by the fact that I was, as always, wearing an FFP2 respirator. People in healthcare facilities, taxi drivers, people on trains and buses.

2. All of these conversations were perfectly pleasant. The theme that ran through all of them was a genuine belief that Covid-19 was 'gone'. Not endemic, or 'just a cold', but 'gone'. When you see videos on social media featuring young people bemoaning their 'mystery illness'...

3. ... my feeling is that their illness *genuinely is a mystery to them*.

This is precisely what happens when a concerted effort is made by governments, public health, and the media to downplay or erase Covid-19.

Read 5 tweets

Conor Browne

@brownecfm

Sep 25

1. The intense and all-encompassing institutional and societal pushback seen in some countries against any intervention to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19, whether that be vaccines, or air filtration / purification, or masks, is not simply as a result of mandates or lockdowns.

2. The memory of these policies is a component of it, to be sure, but the deep underlying reason is a shared yearning for the world to be as it was in 2019. In effect, 2019 has become the status quo that almost everyone needs to cling to. This need is pathological in nature.

3. As such, fulfilling this need requires a shared societal agreement to embrace vast cognitive dissonance. Those who choose not to be part of this agreement will, inevitably, be deemed as having a mental health condition (Foucault understood this phenomena very well indeed).

Read 6 tweets

Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

Conor Browne

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @brownecfm

Conor Browne

Conor Browne

Conor Browne

Conor Browne

Conor Browne

Conor Browne

Did Thread Reader help you today?

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

Send Email!