Great @A_P_S_A Seminar: "The role of the physician scientist during a pandemic"

Live tweeting thread!

"What are the most important frontline clinical questions?"

@SalliePermar: "It seems that children aren't as affected, even among immunocompromised children. What causes the difference in response b/w adults and children?"

@SalliePermar: "What are the routes of transmission?"

@DMAronoff: "What will be the outcome of this societal experiment of wearing masks?"

@DMAronoff: "Why do we have 30 year olds dying of infection, and sometimes 100 year olds don't? We're chiselling away big chunks like hypertension, diabetes, but there is lots from genetic information."

@DMAronoff: "How durable is our immunity to this virus? Will those infected keep immunity, or will it wane over time?"

@DMAronoff: "There are so many questions that we could spend a whole day whiteboarding the questions!"

Albrecht: "how would you test people that have already been infected by covid19 and how would that go about?"

@SalliePermar : "Animal models. Study re-infection and see if infection/immunity is around in the long term. It'll be important to show in human populations. We prepare now for the 2nd/3rd waves by setting up the clinical trials now. Follow pts infected in this wave 4 long term."

@JoseARodrigues8: "How has seeing covid patients changed how you interact with clinical teams and pt management?"

@DMaronoff: "At Vanderbilt, we have two multidisciplinary clinical huddles/day. 1 for pts in ICU, 1 for pts not in ICU. Reps from physicians in infectious disease, PMCC, immunologists, rheumatologists, virologists, clinical trialists. Primary care providers participate too."

@SalliePermar: "Pharmacists + microbiologists. Going over what changed this week. Multidisciplinary has become the new norm and something I hope will continue."

@YentliSA : "What do we tell family members about where we stand for developing therapies for covid19?"

@SalliePermar: "Listen to the scientific community. Look at the landscape, which changes every day. It's not simple and it's not static. Pointing to one source may not be feasible in the short term."

@DMOronoff : "Some really good compilers of info: National Library of Medicine. Good in communication to stick to what we know and stick to fundamentals. It's not wrong to say there are no proven therapies and no vaccines for covid19."

@DMOronoff : "The best offence right now is defence. The concept that we're communicating over the power of electrons instead of in person is really important in preventing the spread of a respiratory infectious disease."

@DMOronoff: "Why are we distancing? Why are we washing hands and using disinfecting sanitizer? These are really basic and go back to the flu pandemic of 1918, but they're important questions to answer."

@DMOronoff: "Important not to get into the angstrom level of our research, and spend time explaining the basics of preventing spread."

@JoseARodrigues8 : "Do you feel like you were prepared to communicate so well about this disease? Or was this something you picked up while training elsewhere?"

@DMAronoff: "All the training standing in front of posters. Having to practice my research pitch, whether it's for a grant, or literally in an elevator has been invaluable for communication."

@DMAronoff : "I have to learn in real time about how my city and hospital are dealing with this, ingest it, and give it out in aliquots to say in a way that's understandable to a broad audience."

@DMAronoff : "Scientists are among the best prepared to be public health and science communicators. Growing trend + emphasis now for students to be science communicators!"

@SalliePermar : "Physician scientists have an advantage of taking a huge story and summarizing it down into a one-liner. They're well-poised to speak to the broader community."

@SalliePermar: "Now, more than ever, it's important for scientists and physician scientists to take that podium and earpiece and turn it into an important message."

@YentliSA : "How do you recommend research to trainees during this time when a lot of labs are shut down?"

@SalliePermar : "As mentors, one of our tasks now is to come up with research opportunities that are virtual. This is a new challenge! For mentees: if you are in an established research community, you can bring up an idea to your mentors. If you've wanted to learn R, go for it!"

@JoseARodrigues8 : "How do folks that are ambitious, how to balance opportunism vs trying to address the problem?"

@DMAronoff: "The long view is important one here. This will pass and labs will reopen."

@DMAronoff: "This shows we can rapidly do team science. I think we may see a bit of a renaissance in the importance of physician scientists and the importance of biomedical science. It may open people to interest."

@DMAronoff: "When things gradually reopen, labs will be very hungry to bring new scientists in. Hold onto hope. I think this is a time where great change is afoot."