I have been thinking a lot about what we, as a society, can do to reduce the probability of future pandemics & their severity when they do occur. What I've stumbled upon is a recognition that we teach our children an incomplete picture of infectious diseases 1/n We teach our children about infections as if they were chronic disease-entirely from a protect yourself framework. Don't eat that M&M you dropped on the floor, you might get sick. Wear your coat, you might catch cold. The focus is nearly always on the kid's or person's health 2/n

1/ In the mid-1990’s, I gave a talk called “I am racist” to an audience of about 120 pacifist, progressive, white people. It was one of the most difficult talks I have ever given. (I am a hetero white man) 2/ I shared about white privilege. I shared about power. I shared about the biases I had and how I repeatedly uncovered more. I shared that I felt it was impossible to grow up white in the United States and not be racist.

A few summary thoughts about test performance. 1/

https://twitter.com/OSUPublicHealth/status/1245816635803480067

First, keep in mind that no diagnostic test is perfect. Clinicians always have to interpret the test in context. Tests can be wrong for a number of reasons. 2/

As we think about COVID-19, a basic tweetorial about R0 (basic reproduction (or reproductive) number) and Re (effective reproduction number).

R0 = average # of people who will be infected by an individual in an entirely susceptible population. #EpiTwitter #FlattenTheCurve 1/n R0 is a function of 3 key factors:
c = Contact rate: how often people are close to other people
p = Probability of transmission given contact with infectious person: how infectious the virus is
D = Duration the virus can be transmitted

R0 = c*p*D
2/n

I promised @LSadinski some thoughts about working with co-authors, esp. as a early career investigator. I hope the following thread provides some useful insights. #epitwitter 1/11 Working with co-authors is a bit like Goldilocks & the 3 Bears. You are Goldilocks. Your co-authors are the 3 bears: either too little, too much, or just right. Your job is to help them all to be just right. 2/11

When and how should you protest a journal’s rejection of your paper? And how about for a desk rejection? Here are a few thoughts on the issue. Thanks to @lbodnar for the push to do this. @TimothyLash @nicolamlow please comment! 1/n Sending a request to reconsider a journal’s decision can be effective, but it should be rare. And you can do it with either a post-review rejection or a desk rejection. Just don’t expect the decision to be reversed. 2/n