AnakkucingJun 5, 2024
Dr. Lucky Tran 

4+ years into COVID and many still missing the nuances:

Often 6ft isn't enough, but increasing physical distance reduces risk

N95s are much better, but surgical masks do help

Outdoors is safer, but you can still catch it

Vaccines reduce transmission, but don't eliminate it

Jun 5, 2024 at 1:23amWeb
Show threadDr. Lucky Tran Jun 5, 2024

The nuances behind how viruses transmit and how humans behave are exactly why we need layered public health measures.

In such a complex environment, no one single public health tool is perfect. The best community protection happens when we use multiple tools together.

Show threadKanaMaunaJun 5, 2024
@luckytran The general public recognizes that nuances are very important in sports or automobiles. But for some reason they just can’t seem to extend this view to existential matters like diseases or politics.
Show threadazteclady has movedJun 5, 2024

@luckytran The problem is that "nuance" is a bad word for the people in charge of leading public education on everything from politics to public health.

At this point, one has to figure it's on purpose--a feature, not a bug.

Show threadErik HaugenJun 5, 2024
@luckytran what's the latest on vaccines and transmission? I thought it was settled that they reduce severity but ultimately useless re. transmission?
Show threadMartinJun 5, 2024
@ech @luckytran me too, my reading suggests a reduction in transmission rather than prevent, don't know how that works though as vaxxed and unvaxxed have similar load.
Show threadSea CowJun 5, 2024
@luckytran there’s what’s true and there’s what we should focus on. If people started masking in a serious way, that would be much more beneficial than if people started standing farther apart in the checkout line again…
Show threadNotMaddie!Jun 5, 2024
@luckytran There’s no cure for intentional stupidity though. Cue coworker: “My coworker is sitting in our shared room, coughing like crazy. I don’t want to be in there.”
Me, gesturing: “Here’s a box of masks, help yourself.”
She: “Oh, I’m not really a mask person.”
Me, a little snappy: “Well, that’s what they are for. So you don’t get sick.”
She then wandered out of my space. Wish I could have smacked her.
Show threadJ Wolfgang GoerlichJun 5, 2024
@luckytran The story of how we arrived at 6’ is wild. Basically, someone at the CDC, sixty or seventy years ago, conflated two different facts about aerosols. Then everyone at the CDC repeated it like gospel. It’s not actual science, which contributed to Covid spread.
Show threadBill ZaumenJun 5, 2024
@luckytran During the pandemic, I had to sign some financial documents. I set up the meeting for it in a park at a picnic table oriented so there was a crosswind. The idea was that anything that got past the masks would be moving slowly and would be blown away to the side, not towards either of us.
Show threadHumble Fan of Atty. WooJun 5, 2024

@luckytran

all true. the winds which here in Bryan, TX have been sustaining recently between 12-25mph can take Covid coughs a longer distance. Yes, I use an N95 S.Korean made mask, and have a good supply of them. I am up to date on the vaccine.

Mom had Polio and was pregnant with me; doctors told her I probably wouldn't make it (mom had miscarried their first attempt). But here I am. Did Mom make sure my older sister and I got all the Polio vaccines that came along. You damn right she did. That's what vigilant parents do for their kids. They use the science, which isn't always perfect, which is why more improved vaccines come out later. I yield back my time.

Show threadPaulaToThePeople 😷Jun 5, 2024
@luckytran Wait! Is it really "6ft" in countries that don't have the metric system?
That's quite morbid tbh.
Show threadClaudiusJun 5, 2024
@PaulaToThePeople 😆
Show threadjepdeeJun 5, 2024
@luckytran if there's one (sad) thing I've learned in the last few years it's that "average" intelligence is much lower than I thought.
Show threadLstn2urmama 🇨🇦Jun 5, 2024
@luckytran ... as a PATIENT in ELEVATORS are ENDANGERED by COVID CARRIERS in HOSPITALS ...
Show threadDr Joe PajakJun 5, 2024
@luckytran Long COVID: real hell, and @RishiSunak has got our back?
'Lucy has lost a lot – her health, her business, her livelihood, nearly all her money, her passions, her life as it used to be. At one point, she lost the will to live. @samwollaston @guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/05/i-could-bench-press-100kg-now-i-cant-walk-lucys-life-with-long-covid?CMP=share_btn_url
‘I could bench-press 100kg. Now, I can’t walk’: Lucy’s life with long Covid

Before the pandemic, Lucy Keighley ran a gym, worked as a personal trainer and went on gruelling, exhilarating runs. But after three and a half years of illness, she isn’t sure she will ever recover

The Guardian
Show threadThe Skeptic's Book of ListsJun 5, 2024
@luckytran People need to be taught how to think like public health officials and not like newspaper headline writers. Something that reduces a disease's transmission by, say, 20% is a public health win. Anything less than 100% is a failure to headline writers.
Show threadIAGJun 5, 2024
@luckytran my brother believes that masks literally do nothing and that Fauci lied about everything
Which is all obviously false, but I could not convince him
Public health here in the states is fucked