It's a tough one to be sure. I think the best that can be done is to keep trying to call it straight and hope that the message breaks through. At some point reality becomes undeniable.
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I hope so. I read tweet Crotty had about some awesome vax number we had. First comment was basically we are going to cause ADE and an escape mutant. I don’t know where all this comes from but it’s every single thread some far out worry.
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And I worry it's exacerbating the biggest risk, which is that not enough people get vaccinated. It would be perverse if the fear that vaccines don't work well enough against variants means that not enough people get vaccinated for them to work well against variants.
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Most of the time when I get a reply like this, the replier refers to EFD. So I'm forced to conclude that he's driving a huge part of the conversation here. He has the reach and he makes more noise than anybody.
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I have come to the same conclusion. Over and over again that particular "expert" (who is actually not well-credentialed in terms of infectious disease) has referred to variants as completely "escaping" immunity. Antibody neutralization is not synonymous with functional immunity.
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Replying to @angie_rasmussen @notdred and
That part is certainly true. That said, I'm not highlighting others (point isn't to create social media pile-ons) but I've seen versions of: completely escaping/useless/renders ineffective pretty broadly claimed, on TV/media/here (by credentialed folks).
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I have too, but I have to say most virologists/immunologists/vaccinologists/ID epis/ID physicians I've seen take pains to get this right. They can be misquoted, which is also a problem. It's hard to explain that PRNT50 assays don't translate to functional immunity.
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Replying to @angie_rasmussen @notdred and
zeynep tufekci Retweeted WebMD
Yeah. Example of what many ordinary people are seeing. I mean, sure, let's not let this @#!! freely explore the full fitness landscape through an unchecked epidemic—and we have boosters in the works—but what on earth? (It comes from an ill-sampled survey).https://twitter.com/WebMD/status/1377417935703052292 …
zeynep tufekci added,
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I especially loathe the trend of polling a non-random sample of (insert experts here) and presenting it as if it's a reliable forecast of what's to come. Certainly new variants are a possibility, but that's not set in stone. We can do something about that!
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Replying to @angie_rasmussen @zeynep and
Not that I consider WebMD to be journalism, but my skepticism sniffer is always triggered when a headline uses a construct like "scientists predict" or "experts say."...
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I just picked it as an example of what lots of ordinary people are seeing (it's based on a survey). I try to monitor TV/traditional media, plus whenever these things tick up, I get flooded with questions. Imperfect measure, but what I got. Lots of examples.
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Replying to @zeynep @angie_rasmussen and
Totally agree with you. I've noticed a flurry of similar stories around the variants and vaccines; many of which are centered around a single source and the "an expert says" approach.
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