Notices by Yaneer Bar-Yam (yaneerbaryam@forall.social)

I am working with a team on creating opportunities for physicians to work in covid safe (enhanced airborne precaution) urgent care. This is a concrete but not immediate opportunity, currently for US licensed physicians. If interested, DM me or email yaneer at necsi. edu

#covid

Direct evidence for COVID causing more infections of RSV published last month

RSV risk 40% higher (RR 1.4) after COVID

"COVID-19 was associated with a significantly increased risk for RSV infections among children aged 0–5 years in 2022. Similar findings..in 2021.

"Our findings suggest that COVID-19 contributed to the 2022 surge of RSV cases in young children through the large buildup of COVID-19-infected children...

#covid @whn

https://fmch.bmj.com/content/11/4/e002456

The incorrect mathematical equations bias the results. Reanalyzing the data with the right equations show that masks, and N95s in particular, do prevent transmission.

Here are a few highlights of the paper.

1) Studies comparing N95s and surgical masks in healthcare workers ignore infections at home—outside study protocols. This effect is so large, a study claiming N95s give no more than 2X improvement, should instead say no more than 10X improvement, or even higher.

2) The study also did not measure how much healthcare worker masking affects patients. Including patients would result in about 2X higher benefit of N95s in preventing infections and even more for reducing harm because of the higher vulnerability of patients.

3) The study also did not consider two way masking which would bring the improvement by 10X up to 100X = 10X * 10X due to both the infected individual (source), and the individual who is not infected, wearing an N95 respirator.

New paper on Masks:

Some claim scientific studies show masks don’t work, or that surgical masks are as good as N95s. Just released paper shows this claim is false. Masks work, and N95 respirators give a much higher benefit than surgical masks.

The controversy about N95 respirator and mask efficacy is based on claims that studies (RCTs and meta-analyses) have no observed effect. Our paper shows these claims result from the use of incorrect mathematical equations.

#covid @whn

‘A death sentence’: More than 600 people die after catching COVID in hospital

..data obtained under freedom of information laws reveals 5614 people were suspected to have caught COVID while in..public hospitals..More than one in 10 ...died as a result

#covid @whn

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-death-sentence-more-than-600-people-die-after-catching-covid-in-hospital-20230621-p5di7x.html