Eric Topol
physician-scientist, author, editor
Thought Leader
#149 Infectious Disease
Last synced from Twitter 33m ago
The Coronavirus Has Claimed 2.5 Million Years of Potential Life in the U.S., Study Finds
Nytimes.com 11h 4 tweets
A Harvard researcher added up the number of years that Americans who died from Covid-19 might have lived had they reached a typical life expectancy.
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Eric Topol It's not just the deaths or the #LongCovid. The 2.5 million life-years lost in the US from covid by In agreement w/ previous report of average 11 years of life lost 4h
Dozens to be deliberately infected with coronavirus in UK ‘human challenge’ trials
Nature.com 51h 10 tweets
Proponents of the trials say they can be run safely and help to identify effective vaccines, but others have questioned their value.
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Eric Topol Many will question the ethics of a vaccine challenge trial (intentionally infecting the virus) But that's nothing compared with the unethical, reckless strategy to achieve herd immunity without a vaccine 9h
The false promise of herd immunity for COVID-19
Nature.com 9h 8 tweets
Why proposals to largely let the virus run its course — embraced by Donald Trump’s administration and others — could bring “untold death and suffering”.
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Eric Topol Many will question the ethics of a vaccine challenge trial (intentionally infecting the virus) But that's nothing compared with the unethical, reckless strategy to achieve herd immunity without a vaccine 9h
I Should Have Worn a Mask
WSJ 10h 27 tweets
It’s not a partisan or cultural symbol, not a sign of weakness or virtue.
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Eric Topol "When you get this disease, it hits you how easy it is to prevent." "Seldom has so little been asked for so much benefit." 😷 9h
Superspreading Event of SARS-CoV-2 Infection at a Bar, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Emerging Infectious Diseases journal 9d 5 tweets
Superspreading Event of SARS-CoV-2 Infection at a Bar, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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Eric Topol A man walks into a bar in Vietnam. It leads to a superspreader event of 19 people. Extensive contact tracing and virus genomic sequencing The only documented superspreader event in Vietnam (as of 9/15) , a model country w/r to performance vs #COVID19 10h
Home Page - QCOVID
Qcovid.org 20h 2 tweets
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Eric Topol A new "living" high quality prediction model for #COVID19 risk for hospitalization and mortality: top 20% risk accounted for 94% of deaths; calculator by and colleagues 10h
Living risk prediction algorithm (QCOVID) for risk of hospital admission and mortality from coronavirus 19 in adults: national derivation and validation cohort study
The BMJ 28h 4 tweets
Objective To derive and validate a risk prediction algorithm to estimate hospital admission and mortality outcomes from coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) in adults. Design Population based cohort study. Setting and participants QResearch...
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Eric Topol A new "living" high quality prediction model for #COVID19 risk for hospitalization and mortality: top 20% risk accounted for 94% of deaths; calculator by and colleagues 10h
Understanding COVID-19 vaccine efficacy
Science 15h 6 tweets
Vaccine efficacy in high-risk groups and reduced viral shedding are important for protection
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Eric Topol A new succinct perspective on #SARSCoV2 vaccine efficacy by and w/ 12h
AstraZeneca shares turn negative after Brazilian health authority says volunteer in Covid vaccine study dies
Berkeley Lovelace - CNBC 14h 1 tweets
Shares of AstraZeneca, a front-runner in the Covid-19 vaccine race, gave up a slight gain after the news broke.
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Eric Topol On the death of a participant in the Astra-Zeneca vaccine trial, the lack of concern of safety by points to either a placebo assignment or altogether unrelated to the vaccine (US trial is still on hold, 6 weeks after the adverse event notice) 14h
Unbiased screens show CD8+ T cells of COVID-19 patients recognize shared epitopes in SARS-CoV-2, most of which are not located in the Spike protein
Immunity 39h 3 tweets
Ferretti et al. reveal specific SARS-CoV-2 epitopes that are broadly shared by CD8+ T cells of COVID-19 patients but exhibit limited cross-reactivity with seasonal coronaviruses. Most epitopes are located outside the spike protein, suggesting that...
