NEW STORY: Having just lived through a horrifying pandemic, you’d think that funders and governments would be throwing money at anyone who can figure out how to prevent the next outbreak

I’ve learned that often isn’t the case, and here’s why: Yesterday, we published a story about scientists (Peggy Eby, @rainamontana, @ali_bat et al) who showed it’s not only possible to predict when the Hendra virus will jump from bats, but also showed a path to preventing such spillover events.
propublica.org/article/austra…

Last year, I got to see the most amazing sight: 300,000 bats roosting along a river in Tamworth, Australia.

Local residents found them scary. But it was actually good news.

The congregation meant Australia was being protected from the deadly Hendra virus.

Let me tell you why: I’ve been learning about spillover, when viruses jump from one species to another. Hendra goes from:

🦇 -> 🐎
then
🐎 -> 🚶‍♂️

Some experts think spillover is too random & difficult to study. But not ecologist Peggy Eby. She’s spent decades studying flying foxes.

I’m a health reporter. Last year my colleague suggested I check out this nonprofit that’s trying to save rainforests & I thought, well, I don’t cover trees. 🌳

Then a pandemic prevention expert also mentioned the group.

Now I was paying attention. The org in question started out with the goal of saving rainforests and combating climate change, but it’s now being touted as a way to address a critical driver behind outbreaks: deforestation.

So, I went to Madagascar to see it in action.

Twitter reminded me that "vaccine-derived polio" is not an easy term to understand and may lead people to think patients got polio ~from~ a vaccine. NOT TRUE.

It's a confusing term, so a little thread to explain what it means. 🧵 There are 2 types of polio vaccines. 💉The injectable vaccine (if you're in the US, this is what we use now) and the oral vaccine: much cheaper, easy to administer w/ a few drops on the tongue, used in much of the world esp. low income nations.

1/ Did you know that increasing numbers of babies are dying in the U.S. of a completely preventable disease?

This is not a novel virus.

It’s an ancient one, something you might recall from high school sex ed:

It’s syphilis. 2/ From 2015-2019, cases of congenital syphilis *quadrupled.*
(Congenital means transmitted mother to child)

1,870 babies born, 128 died.
Preliminary counts for 2020 are even higher.

It may sound like a small number. But remember: none of these cases should happen at all.

NEW: Stanford used an algorithm to decide who got the #COVID #vaccine first, and the result was only 7 of the first 5,000 slots went to residents... the same week they were asked to volunteer for ICU coverage in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

propublica.org/article/only-s… Keep talking to us about your vaccine experiences:

https://twitter.com/CarolineYLChen/status/1338565849460973568?s=20

A little thread on death counts. 🧵

A lot of people like to argue about whether #COVID19 death counts are accurate. I get regular emails from people asking, are health depts counting motorcycle accidents as #coronavirus deaths if that person happened to be infected? etc. As @ngusletter and I discussed in our story, how to understand #COVID19 numbers, a good rule of thumb is that it's usually better to zoom out and look at the big picture when you're trying to understand what's going on.

propublica.org/article/how-to…

On Monday, I thought, let's see what #covid19 quarantine looks like across the U.S.

The stories we heard did not fill me with confidence. (Thread) 🔶 One woman went to a wedding, heard a waiter tested positive, spent days trying to get info. Finally, state health dept told her she didn't have to quarantine. @mayatmiller called county dept, who said the banquet hall was supposed to tell all wedding goers to quarantine.

*deep breath* So let's talk about mental health.

Warning: long thread
Also: real academic research ahead

https://twitter.com/TexasTribune/status/1157801199225188352

An estimated 50% of Americans are diagnosed with mental illness or disorder, such as depression, at some point in their lifetime (CDC). 1 in 25 live with a serious mental illness (CDC).
(cdc.gov/mentalhealth/d…)

NEW STORY: Today @ProPublica and @thenewyorker published my story looking into the wild world of amniotic stem cell therapy, made from donated birth tissue & sold to patients for $5k-$10k to “treat” everything from Alzheimer’s to erectile dysfunction... 2/ I’ve spent the past few months unraveling the supply chain. The economics reveal why this market is exploding (from a handful of stem cell clinics in 2009 to 700+ in 2017). Amniotic treatments are the latest “technology”. Here’s how it works: