A few days ago, Peter Hotez MD PhD, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also the Co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics, estimated that a stunning 250,000 U.S. COVID-19 deaths have been caused specifically due to people refusing to get vaccinated.

My own crude estimate: Vaccine refusal has likely killed 180K - 235K Americans to date

Documents outlining the possible impacts of Covid policy in schools released after legal victory for teaching union

Revealed: DfE assessment of Covid policy risks to school staff

Covid can shrink brain and damage its tissue, finds researchWorst effect on region linked to smell, while infected people typically scored lower on mental skills test

Covid can shrink brain and damage its tissue, finds research

Colin Angus, senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield’s school of health, also identifies BA.2 as the key factor. He told The BMJ, “The recent rise in covid-19 infections, which is being driven by the emergence of the more transmissible BA.2 variant of omicron, has led to increases in the number of people in hospitals in England with covid-19 in all age groups and across all regions of the country.”

Covid-19: Is the UK heading for another omicron wave?

The rapid rise in cases of Omicron BA.2 only underlines that airborne transmission is real and dominant. This is a respiratory infection! Yet @10DowningStreet continues to place staff and the public at risk. This is negligent. Why do it? @bmj_latest

News Covid-19: Updated PPE guidance puts NHS staff at risk of infection, say medics BMJ 2022; 376 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o733 (Published 18 March 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;376:o733 Article Related content Metrics Responses Peer review Matthew LimbAuthor affiliationsLondonNHS staff face unacceptable health risks as a result of “retrograde” changes to the government’s guidance on preventing spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection, doctors’ leaders have warned.The BMA said on 16 March it was concerned over updated guidance issued by the UK Health Security Agency covering use of personal protective equipment.1 It said the guidance failed to properly acknowledge that SARS-CoV-2 infection can spread in the air during the routine care of patients as they cough or sneeze and not just when specific processes known as aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) are being undertaken.

10.1136/bmj.o733

Covid-19: Updated PPE guidance puts NHS staff at risk of infection, say medics

7: This won’t be easy esp when you have an entire sector of the nation dug in and set to aggressively oppose measures to protect our nation. You saw what Fox News tried to do to me last week to squash and cancel my efforts to save human life. They will try this vs @SecBecerra

6: Each of these represents a clear threat to American homeland security. We need higher order strategies to address these issues which cut across multiple HHS agencies. Hence we need a strong and smart HHS Secretary to organize and prioritize

5: There is still no plan to combat antivaccine aggression that caused the needless loss of 200,000 unvaccinated Americans in the last half of 2021.

4: There is still no global strategy to vaccinate the world even though we already know the new variants of concern arise from large unvaccinated populations in low- and middle-income countries

3: Long term planning should include a thorough assessment of our national vaccine strategy. Right now we have a unidimensional strategy based on mRNA. Should we diversify as part of risk management around durability of protection or public acceptance? No one talking about this

2: Once we get through this omicron wave we’re likely still vulnerable to future waves of as yet unknown variants of concern. We need a planning strategy of how to manage a potential new variant in Texas and US Southern states this summer, or annual winter waves of Covid

1: BA.2 some evidence that it’s even more transmissible than the original omicron which is more transmissible than delta, and so forth. If it takes hold like it did in Denmark it will slow the descent of original omicron here

Here’s why this is important. The nation still has tough Covid challenges ahead, and we urgently need strong leadership across multiple HHS agencies. Will summarize some of them in the attached tweets…

The Ministry of Health's failure to accurately project its Covid testing capacity raises questions about whether other elements of our pandemic response are being sufficiently stress-tested, Sam Sachdeva writes It was a solemn-looking Dr Ashley Bloomfield who faced the media on Tuesday – and the reason for his demeanour quickly became evident. The director-general of health opened the relaunch of 1pm press conferences in the Omicron era with a startling admission: it was now clear the Ministry of Health had overestimated the number of Covid-19 PCR tests the country’s laboratories could process as the virus took off in the community. Bloomfield’s mea culpa was merely confirmation of what many already suspected, with widespread reports of long waits for results (some stretching past seven days) and health experts expressing concern about laboratories being pushed to breaking point.

Covid testing ‘overestimate’ is grounds for concern

On the Health & Veritas podcast, Yale physician-professors Howard Forman and Harlan Krumholz talk about the latest news and ideas in healthcare and seek out the truth amid the noise. In the latest episode, they talk with Dr. Akiko Iwasaki about her research trying to understand the cause or causes of long COVID, which has more than 200 reported symptoms.