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Eric Topol The CD8+ T cells after covid-19: —90% don't recognize the Spike protein, they share epitopes mostly in ORF1 and nucleocapsid —Lack (near zero) cross-reactivity with the common cold coronaviruses New unbiased screens in 19 patients 14h
Atomic-resolution protein structure determination by cryo-EM
Nature 17h 2 tweets
Advances in electron cryo-microscopy allow the structure of apoferritin to be determined at a resolution that enables the visualization of individual atoms.
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Eric Topol Structural biology has delivered impressive science advances throughout the pandemic, with cryo-EM of the virus and patient-derived antibodies. This is a big little deal, to reach atom resolution. A new, remarkable threshold 1.25 Å 15h
Cryo-electron microscopy reaches atomic resolution
Nature.com 15h 2 tweets
Structural-biology method crosses a key resolution threshold.
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Eric Topol Structural biology has delivered impressive science advances throughout the pandemic, with cryo-EM of the virus and patient-derived antibodies. This is a big little deal, to reach atom resolution. A new, remarkable threshold 1.25 Å 15h
Studies Point To Big Drop In COVID-19 Death Rates
NPR.org 36h 26 tweets
More hospitalized patients are surviving than early in the pandemic. Improved treatments make a big difference, but so does flattening the curve to keep hospitals from overfilling, researchers say.
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Eric Topol The good news from multiple sources is that the death rate from covid is falling, adjusted for the change in demographics and risk factors —UK data from — h/t 18h
Debunking the False Claim That COVID Death Counts Are Inflated
Scientific American 45h 10 tweets
President Trump, a congressman and conspiracy fantasists have repeated the myth. But three kinds of evidence point to more than 218,000 U.S. deaths
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Eric Topol On the 300,000 US deaths related to the pandemic thus far in 3 key graphs 1. Different definitions UK example 2. Debunking the false claim of over-counting by 3. The new report 19h
Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19, by Age and ...
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 40h 20 tweets
This report describes the estimated excess deaths reported in the United States from late January through October 3, 2020, with 66% excess deaths attributed to COVID-19.
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Eric Topol On the 300,000 US deaths related to the pandemic thus far in 3 key graphs 1. Different definitions UK example 2. Debunking the false claim of over-counting by 3. The new report 19h
Nature’s second pandemic progress report
Nature.com 22h 2 tweets
A detailed understanding of immunity is key to developing safe and effective vaccines.
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Eric Topol A brief pandemic progress report highlighting the unknowns about the immune response, reinfections and vaccines. "Mask-wearing, hand washing and social distancing will need to continue for some time" 20h
Antibody Treatments, Though Promising, Will Be in Short Supply
Katie Thomas - Nytimes.com 37h 8 tweets
All the weak points of American health care — testing delays, communication breakdowns, inequity — are working against this potential treatment.
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Eric Topol The #SARSCoV2 monoclonal antibody (mAb) rollout is going to be very complicated. covers many issues here, including potential need for rapid antibody testing. Add this one: These are outpatient infusions. Where is the mAb infusion clinic? 35h
Inner Workings: Researchers race to develop in-home testing for COVID-19, a potential game changer
PNAS 36h 2 tweets
For most people, COVID-19 test entails a swab up the nose in a doctor’s office or at a drive-in site. The sample then goes out to a lab. Results come back within a few days to a week—a waiting period that’s simply too long to stop the spread of the...
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Eric Topol Rapid home covid testing: the most important thing we could do right now to get us towards pre-covid life Reviewed by w/ (and it should be out there by now in every household) 36h
These Doctors Have Long-Term Covid. Now They’re Pushing for Better Care.
Sumathi Reddy - WSJ 59h 2 tweets
Physicians hit hard by Covid are turning to support groups and calling attention to the illness’s long-term effects; ‘this has absolutely changed my perspective.’  
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Eric Topol Doctors with #LongCovid by "Doctors sometimes dismiss their symptoms or have no idea how to treat them. For doctors themselves who have long-term symptoms, the experience has been eye-opening." 36h
As Covid-19 Roars Back in Europe, Governments Get Tougher on Rule Breakers
Noemie Bisserbe - WSJ 37h 1 tweets
Governments are flexing enforcement muscles more forcefully than any time since March in response to a resurgence of the coronavirus. Fines for public-health violations are rising in most countries and so are punishments for breaking curfews, local...
Eric Topol With the 2nd wave in Europe, big fines for not wearing a mask, and other mitigation measures, heavily enforced which helped achieve virus containment in the 1st wave and unlike the US efforts 37h