per conoscere, per riflettere, per costruire reti

A dieci anni dalla morte di Alessandro Liberati, ricordiamo i principi che hanno guidato l’azione del medico e ricercatore, fondatore del centro italiano della @cochranecollab




@Associali | Associazione Alessandro Liberati | 23.02.2022

Napoli: banditi 50 posti da medico d’urgenza. Sono arrivate 40 domande. Allo scritto si sono presentati in 7, uno solo dei quali già specializzato. «Durante il concorso – spiega una fonte dell’Asl – i medici hanno magari avuto delle offerte dalla sanità privata».

@andcapocci | Andrea Capocci | 21.02.2022

If COVID immunity can wane, what will happen after large epidemics peak? Some thoughts on post-epidemic ‘honeymoon periods’... 1/ 

As immunity accumulates in a population (specifically immunity that protects against becoming infected/infectious), R will decrease. When R drops below 1, the epidemic peaks and starts to decline. But what might happen next? 2/ 

When R drops below 1, the epidemic doesn’t magically end - it will continue to cause infections (and hence immunity) as it declines, meaning that the epidemic ‘overshoots’ the level of immunity required to get R below 1, potentially by quite a lot. 3/ 

So we can end up in a situation where R drops considerably below 1 as the epidemic continues to decline. End of story, right? Not quite... 4/ 

We know protection against infection can wane quickly for Omicron, e.g. below for immunity against symptomatic infection following vaccination (from: gov.uk/government/pub…) 5/




We also see evidence of some drop-off (although not as sharply) in protection against hospitalisation over time: 6/




But if R has dropped considerably below 1 during an epidemic, it will take some time for susceptibility to build up to sufficient levels to see a resurgence. Can therefore see a ‘honeymoon period’ where infection remains at lower levels for a while first. Here’s a cartoon: 7/




We can also see the honey period happen after the introduction of vaccination. The term ‘honeymoon period’ was first coined in the context of measles (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/artic…). In this case, new susceptibility arrives from new births rather than waning of existing responses. 8/

Below shows hypothetical dynamics after vaccination introduced with 50%, 75%, 80% coverage among infants after 4 years... 9/




Examples of a post-vaccination honeymoon period were later observed in countries ranging from BNurundi, to Mongolia. 10/

Several European countries may well have had a COVID post-vaccination honeymoon period against Alpha in early summer 2021, with vaccination + post-infection immunity driving down R. But we never saw subsequent effect of any waning, because Delta came along first. 11/

So in summary, we shouldn’t assume that post-Omicron level of infection/disease is where things will stay for good. What’s more, above only focuses on waning immunity (& new births in the case of measles), and new variants also likely to shape future susceptibility to COVID. 12

@AdamJKucharski | Adam Kucharski | 20.02.2022

What an incredibly sad thing to see. What did we do wrong?




@VincentRK | Vincent Rajkumar | 17.02.2022

Oggi San Valentino – festa ufficiale dell’amore nell’Impero Americano –, domani altra ricorrenza. Non c’è giorno che non sia anniversario o celebrazione o ricordanza. Dateci almeno un solo giorno semplice, stupido, senza niente di appiccicato con la colla farlocca del web.

@pecoraro_fr | Francesco pecoraro | 14.02.2022

In Italia i modi e i toni della comunicazione intorno alla pandemia sono peggiorati. Ne avevo parlato in qualche occasione pubblica anche mesi fa, ma ora assistiamo ad un trinceramento sempre più polarizzato in opinioni preconcette e indipendenti da ogni contesto. 1/3

Purtroppo, dopo due anni, sia i leader politici che quelli scientifici continuano a ripetere gli stessi errori di comunicazione. Una discussione ottima del problema è riportata in questo pezzo che riporta quattro elementi cruciali da ricordare. https://tinyurl.com/3w2udea2

Quello che si rischia non e’ il danno all’immagine dei singoli scienziati o dei decisori ma un danno più profondo e difficilmente riparabile alla percezione del valore della scienza nella società. 3/3

@alexvespi | Alessandro Vespignani | 13.02.2022

Vivi e laschwa vivere l’hanno già detto?

@artibani1 | Francesco Artibani | 9.02.2022

like a cooking stone




@magnasciuttif | Fabio Magnasciutti | 8.02.2022

ON MISINFORMATION Here’s the thing. You cannot police it in a fair, reproducible & representative way. The reason being is the lines between misinformation and genuine uncertainty soon become blurred. Trust me, I tried. (ps. does this tweet count as misinformation)

@dnunan79 | David Nunan | 7.02.2022

Journalism pro-tip: When someone you’re interviewing tells you “I don’t know” or “I’m not the right person to ask that of,” find out what they are expert in. I always trust a person more when they are clear about the limitations of their expertise. No one knows everything.

@HelenBranswell | Helen Branswell | 5.02.2022