HOO BOY I just read the "Harvard Study Proves 'Unvaccinated Children Pose No Risk'" garbage, bunk, actually-just-an-open-letter-from-an-antivax-immunologist and I am DANGEROUSLY INFURIATED.

I will NOT be linking to this article. But it is garbage. *RAGE SCREAM* #VaccinesWork
What is notable is the approach: Consistently demonstrating that vaccines are 1) effective and thereby 2) changing the landscape of commonly seen infections to prove that vaccines DON'T prevent spread of disease??

It's a baffling strategy that doesn't work.
#VaxFactsFebruary
It turns out there's a rather good Snopes article debunking a lot of the scientific claims. If you MUST read this thing (which again I wont' link to) you can find it here: snopes.com/fact-check/har…

But since I'm already riled up, here are a few points from me… #VaccinesWork
Point 1: "Inactive polio vaccine can't prevent WT polio." SO THERE'S A VACCINE (oral) THAT IS DECREASING THE AMOUNT OF wild type polio! So vaccine's DO work. And decreased the incidence of polio in the U.S.A. Great. Thanks. #VaccinesWork
Point 2: "Tetanus is not contagious, so why are making everyone be vaccinated with it?" MOST vaccines both prevent serious infection in the patient AND combining tetanus w/ diphtheria and pertussis sure helps decrease the spread of those (AND their disease). Again: #VaccinesWork
Point 3. "DTaP is against diptheria toxin - also for personal protection, not protecting the community."

Stupid. Vaccine prevents diphtheria toxin-containing bacteria which LITERALLY spread to others, increasing risk of disease in them. Protects you AND everyone. #VaccinesWork
Point 4: "Pertussis vaccine is not as good anymore."

Right. We switched vaccine (whole-cell for B. pertussis to an acellular). Prevents serious disease, not so much transmission. How do we know it's "not as good" BECAUSE IT WORKED/WORKS BUT WE CAN KEEP IMPROVING #VaccinesWork
SIDE NOTE TO THIS STUPID THREAD:

Yesterday I got to talk to a physician who is treating a 3 month old baby (too young to be vaccinated) who has confirmed (PCR+) Bordetella pertussis which he caught from his brother.

Whooping cough is not a thing to mess around with.
Point 5: "Hib vaccine is just against H. influenzae type B and NOW we mostly have other types so why are we still using Hib? Also here's a paper from Primary Children's hosptial/U of U showing this point."

YOU KEEP SHOWING THAT VACCINES WORK! AND FURTHERMORE...
The 2011 paper you cited (by folks I know personally) tracks invasive disease from H. influenzae, in ALL ages and it's clearly stated that the vast majority of these invasive infections are in the elderly NOT KIDS BECAUSE THE VACCINE WORKS. #VaccinesWork #VaxFactsFebruary
Point 6: "Some people vaccinated against #measles don't mount a protective response so why discriminate [their word] against vaccine opposed."

Because if there's a 4% chance your seat belt might be less effective in a crash THAT DOESN'T MEAN DON'T WEAR A SEAT BELT #VaccinesWork
"Some people aren't protected by measles vaccination."

So what you're saying is …#VaccinesWork?

"You can get measles even if you're vaccinated (4.7% of people are low-vaccine responders)"

Yeah. Biology's funny. AND 100% OF UNVACCINATED PEOPLE ARE LOW-VACCINE RESPONDERS!
Point 7: "Natural infection --> better antibodies than 'fake' vaccine antibodies."

HOW STRANGE THERE'S NOT A CITATION ATTEMPTING TO SUPPORT THIS STUPID GARBAGE ASSERTION!!

A common #antivax myth and DESPICABLY untrue. An immunologist trying to make that fly? No. #VaccinesWork
Point Whatever-point-we're-on: "Also you can give a baby w/ #measles therapeutic IgG to protect them."

Ho. Lee. Crap.

1) That protective antibody? It's what you get FROM THE VACCINE!! *head explode emoji*
2) IT'S HORRENDOUSLY EXPENSIVE
and (wait, you're gonna love this) . . .
(cont.)
3) Do you know what you give to help protect kids with #measles if you can catch it w/in 72hrs? THE VACCINE! BECAUSE IT GIVES YOU ANTIBODIES that *MIGHT* help protect the kid, make them less infectious. #VaccinesWork cdc.gov/measles/hcp/in…
I'm infuriated. That this exists, that it's been circulating (pathogen-like) for years, that someone who absolutely should know better wrote it is deplorable.