Health & Veritas: Is Long COVID One Disease or Many? (Ep. 19)

I know this tweet is aimed at the US, but it would be great if the message about BA.2 would sink in in the UK too!

@LauraMiers @fascinatorfun @denise_dewald @yaneerbaryam @trishgreenhalgh @rkhamsi @Jul101Vie @hjelle_brian @itosettiMD_MBA @RadCentrism @gianlucac1 @fitterhappierAJ @GosiaGasperoPhD @FanCpixie @CyFi10 @firefoxx66 @Caerage @FLAHAULT @vincentglad @ArisKatzourakis @carlzimmer

The *psychiatric* wards are filling up! (Purple line) What the HELL ? Seriously now, what is going on in Denmark ? 5/5

The overall suspected cases are *exponential* 4/5

The hospitalization rates for *kids* are *vertical* 3/5

The hospitalization rates for babies are *extremely* high. 2/5

Ok Denmark’s new data is worrying now A thread with fresh data First, look at the reinfections. 1/5 Source: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/aa41b29149f24e20a4007a0c4e13db1d/page/page_3/the

Experts share their tips to discuss COVID-19 vaccines responsibly.

How to navigate COVID-19 vaccine misinformation with fellow parents

Interesting as Omicron BA2 wave started sooner than “We conclude that Omicron BA.2 is inherently substantially more transmissible than BA.1, and that it also possesses immune-evasive properties that further reduce the protective effect of vaccination against infection”

Ghouls BEFORE COVID: "Only 0.2% of cancer deaths occur in children! <0.003% will die of cancer! Only about 0.16% will even be diagnosed!! Cancer is mild for kids. And for those that die, most have other health problems. (Horrible reasoning, yes?)

Ok this is not looking good. Look at Brazil’s death curve following cases. This is not a good sign.

Using S-gene target positive as a proxy for BA.2, over the following week (17th to 24th), BA.2 doubled in proportion from 2.2% to 4.4%. As is often the case, London appears to be leading the way, with a proportion of 9.5%, whereas NE is the lowest at just 0.9%. 4/4

You can see BA.2 start to nibble away at BA.1's dominant position here in the bottom right hand corner. Note because of sequencing time, this cuts off around 10 days ago. 3/

Fortunately there's no evidence yet that BA.2 has a greater propensity for vaccine escape. Indeed, there's a possibility it's slightly less able in that regard, though not statistically robust yet. 2/

Some (very) early evidence that secondary attack rates of BA.2 are higher in household settings than those of its older sibling. From the latest Variant TB 35. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1050999/Technical-Briefing-35-28January2022.pdf… 1/

BA.2’s growth advantage over BA.1 is jarring. Meanwhile, we are operating under the assumption that “Omicron will end the pandemic.” Sigh.

arXiv:2111.06462

Many countries have secured larger quantities of COVID-19 vaccines than their populace is willing to take. This abundance and variety of vaccines created a historical moment to understand vaccine hesitancy better. Never before were more types of vaccines available for an illness and the intensity of vaccine-related public discourse is unprecedented. Yet, the heterogeneity of hesitancy by vaccine types has been neglected so far, even though factual or believed vaccine characteristics and patient attributes are known to influence acceptance. We address this problem by analysing acceptance and assessment of five vaccine types using information collected with a nationally representative survey at the end of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary, where a unique portfolio of vaccines were available to the public in large quantities. Our special case enables us to quantify revealed preferences across vaccine types since one could evaluate a vaccine unacceptable and even could reject an assigned vaccine to wait for another type. We find that the source of information that respondents trust characterizes their attitudes towards vaccine types differently and leads to divergent vaccine hesitancy. Believers of conspiracy theories were significantly more likely to evaluate the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) unacceptable while those who follow the advice of politicians evaluate vector-based (AstraZeneca and Sputnik) or whole-virus vaccines (Sinopharm) acceptable with higher likelihood. We illustrate that the rejection of non-desired and re-selection of preferred vaccines fragments the population by the mRNA versus other type of vaccines while it generally improves the assessment of the received vaccine. These results highlight that greater variance of available vaccine types and individual free choice are desirable conditions that can widen the acceptance of vaccines in societies.

