Zeynep Tufekci

A solid essay on natural immunity and vaccination—even that has been chewed up by the polarization here so good advice comes from Europe. That said, a key obstacle is how bad we are keeping track of anything— even the vaccinated, let alone who had COVID.

Excellent point from @jljcolorado. “Droplets on surfaces is very convenient for people in power - all of the responsibility is on the individual... OTOH, if you admit it is airborne, institutions, governments and companies have to do something.”

And there are more rapid test brands, too in Europe—some sell for as little as $1 and some countries distribute them for free. Wondering how US fumbled rapid tests? Read this amazing, infuriating investigative piece by @ericuman and @lydiadepillis.

Viruses aren’t necessarily under selection pressure to be less virulent (as long as they can keep transmitting). I highly recommend this piece why, all else equal, the first encounter can be more dangerous—hence novel virus emergence can spark pandemics.

Great thread with a "best guess" from @trvrb on where post-pandemic (endemic) burden of COVID may end up. Note: how the virus evolves is one factor, but so is the host (us!) immune response once it's no longer novel. Also: even smaller risk can, at scale, add substantial burden.

This is interesting work, but I don’t know why authors bin the results (3-6 days) instead of just giving us the exact days. Also, why don’t we have our own studies like this? This is exactly what we need to know. And: I suspect this distribution may be bimodal by vax/symptom.

Thread on great paper about superspreading and aerosol transmission, but starting in the middle for this excellent quote: "There is nothing more practical than a good theory". Amen.

"What about long-term safety?" I recommend this excellent article by @andrew_croxford. Essentially, between vaccines and drugs, the vaccine is almost always the choice with the much safer profile. Somehow, this gets lost because of ideological resistance.

Chaos blew my mind, got me interested in complex systems...

That is a great blog post!

Here’s a good thread with specifics. There’s a world beyond “it’s not March 2020”, “is it with or from?” and “stop living in fear.” You have a wave like this, it produces a lot of outcomes that need active management.

I want to highlight @KatherineEban's great article on White House rejecting proposals to get a lot of rapid tests. Some reportedly worried it would discourage vaccination. This. Makes. No. Sense. One can find a few examples, but that's irrelevant.