Jim also traces this political sidelining of science & evidence-based assessment to the following tweet from the 17th, which presages DfE's "enough of experts" approach. 3/3

...in which he notes that the Telegraph published a piece on the 22nd by Universities Minister @michelledonelan in which she riffs on the updated HE guidance which was published on the 20th. 2/3

Googling "Risk assessments should never be used to prevent providers delivering the full programme of face-to-face teaching and learning that they were providing before the pandemic" reveals that @jim_dickinson posted a piece on this on the 22nd... 1/3

These one-hour webinars, held Saturdays at 3 p.m. ET, focus on timely issues of relevance to clinicians and feature case presentations by experts in the field, synthesis of new data, and an opportunity to engage with colleagues. Register for next week here.

CDC/IDSA COVID-19 Clinician Call: Vaccine Boosters

When you search "Covid-19" on Amazon, the number 1 product is from known antivaxxer Dr. Mercola. 4 out of the top 8 items are either vaccine opposed/linked to conspiratorial narratives about covid. Amazon continues to be a venue for vaccine misinformation.

The number of people dying after both vaccines is rising, says Boris Johnson The number of people dying after both vaccines is bound to be high because so many are vaccinated says Vallence Seriously?

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 5/612

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

Summary What is already known about this topic? Ventilation systems can be supplemented with portable high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) cleaners to reduce the number of airborne infectious particles. What is added by this report? A simulated infected meeting participant who was exhaling aerosols was placed in a room with two simulated uninfected participants and a simulated uninfected speaker. Using two HEPA air cleaners close to the aerosol source reduced the aerosol exposure of the uninfected participants and speaker by up to 65%. A combination of HEPA air cleaners and universal masking reduced exposure by up to 90%. What are the implications for public health practice? Portable HEPA air cleaners can reduce exposure to simulated SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in indoor environments, especially when combined with universal masking.

Efficacy of Portable Air Cleaners and Masking for Reducing Indoor Exposure to Simulated Exhaled SARS-CoV-2 Aerosols — United States, 2021

South Africa's health minister says, based on a small sample of Omicron cases, the majority of hospital patients are unvaccinated: "It indicates that the vaccines are providing protection"

Over 132,000 patients currently on US wards with Covid; Swedish measures include work from home mandate

Record numbers admitted to US hospitals with coronavirus; Sweden to introduce stricter curbs – as it happened

Canada gave us kindness, tolerance, poutine and hockey, and in turn we exported this awful fake health freedom movement linked to far right extremism that caused so much senseless loss of life in America , and now might do the same there. Our apologies

Variant lacks feature that allows probable cases to be distinguished among positive PCR tests

Scientists find ‘stealth’ version of Omicron that may be harder to track

Was the risk of death among the population of teachers and other school workers in England and Wales due to COVID-19 and all causes higher than other occupations during the pandemic in 2020? An ecological study using routinely collected data on deaths from the Office for National Statistics

AbstractObjectives To estimate occupation risk from COVID-19 among teachers and others working in schools using publicly available data on mortality in England and Wales.Design Analysis of national death registration data from the Office for National Statistics.Setting England and Wales, 8 March–28 December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.Participants The total working age population in England and Wales plus those still working aged over 65 years.Primary and secondary outcomes Death with COVID-19 as a primary outcome and death from all causes as a secondary outcome.Results Across occupational groups, there was a strong correlation between COVID-19 mortality and both non-COVID-19 and all-cause mortality. The absolute mortality rates for deaths with COVID-19 were low among those working in schools (from 10 per 100 000 in female primary school teachers to 39 per 100 000 male secondary school teachers) relative to many other occupations (range: 9–50 per 100 000 in women; 10–143 per 100 000 in men). There was weak evidence that secondary school teachers had slightly higher risks of dying with COVID-19 compared with the average for all working-aged people, but stronger evidence of a higher risk compared with the average for all professionals; primary school teachers had a lower risk. All-cause mortality was also higher among all teachers compared with all professionals. Teaching and lunchtime assistants were not at higher risk of death from COVID-19 compared with all working-aged people.Conclusion There was weak evidence that COVID-19 mortality risk for secondary school teachers was above expectation, but in general school staff had COVID-19 mortality risks which were proportionate to their non-COVID-19 mortality risk.

Primary and secondary school staff were not at greater risk of death from COVID-19 in 2020 compared to other professions in England and Wales, new research has found. The study, by researchers at the University of Bristol, analysed data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) national death register for school staff and working adults aged between 20- to 64-years-old.