Understanding hesitancy with revealed preferences across COVID-19 vaccine types

@STWorg @olbeun @lombardi_learn @kostas_exarhia @stefanmherzog @commscholar @johnfocook @Briony_Swire @Sander_vdLinden @DG_Rand @kendeou @dlholf @ProfSunitaSah @HendirkB @gordpennycook @andyguess @emmapsychology @ThomsonAngus @UMDCollegeofEd @gavaruzzi @katytapper @orspaca

Finally, both days will feature breakout discussions to focus on case studies and contribute to manifesto drafting. 6/6 Full schedule here:

Deepti Gurdasani will share insights from her experience as a science communicator on Twitter in the pandemic. And the panel will discuss how we can build and sustain systems---particularly online spaces---that can support the role of collective intelligence in Sci Comm 5/6

Day 2 with keynote Deepti Gurdasani followed by a panel with * Dr Joshua Becker, UCL * Dr Niccolo Pescetelli, New Jersey Inst. of Techn. * Dr Aleks Berditchevskaia, NESTA * Dr Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Max Planck Institute Human Development * Prof Sune Lehmann, Uni. of Copenhagen

Kai Spiekermann will speak the need for science communication and how it supports the pivotal role of knowledge in a functioning democracy. The panel will focus on what collective intelligence has to offer. 3/6

Day 1 with key note Kai Spiekermann followed by a panel with * Arend Kuester, Springer Nature * Dr Geoffrey Supran, Harvard University * Prof Timothy Caulfield, University of Alberta * Dr Kai Kupferschmidt, Science Magazine * Prof Cecília Tomori, John Hopkins University 2/6

Join us this week at our 2021 SciBeh Workshop on the topic of "Science Communication as Collective Intelligence"! Nov. 18/19 with a schedule that allows any time zone to take part in at least some of the workshop. Includes: keynotes, panels, and breakout manifesto writing 1/6

The new Durham policy on face coverings is at: https://dur.ac.uk/resources/coronavirus/Facecoveringpolicy.pdf… It brings to 21 the number of UK universities making face coverings mandatory in all teaching spaces, based on announcements we have found: https://tinyurl.com/maskpoliciesUKunis

This is *100X* the *yearly* U.S. death toll from measles *before* we crushed it with vaccines.

#DailyCovidUpdate | Age Distribution of English ADULT Vaccination Uptake [15th October 2021] The full live dataset can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1klICUxemLzoQ5Hbe1fRQdyzbIW1c3-s5b2I1jkv4R_E/preview

#DailyCovidUpdate | Age Distribution of English Deaths [15th October 2021] [n=63] [Latest Data: Oct 10th] 0-9: 0% (0) 10-19: 0% (0) 20-29: 0% (0) 30-39: 0% (0) 40-49: 4.76% (3) 50-59: 7.94% (5) 60-69: 11.11% (7) 70-79: 28.57% (18) 80-89: 30.16% (19) 90+: 17.46% (11)

#DailyCovidUpdate | Age Distribution of English Cases [15-10-21] n=36,906 0-9: 11.75% (4338) 10-19: 33.98% (12542) 20-29: 6.39% (2358) 30-39: 10.53% (3887) 40-49: 15.60% (5756) 50-59: 10.86% (4009) 60-69: 5.84% (2157) 70-79: 3.65% (1348) 80-89: 1.09% (402) 90+: 0.30% (109)

#DailyCovidUpdate | Vaccines [15th October 2021] 43,489 first and 27,991 second doses were administered yesterday. On average, 33,346 first and 27,149 second doses are being administered per day. Total First Doses: 49,335,154 [73.55%] Total Second Doses: 45,297,231 [67.53%]

#DailyCovidUpdate | Cases by Specimen [15th October 2021] 44,932 positive cases were reported today. The 7-day average is 36,573.00 Orange bars denote the dates on which the new cases were tested. December 29th is the peak overall at 81,478 cases.

#DailyCovidUpdate | Deaths by Date of Occurrence [15th October 2021] 145 deaths were reported today within a 28-day cutoff. The 7-day average is 102.71 Orange bars denote the dates on which the new deaths occurred. January 19th is the peak overall at 1,359 deaths.

