Distinguished Professor & Extension Specialist, Rutgers. Fighting innumeracy, dithering and equivocating. Aka “Dr. Don” and lately lots of COVID-19 content.
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May 15, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
I wrote this text for a reporter, and I thought you folks might enjoy reading it as a tweet thread. (1/11)
The CDC has recently revised it's guidance on wearing a mask, and that guidance notes that once you've been fully vaccinated you can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic. (2/11)
Apr 18, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Kara asks a really interesting question about the product linked in this message:
Room temperature thawing of frozen meat is an interesting topic that comes up from time to time. If you check all of the food safety advice websites they will tell you that it is not safe to do this. (1/18)
They will instead recommend that you thaw in the refrigerator, in the microwave, or under running water. (2/18)
Jun 27, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
It is going to take a hopefully short tweet thread to explain my thoughts on this: 
(1/8)
I think all of these are reasonable risk reduction measures to take. They were especially reasonable when we didn't really know anything at all about transmission of COVID-19. (2/8)
Apr 24, 2020 • 28 tweets • 4 min read
Today a reporter asked me a bunch of questions about disinfectant wipes. I thought it might make a nice tweet thread. (1/28)
You may have also heard a certain elected official who is making disinfectant recommendations that were not exactly based on science. Questions and answers below. (2/28)
Apr 16, 2020 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
I've been meaning to post a thread talking about COVID-19 transmission that breaks down my current thinking on the topic. This is that thread. (1/25)
By far most of the cases seem to be from direct person to person transmission from individuals who are symptomatic (i.e. sneezing and coughing)... (2/25)
I answered a similar question from a reporter earlier today. Here's a brief tweet thread on UV devices: (1/6)
How does UV light work to kill bacteria and viruses? UV light works because it damages the the DNA or RNA of microbes. If you damage to enough of the nucleic acid the bacteria die or the virus cannot infect. (2/6)
Apr 5, 2020 • 22 tweets • 3 min read
Hey folks. It's a good thing that I'm almost off Twitter these days, otherwise I would be spending way too much time there. (1/22)
Occasionally I get email messages from normal folks who have questions. I thought it might be fun to share some questions and answers. I fixed a few typos, but otherwise the questions are as presented. (2/22)
Apr 4, 2020 • 35 tweets • 6 min read
Are you puzzled about how long you need to keep your food packages undisturbed to inactivate the virus that causes COVID-19? Then this tweet thread is for you. (1/34)
First let me start by suggesting that there's no evidence of transmission of COVID-19 from food or food packaging. There's also no reason to disinfect food packaging after arriving home from the grocery store. (2/34)
Mar 26, 2020 • 33 tweets • 5 min read
Unless you are living under a rock or have already perished from COVID-19, you've likely seen a YouTube video making the rounds where a medical doctor (wearing scrubs!) purports to give COVID-19 advice. (1/33)
I'm not going link to the video, because if you haven't seen it, consider yourself lucky. First of all, scrubs? Aren't those meant for being around sick people? Why would you wear something like that in your house. It seems very irresponsible. (2/33)
Mar 25, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
There's a bunch of people out there recommending you wash your fresh produce with soap. This is not a good idea. Soap is known to cause vomiting and or diarrhea. It’s for washing hands not for use on food. (1/6)
Here is the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for Dawn Dish Soap: uwsuper.edu/facilities/dep…
Ingestion: May result in nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea. (2/6)
Mar 16, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Hey folks, @LexFri asks a great question. I’ve been doing a ton of conventional media talking about this. Here are a few quick hot takes on Lex's message which is linked here:
(1/10)
Hopefully any sick kitchen staff stay home with paid sick leave so they don't have to work. (2/10)
Mar 14, 2020 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
This @DaringFireball post caught my eye yesterday: daringfireball.net/linked/2020/03…, and I've got some comments that I will be sharing in this tweet thread. TL;DR soap is *not* significantly more effective than alcohol-based hand sanitizers for coronavirus. (1/15)
I first heard about Thordarson (author the The Guardian article that @gruber linked) when the author of this Newsweek article newsweek.com/this-why-soap-…@kashmiragander reached out to me with some questions. (2/15)
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