There are two types of 'superspreaders' of online misinformation: the intentional and organized spreaders of falsehoods or misleading claims, and those who unwittingly share information they didn't know was false.
A tiny number of "supersharers" spread the vast majority of fake news on Twitter:
Less than 1% of Twitter users posted 80% of misinformation about the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The posters were disproportionately Republican middle-aged white women living in Arizona, Florida, and Texas.
https://www.science.org/content/article/tiny-number-supersharers-spread-vast-majority-fake-news
A small team of social media analysts at Indiana University has found that a major portion of tweets spreading disinformation are sent by a surprisingly small percentage of a given userbase.
Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. Reminder, Resilience: One Family’s Story… is increasingly pertinent, as some of our politicians shift rightward. All proceeds go to Holocaust education. Available here. ~ ~ ~ Special announcement – a GoFundMe request Sierra Reckley is a close friend of a good friend. She has recently been diagnosed with a rare spindle cell sarcoma of her clavicle, a rare and aggressive bone cancer. She is just 30…Sierra works and supports a permaculture farm, planning and growing a community food source. She strongly believes in community and caring/supporting others. She is in pain, unable to work now and needs help even getting to/from Johns Hopkins appointments, each one being an expensive and wearing 6-hour roundtrip drive. Her aunt has started this GoFundMe on her behalf. Please support her if you can, if only by sharing the news of her need…it is infuriating that we don’t have universal health care and support for people in need and the weapons industry is rewarded instead of good people. Thank you. News What makes a COVID superspreader? Scientists learn more after deliberately infecting volunteers Nature Saima Sidik 15 June 2023 A study of people who were intentionally infected with SARS-CoV-2 has provided a wealth of insights into viral transmission – showing, for example, that a select group of people are ‘supershedders’ who spew vastly more virus into the air than do others1. The publication describes data from a controversial ‘challenge study’, in which scientists deliberately infected volunteers with the virus that causes COVID-192. Although the approach drew opposition, the work has now yielded data on questions central to public health, such as whether the severity of symptoms correlates with how contagious people are and whether home COVID-19 tests can play a part in reducing viral spread. The results highlight how widely and unpredictably disease severity and contagiousness vary between people. …The study, published on 9 June in Lancet Microbe, also suggests that human physiology, not the virus, is to blame for some of the inconsistency of COVID-19. Design with benefits Some people argue that it’s unethical to give people an infection that can cause severe illness, but the research design comes with benefits. Challenge studies can substantially speed up vaccine testing, and they’re the only way to understand certain aspects of COVID-19, such as the stage before people test positive or develop symptoms. Researchers inoculated 34 healthy young participants by squirting a known quantity of viral particles up their noses. Eighteen developed infections and spent at least 14 days confined to hospital rooms. Each day, researchers measured viral levels in the participants’ noses and throats, in the air, and on the participants’ hands and various surfaces in the rooms. The symptoms and severity of naturally acquired COVID-19 might vary depending on transmission route, viral strain and how much virus a person was exposed to. But in the challenge study, “we know that that was all controlled”, says infectious-disease researcher Anika Singanayagam at Imperial College London, a co-author of the paper. Of the 18 participants who developed infections, 2 shed 86% of the airborne virus detected over the course of the entire study – even though both had only mild symptoms. Previous research3 provided evidence for the existence of superspreaders who infect large numbers of people. But whether such people are also ‘supershedders’ who emit copious amounts of virus, or simply have many social contacts was up for debate, says disease ecologist Pablo Beldomenico at the Institute of Veterinary Sciences of the Coast in Esperanza, Argentina. This study “supports the existence of supershedders”, he says. