For a long time, catching frequent viruses was considered both inevitable and harmless. But it turns out that common, seemingly-mild viruses have disturbing long-term health impacts. 1/ Viruses can...
- increase risk of heart attacks & strokes
- linked to Dementia & Alzheimer’s
- re-awaken cancer cells that were in remission
- accelerate aging
- trigger life-long autoimmune diseases 2/

The human immune system is impressive, but so are the mechanisms pathogens use to evade it. In my new post, I cover 5 surprising and ingenious ways that viruses & bacteria can subvert our defenses. 1/ Our cells contain microscopic motor proteins that transport cargo along microtubules. The virus (HSV-1) that is increasingly being linked to Alzheimer's Disease uses our motor proteins to transport its viral DNA to the nucleus, so that it can start replicating faster. 2/

My daughter is constantly creating– her passions include making art, writing fiction, coding interactive games, and composing music. Some might say my husband & I are terrible parents… because she does all these things on screens 1/ I am concerned by how these false interlocking points are being repeated by politicians & pundits: that screentime is very harmful for children, that it is essential for kids to attend in-person school every day (even when sick), and that workers must return to the office. 2/

There is much confusion about the "hygiene hypothesis" (what kind of microbes are beneficial vs. harmful?)-- a clearer refinement of it is the framing of "old friends" vs. "crowd infections"

Our immune systems evolved in a different world, without 100,000 flights per day 1/ Some people compare the immune system to a muscle that gets stronger with use. Yet some infections leave lasting harm. Viruses are increasingly linked with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, type 1 diabetes, cancer, & more...

My new post: 2/rachel.fast.ai/posts/2024-08-…

Friends with no previous interest in AI ethics have been asking me about it recently, so I want to share several underlying concepts about AI & power that are important to understand. 🧵 1/ AI and Power: The Ethical Challenges of Automation, Centralization, & Scale

Based on 20-min talk:

Blog post version: rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-05-…
2/

Viruses: The Silent Triggers of Autoimmune & Neurodegenerative Diseases (how a simple cold can lead to life-changing disease) 1/

My new post: rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-03-… Rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, Multiple sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes, Lupus, Hashimoto's, & Psoriasis impact a range of body systems, but all are autoimmune diseases.

Developing a lifelong autoimmune disease is often first triggered by an infection. 2/

Even common viruses can have long-reaching, surprising, & devastating consequences. Fortunately, there are simple steps we can take to reduce transmission. 1/

My new post: rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-03-… The idea that a common childhood virus can quietly hang out in your nervous system, reactivate decades later to cause shingles, and then months AFTER shingles blisters clear up cause blood clots & strokes is mind-boggling to me 2/

theconversation.com/chickenpox-and…

After 12 years working as a data scientist & AI researcher, I have gone back to school for a Masters in Immunology. When I become fascinated by a topic, I want to learn as much as I can. 1/

rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-02-… My ultimate goal is to apply my machine learning & data ethics skills to immunology, but I want to make sure I fully understand the underlying domain & relevant context first. (With ML, it’s important to not just be a hammer searching for a nail). 2/

I made a mastodon account a few weeks ago: @math_rachel@mastodon.social (in case twitter falls apart)

I haven't used it yet and have mostly been taking a social media break prior to this. 1/ I used to post a lot on twitter (about machine learning, working in tech, algorithmic harms, & later covid). I loved this place and I learned a lot from others here. Thank you to those I met & learned from. (I plan to stick around, but who knows what will happen.) 2/

This is a thorough, incredibly well-researched explanation of the Qld government's unscientific & unethical pursuit of a "wall of immunity", which was doomed to failure before it had even begun. by @ColinKinner

medium.com/@ColinKinner/l… 1/ Please watch the embedded video of Chief Health Office Dr. Gerrard. Note that when he repeatedly says that it is inevitable & necessary for us to all catch covid, he is speaking as someone with significant political power. 2/

I hate the fatalism & false logic of “everyone’s going to get covid many times, so just give up; it doesn’t matter how often (or how close together infections are); no point in trying to keep hospitals, schools, or pharmacies safe.” 1/ First, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you tell people there’s no point in avoiding infection (or worse, that they are building a “wall of immunity”, masks are opposite of smiles, etc) and abandon protective policies, that is going to discourage cautious behavior. 2/