#DailyCovidUpdate | Admissions by Nation [15 Oct 2021] [Latest Data: Oct 11th] On Oct 11th, there was a total of 827 admissions, compared to 793 a week previous. 685 were from England (627) 73 were from Scotland (120) 32 were from N. Ireland (26) 37 were from Wales (20)

UK #DailyCovidUpdate | 15th October 2021 - Cases: 8,361,651 (+44,932) - Average Cases: 40,148.86 - Deaths (28-day): 138,379 (+145) - Deaths (60-day): 158,320 (+167) - Average Deaths: 116.86 - Vaccine [1st dose]: 49,335,154 (+43,489) - Vaccine [2nd dose]: 45,297,231 (+27,991)

And here

I discussed the preprint here

Important paper on COVID vaccine protection against Delta variant. And natural immunity. And hybrid immunity. Extensive and well designed.

Scotland has now had over 600,000 confirmed cases of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, which equates to about 11% of the total population.

@dgurdasani1 @SpiekermannKai @kakape @CaulfieldTim @joshua_a_becker @suneman @DrTomori @GeoffreySupran @philipplenz6 @nesta_uk

@STWorg @olbeun @lombardi_learn @kostas_exarhia @stefanmherzog @commscholar @johnfocook @Briony_Swire @Sander_vdLinden @DG_Rand @kendeou @dlholf @ProfSunitaSah @HendirkB @gordpennycook @andyguess @emmapsychology @ThomsonAngus @UMDCollegeofEd @gavaruzzi @katytapper @orspaca

Finally, both days will feature breakout discussions to focus on case studies and contribute to manifesto drafting. 6/6 Full schedule here:

Deepti Gurdasani will share insights from her experience as a science communicator on Twitter in the pandemic. And the panel will discuss how we can build and sustain systems---particularly online spaces---that can support the role of collective intelligence in Sci Comm

Day 2 with keynote Deepti Gurdasani followed by a panel with * Dr Joshua Becker, UCL * Dr Niccolo Pescetelli, New Jersey Inst. of Techn. * Dr Aleks Berditchevskaia, NESTA * Dr Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Max Planck Institute Human Development * Prof Sune Lehmann, Uni. of Copenhagen

Kai Spiekermann will speak the need for science communication and how it supports the pivotal role of knowledge in a functioning democracy. The panel will focus on what collective intelligence has to offer.

Day 1 with key note Kai Spiekermann followed by a panel with * Arend Kuester, Springer Nature * Dr Geoffrey Supran, Harvard University * Prof Timothy Caulfield, University of Alberta * Dr Kai Kupferschmidt, Science Magazine * Prof Cecília Tomori, John Hopkins University

Join us this week at our 2021 SciBeh Workshop on the topic of "Science Communication as Collective Intelligence"! Nov. 18/19 with a schedule that allows any time zone to take part in at least some of the workshop. Includes: keynotes, panels, and breakout manifesto writing 1/6

An update on currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants in England beyond AY.4.2. Based on data released weekly to http://covid19.sanger.ac.uk we've been monitoring the speed of spread of currently 232 lineages. It's a very dynamic situation and at times hard to stay on top.

I don’t think the metascience movement is doing well enough to avoid movement risks. Although many scrupulously practice what they preach, day in, day out – there are so many great exemplars – I see the opposite far too often. For example, people who relentlessly excoriate others for uncorrected errors, while not ensuring correction notices are issued on their own papers.

The Metascience Movement Needs to be More Self-Critical

astute observation: a scene not featured in Hollywood pandemic movies is that the pandemic continues but somehow nobody is interested any more

A MUM has warned children are being too "blasé" about the Covid jab after her 15-year-old daughter died on the day she was due to be vaccinated.

MUM'S WARNING Schoolgirl, 15, dies of Covid on day she was due to be vaccinated as heartbroken mum issues warning to ‘blasé’ children

Multiple issues with @scotgov assessment of vaccine passports. 1. No evidence that passports will decrease cases at venues (just an infographic!). This is a complex modelling issue that must also account for waning immunity and possibility of more unvaxxed in other settings

The spread of misinformation on social media and through other channels can affect COVID-19 vaccine confidence. Misinformation often arises when there are information gaps or unsettled science, as human nature seeks to reason, better understand, and fill in the gaps.

