Clinical Lab Scientist; Advocate for: Democracy, Science, NIH, Ukraine, Vaccines, COVID prevention
The Great White North
Joined October 2013
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Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
Maybe people will start listening. Unsustainable. @threadreaderapp unroll Thank you Zdenek.
Economic Burden of Post-COVID Syndrome in Germany Between 2021 and 2025: A Statutory Health Insurance Claims Data Analysis. jheor.org/article/170196-eco…
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
The elephant in the room isn’t just COVID. It’s our collective silence about its ongoing consequences.
Implicatory denial. Pluralistic ignorance. The normalization of preventable harm.
It must be especially painful when that silence exists within your own family, amid so much grief. Home should be the easiest place to acknowledge the elephant, yet sometimes it’s the hardest.
The longer we refuse to acknowledge the elephant, the bigger it grows. Eventually, it becomes bigger than the house itself.
a.co/d/07J8WHEh
My cousin who I haven’t spoken to since around 2021/2022 after she became irate after I shared Covid information with her grandmother, posted that she lost her Mom, son, and uncle in 2020.
She lost her step-sister, fiancé and who would have been in MIL in 2021.
She lost her best friend, brother, and two of her friends from high school in 2022. (She is in her mid 40s).
She lost her aunt, 2 cousins, a friend from work, and her manager in 2023.
She lost two dogs that originally belong to one of her cousins that passed on her father’s side after only having them for a few weeks in 2024.
The same year, her daughter who is now 11 years old, lost her best friend and her best friend’s Mom died. She also lost both of her remaining aunts.
In 2025, her department combined with another department at work because what used to be 8 people was now down to 2.
Three people died. Two went out on medical leave and didn’t return, and one went out on disability in December 2024.
She stated that most of her weekends in 2026 has been driving her grandmother to funerals..and that her grandmother has outlived all 6 of her children….5 daughters including her mother, (one daughter died in Nov/Dec 2019 from “pneumonia”), and a son.
THEN SHE SAID….. “I can’t even imagine Covid being as bad as the SUPER COLDS that they couldn’t shake. Knock on wood, none of us got Covid.”
….and for me…this is why distance is good to maintain sanity,
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
The recirculation "feature" in cars is extremely dangerous. It increases risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission immensely in rideshares. The CO2 level itself also promotes drowsiness and cognitive dysfunction, risk factors for accidents. If you have a CO2 monitor, use it while driving with recirc on for 15 mins. You will not be able to unsee the result, and I doubt you will ever do it again.
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
The widespread acceptance of the idea that 'Covid is over' while people are still constantly getting Covid over and over again.
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
El virus de Covid ha evolucionado a un punto en que ahora es 3 veces menos reconocible por los linfocitos.
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
Al ser menos reconocible, puede “despertar” con más facilidad a otros virus que estaban en el cuerpo en estado de latencia.
science.org/content/article/…
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
Wow… The Babies are No Longer Protected Against Measles
Moms antibodies used to give 6-9 months of Ab protection to infants
Now, protection is gone by ~4 months
Neutralizing Ab titers = 0 by 6m
And… if we give MMR early to fill the gap it can drive a long-term problem
1/
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
I firmly believe that we are facing a tsunami of chronic illness, especially dementia, in the coming decade.
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
NYT Today: Any SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger Long COVlD. Getting reinfected in perpetuity is like playing "Russian Roulette."
ALT Long Covid as Russian Roulette Doctors tend to be more concerned about the chance that someone will develop long Covid from repeated infections than they are that a person will get very sick in the acute phase of the illness. Covid can cause long-term damage to nearly every part of the body and repeated cases can compound those harms. A number of studies have shown that each time someone contracts Covid introduces an opportunity to develop long-term symptoms. Researchers often compare it to Russian roulette: Any infection could be the one that leads to long Covid. “Every time there’s a wave, there’s another wave that’s going to follow with patients developing new onset long Covid,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
“Nothing prepares you for this sudden drop in your baseline, and the avalanche of reconfiguring your life around it.”—Joey, @disabled.ot, OT PhD Student, Univ. of Illinois - Chicago, shares why they regret not masking before COVID hit. Read story on IG: instagram.com/p/DenDHOYKuyl/…
ALT Joey, wearing a 3M Aura, think plastic-framed glasses, holding a goniometer, smiles for a selfie, in front of a progress pride flag.
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
🚨 These RAT (LFT) brands may struggle to detect PJ.2.1 effectively due to its P383L mutations in the N-protein 🚨
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
Katie Zacharia was a much better Press Secretary than RFK Jr is Health Secretary
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
Emergency Dental appointment today.
Patient in the waiting area Unmasked.
Receptionist Unmasked.
Dental tech Unmasked.
Me to the Receptionist: I’m requesting anyone who is seeing me to be Masked.
Receptionist: We don’t have…
Me: You don’t have to WHAT!
Receptionist walks towards the back and sarcastically whispers…
“Ms. Chuan is requesting y’all to wear masks.”
Someone in the back: Yeah. She always does.