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01961-7 ~ ~ ~ Bivalent COVID vaccine protects against death for at least 6 months in older adults, study suggests The bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 booster provides substantial protection against death among US adults aged 65 years and older, with no significant signs of waning for up to 6 months, concludes a study published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention led the study and followed up on a previous report on the durability of bivalent booster protection against death among adults aged 65 and older. The team conducted the study over three periods of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant wave (BA.5 substrain, September 18 to November 5, 2022; BQ.1/BQ.1.1, November 6, 2022, to January 21, 2023; and XBB.1.5, January 22 to April 1, 2023). https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/bivalent-covid-vaccine-protects-against-death-least-6-months-older-adults-study-suggests ~ ~ ~ FDA panel backs monovalent XBB switch for fall COVID vaccines Overall, data suggest waning immunity of the current bivalent (two-strain) vaccine to circulating XBB lineage strains. Also, data suggest that including the original Wuhan strain is unlikely to enhance response to the current variants….the World Health Organization recommended a shift to either XBB.1.5 or XBB.1.16. Questions about messaging VRBPAC members today also raised concerns about vaccine messaging, especially to specific groups, amid changes to the vaccine. efforts are under way to transition to uniform age cutoffs and dose number recommendations. He also said the agency continues to review the need for more frequent doses for other populations. “It’s a work in progress,” he said. Though the vote on the switch to a monovalent vaccine was unanimous, the group grappled with several uncertainties, such as whether a focus on a fall vaccine sends unclear messages about SARS-CoV-2 seasonality and similarities to flu. Some members also worried that a strain selection focusing on fall would preclude more frequent updates to the vaccine if there are major changes to the virus. FDA officials noted practical considerations for vaccine production as one of the reasons for a seasonal vaccine update. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/fda-panel-backs-monovalent-xbb-switch-fall-covid-vaccines ~ ~ ~ Fungal Infections More Deadly When COVID’s Involved From 2020 to 2021, the mortality rate for in-hospital COVID-associated fungal infections was 48.5% compared with 12.3% for non-COVID-associated fungal infections (P<0.01). the highest mortality rates involved aspergillosis (57.6%), invasive candidiasis (55.4%), mucormycosis (44.7%), and unspecified mycoses (59.0%), they noted in Emerging Infectious Diseases “COVID-19 is a substantial risk factor for certain fungal infections, particularly those caused by invasive molds, likely because of COVID-19-related immune system dysregulation and immunosuppressive therapies, such as corticosteroids or other immunomodulatory medications.” ~ ~ ~ @elisaperego78 Jun 10 Mild SARS-CoV-2 infection results in long-lasting microbiota instability in non-hospitalized patients, potentially linked to #LongCovid. The results were replicated in mouse models infected with different variants. Omicron preserved capacity to damage https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.00889-23 ~ ~ ~ C. auris tied to 34% death rate: CDC In a new report, the CDC analyzed 192 hospitalizations associated with Candida auris and found an estimated crude mortality rate of 34 percent. The death rate estimates follow reports from earlier this year that found clinical cases of the drug-resistant fungus grew 95 percent from 2020 to 2021. For the study, published June 8, CDC researchers reviewed 192 C. auris-related hospitalizations from 2017 to 2022, including 38 bloodstream infections. Hospitalizations primarily occurred among older adults, with a median age of 68. There was a high prevalence of underlying conditions and complications for patients with bloodstream and nonbloodstream C. auris, including sepsis (64 percent), diabetes (55 percent), chronic kidney disease (44 percent) and pneumonia (43 percent). https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/c-auris-tied-to-34-death-rate-cdc.html ~ ~ ~ Donated kidneys from deceased COVID-19 patients are safe to transplant, according to study Kidneys from organ donors who were diagnosed with COVID-19 are safe to transplant and don’t transmit the virus to people who receive those organs, according to a new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Of the many thousands of kidneys transplanted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been no reported infections after transplant surgery related to kidneys donated by people who died and had tested positive for the virus. Most donors died of causes other than COVID-19, but even in those who had tested positive for the virus within a week of their deaths, there was no effect on the success of the transplants. The findings are published in the journal JAMA Network Open. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-donated-kidneys-deceased-covid-patients.html ~ ~ ~ Millions of patients do not have full recovery of smell or taste senses after COVID infection, study finds about 60 percent of surveyed participants infected with COVID experienced a loss of smell and about 58 percent experienced loss of taste. Additionally, not all the patients experienced a full recovery of their senses once they recovered from their infection. The study found that around 72 percent of patients fully recovered their sense of smell, but 24 percent only had a partial recovery and over 3 percent had no recovery of their sense of smell at all. Similarly, of those who experienced a loss of taste due to COVID, about 76 percent fully recovered the sense, while 20 percent only partially recovered and over 2 percent did not recover at all. That amounted to almost 28 million Americans potentially left with a decreased sense of smell after COVID infection. