Epidemiologist & biostatistician. 🔬 📊 #OzSAGE independent scientific advisory group member. Let's end #COVID19 with a #VaccinesPlus ventilation strategy.
ℹ️ On this platform, I talk about: #Science #Epidemiology #PublicHealth #COVID #COVIDisAirborne #SciComm #EpiVerse #SciFi and other interesting things. Posts reflect only my own opinions.
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I’ll be voting YES in the referendum to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.
In my work with Aboriginal colleagues, I’ve seen how programs that have been co-designed with and by Aboriginal people can change lives for the better.
A regular reminder that the goal is *not*
“A #HEPAFilter in every classroom”,
it’s
“Achieving #cleanair delivery targets in every classroom”
This may be mechanical #ventilation, multiple portable air filters, or both.
The goal is achieving real risk reduction, not a box ticking exercise with little impact.
The portable air filter recommendation tool at https://filters.cleanairstars.com was built with this is mind, helping achieve clean air delivery targets at required noise levels.
Many Australian adults are eligible to receive a COVID-19 booster, but only out of date bivalent vaccines are available.
OzSAGE call on the Australian Government to offer updated XBB.1.5-targeted vaccines.
Read more: https://ozsage.org/media_releases/its-time-to-update-covid-19-vaccines-in-australia/
(3/3) Policymakers must understand that an annual vaccination program (as with influenza) is inadequate.
Offering people the chance to get vaccinated against new strains of SARS-CoV-2 every 6 months would be more realistic.
But vaccination alone won’t stop COVID-19.
We must make the buildings in which we live and work more robust to the threat of airborne disease.
Ventilation and air filtration (which don’t inconvenience anyone) are key to managing COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens.
(2/3) Many seem to believe COVID-19 will become seasonal, but why should it? Influenza generally isn’t very transmissible and infects a small number each year. There’s plenty of time to design vaccines based on what’s happening in the opposite hemisphere.
SARS-CoV-2 is an ongoing free-for-all. The next variant could evolve anywhere, be carried by plane to the other side of the world, and spread rapidly irrespective of season. The short-lived immunity and high transmissibility will see to that.
(1/3) Policymakers shouldn’t be trying to manage COVID-19 as if it were seasonal influenza. It’s not and never will be. SARS-CoV-2’s greater transmissibility leads to faster viral evolution and waves of disease throughout the year, rather than a single winter COVID season.
Thanks to vaccination, COVID-19 is far less deadly than it was. But a virus doesn’t have to hospitalise people to be disruptive. Leaving aside long COVID, frequent waves of infection will grind down economic productivity. 🧵
(4/4) For people from all ethnic backgrounds, improving physical activity, preventing and treating obesity, and improving hearing could substantially reduce the incidence of future dementia.
This work was led by Rhiann Sue See and Fintan Thompson from the Healthy Ageing Research Team at James Cook University, with Sarah Russell, Rachel Quigley, Adrian Esterman, Linton Harriss, myself, Sean Taylor, Kylie Radford, Dina LoGiudice, Robyn McDermott, Gill Livingston, and Edward Strivens.
(3/4) The 11 established risk factors accounted for a greater proportion of dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (44.9%) than they did in people with European (36.4%) or Asian (33.6%) ancestry.
This reflects greater disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, leading to greater exposure to the risk factors. However, it also means there’s significant scope to improve brain health & reduce dementia incidence if these risk factors can be improved.
(2/4) We looked at 11 established risk factors: less education; hearing loss; hypertension; obesity; smoking; depression; social isolation; physical inactivity; diabetes; alcohol excess; and air pollution.
Using a population attributable fractions approach, adjusted for communality (to account for shared risk factors), we found that:
1️⃣ physical inactivity (8.3%),
2️⃣ hearing loss (7.0%), and
3️⃣ obesity (6.6%)
accounted for the largest proportion of dementia cases.
Clean Air Stars
Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him)