outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

it will obviously be we fly

lol... “it will obviously not fly”

I thought it was new slang

A good summary of what we know about the new strain:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/mutant-coronavirus-united-kingdom-sets-alarms-its-importance-remains-unclear

Jesus is going to be born in checks notes 4 days. Let's see what he says first?

The Vatican has declared it “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines that were developed based on research that used fetal tissue from abortions. https://t.co/RYk9jnUYTD

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 21, 2020

NO CONTINENT IS SAFE

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/22/covid-cases-recorded-in-antarctica-for-first-time

WATCH CLARK

Captain Oates to blame again

British officials have detected another coronavirus variant in the United Kingdom, health secretary Matt Hancock announced Wednesday, with both cases confirmed in individuals who were in contact with recent arrivals from South Africa.

Britain is placing new restrictions on visitors from South Africa and calling on anyone who has recently been in the country or in contact with a recent arrival to self-isolate immediately, Hancock said at a news conference, describing the measures as temporary while officials seek to better understand the variant.

“This virus is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and appears to have mutated further than the new variant that’s been discovered in the U.K.,” he said.

does this mean it's time to begin the mutant virus panic phase of the pandemic? cuz, I was hoping to clear my calendar a bit more for that and I'm fairly booked this week already

My friend, a teacher, lost another teacher friend to COVID today. She died pretty quickly after getting it. She was young.

Ugh. Now she's shook af.

Apparently the friend was posting to FB normally and all 4 years ago.

Also my bro has a coworker who tested positive ... hasn't seen him in a week but he's getting tested.

my first (pediatric onology nurse) friend got vaccinated today. she cried.

Was very happy to see my ER nurse cousin in Indiana got the vaccine this week. Much happier to see that than another “it’s a hoax for doctor dollars” member of congress getting one.

extremely wonky thread that IIUC implies "the new variant(s) are not being found in the US because the US is months behind with its genomic sequencing relative to the UK"

So, the core issue with US genomic surveillance is not volume but cadence. We absolutely need faster turnarounds between specimen collection and sequence sharing. @CovidGenomicsUK has shown what's possible. 12/12

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) December 23, 2020

Happy Birthday to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who turns 80 years old today.

i thought you were joking HOLY SHIT that is old

And he still has a job!

HB, Dr. Fauci! Sorry about the Christmas Eve thing. I'm sure it sucked as a kid.

It looks like he might survive the Trump Administration... I think Trump is distracted and isn't too worried about "Showboating Fauci" stealing his thunder anymore.

He's not an appointee, he's a civil servant with protected job. Trump can't fire Fauci without due process (though he could lean on HHS and NIH, but everyone involved would simply slow-walk it and run out the clock).

In any case he's guaranteed a job in the Biden administration so wgaf

Nerves are frayed:

USA Today: COVID-19 patient fatally beats hospital roommate with oxygen tank after he 'started to pray,' California authorities say

I've driven past Pfizer's campus in Puurs, Belgium, many times before and the only thing I knew about the company then was "haha, hardon pills for grampas" but this time there was this - even though it's exactly the same mutinational capitalist blablabla - this weird sense of "This Is Now An Important Place For Humanity"

nothing unimportant about hard-on pills for grandpas, might save humanity a war or two

hah! true.

is there a pill that stops an erection

i feel like teens would buy the shit out of that

yr average SSRI is pretty good for that

Hardoff from the makers of Boioioing

Rotterdam Termination Source?

yr average SSRI is pretty good for that

― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, December 26, 2020 11:05 AM bookmarkflaglink

Lol truth bomb.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/26/ten-reasons-we-got-covid-19-vaccines-so-quickly-without-cutting-corners

Reading that reminded me that this was on tv in 2018 (and repeated in March this year...) https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/17/contagion-bbc-four-pandemic-review
"Vaccines are useful when already stockpiled but they take four months to make – by which time humanity will be reduced to a few stragglers fighting over rusty tins of Spam."

Some new and very welcome news if true:

BREAKING—95%—new data from Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine shows 95% efficacy & is “100% effective” in preventing severe 🏥illness, says AZ CEO. That’s on par w/ Moderna & Pfizer. No official data yet, but UK 🇬🇧 said to likely approve in days. HUGE🧵. #COVID19
https://t.co/e4ra7GgmxG pic.twitter.com/YYn0MsORcy

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 27, 2020

4) Why is the Oxford #COVID19 vaccine so critical for the world?

—8-10x cheaper than Moderna/Pfizer

—Does **NOT** require any freezing! Only simple refrigeration.

—Is the #1 vaccine on order worldwide.

➡️Hence a cheap, easy to handle vaccine at 95% is huge!! pic.twitter.com/DZMMXaCWil

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 27, 2020

Great news!

I cannot trust information delivered with this many emojis

that guy is a clown

Yup

I can’t see the whole linked article but this is very strangely worded, and unless they conducted another trial since they announced the results of the first one they completely fucked up, I don’t think it’s saying the AZ vaccine has been proven to be “95% effective”. And you can ignore that guy’s interpretation. He’s covid Louise mensch.

Sorry this is very strangely worded:

Astra Zeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, today reveals that new data will show the vaccine is as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna jabs that have already been approved, protecting 95% of patients, and is “100% effective” in preventing severe illness requiring hospital treatment.

Thanks for the context, duly noted. The FT are now saying that the vaccine will be approved within days, so fuck knows, tbh?!

💥 Good news!

UK will approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine within days. Announcement could come from MHRA as soon as Tuesday, with vaccinations starting in the first week of January.

Latest with @SarahNev and @donatopmancinihttps://t.co/l3PyBP4pY8

— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) December 27, 2020

Oh sorry no. It will be approved. But the trial results are already known and they’re not 95%.

new data will show...

what new data? where from?

Ironically the true efficacy might actually be 95 rather than the “60-90 (but who knows really)” they reported. They messed up the trial very badly, probably badly enough that several countries will not approve it. The UK kind of has no choice though and it will probably be fine.

_new data will show..._

what new data? where from?

xps: Dr. Feigl-Ding is talking more out of urgency than expertise (his field is medical economics, IIRC), but he was spot-on that the coronavirus would be a global problem in mid-January, that masks were a critical element for reducing transmission in mid-February, and that airborne was the major means of transmission in March=April. When practicing infectious disease epidemiologists were wrong, he was earning credibility. I don't follow him as he spends most tweets repeating himself, but I'll pay attention when someone else retweets.

You’ll know if you get the vaccine from Oxford because it’ll tell you

— Billie (@_BillieBelieves) December 27, 2020

Highlighting how underreported coronavirus in Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Russia has been:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqQmZ9IXEAEGIKF?format=jpg

turns out an n95 with a valve is not ideal, but it's probably the next best thing to an n95 without a mask

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2021-107/default.html

These findings show that FFRs with an exhalation valve provide respiratory protection to the wearer and can also reduce particle emissions to levels similar to or better than those provided by surgical masks, procedure masks, or cloth face coverings.

you mean without a valve?

right. next best thing to an n95 without a valve.