Fomite

14 ms·

211.
by Fomite 2y ago
"I have a question for you: do you trust the provenance, integrity, and completeness of data from the earlier stages of the outbreak in Wuhan?" Nope. And yes, I am equally cautious with my opinions about it being a zoonotic spillo
212.
by Fomite 2y ago
Both because I hold a microbiology degree as well, and also because that's not actually how epidemiology works either.
213.
by Fomite 2y ago
Biocontainment just means that the virus stays in the lab and doesn't move outside it - be that the disposal of lab materials, accidental infections, etc.
214.
by Fomite 2y ago
Basically, things like "It started in Wuhan near the WIV" implies that we actually have found the first case, etc., when this is notoriously difficult to do, especially with a disease that can have mild or asymptomatic presentatio
215.
by Fomite 2y ago
A few reasons, though as I note in another comment, I'm not an expert in spillover events, my area of interest kicks in about a week later. So there's a few: 1) People I trust are skeptical, including people who are opposed to gai
216.
by Fomite 2y ago
Side note: The CIA can publish this, but the CDC can't put out the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Because that's where we are.
217.
by Fomite 2y ago
My present take: As an infectious disease epidemiologist whose expertise lies in the dynamics of infections a week or so after an initial spillover event, I am much more cautious with my opinions on the lab leak hypothesis than a lot of p
218.
by Fomite 2y ago
The National Labs, where a tremendous amount of infectious disease work is done for national-scale questions. I've worked with them in the past, and considered taking a job with them - of the various agencies, they're the ones who
219.
by Fomite 2y ago
One of the key parts of the lab leak hypothesis is that, depending on who is advancing it, it ranges from "poor biocontainment of a natural virus" to "engineered and released" with everything in between.
220.
by Fomite 2y ago
While I am very skeptical of the lab leak hypothesis as an infectious disease epidemiologist, the DoE has a fair amount of expertise via the national labs.
221.
by Fomite 2y ago
That this is someone's fault and they can be punished is, I think, the reason people want it to be true. Rather than the world is a terrifying place that sometimes kills millions.
222.
by Fomite 2y ago
I wrote this awhile ago on a previous thread about this: To my mind, there are a few reasons why people are so fixated on the lab leak thing 1) It makes the pandemic deterministic (bad lab security means an outbreak) instead of stochastic (
223.
by Fomite 2y ago
I don't think his problem is money. I think his problem is he might not be a very good person.
224.
by Fomite 2y ago
This. If you're funding your friends, think of yourself as a wealthy patron, not a lender or VC.
225.
by Fomite 2y ago
There have not been any details. There have been YouTubers making things up and desperately pretending Henry Cavill is their champion standing bravely against "woke".
226.
by Fomite 2y ago
It's usually telling to me that the Magic players I meet don't regard Warhammer as an insanely expensive hobby.
227.
by Fomite 2y ago
A few reasons: - Women and girls make up the majority of HIV cases, especially in the developing world - If you're estimating the effect in both men and women, you're reducing your power to detect an effect in either group. If you
228.
by Fomite 2y ago
This is not necessarily easy. For example, one of the metrics that patients in my field often advocate for is a stochastic, noisy signal at the end of a long causal chain. It's an important metric, but it's one that's very ha
229.
by Fomite 2y ago
H5N1 isn't exclusively avian flu, and the current receptors for the strain circulating in the U.S. have much more affinity for binding sites found in human eyes (hence conjunctivitis being one of the most common symptoms) and bovine ma
230.
by Fomite 2y ago
One of the other things is the very high fatality rate from H5N1 generally has come, previous to this current strain, from primary cases with very intensive exposure to the avian-adapted strain, which is much more fond of receptors in the
231.
by Fomite 2y ago
From the perspective of someone who works in public health: We are less prepared as a society, and have fewer tools at our disposal.
232.
by Fomite 2y ago
It's very hard to know what to do here, because that's also detecting contaminated milk dumped into the wastewater system, which is a massive signal but also not human.
233.
by Fomite 2y ago
This. I used to have two very ruthlessly curated accounts, and at the moment, trying to keep them like that is a lost cause.
234.
by Fomite 2y ago
Those two exams being their preliminary exam and their dissertation defense. Failing either is most certainly catastrophic.
235.
by Fomite 2y ago
I mostly teach graduate students, and in my first lecture, one of the slides goes through several LLMs attempts at a fairly simple prompt to write a seminar introduction for me. We grade them in terms of factually correct statements, "
236.
by Fomite 2y ago
Again, it is standard practice to cite things like (personal communication) or (Person, unpublished) to document where a fact is coming from, even if it cannot be retraced (which also comes up when publishing talks whose recordings or trans
237.
by Fomite 2y ago
It's as much of a source as (personal communication) is, and that's also a requirement if you just went and asked an expert.
238.
by Fomite 2y ago
If it's for flu risk, you need to add pigs to that list.
239.
by Fomite 2y ago
The problem with flu is that with reassortment, and especially with an expansion of the host species, we're basically just making a bunch of saving throws, hoping they're all okay.
240.
by Fomite 2y ago
Some places do, some don't. One of the other aftermaths of COVID-19 is that the assumption that there will be a timely federal response to a major public health emergency isn't one to be relied on.

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