D.L.

bio/music/policy nerd

[D.L. @dlee]

@DCDPR There’s a broken water fountain leaking water at a pretty good clip at Petworth playground by the basketball court, in case you weren’t aware.

[D.L. @dlee]

First error I’ve seen from the ⁦@nytimes⁩ crossword - while gingko is an ok alternate spelling of ginkgo, it’s not when in the full species name, as in the clue.

[D.L. @dlee]

@tangotiger The Twitter crop of the image is a perfect example - in the image crop I see, I’d believe the red line is a linear fit but I’d think you might get a parabolic curve to fit better. But click on the image and it zooms out to show what is mostly a fuzzy-ish linear set.

[D.L. @dlee]

@tangotiger It’s more that I think context matters. If y scale is magnified compared to x and x limits are hard bounds, then I’d think they are the same. If I know this is zoomed in on 1 part of a larger set, I’d believe they could be different.

[D.L. @dlee]

@tangotiger I voted somewhat different, but actually I think it depends. Is there any X or Y scale info available? Do we expect the data set to extend further in either direction, or are the left and right ends the limit?

[D.L. @dlee]

@Pinboard To be fair, sufficient manufacturing capacity doesn’t exist anywhere in the world, and even if Biden broke ground on new facilities on day one, they wouldn’t be operational until sometime late in 2022.

[D.L. @dlee]

@este_guey @RuckCohlchez You’re welcome. Happy Thanksgiving! It’s been a long time since those Friendsgivings in my old apartment. I hope you’re well!

[D.L. @dlee]

@ZoeMcLaren PCR isn’t inherently yesterday’s news - prep + run time can be as low as 3 hrs - but does require special eqpmt where a lateral flow rapid can be done anywhere. PCR can detect virus *before* antigen can be detected. But the cost and equipment balance means we should do more rapid

[D.L. @dlee]

@ZoeMcLaren I agree that we should be using rapids more for actionable data when we need it, but your description of what they detect isn’t accurate. PCR tests detect specific fragments of nucleic acid, which is usually both more sensitive and more accurate than an antibody-antigen test.

[D.L. @dlee]

@FatGuynaLtlCoat “fresh”
Eh, I’d probably eat it.

[D.L. @dlee]

@FatGuynaLtlCoat Yes, that’s bullshit, but I think that’s pretty indicative of a no, unfortunately. I don’t envy all of you in TX. DC has about a 3x lower case rate and we’re starting to really worry about school reopening.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz For FDA, getting it wrong has major public health impacts in other areas through lack of trust or bad precedent setting. It’s just not so clear. Delta probably makes the math easier, though.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz It’s the difference between risk to a person and risk to an institution. For a person, the choice is clear. You have probably 0.5% chance of dying of COVID unvaxed vs. 0% vaxed. No idea what long term effects will be, but seems safe enough.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz Who defines ‘global pandemic?’ WHO? CDC? FDA doesn’t want to rey on external entities.

What’s a representative population?What’s safe enough over 1 year?
Clearly both of those have political/racial angles.

It’s not easy, and I’m sure FDA has been thinking about all this.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz I don’t disagree, but you know just as well as I do how fast processes change in government. And with good reason! If you say ‘in cases of global pandemic we won’t require safety data beyond a year in representative populations for full approval’, you’ve just made 3 new problems.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz Look at Biogen’s Aduhelm. A clusterfuck of a ‘fast-track’. It’s a bit different because the efficacy is questionable, but it now has other companies openly considering whether they can use it as a precedent for other questionably beneficial drugs.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz If you think Marks’ statement means it wasn’t a high priority, you’re reading too much into it. What I get out of that is an attempt at public reassurance by an official who knows that there’s no easy path forward.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz I agree it should be approved. But that’s not because we have good long-term data, rather it is because the risk equation has changed. We are now at a place where everyone *will* get COVID at some point in their life. Better to have mild symptoms than severe.

[D.L. @dlee]

@franckhertz Yes, but your point was why not ‘from day 1?’ We still don’t have any long-term effectiveness data - at best we have durability data of just over a year. Safety for some parts of the tech is longer, but not as expansive in population coverage.