Lydia Maria Fanfan

Interests: Infectious diseases, tropical medicine, global health, politics, art, China, international cuisine

[Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease @TAInfDis]

This comprehensive review looks at respiratory complications of Schistosoma mansoni infection.
To learn more about bilharzia see link- https://t.co/8bCWXR8YZN

[Penn @Penn]

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, Penn’s historic mRNA vaccine research team, win 2023 @NobelPrize in Medicine https://t.co/ztt9x0Iumu #nobelprize

[Ian Weissman, DO @DrIanWeissman]

Dr. Katalin Karikó, who is sharing the Nobel Prize in medicine for her work with mRNA vaccines, says she was previously demoted by the University of Pennsylvania for her research in this area because she could not secure research funding.
https://t.co/mILBCwexiw

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

BREAKING NEWS
The 2023 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

[Omar Rivero @OmarRiverosays]

BREAKING: Ivanka Trump is hit with devastating news at the Trump Organization’s fraud trial in New York as its former accountant testifies under oath that there were serious discrepancies in the price of Ivanka’s penthouse at Trump Park Avenue.

But it gets WORSE for Ivanka…

The accountant testified that he pointed out several “errors” on the Trump Organization’s financial documents pertaining to Ivanka Trump’s penthouse — meaning that the Trump Organization knew that Ivanka and Donald were committing fraud.

According to CNN, the accountant restored that “Ivanka Trump had an option to buy a penthouse apartment at Trump Park Avenue,” and that “the value on Trump’s financial schedule was different than what was listed in Ivanka Trump’s option.”

In other words, Ivanka Trump was in up to her neck in her father’s financial fraud.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has long suspected that Ivanka Trump committed financial fraud — but she didn’t have the evidence to prove it in court.

She now has first-hand testimony from the Trump Organization’s longtime accountant — meaning that she can now sue Ivanka Trump as well.

Please retweet and ❤️ if you think that Ivanka Trump MUST face consequences — and consider joining the growing exodus to Tribel, a woke new Twitter competitor I created that banned Trump for life and is exploding in popularity because Elon Musk banned Tribel’s Twitter account — but he forgot to ban this link to download the new Tribel app: https://t.co/0c9FDbByU8

[Manual Of Medicine @ManualOMedicine]

Burns - Summary

@StephaneeBeggs
#medtwitter #foamed #meded

[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine @LSHTM]

As @Nature reports scientists have welcomed UK rejoining EU #Horizon science programme but concerns remain.

Claudia Allemani & Michel Coleman discuss data sharing between UK & EU researchers and why #Brexit still poses challenges. 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔬

👇https://t.co/0mEczRSruf

[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine @LSHTM]

"These results confirm the strong geographical differences across regions, with London being the most impacted for heat-related deaths."

@AGasparrini75 comments on new @ONS data showing highest mortality risk in London for temperatures +29 degrees C 👉https://t.co/m387BOodeP

[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine @LSHTM]

“Urbanisation is leading to larger outbreaks”

Martin Hibberd in @Telegraph on #dengue outbreak in #Peru which has claimed 419 lives. Urban growth brings humans & mosquitos closer together🦟👇

https://t.co/CY3AZz7o4i

[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine @LSHTM]

A @Nature feature on #RSV prevention highlights research by @markjit showing vaccines most cost-effective way to save lives & prevent hospitalisations.💉🏥

👇https://t.co/a1LrSZPNWH

[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine @LSHTM]

“There is very little data from regions we know are particularly vulnerable”

@BonellAna in @ScienceMagazine discusses 2022 study of #pregnant farmers in the Gambia showing #extremeheat puts strain on foetus. 🤰☀️📈
@mrcunitgambia

👇https://t.co/Nplrb3bDZS

[Bloom Lab @jbloom_lab]

There have been many experimental papers on BA.2.86 over last month. This one by David Ho's group is one of most comprehensive: https://t.co/iPWlTH8MEa

I'm going to quickly summarize key points for people having hard time keeping up w all the recent BA.2.86 papers.

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: Donald Trump is caught in a jaw-dropping fake event scandal as it's revealed that the rally he supposedly held for autoworkers and union members in Michigan was a complete farce.

This is bad, even for a reality television host...

According to credible reporting by The Detroit News, the crowd at the event was DEEPLY suspicious. Their reporter attended the rally and discovered that one of the women holding a "union members for Trump" sign wasn't actually a union member.

In fact, it's unclear if any of the people in the crowd belong to a union.

Another attendee holding an "auto workers for Trump" sign admitted that he was not a union worker. Again, it's unclear how many people present were actually workers at all.

The event drew only 500 or so people — either actors or just fanatical Trump supporters — and the automotive parts supplier where it was held is a non-union shop with just 150 workers.

In other words, Donald Trump meticulously constructed a ruse to convince voters that he is pro-worker despite belonging to a party that solely defends the interests of bosses and corporations.

