Fiona Nielsen

Zorbian lifestyle with a twist - including amongst other things: sequencing, genomics and extreme project management.
@[email protected]

[Fiona Nielsen @glyn_dk]

Science can only progress via #collaboration and #data #sharing, many tend to agree, but practical implementation is lagging behind as seen in this analysis of data availability in scientific publications
https://t.co/fftcJPOCqO
#datasaveslives @DNADigest @repositiveio

[Repositive.io @repositiveio]

In her latest paper @lisafederer suggests that #datasharing is still limited in practice: https://t.co/EyVOrpbkmb Do publishers need to consider how to create policy and review procedures to help increase the proportion of articles for which complete #datasets are available?

[Pandemic A. Index @pan_accindex]

🚨NEW: What COVID-19 Does to the Body, 10th Edition

Over 75 recent studies on COVID-19's impacts & how to best prevent it. Three years in the making, I hope you appreciate the time & effort spent compiling this resource.

👇READ, SUB, SHARE WIDELY: https://t.co/6zeG3714ci

[Adam Wong @Engineer_Wong]

Before I started paying attention to air quality, I actually used to get respiratory illnesses quite often. As a child, I suffered from chronic tonsillitis and chronic bronchitis. Basically, every year I would come down with some respiratory illness and a fever. Since 2022, I began to take protective measures seriously, and my health has improved a lot. I've rarely been sick in the past three years. The total cost of masks and air purifiers isn't really that high, but the improvement to my personal health has been tremendous. Actually, I could have started doing this many years ago. But before COVID, I never had the opportunity to learn about this knowledge.

[tern @1goodtern]

So no one shouts "hey, I've got a problem with my endothelium!"
They say "I've had a heart attack!"

[tern @1goodtern]

There's something else very important about the @jonstewart video.

"You go 'are you sick' and they say 'I don't want to talk about it'.

When Jon Stewart asks why you're wearing a mask, TALK ABOUT IT.

Say one of these easy things.
Pick one, learn it:

[tern @1goodtern]

In 2022 they told you there was loads of flu around because you didn't catch it in 2020 and 2021.

Then they told you the same again in 2023.

And then the same again in 2024.

Now there's even more flu around, they're floundering for excuses.

But the real reason each year is that covid infections have made you more vulnerable to flu infections, and they make the flu infection hit harder.

[Smart Air @SmartAirFilters]

Our AIR+ program means clean air inside this @patagonia store. We monitor indoor air quality, actively purify the air, and display the results for everyone to see.

[tern @1goodtern]

I had a big chat last week with a well educated and intelligent man who thinks that repeat covid infections are worsening his health, but isn't willing to appear weird in the eyes of the people around him, so won't take any action to avoid infection.

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

Because of science:

Your mother survived childbirth. You never got polio. You’ve never seen smallpox. Your friend with type 1 diabetes is alive. That infection you had? Antibiotics cured it.

We don’t live longer because of luck. We live longer because science works.

[Adam Wong @Engineer_Wong]

Remember the four AirFanta 3Pro units I previously placed in my son’s classroom? The latest update is here. Recently, there has been a severe outbreak of H3N1 flu in China, and the situation is quite serious. Minor outbreaks have occurred in three other classes of my son's age group at the school. As a result, these three classes have been “quarantined,” meaning they cannot interact with students from other classes. This includes eating meals in the classroom instead of the cafeteria, using restrooms at staggered times compared to other classes, and canceling physical education classes, among other measures. In my son’s class, one student contracted the flu and infected their deskmate, but everyone else remained healthy—a stark contrast to the other classes. Although this is just one case, it is a real-life observation. The effectiveness of the air purifiers is evident here: while they cannot prevent close-range aerosol transmission (as seen with the deskmate getting infected), they show significant effectiveness against long-range aerosol transmission.

[tern @1goodtern]

Ironically, many people find it easier to post something on social media asking why everyone is sick the whole time than having a serious talk about it with their spouse.

[David It Up! @Dave_it_up]

Six Years and Six Winters Without Getting Sick

I haven’t been sick since 2018.

No flu. No colds. No COVID. Nothing.

Same for my wife. Same for my son. Six winters. Six holiday seasons. While people around us got hammered by one infection after another, we stayed healthy.

