Prof Nisreen Alwan š»
@Dr2NisreenAlwan
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If u want to be free, be free. Public Health Prof MBE. My words=my PERSONAL views. RTā endorse. [email protected],Threads:nisreen.a.alwan,bsky:nisreenalwan
Joined May 2010
Thanks for the new & reinstated follows. Grateful for connecting with u. This is my personal account so Iām here as my whole self & not representing anything else. You donāt have to agree with me & I donāt have to agree with u but hereās a place for respect, empathy & humanity š
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Wow powerful and very sad!.Healthcare professionals in Belgium turning backs as their PM arrives as a demonstration against the handling of the pandemic. Belgium has one of the higest #Covid19 death rates in the world.
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I canāt believe some folk are still saying ābut all that New Zealand did was delay covid so it was pointlessā. YEAH delay covid until there are vaccines that substantially reduce risk of death from covid! They have 10 covid deaths per million population. UK has 2,151 per million.
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Hospitals are overwhelmed but itās not like April. Because in April cases were going down while deaths were going up. Now everything is going up. The tiers are not working. Millions will mix tomorrow in schools. I canāt believe this is happening. Even after all thatās happened.
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If masks are made mandatory they should be distributed for free. Better use of public money than Ā£10 dining vouchers for places where poor people canāt dine anyway.
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Who āhas a drinkā in a hospital staffroom? What is he talking about?.
"I don't think at any time he thought he was breaking the law. he thought just like many teachers and nurses who after a very long shift would go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink". Tory MP Michael Fabricant urges Boris Johnson to apologise.
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Why is the UK media far more interested in covid in Europe than covid in the UK?.
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Itās getting irritating that UK headline news keep saying covid is rising but experts donāt know why! What else to expect if you totally abandon public health measures?.
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Wearing a mask and opening a window doesnāt mean youāre anxious or living in fear. It means youāre wise and considerate š.
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Teenage son while watching govt press conference:. Why do they talk about supporting the NHS as if itās something theyāre not in charge of running?.
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Italy 2 weeks ago (4 March):.3,089 confirmed cases.107 deaths. Italy today:.41,035 confirmed cases.3,405 #COVID19 deaths. UK today:.3,269 cases.144 deaths. Uk in two weeks:.?. #LockdownLondon NOW.There is no time to waste.
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Vaccinated people must not change their behaviour because we still donāt know if vaccines can stop spread of coronavirus. They must still distance & wear masks. This is for their advantage as well as others. More spread means more chance of mutation & vaccine resistance. RT pls.
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An army of racist tweets has been released on me for some reason. I believe all they crave is attention, so if you see them, please ignore, though would welcome general support, because this sucks!.
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Why canāt āliving with the virusā involve masks and ventilation? Something I never understood about that narrative.
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I grew up in the Middle East and I can tell you for sure that, along with everyone else I grew up with, we never regarded war as ānormalā. War is never normal. East or West. Itās really hurtful to hear people say weāre used to war in the Middle East but not in Europe.
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This language of heroism & self-sacrifice around healthcare workers who died of #COVID19 is not helpful & shifts responsibility. These people had a job to do that they couldnāt quit. Theyāre victims of an occupational hazard & shouldāve been protected. They didnāt want to die š.
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I still to this day donāt fully understand the westās aversion to face masks. The ideologisation of this simple public health measure is still a puzzle to me.
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Itās very sad that most people still donāt understand the principle of prevention in public health even though weāve been in a pandemic for 10 months. Success will always look like overreacting & acting early. This shouldāve been drilled into public consciousness from the start.
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I was at a parent event yesterday & saw how a couple of people took their masks out to put on but when looked around to see others not wearing them they didnāt wear them too and I was the only one with a mask on. Social norms dictate what people do and rules dictate social norms.