End thread or whatever.

But please believe me, believe the data, and believe that #VaccinesWork.
"Same difference" is a FUN oxymoron

"#antivax immunologist" is a BAD AND DANGEROUS oxymoron

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More from @richdavisphd

Sep 17, 2020
#MicroRounds (Day 733): Hypothetical case: a parent hears their child use the toilet but not flush (typical behavior!).

But upon entering the bathroom they're horrified to see this worm in the bowl with their kid's poop! How freaked out should they be?? #ASMClinMicro #IDTwitter A split picture: a tangled skinny worm (thinner than a stran
Cont.: Here's some additional information (from your friendly neighborhood parasitology lab).
1) Yes, it's actually a worm.
2) You zoom in close and see this on one of the ends of the worm... A split, three pronged brown worm.
#MicroRounds: If you see this worm in your toilet: relax. It didn't come from a person!

A horsehair worm. Nematomorpha (i.e. "looks like a nematode") is a phylum that infects grasshoppers, crickets & drives them to water. A common false human parasite #ASMClinMicro #IDTwitter A tangled brown worm (skinnier than spaghetti). Caption read
Read 6 tweets
Jun 26, 2020
What does a mask do? Blocks respiratory droplets coming from your mouth and throat.

Two simple demos:

First, I sneezed, sang, talked & coughed toward an agar culture plate with or without a mask. Bacteria colonies show where droplets landed. A mask blocks virtually all of them. ImageImage
What about keeping your distance?

Second demo: I set open bacteria culture plates 2, 4 and 6 feet away and coughed (hard) for ~15s. I repeated this without a mask.

As seen by number of bacteria colonies, droplets mostly landed <6 ft, but a mask blocked nearly all of them. ImageImage
I'm aware that this simple (n=1) demo isn't how you culture viruses or model spread of SARS-CoV-2.

But colonies of normal bacteria from my mouth/throat show the spread of large respiratory droplets, like the kind we think mostly spread #COVID19, and how a mask can block them! ImageImage
Read 56 tweets
Apr 8, 2020
Good thread on sensitivity & specificity of first emergency use authorization (EUA) #COVID19 serology test, Cellex, means for testing a low-prevalence population: increased risk of false positives

BUT IT'S ACTUALLY WORSE THAN THIS bc these numbers =/= *clinical* sensitivity 1/
A huge question (if not THE question) in #SARSCoV2 lab diagnostics is the rate of false negatives and false positives.

This can be calculated IF (and it's a crucial "if") you know the True Disease Status of people and then test them with your test approach. Like this:
2/
BUT we don't really have a gold standard/reference method for determining True Disease Status of COVID-19 patients. But we think PCR tests are the best we have right now.

SO you contrast your NEW test vs. results against your best comparator test.

Results look like this: 3/
Read 19 tweets
Feb 27, 2020
News and updates about the status of laboratory diagnostics for #COVID19 are coming thick and fast today.

A quick thread on that topic, starting with @HelenBranswell's timely article (why aren't you following her??) as a jumping off point:
1/n
First, we know that the CDC has tested few cases of possible #COVID19 patients.

In an MMWR from last week, they said they'd tested "1,007 people" but news this week is saying "<500"? I don't understand that discrepancy.

Suffice to say it's far, FAR below what is needed! 2/n Screen grab from Feb 25,2020 CDC MMWR COVID 19 Update https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6908e1.htm
Second, the CDC's developed PCR assay (which was described w/ sequences/primers back in January) *was* distributed to some (12+) public health labs.

But some component of that gave some labs problems (1 of 3 probes? a neg control? unclear to me)
cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspecti…

3/n
Read 16 tweets
Oct 12, 2018
Antibiotic testing. Let's go.

Tentatively calling this #tweetorial "Antibiotic testing: why and how and huh?"

Important caveat: this is a HUGE topic. I’m mostly going to focus on 1) basic rationale and 2) laboratory methods. And 3) try not to say anything wrong/misleading!
Question #1: Why would a person want to know if bacteria A is resistant to antibiotic B?
And the answer is ...

All are legit answers! But it's very situation dependent and you'd have different reasons for each. Let’s go through them.
#tweetorial #pathtweet #asmclinmicro
Read 28 tweets

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