How to Address COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

Positief getest: 7.301 Totaal: 2.100.866 (+7.260 ivm -41 corr.) Perc. positief 19 okt - 25 okt: 15,7% Opgenomen: 113 Huidig: 659 (+2) Opgenomen op IC: 21 Huidig: 200 (+8) Overleden: 17 Totaal: 18.357Translated from Dutch by #COVID19NL Tested Positive: 7.301 Total: 2,100,866 (+7,260 due to -41 corr.) perc. positive Oct 19 - Oct 25: 15.7% Recorded: 113 Current: 659 (+2) Recorded on IC: 21 Current: 200 (+8)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a report based on an analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 that occurred between 2 January and 2 July 2021 in England, by vaccination status.

Measuring vaccine efficacy from population data

New paper on 10,024 breakthrough infections shows that vaccination does not prevent #LongCovid.

Another explainer for anyone interested in mortality analysis and how stats can be highly misleading. TLDR - The claim that you're more likely to die of any cause after vaccinated is flawed. It is slightly complex to explain but I will try my best. 1/13

Another explainer for anyone interested in mortality analysis and how stats can be highly misleading. TLDR - The claim that you're more likely to die of any cause after vaccinated is flawed. It is slightly complex to explain but I will try my best. 1/13

China (pop. 1.4 billion) is still pursuing a zero covid strategy, which means 20% of the world's population still officially lives under such a strategy https://nytimes.com/2021/10/27/world/asia/china-zero-covid-virus.html… (not endorsing strategy here, just pointing out that "return of Elvis" maybe warped comparison?)

Perverse academic incentives that reward researchers primarily for publishing papers in high-impact journals have long pushed entire fields toward sloppy, irreproducible work; during the pandemic, scientists have flooded the literature with similarly half-baked and misleading research. Pundits have urged people to “listen to the science,” as if “the science” is a tome of facts and not an amorphous, dynamic entity, born from the collective minds of thousands of individual people who argue and disagree about data that can be interpreted in a range of ways.

What Even Counts as Science Writing Anymore?

10.1177/01410768211043186

Our results indicate that for the first post-pandemic interval evaluated (i.e., March 2020 - February 2021), suicide rates in Canada decreased against a background of extraordinary public health measures intended to mitigate community spread of COVID-19. An externality of public health measures was a significant rise in national unemployment rates in population measures of distress. Our results suggest that government interventions that broadly aim to reduce measures of insecurity (i.e., economic, housing, health), and timely psychiatric services, should be prioritised as part of a national suicide reduction strategy, not only during but after termination of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suicide reduction in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons informing national prevention strategies for suicide reduction

7/n so I don't think "we don't want coercive measures" can simultaneously feature as a premise/reason in that argument.

6/n and passports are *inherently* coercive (by design). So that setting against these data the argument "we don't want coercive measures"(your second reply) seems question begging to me. We are *evaluating* whether or not the coercive measure of vaccine passports is justified.

5/n moreover, that "event" is explicitly *designed* to promote this response (at least in part), as is clear in all of the write ups I just listed

4/n You had two replies: 1. inferring causation from correlation. I'm a behavioural scientist, so couldn't agree more. But these are *massive spikes* after same event across multiple, distinct populations. I'm comfortable with that evidence Replying to @SciBeh and @alexdefig

3/n Alberta, Canada (to fight COVID surge collapsing health care system) https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/covid-19-main-september-17… same policies, nice graph: https://tvo.org/article/heres-ontarios-latest-vaccine-and-vaccine-passport-update-september-14… British Columbia, Canada https://globalnews.ca/news/8141626/bc-vaccine-passport-bookings/… Ontario, Canada

2/n here some data: Increased vaccine uptake after vaccine passport: France https://newstatesman.com/international-content/2021/08/why-emmanuel-macrons-vaccine-passport-scheme-worked… https://cp24.com/news/are-vaccine-passports-moving-the-needle-on-getting-people-inoculated-1.5535875?cache=%3FclipId%3D89750%3FclipId%3D263414… Italy https://forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/07/27/explosion-in-vaccinations-and-protests-follow-health-pass-announcements-as-europe-cracks-down-on-vaccine-holdouts/?sh=669cc59b136b… Netherlands

To clarify: you posted arguments against introducing vaccine passports. One was that there is a survey suggesting passports might decrease vaccine intention. I suggested that one needs to set against that the finding that vaccine uptake increased (often dramatically) 1/n

Unless something really changes, US could hit a million total COVID deaths in next 6 months...

