Haley Dugan

@theistinthought @westerninfidel Some Asian cultures have always practiced mask wearing when sick, and it always seemed obvious to me that it would be effective. Maybe they haven’t been used in the past during flu season in the US due to availability of vaccines and therapies.

@theistinthought @westerninfidel That I don’t know. I imagine they hadn’t anticipated the magnitude of COVID infections and wanted to prioritize masking for the healthcare community and symptomatic. We learned later on how transmissible asymptomatic cases were.

How come the flu never had ‘variants?’

@theistinthought @westerninfidel Because it’s likely far less contagious and spreads via respiratory droplets so mask wearing was highly effective for preventing it

@hey_dugan @westerninfidel Okay, interesting. But why has the flu rate dropped so crazily over the past year?

@theistinthought @westerninfidel It’s the same exact concept. COVID actually evolves and mutates slower than flu, but the variants are a bigger concern because 1) we don’t have sufficient herd immunity and 2) they’re proving to be more transmissible/severe

@hey_dugan @westerninfidel Not sure that's what Fauci means with regard to the COVID.

@theistinthought @jolly_raptor Since flu has been widely in circulation for over a century, even when novel flu variants arise the population still has a good amount of preexisting immunity to parts of the virus that haven’t changed. We didn’t have this leg up with COVID-19.

@jolly_raptor But no lockdowns? Seems different in nature.

@westerninfidel @theistinthought The flu has different types (Flu A vs Flu B), subtypes (H3N2 and H1N1, for example) and strains circulating within those subtypes. The strains are dominant seasonal variants isolated in various regions. So yeah, you could say the strains are variants.

@theistinthought It has different strains, is that the same thing or no?

@Stamperion @DoctorAKP Enjoy freedom!!!! Well deserved

After turning in all my lab keys and my Chicago apartment keys, its appropriate the only thing left on my key ring is a Swedish flag from @DoctorAKP. On to the next chapter in July, it has been an amazing ~7 years Chicago.

Some nice work coming out of my PhD lab!

Apparently, there are more ways of naming variants of concern than there are variants of concern. Excellent.

@wanderer_jasnah T cell assays more complex, require specialised equipment & > expensive (peptides etc) than serological assays. Also logistically more complicated as you need larger blood volumes. Defo agree people largely ignore their role - seems to be all about NAb 😭 #tcellsneedlovetoo

@margaritaevna95 How often do you ask people their political affiliation at soup kitchens? I guess retired church goers must all be Republicans. Makes sense.

@PaulBieniasz I’m in COVID research, and I definitely think we as scientists could do a much better job at communicating science to the general public. The disconnect between researchers and clinicians and the public is pretty sad

As you watch debates about SARS-CoV-2 origins, transmission, vaccines, variants, immunity play out online, and on TV, recognize that ~90% of journalists/pundits/tweeters are attention-seeking know-nothings, bullshitting. The behind-the-scenes serious work, you rarely hear about.

UChicago statistics on vaccination - nice to see our campus following the science!

”Iwasaki’s team will collect blood and saliva samples before and after vaccination and look at participants immune responses. That could tell researchers what’s driving long COVID, and even suggest therapies likely to treat it”⁦@VirusesImmunity⁩ hhmi.org/news/long-covi…

Anti-intellectualism is associated with lower levels of COVID-19 concern, risk perception, social distancing compliance, and higher levels of misperceptions about COVID-19, according to an article published in @NatureHumBehav. go.nature.com/3fcRKKO

Congratulations @TheBcellArtist! nytimes.com/2021/05/26/hea…

“People who were infected and get vaccinated really have a terrific response, a terrific set of antibodies, because they continue to evolve their antibodies,” Dr. Nussenzweig said. “I expect that they will last for a long time.”

India recorded the largest daily death toll for any country last week — a figure that is likely an undercount. Our estimates show that even in even the most conservative of scenarios, estimated Covid infections and deaths far exceed official figures. nyti.ms/3oNBIKy

A paper in @Nature reports the persistent production of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in the form of long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in patients for up to 8 months after infection. go.nature.com/349wCyO