School staff not at higher risk of death from COVID-19 than other occupations, study finds

10.1038/d41586-021-03552-w

Researchers are racing to determine whether a fast-spreading coronavirus variant poses a threat to COVID vaccines’ effectiveness.

Heavily mutated Omicron variant puts scientists on alert

At this point, focus of genomic surveillance should be to identify sub-lineages of Delta bearing mutations that contribute to further transmissibility or to antigenic drift. So far, there is little signal here, but I expect such sub-lineages to emerge in the coming months. 9/9

A couple broader thoughts here: 1. I still expect Delta to sweep through the global virus population. 2. Mu's estimated transmission advantage suggests that it would have spread widely had Delta not interfered 8/9

Model results by @ftzo et al (https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.07.21263228v1…) show a similar pattern with Mu viruses assigned a higher fitness than non-Delta variants (https://nextstrain.org/ncov/gisaid/global?branches=hide&l=scatter&scatterX=mutational_fitness&scatterY=clade_membership…). 7/9

Here, each point is an estimate for a particular state analyzed independently, so that consistency of these estimates across states gives some degree of confidence in the results. 6/9

However, Rt of Delta is substantially greater than that of Mu and if we estimate variant-specific transmission advantage relative to ancestral non-variant viruses we see that Delta > Mu > other variant viruses. 5/9

A more rigorous analysis of variant-specific Rt by @marlinfiggins that partitions @CDCgov case counts across states in the US by sequencing data from @GISAID shows that Mu was maintaining Rt > 1 in most states in July 2021 when Alpha, Beta and Gamma had dropped below 1. 4/9

In neighboring Ecuador, we see a heterogeneous mix of Alpha, Gamma, Iota, Lambda and Mu by June 2021. Delta has been successfully displacing most of this diversity since July 2021, while Mu has remained relatively stable (https://nextstrain.org/ncov/gisaid/south-america?f_country=Ecuador&r=division…). 3/9

If we look within Colombia, we see Mu becoming predominant around May 2021, outcompeting other endogenous South American variants Gamma and Lambda. However, recent sequencing suggests that Delta is successfully invading on this Mu background (https://nextstrain.org/ncov/gisaid/south-america?f_country=Colombia&r=division…). 2/9

I realize this is rather late to the party, but I wanted to provide a look at the prospects of Mu variant virus. I believe we can conclude that Mu appears more transmissible than all circulating variants except for Delta, but Delta is substantially fitter than Mu. 1/9

Table of contentsDevelopment Scientific evaluation and approvalMonitoring vaccine safety and use in real life The European Medicines Agency (EMA) plays an important role in enabling the development, scientific evaluation, approval and monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines in the European Union (EU). Vaccines for COVID-19 are being developed, evaluated and approved according to current regulatory guidelines and legal requirements.

COVID-19 vaccines: development, evaluation, approval and monitoring

64.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.{"value":11256708780,"formattedValue":"11.26 billion doses","template":"%value","year":799,"unit":"","entityName":"World"}11.26 billion doses have been administered globally, and {"value":17982955,"formattedValue":"17.98 million","template":"%value","year":799,"unit":"","entityName":"World"}17.98 million are now administered each day. Only {"value":14.5,"formattedValue":"14.5%","template":"%value","year":796,"unit":"","entityName":"Low income"}14.5% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations

Letter to parents sent to me by a friend today …

The shots are safe and effective. But one high-profile case immediately set off a far-right feeding frenzy.

Anti-Vaxxers Are Already Trying to Weaponize Powell’s Death

04:19 Tegnell: 'And we do believe that part of the reason why the epidemic is slowing down here is that ... considerable part of the population is now immune, we believe.' https://youtu.be/TmuoHEtJmYA?t=246…

Tegnell, May '20 to Brazil (absolutely not the only time Sweden claimed Swedish children hadn't caught covid): 200 cases under 20. Tegnell, Jan '21, Sweden: In spring, we didn't test any children. Swedish Public Health Agency, Oct '21: 40% of Swedish children have had covid.

Tegnell states there have been very few cases among children and no spread in schools, but he leaves out they weren't testing children. They were only testing people admitted to hospital for covid. https://youtu.be/TmuoHEtJmYA?t=808…

Tegnell (10:27): 'Healthcare services have kept on functioning at a very good level. There has always been empty beds. Nobody has ever been denied treatment in any way. Everybody has received the same level of treatment they would normally do.' Not true.