The charade contrasts sharply with Joe Biden who appeared on the picket line in solidarity with the United Auto Workers Union which currently has 18,300 workers on strike. It was the first time in history that a president has joined a picket.

Shawn Fain, the President of United Auto Workers, refused to meet with Trump and correctly stated that the ex-president "serves the billionaire class" and said that his decision to appear at a non-unionized facility a "pathetic irony."

Donald Trump is trying to trick pro-union and pro-worker voters to support him in 2024. Unfortunately for him, they see right through his lies.

Please retweet and ❤️ if you think that Trump is anti-worker — and consider joining the growing exodus to Tribel, a “woke” new Twitter competitor that is exploding in popularity because it banned Trump for life and because Elon Musk banned Tribel’s Twitter account — but he forgot to ban this link to download the new Tribel app: https://t.co/HnJzSKjCwX

[Lydia Maria Fanfan @LydiaMFanfan]

BBC News - Evergrande: Anxious Chinese home buyers reel from crisis
https://t.co/QjhJtqwgDt

[IDSA @IDSAInfo]

Invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Prophylaxis with mold-active triazoles (MATs), including posaconazole, voriconazole, and isavuconazole, has been shown to be effective in patients at high risk for IFDs.

In @OFIDJournal, M Hong Nguyen, MD and colleagues assessed the real-world use of mold-active triazoles (MATs) for the prevention of IFDs: https://t.co/8PCzm8Yfmv

[Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape]

My latest piece (and my last for a while) is out. It tackles what we know about how climate change is going to impact infectious diseases around the world. It's also about communication, complexity and nuance.

It's here (and a thread or two coming soon):
https://t.co/V7GnN2KzYn

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

"This study remains highly impactful and advances our knowledge in the pathobiology of #LongCovid"
https://t.co/aabhHvTjji
There are many out there who try to negate the existence of #LongCovid and any research done to help understand it. Read the accompanying editorial.

[Hiroshi Yasuda (保田浩志) @Yash25571056]

Still preprint, but it states that "An increasing number of reports suggest an association between COVID-19 infection and initiation or acceleration of neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Both these diseases and several other NDs are caused by conversion of human proteins into a misfolded, aggregated amyloid fibril state..
our data suggest that cross-seeding by Spike-amyloid fibrils can be implicated in the increasing number of reports of CJD, AD, and possibly other NDs in the wake of COVID-19."

https://t.co/20yd47MnI5

[Tomi T Ahonen Moved to Post, Spoutible & Mastodon @tomiahonen]

Pop the champagne. This day we have been waiting for, for a long time

Trump loses his New York businesses, Trump Org is ordered to be dissolved as a financial fraud

He loses $250 million dollar civil lawsuit, he is already referred to Manhattan DA and IRS for criminal charges

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

A young statistician saved their lives.

His insight (and how it can change yours):

During World War II, the U.S. wanted to add reinforcement armor to specific areas of its planes.

Analysts examined returning bombers and plotted the bullet holes and damage on them (as in the image below).

Based on this analysis, they came to the conclusion that adding armor to the tail, body, and wings would improve their odds of survival.

But a young statistician named Abraham Wald noted that this would be a tragic mistake.

By only plotting data on the planes that returned, they were systematically omitting the data on a critical, informative subset:

The planes that were damaged and unable to return.

Abraham Wald recognized a key fact:

• "Seen" planes had sustained damage that was survivable.
• "Unseen" planes had sustained damage that was not survivable.

Wald concluded that armor should be added to the *unharmed* regions of the returning planes (the areas without bullet holes on the image below).

His profound logic:

Where the survivors were unharmed was actually where the planes were most vulnerable.

Based on his insight, the military reinforced the engine and other vulnerable parts, significantly improving the safety of the crews during combat and saving thousands of lives.

Abraham Wald had identified a cognitive bias called "Survivorship Bias":

The error resulting from systematically focusing on survivors (successes) and ignoring casualties (failures) that causes us to miss the true base rates of survival (the actual probability of success) and arrive at flawed conclusions.

We see examples of Survivorship Bias all around us:

1. We read books on the common traits of successful people, but fail to consider all of the unsuccessful people who possessed those same traits.

2. We applaud the belief when we hear that an entrepreneur took out a second mortgage and succeeded, but fail to consider all of the entrepreneurs who did the same and went bankrupt.

3. We study the cultural strategies of the most successful companies, but fail to consider all of the companies that followed those same strategies and fell apart.

When we fail to consider the range of outcomes and the hidden evidence, we develop a skewed (and often incorrect) view of reality.

It cannot be avoided altogether, because the vast majority of books and history are written by and about the survivors and victors, but wherever possible, consider the unseen evidence.

Remember: What is unseen often has just as much value as what is seen.

***

If you enjoyed this or learned something, follow me @SahilBloom for more in future!