The biggest honor anyone can bestow on a journalist to share their story with us, to trust us to represent them accurately and fairly. I feel so privileged that Diego trusted me with his life story. 1/x

newjerseymonitor.com/2023/03/11/pan… Diego never imagined he’d carry a gun.
Not as a child, when shots were fired outside his Chicago-area home. Not at age 12, when one of his friends was gunned down. Diego’s mind changed at 14, when his friend was shot 9x in front of him. 2/x
indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/03/13/pan…

Someone in your family has tested positive for covid. What can you do to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the household? Ventilation can help. A thread. 1/ khn.org/news/article/h… @CDCgov recommends isolating Covid patients for at least 5 days, preferably in a separate room with access to their own bathroom, as well as diligent mask-wearing for both patient and caregiver. 2/ nbcnews.com/health/health-…

@JenniferNuzzo is speaking live about the third year of covid. She describes the Omicron surge like a flash flood that comes in fast, causes lots of damage, and recedes. @JenniferNuzzo said that Omicron cases may not decline as rapidly in the U.S. as in other countries.

@CDCDirector says omicron now detected in 19 states. 1100 deaths a day from covid. @CDCDirector says we're still seing 100,000 cases of covid a day.

Super interesting. Depression increases your risk of death from almost everything. It's hard to take care of yourself when you have no motivation and feel horrible.

Vaccine eligibility for mood disorders underscores elevated covid risk washingtonpost.com/local/mental-d… This story makes me think about depression/motivation and what it takes to access health care. @KFF has fabulous health insurance, but I have had to be ridiculously motivated to get health care for myself/family over the years, b/c health system so hard to navigate. 1/2

What the heck is mucosal immunity? Until the pandemic, I had never even heart of it. But it may explain why kids are naturally protected from the worst effects of covid. A thread. 1/ Mucosal membranes in kids' airways act like the walls that protected medieval cities from invaders. They do such a good job at blocking SARS-CoV-2 that there's less need for hand-to-hand combat inside the castle gates. 2/

I don't want to criticize nurses, b/c they work incredibly hard. But when my dad was hospitalized, it wasn't helpful for them to tell me every day that he was "looking better today." He was elderly, w/ dementia & other comorbidities. He was never going to get better. 1/ His nursing home sent him to the hospital, where he was in the ICU on bipap. (He was DNR and we said no ventilators.) After a few days, his breathing improved, he switched to a nasal cannula for oxygen. That doesn't mean he was 'better." 2/ #hpm

ICYMI: The @cdc's Dr. Jay Butler talked to the @IDSAInfo this week on the Delta variant and vaccines. vimeo.com/574457791

2/3 of all adults have gotten 1 dose of vaccine, including 90% over age 65 have gotten one dose, 80% of those over 65 are fully vaccinted. @cdc's Dr. Jay Butler says no evidence of waning immunity from covid vaccines.

@theNAMedicine @PublicHealth LIVE: Speakers at @theNAMedicine webinar on variants include some heavy hitters of science: @CarlosdelRio7, @angie_rasmussen, Dr. David Ho of @Columbia & @MonicaGandhi9 . @theNAMedicine @PublicHealth @CarlosdelRio7 @angie_rasmussen @Columbia @MonicaGandhi9 Live: @angie_rasmussen: Viruses have smaller genomes but mutate much more than complex cells.

Live from International Antiviral Society–USA (IAS–USA)

One monoclonal antibody is good, two is better. Live from International Antiviral Society–USA (IAS–USA)

Dr. Jonathan Li: Mutations occur between the areas where antibodies bind to virus and the spike protein.

JAMA LIVE. @CarlosdelRio7 notes there will be PTSD caused by the pandemic. JAMA LIVE: When asked which vaccine she recommends, @PreetiNMalani said to get the first vaccine you can. "They all work beautifully on severe disease."

LIVE @NC4HR: Dr. Paul G. Auwaerter of @JohnsHopkinsDOM notes that people infected with B.1.1.7 variant are infectious longer -- eight days instead of five days. LIVE @NC4HR: Dr. Paul G. Auwaerter of @JohnsHopkinsDOM notes effectiveness of mRNA vaccines in Israel as good as in clinical trials.
Good protection in people over 70, who normally don't do as well with vaccines.

This slide includes data that could be used to argue both for/against giving everyone one dose before giving people a second. Here's another slide contrasting the arguments for/against giving everyone one dose before anyone gets the second. One major point: The one-dose strategy would violate the FDA's emergency use authorization.

An advisory committee to the CDC is meeting as we speak. You can watch here: #acip ustream.tv/channel/VWBXKB… @InfectiousPS said she's gotten 80% of her staff vaccinated, with 10% waiting to see how others do. Dr. Tom Shimabakuru is speaking now about safety monitoring. Here's his presentation. #acip
cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/…

@WHCOVIDResponse is holding another live briefing. I'll be live tweeting. @KHNews Live @JeffZients: 13.5 million doses going out this week. On track to have vaccines for 300 million Americans by July. 700 federal personnel to be vaccinators. 1000 members of military will support community vaccination sites.

LIVE @DrPaulOffit: Good news. No difference in rates of Bell's palsy between vaccinated people and non-vaccinated.

Some ppl have developed bleeding issues a day after vaccine, but that's "too soon" for the vaccine to have caused the bleeding.

https://twitter.com/JAMA_current/status/1359982319273086978

I'm live tweeting another great interview w/ Dr. Howard Bauchner. He notes that we have 6 months now of vaccine data, since first large study began. No serious safety issues. He said he's reassured.

LIVE @DrNunezSmith: "We're removing all out-of-pocket costs for these vaccines." LIVE @DrNunezSmith said people need paid time off to go get the vaccine.

FAUCI LIVE is updating us on therapeutics. Dexamethasone reduces mortality late in the disease. Remdesivir works earlier in the disease, as well as some monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma. FAUCI LIVE: Here are the vaccines in development.

It's the day you've all been waiting for. An @fdagov advisory committee will evaluate @Pfizer's covid-19 vaccine and recommend whether to issue an emergency authorization. Watch here or follow this tweet thread. Officially, this is a meeting of the @fdagov's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or #VRBPAC. They are independent experts, not government employees, who are asked to scrutinize vaccine data and make recommendations.
fda.gov/advisory-commi…

Can science end the pandemic? Not if we don't socially distance and mask up. @drsanjaygupta tells public health forum, "As good as the science is, no amount of science can rescue us from ourselves." hsph.harvard.edu/coronavirus/co… Fauci said schools aren't a big source of covid-19 infections. "Given the level of infection we’re seeing in schools, it doesn’t appear that the risk to teachers isn’t any greater than they would just being in the community."

LIVE: The National Vaccine Advisory Committee from @HHSGov is meeting now.

Watch here, or follow my tweets.
hhs.gov/live/live-1/in… LIVE: @HHS_ASH says he'd like National Vaccine Advisory Committee to discuss the need to vaccinate children, who has a case fatality rate of 0.2% (although kids can also develop rare inflammatory syndromes). hhs.gov/live/live-1/in…