7 May 2020, Brazil. Tegnell marketing Sweden's approach in his second Brazil webinar: No one has been denied care, no sick children, no re-infections, better situation than in Copenhagen & NYC that have lockdowns, no need for masks or quarantines.

Here is my earlier thread about the first webinar to Brazil: https://twitter.com/VirpiFlyg/status/1357743627930329094… There was also another Sweden-Brazil exchange webinar in May. I get to that one soon.

Swedish ambassador Johanna Brismar Skoog explains why Sweden doesn't close schools: - Based on the scientific evidence the Swedish authorities look at, children are not big contributors to the spread. They hardly get it at all themselves and they're not spreading it on.

(24:07) Anders Tegnell claims 20-30% of people in Stockholm are now (in April) immune. Next month, a study showed that 7.3% of Stockholmers had antibodies at the end of April. Tegnell commented that now in May it's above 20%. https://theguardian.com/world/2020/may/21/just-7-per-cent-of-stockholm-had-covid-19-antibodies-by-end-of-april-study-sweden-coronavirus…

Tegnell (10:12): We believe in Sweden that this disease is here to stay. ... That's very much the background to what we're doing in Sweden. We're not really thinking that we ever can get rid of it in Sweden. We need to find a way to live together with it.

22 April 2020, Brazil. Experience Exchange Brazil-Sweden with Anders Tegnell and the Swedish ambassador. Their message: We have to learn to live with the virus. Sweden is doing well. Stockholm has 20-30% immunity. Children don't spread it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=TanU45Pdpwk… (in English)

(04:05): - How are your figures compared to your neighbours? Giesecke: - Higher. But one very important thing: I think we should wait a year in comparing deaths in different countries. [...] In the end, they will be about the same in each country. The situation now:

The first episode of the @thejabgab http://thejabgab.com is LIVE!! Join me and the fabulous comedians @nazeem_hussain and @calbo as they chat about the Delta variant, vaccines …. and cows? with experts @DrKGregorevic and @BedouiSammy! Search your fav platform or...

Fascinating stuff, a whole thread of people saying weird shit about me (and a poem that I've said many times was idiotic in hindsight)

2/ Anyway, know how I know that, @naomirwolf? I ASKED A ****ING SCIENTIST INSTEAD OF PROPOSING WE BUILD A SECOND SEWER SYSTEM.

mRNA is unbelievably fragile. The enzymes that degrade it are literally everywhere. That’s why they had to develop specialized lipid nanoparticles to deliver it. It would last two seconds in a sewer system. Also, it gets separated from the delivery system after it’s injected.

this is how the failure to understand what efficacy means and how it relates to outcomes will be seized on over and over again. Cookie cutter fallacies require cookie cutter clarification by machine tools to be combatted effectively (at least at current levels of moderation) https://twitter.com/TheTwatRises/status/1417160609972604937

Paper prepared by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) on Step 4 of the roadmap.

LSHTM: Updated roadmap assessment – prior to delayed Step 4, 7 July 2021

Bump for this, from 2012.

Background Widespread vaccination is an essential component of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet vaccine hesitancy remains pervasive. This prospective survey investigation aimed to measure the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy in a patient cohort at two urban emergency departments (EDs) and characterize underlying factors contributing to hesitancy. Methods Adult ED patients with stable clinical status (Emergency Severity Index 3–5) and without active COVID-19 disease or altered mental status were considered for participation. Demographic elements were collected as well as reported barriers/concerns related to vaccination and trusted sources of health information. Data were collected in person via a survey instrument proctored by trained research assistants. Results A total of 1,555 patients were approached, and 1,068 patients completed surveys (completion rate = 68.7%). Mean (±SD) age was 44.1 (±15.5) years (range = 18–93 years), 61% were female, and 70% were Black. A total of 31.6% of ED patients reported vaccine hesitancy. Of note, 19.7% of the hesitant cohort were health care workers. In multivariable regression analysis, Black race (odds ratio [OR] = 4.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.62 to 6.85) and younger age (age 18–24 years—OR = 4.57, 95% CI = 2.66 to 7.86; age 25–35 years—OR = 5.71, 95% CI = 3.71 to 8.81) were independently associated with hesitancy, to a greater degree than level of education (high school education or less—OR = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.23 to 4.19). Hesitant patients were significantly less likely to trust governmental sources of vaccine information than nonhesitant patients (39.6% vs. 78.9%, p < 0.001); less difference was noted in the domain of trust toward friends/family (51.1% vs. 61.0%, p = 0.004). Hesitant patients also reported perceived vaccine safety concerns and perceived insufficient research. Conclusions Vaccine hesitancy is common among ED patients and more common among Black and younger patients, independent of education level. Hesitant patients report perceived safety concerns and low trust in government information sources but less so friends or family. This suggests that strategies to combat hesitancy may need tailoring to specific populations.

