🧵1/x My 3 yo got his 1st #COVID19 vaccine dose last week!
Starting this 2-dose process (Moderna) was more satisfying and joyful for our family & friends than I’d expected 😁
🧵2/x Last year I wrote about my reasons for wanting to vaccinate my young kids against #COVID19
🧵Last week, I got a new gadget - a carbon dioxide (C02) monitor!
Some thoughts below (1/x)
🧵Before I start, a reminder from chemistry/biology:
C02 is a “trace gas” we humans & other animals breathe out
Humans breathe it out in greater concentrations than it occurs in the air. So C02’s a good marker for lingering breath in stale air
(2/x) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_di…
Mar 2, 2022 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
🧵1/x Yesterday, I finally got around to reading the the new CDC Community Levels document.
And the thing that struck me is how clear it is about what it is
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…
🧵2/x I’ve been critical of past CDC guidelines that just seemed out of nowhere and confusing and internally inconsistent
Those had all of us guessing the motivations behind the guidelines - bc the stated rationales often didn’t make sense!
🧵 1/ This week, a friend told me that her pre-K child had Covid
And I responded badly
🧵2/ First a story: 7 years ago, I had a high-risk pregnancy (22 week PPROM)
One of the worst moments of that pregnancy was during a routine ultrasound that showed (predictably, given my Dx) that my amniotic fluid level was very low
Oct 23, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
🧵1/ A pre-pandemic story
In 2019, I was on a planning committee for a scientific conference. One of our duties was a “hot topics” session — a hard task when you’re planning a year in advance
We were trying to predict, What will be relevant & topical in epidemiology in 2020?
Second, this thread especially grabbed my attention coming on the heels of yesterday’s @NIH_ORWH virtual conference on gaps in research about the health needs most particular to women orwh.od.nih.gov/research/2021-…
Oct 18, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🧵1/ When we don’t get #SARSCoV2 transmission low, the most vulnerable - the old, the immunocompromised, the just plain unlucky whose bodies can’t mount a robust immune response to vaccines - they pay a high price
🧵2/ I know many people in US see #COVID19 primarily in personal terms. Their risk to others is not a main priority…
Others argue that the unlucky vulnerable should just “shield” themselves indefinitely, as if being old or sick means that you are no longer a social being
Oct 8, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
🧵 1/ I really like the idea of “test to stay” in US K12 schools
There are actually several different policies called this, but a big one is testing to reduce K12 quarantines when a person/group is a close contact of positive case. I think that’s a great use of “test to stay”
2/ One confusion I see in comments on Dr. Mina’s post is people thinking of very sensitive PCR testing, which can pick up infections in days when people are no longer contagious
“Test-to-stay” typically uses Rapid Antigen Testing: RAT finds those who are actively contagious
I’m literally talking into air, trying to inject myself into the conversation. I decided better to just tweet my thoughts!
pca.st/episode/cefa36…2/ Re: p-hacking: I was really lucky to learn about dangers of p-hacking/selective reporting/publication bias early when I took Charlie Poole’s meta-analysis class in my MSPH at @UNCSPHResearch
Seeing the funnel plot assymetry in study estimates was powerful!
Sep 28, 2021 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
🧵1/n Game on! Sounds like FDA process for deciding availability of #CovidVaccines for 5 yo - 12 yo has kicked off
A couple thoughts on how I’m thinking about this decision for my 6 yo…
🧵2/n To my knowledge, my kids haven’t been infected with #SARSCoV2 - but I’ve accepted that they probably will at some point because of where we live (US)
Sep 22, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
1/ This article does a good job presenting several foundational public health tenets that I’ve felt frustration at not communicating earlier and better:
🧵2/10 This quote from @oni_blackstock (starts with “In our community…”) especially hit powerfully. I’ve rarely felt my experience of the pandemic articulated with such precision. bit.ly/3DikPP3
These scientific-sounding lies lowered rates of vaccine uptake & NPI. After all, prominent people said everyone already had protection from infection & cross-reactivity w other viruses
1/ Good overview of challenges of doing “big data” health care research in US. For instance, nice description of basic pros and cons of insurance claims vs #EHR health care records
HT @ABatemanHouse technologyreview.com/2021/06/21/102…2/ But the article has a prematurely triumphant tone at the beginning (and in the default Twitter tagline). N3C is great but limited, as the article does make clear
Jun 22, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
1/ For those wondering what the heck is happening in North Carolina, it’s a foreseeable train wreck that left the station in December 2016
(I could go back further to 2010, but let’s stay focused on state boards for now) npr.org/sections/thetw…2/ In 2016, Republicans won NC’s electoral votes for US presidency and kept control of the gerrymandered state legislature (“surgical precision”, the Appeals court said).
But Dem Roy Cooper won the governorship…
Jun 19, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Retweets & comments on Bloomberg article are great 😁
A good #epitwitter teaching example: In research, we can frame causes as 1) personal biological deficits or 2) structural systems that (for some reason!) don’t accommodate common life processes mostly affecting women 🤔
2/ Meanwhile accommodations for sexual harassers, people who frequently have violent outbursts, who fail to pull their weight re: tedious administrative work, etc, are so culturally ingrained in many orgs that they are not even written policy…
May 17, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
🧵1/ I find #COVIDvaccine focus groups like this fascinating. I was struck by the broad distrust of physicians in this group of reproductive-aged women...
🧵2/ I study this kind of population a lot in my #gynhealth work through #EHR medical systems data. As a social epidemiologist, it’s a cool population to study in EHR data bc so many have frequent contacts with the medical system through routine gyn and pregnancy care...
May 15, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🧵 Thread on Toronto strategy to target #COVID19 vaccination to hardest hit areas - it can be done
🧵1/ Well, life comes at you fast, amirite?! 😂😩*sigh* cnn.com/2021/05/13/hea…
🧵2/ I’ve still been processing the response to CDC’s change in guidance about *outdoor* masking! Remember that?! npr.org/sections/healt…
Apr 30, 2021 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
1/ New #COVID19#K12 paper in @ScienceMagazine: the part that most excites me is zooming in on the safety measures that best predict low #COVID19 risks...
2/ Parents & school staff & community members really want to know: What is most important? What measures should be prioritized at my school? This paper models that in detail: results reinforce findings from previous work