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Wearing a mask when you mix indoors with people outside your household is the sensible thing to do right now. Even if no one else in that space is wearing one, itās not pointless. Donāt be shamed into taking it off to fit in. Picture loads of us cheering. Weāre right behind you.
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Respect. Already winners. They persisted together in what they believed is right despite the naysayers. A lesson to all of us. Find your allies and stick with your convictions.
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Masking in crowded indoor spaces during a raging viral pandemic is ānormalā. Pretending the pandemic is over with more 245 thousand people testing positive in 1 week is not normal. I feel we need to work on the definition of ānormalā away from propaganda.
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In my public health career I have not come across ONE solution that solves so so many different health problems as ending poverty.
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Iām really distressed at how as a nation weāve made children sacrifice so much to protect adults and now weāre allowing the virus to spread uncontrollably among them. A virus only 18 months old. We have no idea of its longterm effects.
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The NHS is not a thing. They are people. So itās not protect IT, itās protect THEM so they can protect you if you need them.
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Today at the grocerās he asked us (as we were masked): is corona back? I said it never really left but infections are really high at the moment. He looked genuinely surprised. I donāt blame him for not knowing as the mainstream message is that itās all over. Except itās not!.
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Iām a university professor whoās fluent in English. My kids achieve top marks at school including in English. So is this MP saying that if he hears me in the street talking to my own kids in a language other than English, then weāre not integrated? Weāre proud to be multilingual.
Conservative MP Tom Hunt, "If you walk into your town center, people speaking English is almost a rarity". Sophy Ridge, "That's not what people find, come on". Tom Hunt, "Lots of people when they walk into their town centers across the country often feel that way"
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Letās clarify one thing: not believing that the pandemic has ended when facts clearly tell you it hasnāt ended is not called ācovid anxietyā.
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This is a pandemic of gaslighting as well as covid! Peopleās lived experiences are called āanxietyā. Peopleās interpretation of clear facts is called āemotionsā. Peopleās objection to the lack of simple public health measures is called āworryā. Please stop!.
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I stood in the passport queue for almost an hour at Munich airport with a British passport and you know itās not really about the queue but itās a painful reminder of why, why, why did the UK do this to itself? š.
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This narrative of āget infected to protect you from getting infectedā is the silliest thing ever. First, because getting infected *is* getting infected. Second, because reinfections are common with covid. Third, I canāt believe I had to say one and two out loud š.
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Good ventilation in schools and workplaces is probably the biggest lesson NOT learnt from this pandemic.
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Letās do some renaming please, folks. Masks, ventilation, testing are PROTECTIONS not restrictions. Just like loads of other behaviours and rules we stick to like seatbelts, speed limits, no drink driving, smoking bans, taxing pollution etc. I protect you and you protect me.
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You know polio? that virus everyone uncontroversially wants eradicating to protect kids from and we never hear any talk about 'natural immunity' as a good idea? Well, about 3/4 of those infected are totally asymptomatic and about 1 in 200 infections leads to permanent paralysis.
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Nobody āloses their battleā with Corona. Itās not a battle. Itās a disease & the way it runs its course in someoneās body is totally outside their control. People who survive are just lucky, no more no less. They didnāt win any battle. Whatās the point of such language?.
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People who are deleting their herd immunity supportive tweets from a few months ago, thatās not enough! Say you were wrong. Be clear about it. This way you can help limit the damage going forward.
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It really isnāt fair how covid is allowed to spread so uncontrollably in school-aged kids. I feel like a broken record, but I canāt stop saying this. Kids paid such a high price to protect the adults in the first year of the pandemic & now the adults donāt seem to care. Not fair.
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Once again, lockdowns are not caused by people wanting lockdowns. They are caused by the pandemic. How to avoid lockdowns? By controlling the pandemic! . How on earth did this simple concept become so twisted?.
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Two years and one week from my first time and I have covid again. Both times passed on to me by my children. They ask you as an adult to ābe carefulā & thatās meaningless when you have kids mixing in settings that -two years on- have hardly any mitigations to reduce transmission.
