Nick Skaff

Public health & data science. Using machine learning and #rstats to solve public health challenges. Opinions my own.

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

@amyewalter lol take MARTA…downtown in 15 minutes

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

@Pres_Hoover_II @caraebrook they actually paid money to send you this message on linkedin...🤦‍♂️

[Bob Wachter @Bob_Wachter]

8) Notwithstanding all the noise about breakthrough infections, the case for vaccination remains enormously strong: they show an 8-fold reduction in cases, and a 25-fold reduction in hospitalizations and deaths with vaccination.(10/13)

[Bob Wachter @Bob_Wachter]

4) Vaccine efficacy: several estimates; they tend to show ~80% efficacy vs. Delta (vs. the prior 95%). Thankfully vax IS still ~95% effective vs. serious infections. That the efficacy of the vaccines is holding up for serious infections is the main piece of good news here.(6/13)

[Dr. Angela Rasmussen @angie_rasmussen]

Lots of anecdotal "fully vaxxed people in the ICU" tweets, so I'll share this excellent piece by Dr. @KatherineJWu.

As more people get vaccinated, we will see more breakthrough, including a small % of serious cases.

This doesn't mean vaccines don't work.
https://t.co/hd8jtWSVZ7

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

@Pres_Hoover_II No fun travel for me…

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

@atlurbanist Yes! I have the same thought every time I walk by this place

[Erin Mordecai @morde]

Reporting in @nytimes by @apoorva_nyc and others proclaiming that herd immunity is out of reach are missing the point in several key ways 1/
https://t.co/nGptoZS4gM

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

Should they be getting them before the uninfected...No

[NYT Science @NYTScience]

Should the millions of people who have recovered from Covid get a vaccine? New studies answer that question with an emphatic yes. https://t.co/wBMcUoc2zO

[A Marm Kilpatrick now @disease-ecology.bsky.social @DiseaseEcology]

Real-world Pfizer vaccine (& natural infection) efficacy against sars-cov-2 INFECTION
New Lancet paper posted today with fantastic data.
https://t.co/IQWLGI54oT
Short Thread
tl;dr 1 dose reduces infection 72% on day 21; 7d post 2nd dose, 86%; previous infection 90%

[Bloomberg @business]

JUST IN: Pfizer's Covid vaccine stopped 89.4% of transmission in Israel, the first real-world sign that immunization will curb the spread of coronavirus https://t.co/8dswCcFo65

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

75% reduction in infections and 85% reduction in symptomatic disease 14-28 days after just 1 Pfizer dose! https://t.co/8htUHOzCxy

[Justin Remais @Justin_Remais]

Work with Abi Bhattachan @AmandaIrish1 @NickSkaff shows state restrictions on landscape irrigation during recent drought in California reduced the abundance of important disease vectors

[David Pogue @Pogue]

This is the COOLEST. A Google Earth-type representation of the planet. Every green dot is a radio station. Click any dot to listen in. It’s like cultural teleportation. You could spend hours with this thing… https://t.co/rdEHUUfgvk

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

New variants pose problems, but this is definitely encouraging

[A Marm Kilpatrick now @disease-ecology.bsky.social @DiseaseEcology]

Vaccine efficacy in blocking infection & transmission

(I think) We can now estimate the (minimum) reduction in transmission from the Moderna vaccine.

Thread

tl;dr Moderna vaccine blocks >90% (87-93%) of infections & 91% (89-94%) of transmission.

*Critiques welcome!

[Ashish K. Jha @ashishkjha]

Am often asked about different vaccines and their efficacy

Each trials tracks, reports efficacy differently

Currently, we have preliminary results for Novavax and J&J

But what numbers matter? What should you look for?

Here's one set of data to track. In a simple table

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

J&J looking pretty good against severe disease!

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

Then we reviewed the outstanding finding in their data set.
There were approximately 40-60 hospitalizations and deaths in the whole trial. All in the placebo group. Period. Even those occurring in South Africa. That is *great news* /3

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

😕

[NEON @NEON_sci]

NEON's first Data Release is here!
Annual data releases will remain stable and accessible through the lifetime of the Observatory. Data products will be assigned DOIs, ideal for citing NEON data in publications and applications.
Learn more: https://t.co/1vot4zAyN3
#OpenScience

[Nick Skaff @NickSkaff]

@Pres_Hoover_II I actually like age-based distribution but I think they should start with 75+. So hard to verify people’s job, there’s a huge huge number of people that are considered essential, and there’s a ton of very low risk people in that group