🧵 As a medical laboratory scientist working in hospital settings since 1988, I want to share my thoughts about some of the challenges hospitals & clinical laboratories will face regarding the new CDC guidance for patients potentially infected with A(H5) influenza. 1/ CDC is now recommending subtyping of all influenza A positive specimens from hospitalized inpatients on an accelerated basis, preferably within 24 hours. This will be very challenging as the majority of US hospital laboratories don't have the ability to perform this subtyping. 2/

🧵 I think I have a very unique & valuable perspective when it comes to SARS-CoV-2. I've spent the 1st three years of the pandemic in one of the the busiest hospital based chemistry/bloodgas labs in the US & the last 20 months as a generalist in a medium sized hospital. 1/
I've dealt with 2 covid infections 2 years apart with ensuing long covid that's still ongoing. I developed an enlarged ascending aorta & bladder cancer which covid likely caused or contributed to. My wife has long covid & I've lost family members, friends & coworkers to covid. 2/

🧵 So Stanford University held a conference yesterday titled "Pandemic Policy: Planning the Future, Assessing the Past" with a panel of notorious SARS-CoV-2 minimizers: John Ioannidis, Jay Bhattacharya, Vinay Prasad & Monica Ghandi. I thought I'd share some thoughts with you. 1/ These so called experts have spent the entire pandemic minimizing the horrific short & long term impacts this virus has inflicted upon hundreds of millions of people. They advocated for "let it rip" & herd immunity based policies which were blatantly wrong & extremely harmful. 2/

🧵 This thread is not about garnering sympathy. It's a warning.

SARS-CoV-2 changed my life forever. I now live with the threat of a high grade cancer that has a 60-70% recurrence rate & while I'm extremely grateful for immunotherapy treatments, they aggravate my long covid. 1/ Boosting the immune system fights bladder cancer which is crucial, but with each treatment regimen the likelihood of a PEM crash/⏫️ nerve pain increases & it only took one 12 hour shift Thursday to trigger it. My feet are on fire & my legs get weak after 1 flight of stairs. 2/

🧵 Some troll quoted me saying "Why do you work in a hospital if you're so afraid of germs?"
I blocked him 'cuz he's a troll, but here's what I have to say about that. I'm a medical laboratory scientist working in hospitals since 1989, spending 16 years in microbiology lab. 1/ I spent 17 years performing phlebotomy as part of my job & 17 years in one of the busiest hospital chemistry & bloodgas labs in the US. I've drawn blood from tens of thousands of patients in the ICU, ED, labor & delivery, nursery, neonatal unit, psychiatric units, you name it. 2/

If you're covid cautious & already wearing an N95 or better in public places that's a good thing if H5N1 takes off, but disinfecting surfaces & hand hygiene to prevent fomite transmission is very important as H5N1 is hardy & can survive on plastic surfaces 24 hrs & skin 4.5 hrs. "The survival time of H5N1 on plastic surfaces was 26 hrs & on skin surfaces 4.5 hrs, >2.5 fold longer than other subtypes. The effectiveness of a relatively low ethanol concentration (32%–36%) against the H5N1 subtype was substantially reduced compared with other subtypes." /1

🧵 Jan 22, 2020. I developed the worst headache of my life (I have migraines) which lasted for hours, then a high fever overnight. A week later I started brutal dry coughing. It lasted for months, then crazy tachycardia/palpitations started. It was covid, on Jan 22, 2020. /1 I was working in a huge metro hospital with patients & staff coming from all over the world. Some of my coworkers got real sick too. We didn't know it was covid. Nobody did. It was flu season & any patients who had it were thought to be ill with other respiratory pathogens. /2

🧵 Why we are f*cked if H5N1 becomes a human pandemic:

1. Hospitals are still reeling from SARS-CoV-2. Understaffed, brutal nurse to patient ratios, perpetually overcrowded emergency departments, daily inpatient capacity alerts, poor morale, fewer people entering the field. 1/ 2. We don't have the vaccine readiness needed, far from it & with the botched government covid response they'll be lucky if 1/2 population gets vaccinated.

3. The FDA & USDA have been very slow to release data on the level of infections on farms. I have 0️⃣ faith in them. 2/

🧵 When I was a young man I thought I wanted to be a cop, so I took the civil service test & got hired. I spent 2 months at the precinct observing & going on ride alongs before leaving to the academy. This thread is about my experience. It wasn't a good one to say the least. 1/ My first week a sergeant known as "Robocop" ran past me into the armory, came out with a shotgun, ran back past me & out the door while yelling "I'm going to (blank) Avenue to set all those n***ers straight!" There were black officers within earshot & some white cops laughed. 2/

🔋I try to stay measured when talking about SARS-CoV-2. However, after what I've seen in one of the busiest hospitals on the planet & personally experienced the last 4 years I am extremely worried about our future. This virus can infect us 2, 3, 4, 5 × a year & it is airborne. 1/ It can persist, replicate & mutate for months, perhaps even years in our organs, brain & bone marrow. It is constantly mutating & staying ahead of current vaccines, our therapeutics are very limited & both do very little if nothing to prevent long covid. 2/

I'm keeping this closed to replies cuz I don't want it turning into a sh*tshow. My wife & I are the only people I personally know who exercise our level of covid mitigations. Nobody else in our circle (family, friends, coworkers) even come close. We literally HAVE to do this. 1/ Getting infected again could be devastating & potentially life threatening for us. We're likely in the 99th percentile & fortunate we're able to do this to stay safe. Many people don't have that privilege: kids in school, family members who come & go, living situations, etc. 2/

🧵1 of 7
Omicron sucks. I'm only 3 days in but my entire body aches constantly, even my eyeballs. Throat is raw & chills come & go, some so bad I can't stop shaking & it feels like I'm gonna break teeth. Woke up last 2 nites drenched from night sweats. Coughing getting worse too. 🧵2 of 7
It sucks even more because I was so damn careful the last 22 months & now I infected my wife. She's tough as nails & is handling it better than me even though I know she has many of the same symptoms. She's taking care of me & keeping my spirits up. She's amazing.