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Letās get one thing clear. Basic public health mitigations and support systems against covid are not āanxietyā and removing them is not āconfidenceā.
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Retailers and supermarkets, donāt force your staff to come to work with covid by cutting their covid sick pay. If you insist, itās your duty to make customers aware this is your policy. Put a clear sign on the door and on your website. Have some social responsibility.
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Iām fed up of people not introducing me by my titles in public forums. I am a Dr (medic & PhD). Iām an Associate Professor. I worked hard to gain these titles & I donāt give permission to omit them. Just because Iām an ethnic minority woman doesnāt mean that Iām just āNisreenā!.
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Can we ALL at least agree on this one thing? Is this possible? Better ventilation of indoor spaces is NOT a ārestrictionā.
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Very scary times. Hospitals are back to where they were in Spring 2020 but with a more infectious strain of the virus & no similar lockdown to quickly bring cases down. If youāre tired of lockdowns think how tired NHS acute staff are. They canāt even take a few days off to rest.
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1/Please understand this. If coronavirus is allowed to circulate freely in a population which is mostly not vaccinated it has a bigger chance to mutate as we can see happening now. Itās bad news if mutations lead to vaccine resistance. Then even the vaccinated wonāt be protected.
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Are you young?.Are you healthy?.Not bothered if you get #COVID2019?.Good for you, but DONāT be a spreader!.Avoidable deaths *will* happen if health systems canāt cope. Do your bit to #FlattenTheCurve.
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Variant here, variant there. More transmissible, more deadly. Yet, half-hearted control measures here and there. Almost everything is half-open half-closed. Not much support for the closed half. Not much control of virus spread in the open half. How is this going to end well? š.
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It seems it takes famous men to declare they may have #LongCovid for it to be finally taken seriously. I wish them full recovery and also wish for women and non-famous people to be believed.
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Schools must close Monday 19th but itās up to employers whether to give their employees a day off? Did I get this right? Did the planning miss the difficulty of childcare at short notice? And guess whoās likely to be disadvantaged by this? Yeah thatās right: mothers. Just saying.
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āPeople have told me 'it's just words, it's just words' but words really made Caroline suffer."ā
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Please donāt be the person peer pressuring your colleagues in a meeting to take off their masks during this awful BA.2 surge.
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Hello good people of Twitterāļø .I have a plea for you: If your rapid covid test is negative, or if you got vaccinated with 1 or even 2 doses, please still behave as if you have the virus & donāt want to pass it on to others until we get on top of this horrible pandemic. Thank u.
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170,000 NHS staff are of non-British nationality. Thatās 1 in 7 staff. They work, live and have families and friends here. They not only save lives everyday in their job but also contribute to their communities in positive ways. Donāt call them āforeignersā. Itās degrading.
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Dear media, . Please stop labelling people who want to continue using common sense precautions like masks and ventilation to protect themselves and others during an ongoing pandemic as anxious. Thanks,.A public health doctor whoās fed up with the population-level gaslighting.
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Woke up this morning & still canāt believe that soon no one will be financially supported to have a test or isolate if theyāre infectious with covid. The waiter, bus driver, carer, cleaner, supermarket workerā¦No way Iām gonna blame their āpersonal responsibilityā. Itās not fair.
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Itās so bizarre that people who want to take simple precautions because weāre *clearly* still in a pandemic are the ones who are labelled as āanxiousā. Actually denial indicates to me a higher level of anxiety than wearing a mask or wanting the windows open!.
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Theyāre not āforeignā when they save your life but theyāre āforeignā when they need their life saving.
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What is āfreedomā in the context of an infectious disease? If you say: I decide the acceptable level of risk for me, thatās my āchoiceā. Then what about the risk you might pose to others? Is that your choice or theirs? If thatās your choice too then where is their freedom?.