The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be safe and highly effective in young children ages 5 to 11 years, the companies announced early Monday morning. The news should help ease months of anxiety among parents and teachers about when children, and their close contacts, might be shielded from the coronavirus.

Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective in younger children ages 5 to 11

Antiviral drugs are among the most researched tools for treating covid-19. They either prevent a virus entering a host cell or prevent it from being able to replicate once it is inside.And yet, over 18 months into the pandemic, finding ones that are effective against SARS-CoV-2 has proved challenging.

The search for antivirals for covid-19

pandemics: where everyone’s actions only affect themselves & their family and never anyone else

As the Covid pandemic continues, experts are divided over the potential risks and benefits of masks for preschoolers.

Do Masks Hurt Speech Development? It Depends on the Child.

@HPRU_BSE @JoshCompton2011 @WlliamCrozierIV @SeifertColleen @d_j_flynn @M_B_Petersen @tinaeliassi @UlliEcker @BrendanNyhan @JaneSuit @DanLarhammar @mariabaghramian @PieroBianucci @a_b_powell @ProfDFreeman @andrew_chadwick @ipanalysis @SineadPLambe @SJVanders @mariejuanchich 6/6

@julieleask @profrapp @roozenbot @PhilippMSchmid @GaleSinatra @emilythorson @ekvraga @LeticiaBode @lkfazio @JasonReifler @philipplenz6 @jayvanbavel @AndyPerfors @MicahGoldwater @M_B_Petersen @Karen_Douglas @CorneliaBetsch @ira_hyman @lingtax @annaklas_ @DerynStrange @adamhfinn 5

@olbeun @SciBeh @lombardi_learn @kostas_exarhia @stefanmherzog @commscholar @johnfocook @Briony_Swire @Sander_vdLinden @DG_Rand @kendeou @dlholf @ProfSunitaSah @HendirkB @gordpennycook @andyguess @emmapsychology @ThomsonAngus @UMDCollegeofEd @gavaruzzi @katytapper @orspaca 4/n

The latest on public attitudes now at https://c19vax.scibeh.org/pages/publicattitudes… More facts about COVID https://c19vax.scibeh.org/pages/covidfacts… And information about healthcare professionals vis-a-vis COVID: https://c19vax.scibeh.org/pages/healthpros… 3/n

The latest on vaccine mandates on our page at https://c19vax.scibeh.org/pages/vaxmandates… Updates to the issue of risk perception at https://c19vax.scibeh.org/pages/riskperception… 2/n

Major update to the wiki underlying our COVID-19 Vaccination Communication Handbook https://sks.to/c19vax 1/n

Aug 18 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) said it removed over three dozen pages spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, after the White House called on social media firms to tighten controls on pandemic-related facts shared on their platforms.

Facebook removes dozens of vaccine misinformation 'superspreaders'

There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with COVID-19. Ivermectin is often used in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals.  The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.

Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19

correction to the original model slide (didn't want to break the tweet string) - model includes 2-3 children starting off the school year with COVID as well. And then one child brings a new case to school every week.

You can go to the site and download a PDF of the slides Without mitigation, they predict 80% of elementary students will be infected within 2 months, with most cases within span of 30 days. Historically during the pandemic, 1% of symptomatic children are hospitalized.....

Denise Dewald, MD @denise_dewald·Aug 12COVSIM School Policy Video 2 (5min): here they show how different interventions change the course of school outbreaks. https://youtu.be/vn0zbCVvkSE via @YouTube

COVSIM School Policy Video 1: explains their model - one child introduces COVID to the school of 500 children weekly https://youtu.be/RPadviO-CPY via @YouTube

"Masks and testing, when used in combination, can prevent 80% of new infections." -- at least with the older variants; I am not sure this is true for delta. We need the data to make this assertion.

"Our modeling found that without masks or regular testing, up to 90% of susceptible students may become infected by the end of the semester."

Here are some modeling predictions for the delta variant from COVSIM (group at North Carolina State): PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT - RESOURCES TO SHARE WITH YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT School-level COVID-19 Modeling Results for North Carolina for #DeltaVariant

C.D.C. Recommends Covid Vaccines During Pregnancy “Only 23% of pregnant women have received even 1 dose of Covid vaccine in the US, and, in recent weeks, physicians have reported seeing more pregnant patients becoming infected, C.D.C. officials said”