MASKED Dental Assistant comes to get me.
Cool.
First room we pass is an UNMASKED Dental Hygienist hoovering over a stretched-out patient whose mouth is wide- opened as she is leaning in cleaning her teeth.
This is a dental practice that I always used to brag about because the Dentist WAS so Covid knowledgeable.
Fast forward, last year, the office was closed for 8 days because “something was going around.”
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
Thank you, generous people, for your support, RTs, and donations big & small!🎉🎉🎉
We are up to nearly $2,500 in contributions to support #cancer research. That means I will wear 50 N95s for the 5K, and counting! Just 7 days to go. 🏃
runsignup.com/mask
I’m doing a 5K on October 18th to support research at the Tulane Cancer Center, here in the Deep South.
I wanted to do something fun, so in addition to wearing an N95, I will wear an additional N95 on my person for every $50 donated (runsignup.com/mask).
$50 = 1 N95
$500 = 10 N95s
$5,000 = 100 N95s
$50,000 = 1,000 N95s
Any partial donation would help. $10 would add an additional mask for 1K of the race. A penny would add 1 meter with an additional mask. I’ll sum partial donations and round up in the end. Even a penny🪙 or reshare🔁 would help.
FAQs
World Record
🔹There does not presently appear to be a Guinness World Record for most N95s on an individual in a 5K.
🔹This year, I will go for an informal record. Guinness has not yet responded to my request to go for an official record, but there is always next year.
Good Health, Safety, and Environmental Modeling
🔹I will mask properly. Extra masks will not be worn on top of my mask.
🔹All masks will be individually-wrapped N95s. I will eventually wear them or donate them, if someone wants them.
Caveats
🔹It’s a fun run. All donations are final, even if weather or an injury strikes.
Inclusivity
🔹There are many ways to support health and health justice. Please also contribute to your local mask bloc or engage in advocacy in other ways too. There are many great causes.
🔹Many people with chronic and serious illnesses are housebound or cannot run or could run but would then crash for days or weeks after. This is no endorsement of the primacy of exercise-based activities.
How Your Donation Helps
🔹Your donation supports the fight against cancer and normalizes masking.
🔹Funds support the Tulane Cancer Center. Last year’s funds went toward a project to reduce the chances of bone metastases in the context of breast cancer.
🔹I avoid financial conflicts of interest like the plague, so I will not accept any payments or apply for any funds.
Please help spread the word!
ALT Flyer: Masked 5K, Oct 18, TCC Wave Makers 5K I will wear an additional N95 for every $50 donated. Support cancer research, normalize masking, and help set an informal world record. Additional N95s will be fashioned into a cape or other accessory, individually-wrapped N95s to eventually be used, not wasted. All donations final; if I cannot compete due to weather or injury, I will reschedule an event in the spirit of the run. Funds support cancer research, and I will not apply for those funds to avoid financial conflicts of interest. Last year’s 5K supported metastatic breast cancer research.
Mindblowing
PMC COVlD Update, Week of Oct 12, 2026
(Posted 48 hrs early)
"During COVlD is today."
In fact, estimated SARS-CoV-2 transmission is higher today than during the first 1.5 years of the pandemic, including the first 3 wave peaks -- a time some refer to as #DuringCOVID.
5/🧵
ALT 13 waves
This is real and easy to see.
Real numbers. Real people.
Our friends, family, neighbors.
Longterm Mass Disabling Event.
See it with your own eyes.
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
I have been seeing pics of docs at the American Academy of Pediatrics conference, and I have seen no N95s. Pediatricians, do you know that Long COVID is the #1 chronic disease in kids? Have you heard of LC? Do you understand airborne transmission?
Rare and excellent mainstream media story! Thank you @CBSEveningNews and @jlerollblues!
FYI:
How Far-UVC light could be key in curbing the next airborne pandemic youtu.be/TWNDl336EZo?si=JXV4… via @YouTube
Phil; COVID is NOT a cold!! retweeted
🚨📢 BIG update from Invivyd on the VYD2311 monoclonal antibody program.
As a reminder, VYD2321 is an intramuscular mAb designed as a vaccine alternative for the broad population, with an efficacy expectation of providing 70-90% protection against symptomatic COVID for 3 months, and 50% at the 1-year mark.
• The LIBERTY trial demonstrated safety and tolerability superior to mRNA vaccine (wow, big surprise)
• Importantly, co-administration with a COVID vaccine demonstrated no interference with vaccine-induced neutralizing titers
• Following a meeting with U.S. FDA, Invivyd will be submitting a BLA application for accelerated approval, based on safety and antiviral titers. This will be done while keeping clinical outcomes in the main DECLARATION trial blinded, so they can continue accumulating COVID events to ensure statistical power for the efficacy estimate of 70-90%
Invivyd Announces Positive Topline Results from LIBERTY Phase 3 Study Demonstrating VYD2311 Safety and Tolerability Superior to mRNA-based COVID-19 Vaccine; Announces Regulatory Submission Plans for VYD2311 investors.invivyd.com/news-r…