My daughter & I had fun together decorating our elastomeric respirators with paint & gemstones. Mine is a GVS Elipse P100 and hers is a @flo_mask. Many thanks to the amazing @nickelpin for her inspiration! 1/ Why wear an elastomeric respirator? They work and are comfortable! A Texas hospital used Elastomeric Respirators to eliminate Health Care Worker infections, and save $40,000 per year. 2/

kens5.com/article/news/h…

It is urgent that we implement community-wide mask wearing in public indoor settings to protect Australians from infections, reinfections, & chronic disability caused by Long-COVID. Please sign the petition 🇦🇺. More in🧵 1/

chng.it/NLK2cCKZpW Having spent year 1 of pandemic in USA & then moving to Aus, my perspective is that understanding of airborne spread is even worse in 🇦🇺 than 🇺🇸. Because covid was so successfully managed via border closures, many people never had to learn about masks, airborne spread, etc 2/

A public health academic saying non-fit-tested N95s are "useless", and that those w/out public health credentials can’t disagree/engage.

This sort of elitism & gate-keeping causes so much harm.

(screenshot: red is PH academic, blue is other person) 1/ First, there is previous evidence that non-fit-tested N95s can still be effective 2/

fast.ai/2022/07/04/upd…

Why masks are still important:
- vaccines offer limited protection from long covid
- unconstrained transmission → more variants evolve, faster
- keep essential, public spaces accessible to high-risk ppl, babies, & immunocompromised
- constant reinfections → mass absenteeism 1/ Being vaccinated & boosted reduces an individual's chance of hospitalization or death, but does little to stop infection (& even initially mild infections can lead to a host of complications later on) nor transmission at this point 2/

https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/1543780610920947712

Why leaders can’t be honest, direct, & clear about long covid, risk of reinfections, waning immunity, airborne spread, & importance of N95s 🧵 1. Extreme short-term thinking: some people would *choose* to go out less if they knew the risks, which is bad for economy in the short-term (of course, constant sickness, absenteeism, & disabling part of the workforce is also bad for the economy, in both short- & long-term)

I really enjoyed our @DiagnosingML discussion yesterday on algorithmic bias in healthcare AI. I will link to some of the research & ideas I mentioned in this 🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/DiagnosingML/status/1539861823200976897

@yvessj_aquino shared results from interviews w/ 70 different stakeholders in healthcare AI, including software devs, doctors, & startup founders, to explore different conceptions of algorithmic bias. Here is a previous lightning talk he gave on this 2/ fast.ai/2022/03/14/ADS…

The video from our 3rd @AustralianData Ethics Workshop is up. Here are a few highlights 🧵
australiandatascience.net/data-ethics-wo… The current status quo on AI governance often involves harmful silos.
System owners wrongly assume bias metrics have removed ethical risk.
Model design & validation decisions uninformed by system impact.

@lmccalman1 @GradientInst

Recent writing:
- The problem with metrics
cell.com/patterns/fullt…
- Qualitative research is crucial to AI fast.ai/2022/06/01/qua…
- AI harms are collective, not just individual fast.ai/2022/05/17/soc…
- No such thing as not a "math person"
fast.ai/2022/03/15/mat… Reliance on metrics is a fundamental challenge for AI, with David Uminsky @DSI_UChicago @Patterns_CP

https://twitter.com/math_rachel/status/1526040262782636032

6 months ago, Australia largely went all in on a vaccines-only strategy, with > 90% of adults double-vaxxed. Since then:
6,000 deaths
7 million cases
likely 600k - 1 million cases of LongCovid

In response, we are going to double down on vaccines-only... 1/

https://twitter.com/AlboMP/status/1532258784684277760

Even back when masks were being worn (almost nobody does now), I never heard mainstream messages about benefits of N95s (instead of loose-fitting or cloth masks) nor explaining airborne spread. 2/

https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1496000157246451719?t=hDYS4Z9oRge1ad4MHEKt1A&s=19

Qualitative research is crucial in AI to understand:
- more than what is captured by short-term metrics
- what is missed by large-scale studies (which can elide details & overlook outliers)
- circumstances in which data is produced 1/

fast.ai/2022/06/01/qua… @louisa_bartolo Following the thread of any seemingly quantitative issue in AI ethics (such as determining if software to rate loan applicants is racially biased or evaluating YouTube's recommendation system) quickly leads to a host of qualitative questions. 2/