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The target should not be ākeep schools open at all costsā. It should be keep children healthy at all costs. Thatās by providing them with healthy environments to learn and socialise in. Never drop your expectation on this.
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Iām hearing more stories of people (including people I personally know) who got covid recently and their only exposure is going to the supermarket (other than walking outdoors in non-busy areas). We need to look at optimising measures to reduce transmission in supermarkets.
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@RishiSunak I donāt get it, Rishi. I really donāt. Your video tells the story of your immigrant family of which you seem to be proud, yet the Tory policies and narratives are so anti-immigrant. Will you continue in that divisive direction as a leader?.
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Mass infection of kids with a virus less than 2 years old is not ethical, not moral, not scientifically evidenced, not socially just & medically risky. Thereās no good argument for this. And no, boosting population immunity to protect the adults is not a valid argument. #Childism.
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š Attention scientific conference organisers:. It is not acceptable in this day and age not to organise your face to face events as hybrid. Iāll tell you why š§µ.
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Stop calling them ārestrictionsāāļø. Call testing, masks, ventilation & supported isolation when sick public health measures or preventive measures or protections or mitigations to help us avoid major restrictions & closures. Do we call seatbelts or no drink driving restrictions?.
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If you want to argue that lots of #LongCovid is a sacrifice worth making for immediate āfreedomā please do so in a straightforward way by accepting the risk. Donāt trivialise it. Donāt deny its existence. Donāt imply those suffering with it are deluded. Thatās insulting & cruel.
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The thing is if you lockdown short and early u could prevent the crisis altogether, and if u prevent the crisis people canāt see it, and if people canāt see it theyāll think it was the wrong decision. Thatās why u need super good public health communication to explain prevention.
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I say ventilation is good and I get trolled. Why is this even controversial? Humans blow my mind sometimes!.
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Yes you wear a face covering in shops to protect other people. Like all the doctors, nurses and dentists who wear them to protect you. Once everyone is protected then youāre protected too. There is something called society and youāll never be well if your society is sick.
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āNever mind life expectancyā.āNever mind cancer outcomesā.Yes, our PM actually said that.
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The UK has now over a third #COVID19 deaths of the USās (15,464 versus 39,015) with under a fifth of the size of population. So no, UK unlikely to be no 2 in the world taking into account population size. Itās a strong contender for the first position in mortality. Devastating.
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With the current size and speed of the pandemic, I just canāt believe primary schools are told to open with full class sizes on 4 Jan even in Tier 4 areas!!!.
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āGo homeā is a vile racist trope whether directed at a refugee, an economic migrant or Meghan Markle.
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Covid on the rise again. Living with it & other airborne viruses means structural solutions like indoor ventilation changes. We gotta learn from a devastating pandemic. Itās unfathomable that we donāt. The rhetoric is literally ālearn to live with itā. Where is the learning part?.
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Removal of face mask mandates in hospitals is not right in my opinion. With the absence of isolation rules, this is the only layer of protection vulnerable people attending a hospital have to reduce their risk of getting covid. Whatās the point of changing this rule now?.
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Why is it deemed so impossible to push schooling back so that the summer holidays equivalent gets taken now and schools open in July & August instead when hopefully most of the population will be vaccinated? Also so much easier to teach in fresh air and ventilate classes then.
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My kids will continue to wear masks. I will continue to wear a mask. The intention is not to stand out but to protect ourselves and do our little bit to protect others.
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Iām so honoured & feel so grateful to have been nominated & to receive an MBE in the New Years Honours List. A big thank you to all the kind, wise & dedicated people I worked with and to those who supported me during this difficult year, especially my dear parents & my children.
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āSpread covid quickly to end the pandemicā is not a strategy. Never has been. Never will be. Not at the start of the pandemic and certainly not now. At best, itās wishful thinking thatās not supported by scientific evidence and in my opinion betrays the essence of public health.
