Read on TwitterWhen the original paper came out in May, my coauthors and I were stunned. 1/ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32071-7/fulltext">https://www.thelancet.com/journals/...
The original article was flawed in methodology and conclusions, while not overtly written as such, indicated to the global health community and policymakers that #covid19 could be transmitted through breastfeeding. 2/
This would have been unlikely - other coronaviruses, including MERS and SARS, are fragmented by the lactating breast& #39;s innate and adaptive immune mechanisms. The baby in the report had fed at the breast while symptomatic just before sampling making contamination highly likely. 3/
And the paper showed high Ct values, well over 30, suggesting from the outset that fragmentation was also the case for SARS-CoV-2 - part of human milk& #39;s evolutionary selected antiviral mechanisms. And tellingly, two of the four cited papers were non-peer reviewed preprints. 4/
More papers have since supplanted this report. Breastfeeding has been consistently considered safe by the @WHO and milk can contain protective antibodies. But this case report was published in The Lancet. It has been cited over 70 times already. 5/ http://Bit.ly/30O2M1u ">https://Bit.ly/30O2M1u&q...
Our response was submitted within 5 days of publication. Others sent letters too. It took 5 months to publish. Damage done by national policies of separating mothers from infants, and the doubt placed in mothers& #39; minds, are becoming clear. 6/ http://Bit.ly/3lvBwNs ">https://Bit.ly/3lvBwNs&q...
Others with more commercially minded aims have seized on the uncertainty as an opportunity... 7/ http://Bit.ly/3iLwtXf ">https://Bit.ly/3iLwtXf&q...
