Prof Francois Balloux, Discover and Read the Best of Twitter Threads by @BallouxFrancois

Prof Francois Balloux

BallouxFrancois

New preprint. We estimate the transmissibility of #SARSCoV2 lineages based on their genomic makeup. Overall, transmissibility of #SARSCoV2 went up over time, but fitness of individual clades tends to decay

Over the coming weeks and months, we can expect a large number of preprints and papers reporting 'breakthrough infections', i.e. infections in vaccinated individuals.1/ Most studies on 'breakthrough infections' will

Paper out in Nature Comms. We developed a framework to analyse the contribution of #SARSCoV2 mutations to the virus' transmissibility. We applied it to nearly 50k genomes and we found

The news on #SARSCoV2 vaccines is highly encouraging. There are now 4 vaccines that seem safe and highly effective; two mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) and two adenovirus ones (ChAdOx

Demand for #COVID19 vaccines will outstrip supply for a while. This will be the case in all countries, and could last for years, if not indefinitely so, globally. As such,

This new mink COVID-19 mutation story, which is making the rounds on Twitter is highly problematic. There are elements of truth in it but the reporting is completely irresponsible.1/https://www.berlingske.dk/nyheder/english-version-mink-cau

The covid-19 pandemic is an extremely challenging problem and there are still many unknowns. There is no simple fix, and poorly thought-out interventions could make the situation even worse, massively

'Infection blocking immunisation' to #COVID19 lasts for longer than might have been anticipated at the beginning of the pandemic (~1-2 years on average). 'Symptom reducing immunity' likely for far longer

A sense of perspective may help. There have been multiple pandemics over the last 100 years: influenza A 1957, 1968, 2009), 6th (1899-1923) and 7th (1961/75) cholera pandemic and HIV/AIDS.

One intriguing aspect of the scientific discussion about #COVID19 measures is how entirely unscientific it feels to me. "Letting young people get infected by the virus is immoral" or "lockdowns

To me, both the 'Great Barrington' and the 'John Snow' #COVID19 declarations lack rigour, humility and empathy. They whip up fervour in the convinced, but neither even attempts to engage

Reconstruction of transmission chains (i.e. who infected whom) is a sophisticated subfield in infection disease epidemiology. This atrocious drivel masquerading as science, with no stats, no genomic sequencing, no nothing