10.1111/acem.14376

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among patients in two urban emergency departments

2/2) - here's the link to online published PDF. Vaccine hesitancy is a big deal. And the ED may offer opportunities to reach vulnerable unvaccinated populations. @UPennEM @PennMedEVDCSO @CDCDirector @PennMedNews https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/acem.14376…

hot off the press: our report on vaccine hesitancy in emergency department (ED) patients - first deep dive into hesitancy among this population ED is key opportunity for outreach, education ... and vaccination (1/2 - link to paper in 2nd tweet) #vaccines #vaccinehesitancy

T he COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of lives in communities across the world, including in the United States. COVID-19 is unique in many ways, including its global impact, its politicization, and the need for universal vaccination to combat the virus. When COVID-19 vaccines became available in the United States, millions of Americans eagerly sought out and received them. Many see vaccination as the key to a post-pandemic life, yet millions of Americans have still not been vaccinated despite eligibility and plentiful supply. Desire for receiving a COVID-19 vaccine among some minority populations, particularly Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino populations, is high though uptake is lagging12. This indicates barriers related to access and equity may be at play. For other populations, there is more hesitancy about getting vaccinated. Communities with vaccination rates much lower than the national average may need to further investigate and address barriers to COVID-19 vaccination. People encounter barriers that can hinder or facilitate vaccinations. Barriers and facilitators range from logistical and access issues, to personal beliefs and risk perception, to community beliefs and social norms. Insights from behavioral health research can help determine strategies to help people get vaccinated and promote near-universal uptake. Health departments, community organizations, faith-based communities, and leaders from all sectors of public life are making great efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccination. No single approach will work for every community; in fact, as the research included here demonstrates, a combination of strategies is generally most effective and will increase chances for success. This field guide highlights several strategies derived from evidence-based practices that are being applied in communities across the country to promote vaccine confidence and uptake.

COVID-19 Vaccination Field Guide: 12 Strategies for Your Community

are you really going to claim that responses to the introduction of passports on uptake across 4 other countries are evidentially entirely irrelevant to whether or not passports are justified or not?

as someone who has been trying to adapt social media for meaningful scientific exchange (see http://SciBeh.org), I will leave this by pointing out that neither attributing positions out of thin air nor calling your interlocutors views "insanely stupid" enable good dialogue

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

so, observational data has weaknesses- so does survey data, but it's there and we should look at it. On your second point, yes, that is important, we should study that, if we have no data we can't factor it into decision. Third is separate issue/factor to weigh.

against this survey data you might set actual uptake figures in France, various Canadian provinces, and Germany after the introduction of passports

Everyone living in British Columbia is eligible for vaccination. Find out how to register and what to expect when you get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Getting a Vaccine

On this page Importance of vaccination Vaccination after being infected with COVID-19 Possible side effects How the vaccines are studied and tested for children and youth Have a positive vaccination experience Vaccines approved for children and youth Protect unvaccinated children

Vaccines for children: COVID-19

You bring nothing to the table except brief noise and hot air. Like a very small firecracker, or maybe a vole's fart.

And perish the thought that people who turn up to bellow like water buffalo with an infected haemorrhoid don't manage to differentiate themselves between the... probably one to two hundred Σ(DMs, emails, private messages across four platforms, tweets). There's so much.

You either scream irrelevancies, suddenly demand a year of my time 'to check everything else', or just abuse me. You haven't actually read what I've written, or more importantly what anyone else has written. You just want to argue about something out of reflex.

Perish the thought I would be as peremptory as @GidMK. No, I'm going to hector, mock, or annoy those replies, THEN ask for money, THEN block you when I get bored. See, these aren't rebuttals. No-one's said anything *about the actual work*. Nothing. Not a sausage.

Claims about the drug are based on shoddy science—but that science is entirely unremarkable in its shoddiness.