There’s no fucking secret.

We wore masks, everywhere.

Not those useless blue surgical masks that leave gaps the size of freight trains around your cheeks. Not the limp cloth things that might as well be made of tissue paper. Real respirators. N95s and KN95s that actually seal to your face and filter the goddamn air you breathe.

Here’s what they don’t tell most: There’s a significant difference between a mask and a respirator. A surgical mask is just fancy fabric that catches, well, spit. An N95 has an electrostatic charge that grabs particles and holds them. Think about rubbing a balloon on your head and watching your hair stick to it. That’s the science working to keep viruses out of your lungs when you breath, instead of letting them waltz right in.

I know a nurse. Seventy-three years old. She worked in a busy family practice through the worst of the pandemic. Small exam rooms. Sick patients all day long. She wore an N95 every single shift until she retired last year.

Guess what? She never caught COVID.

People want this to be complicated. They want it to be about genetics or expensive supplements or some elaborate wellness routine they can sell you. Most of the time, it’s not complicated at all. If a virus spreads through the air, the air you breathe is where the battle happens. A properly fitted respirator changes everything. Can’t take vaccines? Mask up. Immune system issues, well now you have an option, for many viruses.

Once I found masks that actually fit my face (Dräger X-plore 1950 for me
), the discomfort I’d imagined just wasn’t there. I can talk, walk, shop, and travel without constantly fiddling with straps. Half the time I forget I’m wearing one until I catch my reflection somewhere.

But here’s the real reason I keep doing it.

Millions of people are living with Long COVID right now. They’re carrying damage to their hearts, blood vessels, brains, and immune systems. For them, another infection isn’t just a shitty week in bed. It’s another step toward disability. More pain. Another organ system pushed past its breaking point.

They can’t afford to get hit again.

When I put on a mask, I’m not just protecting my family. I’m breaking transmission chains that could lead straight to someone whose body is already hanging by a thread. The cashier at the grocery store. My neighbor. The person standing behind me in line whose immune system can’t take another round.

We’ve normalized getting sick. People shrug and say everyone’s down with something this month. Everyone caught the latest bug going around. That’s one way to live, I guess.

Another way is to admit we have tools that work. Simple tools. Effective tools. Tools that can cut your risk of infection dramatically.

My family chose the second way.

It’s not heroic. It’s not perfect. It’s just looking at what repeated infections do to people and deciding that wearing a piece of filtered material over my face in crowded spaces is worth it.

You want to know how we’ve gone six winters without getting sick?

That’s the answer. We wore real masks for ourselves and for all the people who can’t survive another hit.

The science works. The question is whether you’re going to use it.

[tern @1goodtern]

My boss stepped down for health reasons, the appointment of their successor was delayed for health reasons, their deputy stepped down for health reasons and their deputy's successor pulled out of taking the role for health reasons.

We're in a wave of healthreasonitis.

[tern @1goodtern]

I hear about babies with Mycoplasma Pneumoniae... so I look it up.

[tern @1goodtern]

I hear about babies ravaged by Whooping Cough, and I go look it up.

[David Lingenfelter, PhD @dlingenfelter]

Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 in children doubles the risk of long COVID, affecting multiple organ systems.

Risks persist across age groups and severity, urging stronger prevention, monitoring, and tailored pediatric care strategies.
https://t.co/mzZQ6cwhpy

[tern @1goodtern]

What on earth is going on.

Seriously.

Where are the doctors raising the awareness about this?
Where are the journalists screaming?

What is wrong with everyone?

Hospital episodes for babies with heart valve problems in England.

[Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 @_CatintheHat]

If you haven’t figured it out yet, here’s a little clue… 🔎

/2

[Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 @_CatintheHat]

Two countries.

Two charts.

A very similar (and concerning) trend.

…………..

Can you think of anything that happened in 2020 which is still affecting huge swathes of people on an ongoing basis and which may help explain this worrying trend?

/1

[tern @1goodtern]

Covid infection affects every part of the body, every body system, and every body function, but it *loves* the lungs.

So how does that play out in hospital episode data...

[Laura Miers @LauraMiers]

I’m told this is normal too. 🤷🏻‍♀️