https://t.co/vCoETA8CPn
Breaking—UK scientists just reported a case-control study that the mutated UK 🇬🇧B.1.1.7 variant is not associated w/ more severe #COVID19— “found no significant differences in hospital admissions and case fatality at 28 days, & occurrence of reinfections”, says @mvankerkhove
https://t.co/vCoETA8CPn
All things equal, a new mutated variant that is more contagious & no more severe is worse. And that is what we now have. https://t.co/F39PjnaiPu
Why a SARS-CoV-2 variant that's 50% more transmissible would in general be a much bigger problem than a variant that's 50% more deadly. A short thread... 1/
— Adam Kucharski (@AdamJKucharski) December 28, 2020
More from Eric Feigl-Ding
2) Now, the Oregon Health Authority says that at least 74 people associated with the church have tested positive for the coronavirus — one of the state’s largest workplace outbreaks.
3) “In a statement, the church’s leaders attributed the outbreak to a recent rise in covid-19 cases in Marion County, Ore.
Murray said the church, which has held in-person services throughout the pandemic, intends to continue with in-person ceremonies on Sunday.
4) Who saw this coming? Countless scientists. If only airborne-denialists didn’t muzzle the airborne aerosols science.
\u26a0\ufe0fAIRBORNE >6 FEET / 2 METERS! The CDC finally acknowledged #SARSCoV2 has major transmission via airborne aerosols beyond 6 feet / 2 meters, not just close contact. The CDC/WHO & airborne deniers are a year late\u2014and negligently endangered many. #COVID19 \U0001f9f5https://t.co/1YMqDGbD0v pic.twitter.com/DUm5FA3V90
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 8, 2021

2) The leading hypothesis is that the new variant evolved within just one person, chronically infected with the virus for so long it was able to evolve into a new, more infectious form.
same thing happened in Boston in another immunocompromised person that was sick for 155 days.
3) What happened in Boston with one 45 year old man who was highly infectious for 155 days straight before he died... is exactly what scientists think happened in Kent, England that gave rise to #B117.
Immunocompromised 45 year old suffered from #COVID19 for 155 days before he died. The virus was changing very quickly inside the man's body\u2014it acquired a big cluster of >20 mutations\u2014resembled the same ones seen in #B117 & #B1351. (NPR audio Part 1 of 2)\U0001f9f5https://t.co/7kWiBZ1xGk pic.twitter.com/ZJ7AExB78Y
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 8, 2021
4) Doctors were shocked to find virus has evolved many different forms inside of this one immunocompromised man. 20 new mutations in one virus, akin to the #B117. This is possibly how #B1351 in South Africa 🇿🇦 and #P1 in Brazil 🇧🇷 also evolved.
2) NPR report audio part 2 of 2:
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 8, 2021
Dr. Li couldn't believe what they found. "I was shocked," he says. "When I saw the virus sequences, I knew that we were dealing with something completely different and potentially very important." pic.twitter.com/HT3Yt6djFd
5) “On its own, the appearance of a new variant in genomic databases doesn’t tell us much. “That’s just one genome amongst thousands every week. It wouldn’t necessarily stick out,” says Oliver Pybus, a professor of evolution and infectious disease at Oxford.

2) Here is what is really going to happen... most countries are having a gentle case decline with R(e) currently around 0.9. But this is deceiving. The #B117 is still relatively rare so far, so the R is being influenced mostly by the old common variant. But not for long...

3) Here is what is going to happen... currently R is ~0.9 in many places, but with the more infectious #B117, the R will jump 50% approximately. And it is inevitable (all CDC and Danish models say this) that B117 will take over as the reigning dominant variant soon...

4) and when that happens, what worked before to keep the pandemic contained at R of 0.9 will no longer work. Here is the model for Alberta, 🇨🇦 by @GosiaGasperoPhD. The B117 dotted red line will soon dominate and drive a new surge in latter half of March and April.

5) And Denmark 🇩🇰 CDC has found the same thing. I GQR works now for keeping R around 0.9 or even 0.8, will absolutely not work anymore once #B117 variant takes over. Forget about it. We will be hit hard. But there is a way—if we suppress R to 0.7 or less.
https://t.co/gOq0put4H5

HHS @SecBecerra has tested positive for COVID-19 again, the agency just announced. Last time he tested positive was May 18, after attending the G-7 Summit.
— Ariel Cohen (@ArielCohen37) June 13, 2022
2) #BA5 and #BA4 are worrisome. They are surging and they have high reinfection potential. Your past BA1/BA2 doesn’t substantially protect you from #Ba5/4
\U0001f4c8Surging #BA5 & #BA4 variants in both US & England. It\u2019s looking like #Ba5 is the new fastest strain\u2014which has ~10x increased in England in 1 month. Also notice that older #Omicron #B11529/#BA1 are already near *extinct*. I worry the \u201cnew\u201d Omicron BA1 bivalent vaccine is behind. pic.twitter.com/kLNH0gzPk3
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) June 9, 2022
3) Excess deaths—the new #BA4 & #BA5 variants of the coronavirus are currently the **fastest growing** strains in the US & UK. ➡️They are exponentially replacing all other past strains. Learn from South Africa’s early warning signs and their excess deaths. #CovidIsNotOver #COVID
To anyone pointing to South Africa to suggest the impact of the omicron wave has been 'mild' or that the BA.4/5 haven't had much impact, I'd urge you to look at excess deaths. 29,500 excess deaths since Jan (omicron wave) & a peak of 1,844 excess deaths/wk during BA.4/5 wave.\U0001f9f5 pic.twitter.com/r7kLzmD5dG
— Dr. Deepti Gurdasani (@dgurdasani1) June 11, 2022
4) Is it a Paxlovid rebound for Becerra, as some are asking? Unclear—Paxlovid rebound usually only happens at day 10-14 that we know of and have data. The FDA says it’s 1-2% rebound but I counted 12% from this Pfizer graph submitted to FDA.
4) Look at these 97 Paxlovid patients here with viral RNA load data over time. Of 97, i conservatively counted at least 12 of 97 (12%) with viral load rebound after day 10. Even more if you count rebound after day 5. Thus, FDA\u2019s 1-2% doesn\u2019t match up here. https://t.co/bNoqj5W3Sk pic.twitter.com/B3Kh0Lc1A4
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 5, 2022
5) and yes, #ba5 / #BA4 are very problematic. they are 2x more resistant than even BA2 for neutralizing the virus compared to those who had breakthrough reinfections from older Omicron.
Unfortunately neutralization experiments found that BA.4/5 is 2x more resistant than BA.2 to the blood obtained from vaccinated individuals who had a breakthrough infection with BA.1 or BA.2. 4/ pic.twitter.com/MEOPXuqTgg
— Dr. Jeff Gilchrist (@jeffgilchrist) June 13, 2022
More from Covid
The Israeli estimate of relatively high immune escape from Delta that a lot of you were freaking out about now looks like it was the result of sloppy statistical analysis. https://t.co/F5sHsJDFF1
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 28, 2021
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On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙

He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.
On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq

"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."
Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.