COVID-19 Vaccines and Children Impact of COVID-19 on children Are the COVID-19 vaccines safe for children? Informing parents and children about COVID-19 vaccines Attitudes towards vaccinating children

COVID-19 Vaccines and Children

With Canadians nearing two full years in the pandemic, persuasive public-health messaging has become increasingly difficult. How do you convince people to remain vigilant this long into a crisis?

Nearly two years into pandemic, experts say messaging needs to evolve: Fear is out, hope is in

People making decisions about their health deserve honesty from their leaders.

Natural immunity to covid is powerful. Policymakers seem afraid to say so.

If any editors at @CDCMMWR have any commitment to good research, truth, or not misleading the public about vaccination they should retract this study immediately. 12/12815175

Vaccines might wane after boosting, how much and how quickly isn't known. The authors could have waited a couple of months and then seen. Instead they decided to be "first", vaccine confidence and truth be damned. 11/12

Any expert who quotes this study as proof of vaccine "waning" should be struck from your internal register of experts. Either they haven't read the study before commenting, or they want to undermine vaccines. 10/12

Every person involved, every author, every funder, every peer reviewer, the managing editor needs to recognise the harm of this, and search their souls for whether they should continue in research. This is knowingly, falsely, undermining vaccination. 9/12

"How well do vaccines work against covid" is the most important medical research question today, bar none. Publishing an "answer" you know is wrong, and you know makes vaccines look worse than they are is reprehensible. 8/12

We know the authors knew this is what they were doing. They acknowledge the mix in the caption of table 2 and the limitations section, but decided to publish anyway. It was a floor that could ONLY make vaccines appear worse than they are. 7/12

This study compared immunocompromised people DIDN'T have boosters, with people with healthy immune systems who HAD boosters. Then from this concluded that vaccines rapidly stop working. Awful awful stuff. So why is this morally and not just technically repugnant? 6/12

Those with 4 or more months follow up had to be vaccinated by mid September at the latest, before the first booster shot was approved. Those with less than 2 months follow up on the other hand would be expected to be dominated by immunocompetent patients getting boosters. 5/12

The study finished on 22 January. The authors recorded that: - those vaccinated less than 2 months ago had 91% protection - those vaccinated 4 or more months ago had 78% protection. Therefore "waning" was observed. Do you see why this is wrong? 4/12

There are two different situations people have a third dose: - immunocompromised people who need it to get the same protection most get from two doses - boosters, EXTRA protection for people with healthy immune systems. The first began on August 12 the second on November 29 3/

These authors set out to determine if protection from vaccines wanes after a booster dose. They didn't have the right data to do this their options were: - give up - wait a couple of months for right data - publish data they knew was wrong anyway They picked the last one. 2/12

This is probably the worst covid research I have read, and I helped expose a fraudulent study that was just the same patient copied-and pasted over and over again, and another which enrolled dead people. This is far more damaging to public health. 1/12

Meanwhile mitigations are key to maintain in schools and in the community to protect children from long COVID and other impacts of infection. And vital to maintain suppression of the virus to prevent new variants evolving - omicron has been a game changer for vaccine efficacy.

Effectiveness against hospitalisations also declined from 100% early on to ~48% 6 wks later, which is a significant decline. Suggests we need dose adjustments/vaccine updates against omicron/boosting to ensure a good response in this age group.

Vaccine dose is the same as adult in 12-17 yr olds but much lower in 5-11 yr olds. There is a clear dose-response, with response greatest in 12 yr olds (greatest dose/wt) & graded lowering for other age gps. For 5-11 yr we see rapid decline in effectiveness against infection.

New study out yesterday suggesting that vaccine efficacy with current dose for 5-11 yr olds likely wanes quickly. Especially against infection, but also against hospitalisation, although protection against severe disease is higher. Seems to be closely linked to vaccine dose

A vaccine manufactured in plants and developed in Canada

Medicago and GSK announce the approval by Health Canada of COVIFENZ®, an Adjuvanted Plant-Based COVID-19 Vaccine

Full story from me on today’s approval of homegrown, plant-based Medicago #COVID19 vaccine. Approved for adults 18 to 64 Preliminary data shows shot produces neutralizing antibodies against Omicron Canada signed deal to buy 20 million doses

BREAKING: Made-in-Canada #COVID19 vaccine from Medicago approved by Health Canada today. Shot dubbed 'Covifenz,' and uses virus-like particles. Background on the high efficacy against infection seen during Phase 3 clinical trials: