We showed in a paper a couple of years ago that transmission is minimally impacted by fatal COVID-19 outcomes. Put simply, the virus could evolve to kill everyone it infects and not take a hit to transmission. Small changes in IFR can have big impacts (see screenshot). (15/)

New study of 74,000 participants found: -those infected with COVID had more other infections (including bacterial, influenza & mycoplasma infections) -COVID reinfections had milder acute-phase symptoms but led to higher rate & severity of #LongCovid thelancet.com/journals/lanwp… 1/

I've been pondering the June update from the Australian Actuaries MWG, confirming that COVID continues to be a wildcard factor in their forecasts (+79% to June). The takeaway should be that COVID will continue to defy prediction, as long as it is unconstrained. 🧵

The Mask Debate Revisited: The Study That Screwed Up Mask Wearing Over the last year I’ve heard various people say masking doesn’t work. They usually will bring up one particular study. It’s a familiar rhythm to have this study brought up. This study on masks sparks fresh

Korean cohort study of 3 million with COVID-19 & 3 million controls observed for >180 days, revealed significantly increased risks of various autoimmune and autoinflammatory connective tissue disorders following COVID-19... jamanetwork.com/journals/jamad…

🇦🇺Australian life expectancy decreases for second year in a row. "The Australian Bureau of Statistics says Australia’s life expectancy has slightly fallen for the second year straight – due to the number of Covid-related deaths." Mark Butler MP Australian Dept of Health, Disability and Ageing

COVID had & continues to have a big impact on this country, turning around decades of progress. Note that almost all Australia's pandemic excess deaths were in 2022-23. 30,000 people died more than expected in that time. A spike in COVID deaths has driven a decline in Australian

7,114 aged care COVID deaths since beginning of pandemic 🔸686 reported deaths in 2020 🔸226 reported deaths in 2021 🔸3,855 reported deaths in 2022 🔸1,359 reported deaths in 2023 🔸988 reported deaths in 2024 Anika Wells MP Anthony Albanese health.gov.au/resources/coll…

MIS-C much more common in kids not vaccinated against COVID-19, data reveal Among 12- to 17-year-olds, 90% of those with MIS-C were unvaccinated. cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/mis-c…

To our Twitter (X) followers we have made the decision to leave the platform. We are on LinkedIn and we will consider the best social media platform for the future. We are passionate about equity and diversity and this platform no longer represents what we need. Thank you for

COVID INQUIRY: X Megathread 🧵 As module 3 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry draws to a close, I’ve been looking back at what we’ve learned about how it all went so wrong with infection control guidance for hospitals. This is a long thread, so please grab a cuppa & make yourself comfy…

Some of the ingredients in unsafe Ayurvedic medicines are banned in Australia due to their potential risks to human health. An ‘AUST R’ or ‘AUST L’ number on the packaging of products indicates that they are safe. 1/3🧵

About 1 month after this monster BQ.1.1 appeared, an even more extreme sequence has shown up in Alberta. Like the BQ, it has 50 private spike mutations, but it also has >40 AA mutations elsewhere in the genome. 1/6