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Thread on my routine for personal risk assessment for airborne infections. A surprise at the end, that provides a compelling additional reason to monitor CO2. 1/
Prof Brendan Crabb
13.2K posts
Prof Brendan Crabb
@CrabbBrendan
Medical researcher & Director & CEO @BurnetInstitute & Chair @ausglobalhealth & @PacificFriends | also @BrendanCrabbAC & brendancrabb.bsky.social
- I stand with the sole mask wearer at school, on the train or in the office, of those concerned about COVID's ongoing enormous death & morbidity toll, & of those looking for sustainable solutions through boosting, clean air & testing. Ignore the ridicule. Stay strong. You'll win.
- Like many, I often get labelled a fearmonger. As we approach our 4th wave for 2022, shortly after our most lethal wave of the pandemic - on track for 25,000 XS deaths for the year & with a likely #LongCovid toll of 500,000+ - what we're seeing is actually worse than I thought.
- Understanding that SARS-Cov-2 transmission is predominantly airborne rather than droplet, is as fundamental as knowing HIV is blood-borne & not transmitted by insects. Changes everything. Yet people don't really know this. Clearing the air & fitted masks make a huge difference.
- Policy makers in Oz made plans for delta. These are now obsolete. We are headed for the omicron iceberg, we must alter course, fast. Accelerate boosters & 5-11 vax; & sharpen mask, ventilation, distancing & testing strategies. Speed matters.
- Something useful out of #Davos2023 - how to run a COVIDsafe meeting. No organised gathering should fall short of this. The irony of this level of protection for a ruling class clearly so comfortable with widespread transmission not lost on many. www3.weforum.org/docs/AM23_Heal…
- Letting COVID go, esp. in countries that normally lead on global health, was foolish from the beginning. A mistake never corrected. You just don’t do this with zoonoses, never. The result is years of world-changing devastation, with unpredictable evolution rampant. Madness.
- Denmark is a few weeks ahead of Oz in the omicron outbreak. Deaths are on the rise; equivalent to ~100/day in Australia. Their vaccination rates are better than Oz’s; 3rd dose is 42% vs 8%. Creating the impression that it is ok for omicron to spread is a public health threat.
- Our household has COVID, primary school the likely source. We work hard to avoid it but this reflects that once again our community is awash with this virus, the 2nd-3rd major spike this year without any very ‘low’ period in between. Every infection/re-infection does damage so
- Much more than a single health issue, COVID-19 has set back human development like nothing else in many decades. This 2020/21 decline in life expectancy continues through 2022/23. It is unlikely to end itself any time soon. What happens next is up to us.
- Air quality not great when boarding & waiting for planes to take off as I am now - you’re breathing a lot of other people’s exhaled air. As with buses, trams & trains, this is a v good time to wear a respirator mask. Protect yourself & others.
- Just as we don't accept polio or smallpox or cholera or typhoid or tetanus or diphtheria or whooping cough or tuberculosis or malaria or HIV or HepB/B or many other serious pathogens as 'fact-of-life', nor should we COVID-19. The notion is as offensive as it is ridiculous.100 Victorians died of COVID last week. This is not something we can or should accept as a ‘fact of life.’
- Replacing the 2+ year old hepa in the kids bedroom. New filter at left in both images; Old filter pre-external dust removal (left image; we do this every few months) & after dust removal (right image). As this shows, indoor air is not clean unless you make it so, often
- The unthinkable has happened in the town I am proud to call home. Hard not to conclude that the same forces that led to the Capitol Hill attack are stronger here than many of us thought. It’s mainstream support of that, often tacit and subtle, that should concern us all the most.
