The ongoing monkeypox outbreak has brought to the forefront the legacy of smallpox eradication. Historical smallpox vaccination efforts were heterogenous leaving a modern patchwork of long-lasting protection. We characterize this landscape in new work: doi.org/10.1101/2022.0…. 🧵 History 🔄1: In 1967, WHO initiated an intensified SPX eradication campaign. The target was 80% vacc coverage everywhere, but the bifurcated needle stretched stocks and ring vaccination efficiently ⬇️transm leading to earlier elimination at lower vacc coverage in each country (2/

The pandemic has highlighted the increased risk of airborne transmission risk in INDOOR environments w/out ventilation. But it turns out we know very little about rates of indoor activity and how this varies by location. A 🧵on a new study in which we start to fill this gap (1/) Thanks to animal exp, airflow sims, demonstrated effect of ventilation, frequent indoor superspreading + heroic scicomm work by @linseymarr and so many others, we understand the unequivocal role of airborne transm for SARS2 + other resp pathogens. (2/) bit.ly/3uW8YEn

During this holiday weekend and beyond, consider not just your own vaccination status but that of your community and neighboring communities when you make decisions about activities. Vaccination remains highly heterogeneous across the United States. A short thread. (1/ If you're fully vaccinated, you've done your part to protect yourself-- congratulations! As you consider social activities, be sure to consider the rates of vaccination in your community. You can check out your community's vaccination rate at vaccinetracking.us. (2/

In the race between vaccination and variants, how will we know that vaccination is winning? Tracking vaccination coverage systematically and accurately is crucial to understanding how the rest of 2021 will go. But currently, this tracking remains patchy & inconsistent. A 🧵. The CDC reports state-level vaccine coverage (by dose and age group). While this gives an illusion of tracking geographic variation, it obscures communities that are falling behind in vaccination. For more on the importance of fine-scale vacc data: bit.ly/3uqEDuw (2/)

On this MLK Day, we must commit to eliminating health disparities. The 1st step to that is measuring and tracking disparities. Towards that, we've put together a dashboard to track geographic and demographic disparities in US COVID-19 vaccination: vaccinetracking.us (1/) Denominators matter. So, we aim to track vaccination coverage (as a proportion of population size)for total populations & racial, ethnic + age groups. Tracking vaccination coverage will allow us to track our path to herd immunity, and to quantify inequities in vaccination (2/)

There has been much discussion recently about herd immunity, and the impact of heterogeneity on herd immunity. A thread. (1/) First, I want to reiterate the point made so articulately by @nataliexdean and @CT_Bergstrom: Natural herd immunity is not a goal we should be striving for. Trying to reach the end of this pandemic via that path will lead to mass deaths. (2/)

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