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I really donāt get why the UK is risking mass infection with a new virus of unknown longterm profile that causes symptoms lasting months in 2-14% (from multiple studies) of teenagers when thereās an available vaccine for them already taken by millions of their peers across theš?.
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āLive with the virusā can be a particularly triggering term for people living with #LongCovid. Around a million of them in the UK. Choose something else to call failure to control the pandemic.
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This day 2 years ago I had my first covid symptoms. I was told I shouldnāt worry. It would be just like a mild flu for me. It wasnāt. Science didnāt know about prolonged health effects then. Science now knows yet people are still being told itās a cold. No excuse. #CountLongCovid.
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Donāt say āmigrantsā. Say refugees and asylum seekers. Donāt say until āthey get processedā. Say until their cases get assessed. And whatever you do, donāt describe a human being as illegal. An action can be illegal not an existence. Do your bit to stop the dehumanising language.
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Nobody said Eid or Diwali or Hanukkah was ācancelledā! Why all the sensationalism around Xmas? Religious holidays donāt get cancelled, this year we just get to celebrate them differently as a way of expressing community solidarity & compassion. Isnāt that what religion is about?.
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Those still choosing to mask in indoor spaces are becoming a tiny minority. There is social pressure to explain yourself and perhaps reveal personal information about your health or family, particularly if youāre masking around people you know. Itās wrong but itās the reality.
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Herd immunity through encouraging natural infection by a new virus we know nothing about its long term consequences is NOT science. It's a fancy title for the strategy of not doing much. Convince me otherwise if you disagree.
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We live with smoking but we have rules on bans, adverts, selling, tax. We live with road accidents but we have traffic& personal rules to reduce them. We live with lots of pathogens but we have rules on how to outbreak-manage them. So why does ālive with covidā mean do nothing?.
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āBy every metric [New Zealandās elimination approach] is outperforming the alternatives ā from a public health point of view, an equity point of view, a freedoms point of view ā¦ an economic point of view.ā
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Doing almost nothing to protect school kids from infection in a pandemic (no vax, no masks, no investment in ventilation) is being conveyed as some sort of social justice call in the name of education & mental health. What a spin! One of the most heartbreaking spins in last 18m.
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#LongCovid is new because covid is new, but the phenomenon of viruses causing long term illness & health damage is not new. The world has ignored it long enough and now weāre forced to face its seriousness because of the pandemic. Letās own our ignorance in this area & change it.
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Well ventilated buildings with clean air is not a temporary pandemic solution. Why would anyone object to this as a permanent change? Please let us learn at least one thing from all of this suffering.
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I see professor after professor now saying #LongCovid is a huge problem & I just canāt help wondering why didnāt they join us in warning the world about it in 2020? The burden of proof was on the patients, and still that was not enough. History was there too but it was ignored.
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1/ SAGE paper on #COVID19 tranmission in children, dated 17 Dec, published 31 Dec. This paper was "approved prioer to the emergence of data on the new variant". It includes analysis on household transmission risk. THREAD.
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I honestly canāt take anymore of this āin hindsightā talk about UK #COVID19 response. Things were obvious to sooooo many people and lots called out for drastic action from end of Feb. Thereās public record of this so all this hindsight stuff is an attempted rewriting of history.
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@jeremycorbyn Ever since I started working for the NHS over 20 years ago, I never heard anyone object to the required hepatitis B vaccination š¤·š»āāļø.
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Precautions against Omicron should be in schools not only at borders, shops and public transport. Schools are hotspots for crowding often in under-ventilated spaces with no masks. The new variant would love that sort of environment. Protect kids, staff and their families better.
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If lockdown is inevitable than early is better than late. Have we not at least learnt that already?.
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Iām triple vaccinated with history of past infection but still feeling really unwell with this reinfection. I wonāt tell you itās in your hands to avoid it because a lot of the time it isnāt and thereās so much community transmission, but you may want to try. BA.2 is not a joke.
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