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-millions-patients-full-recovery-covid.html ~ ~ ~ New onset of hypertension was detected in 32.3% of patients(30-74y) at one-year follow-up post-COVID-19 disease recovery. Furthermore severe inflammation at admission and severe CT severity score were positively associated with the development of this new onset of hypertension on follow-up(Single center retro prospective observational study) “Incidence and predictors of development of new onset hypertension post COVID-19 disease” https://sciencedirect.com/science/articl ~ ~ ~ Other: Candida auris Candida auris (C auris), which is spreading at an alarming rate in health care facilities and is now considered an “urgent antimicrobial resistance threat.”1 …NYC healthcare facilities: 6.9% of new patients tested were positive for C auris.colonization5 …Risk factors for C auris infection include recent surgery, obesity, immunosuppression, diabetes, use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and antifungals, presence of tracheostomies, PEG tubes, and ventilators.6,7,8 Long-term usage of broad-spectrum antibiotics can also be a risk factor for acquiring C auris infection.6,7 Recent studies illustrate that the 30-day mortality of infected patients in an ICU was 31%.8 https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/special-report-on-candida-auris-an-emerging-drug-resistant-fungal-threat Diagnostics: Daily #SARSCoV2 Nasal Antigen Tests Miss Infected and Presumably Infectious People Due to Viral Load Differences among Specimen Types | Microbiology Spectrum https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/spectrum.01295-23 ~ ~ ~ Drugs and Vaccines: Next COVID Vaccine Should Only Target XBB Strains, FDA Staff Says medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/104996? ~ ~ ~ Pfizer projects Bicillin L-A and Bicillin C-R shortages, PLUS At least 20 chemotherapy drugs in short supply Supplies of at least 20 chemotherapy drugs and adjuvants (drugs given to augment primary treatment or prevent adverse effects) are limited, including amifostine, capecitabine, carboplatin, cisplatin, dacarbazine, dexamethasone, docetaxel, fludarabine, fluorouracil, hydrocortisone injection, leucovorin, methotrexate, octreotide, ondansetron, paclitaxel, palifermin, and streptozocin, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), and azacytidine, cytarabine, lutetium lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan, per the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/resilient-drug-supply/life-threatening-cancer-drug-shortages-are-result-cascade-troubles Devices and Ventilation: The New War on Bad Air A century ago, a well-ventilated building was considered good medicine. But by the time Covid-19 arrived, our buildings could barely breathe. How did that happen? And how do we let the fresh air back in? by Emily Anthes Gift link for you Epidemiology/Infection control: Tips, general reading for public: Ventilate. Mask. Vax. Politics: Covid: ~ ~ ~ Confidence in the scientific community declined among U.S. adults in 2022, Overall, 39% of U.S. adults said they had “a great deal of confidence” in the scientific community, down from 48% in 2018 and 2021. That’s according to the General Social Survey, a long-running poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. An additional 48% of adults in the latest survey reported “only some” confidence, while 13% reported “hardly any,”… Between surveys in 2018 and 2021, as the pandemic took hold, the major parties’ trust levels headed in opposite directions. Democrats reported a growing level of confidence in science in 2021-perhaps as a “rallying effect” around things like COVID-19 vaccines and prevention measures, Benz said. At the same time, Republicans saw their confidence start to plummet. In the 2022 survey, Democrats’ confidence fell back to around pre-pandemic levels, with 53% reporting a great deal of confidence compared with 55% in 2018....
Slide 13, Quest of the Virosols
Clustering is a key element for superspreading events
Commonalities among superspreading events include indoor settings, crowds, exposure durations of 1 hour or more, poor ventilation, vocalization, and lack of proper mask-wearing.
Source: http://aerosol.nsysu.edu.tw/en/scopes/108
#COVIDisAirborne #COVIDisNOTover #COVIDisOngoing #SARSCoV2 #COVID #SARS2 #superspreading #superspreader #superspreaders
🤦🏽♂️:
“How Affluent Indians Became Covid Superspreaders”, Mint Lounge (https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/how-affluent-indians-became-covid-superspreaders-111619175848141.html).
#COVID19 #CoronaVirus #Pandemic #India #IndiaFightsCOVID19 #SuperSpreaders #Covidiots #Reckless #ResponseFatigue #Risk #Health
Researchers from the Princeton Environmental Institute find the continued spread of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is driven by only a small percentage of those who become infected.
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