coder | 👁️ 💚 bits, hominids, life, & the multiverses | 🐍 💚💛🧡❤️💜💙 🐍 pythonista | ML for the common good | 🌹 DSA | pronouns: xe xem xyr
The Empire State
Joined June 2010
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alex | all r equal retweeted
Yep 👇🏻👇🏻‼️
At large outdoor gatherings, I suspect the vast majority of transmission occurs when attendees are indoors using restrooms, going to restaurants, shopping, using public transportation, etc.
People's infection narratives are prone to myriad psychological biases, defenses, misremembering, and distortions. "I must have gotten it outdoors -- terrible luck" is a lot more satisfying than "I probably got it when eating at an Applebee's."
That said, it's not rocket science. Anyone living much in the north knows exactly what exhalation plumes look like in the winter. Sitting across from a rando for a spell, or standing amid two families where everyone has COVlD suggests a basic disinterest in survival.
alex | all r equal retweeted
At large outdoor gatherings, I suspect the vast majority of transmission occurs when attendees are indoors using restrooms, going to restaurants, shopping, using public transportation, etc.
People's infection narratives are prone to myriad psychological biases, defenses, misremembering, and distortions. "I must have gotten it outdoors -- terrible luck" is a lot more satisfying than "I probably got it when eating at an Applebee's."
That said, it's not rocket science. Anyone living much in the north knows exactly what exhalation plumes look like in the winter. Sitting across from a rando for a spell, or standing amid two families where everyone has COVlD suggests a basic disinterest in survival.
alex | all r equal retweeted
Still annoyed with my doctor because he gave up masking. He masked until very recently. Why? Does he not like being healthy?
alex | all r equal retweeted
One option which we are now cautiously entertaining is occipitocervical fusion. It has helped some patients but as with any surgery, it has its own risks. We'll keep posting as we chart a path. 2/2
alex | all r equal retweeted
We're headed into a new phase with Soren - one that we have deferred until he was closer to full grown. The mix of neuro-inflammation, viral/immune insults to his connective tissue and his genetics have exacerbated his craniocervical instability (CCI). 🧵1/2 #longcovid #mecfs
alex | all r equal retweeted
Double Vote Today--
yoursuperdad.org/adam-van-ba…
alex | all r equal retweeted
Spooky time of year. Even scarier times we’re living in. Last night… terrifying 😵💫
Please watch, vote, donate if possible, and share 🗳️👇🙏
yoursuperdad.org/adam-van-ba…
#LongCovidSuperDad ✊
#LongCOVID
#PublicHealth
alex | all r equal retweeted
If it weren’t for a handful of people like you, I never would’ve made it this far 🙏
It’s going to take the community to be able to win an give back needed support to #pwLC ✊
#LongCOVID
#LongCovidSuperDad✊
alex | all r equal retweeted
This is our county-level RSV map. It's striking that there is elevated COVlD, influenza A, and RSV activity in TX, SC, & southern Florida.
It would seem wise to wear a well-fitting N95 and get boosted against COVlD and flu (and RSV if eligible).
ALT RSV county-level map
alex | all r equal retweeted
TA.1 continues to grow here in the US. But no PJ.2.1?
UK: Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 lineages
• TA.1 ~25%
• ST.1 ~15%
• RF.5 ~9%
• RV.2.1 ~9%
• XFG ~7%
• TK.1 ~5%
• XFZ.4.1 ~5%
• RF.5.4.1 ~5%
• RV.1.3~3%
• NB.1.8.1 ~2%
• SB.1.1~2%
• Other~9%
• Unassigned ~4%
ALT Figure 13. Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 lineages among sequenced COVID-19 cases in England, 13 October 2025 to 11 October 2026. - Top chart: Stacked area graph showing the changing percentage of SARS-CoV-2 variants over 12 months. - Late 2025–early 2026: XFG, NB.1.8.1, RE.1.1 and RE.2 were prominent. - Mid-2026: RF.5, RV.2.1 and other emerging lineages increased. - October 2026: TA.1 and ST.1 became prominent, alongside RF.5, RV.2.1, XFG and smaller lineages. - Bottom chart: Weekly numbers of sequenced cases, with approximately 140 sequences in the latest period. - Legend: Identifies 16 named lineages, plus Other and Unassigned, using different colours. The charts show changing variant proportions, not overall COVID-19 case numbers.
alex | all r equal retweeted
Influenza A is getting plenty of news headlines. Here's a county-level map of wastewater levels from the CDC data. The methodology is fundamentally similar to our COVlD map.
What do you make of all the media attention?
ALT County-level influenza A map
PMC COVlD Update, Oct 26, 2026
🔥44 states with COVlD outbreaks (see Alt)
🔥Double wave peaks, both at an estimated 950,000 new daily infections
🔥6th week in a row of massive CDC upward retroactive corrections going back to early July
THREAD (1/4)
ALT The US has at least 44 states and territories with COVlD outbreaks, a figure identical to last week. The CDC continues to make large, upward retroactive corrections, and we are in a secondary wave peak. States with observed outbreaks include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. Additional states with poor monitoring likely have outbreaks based on high levels in bordering counties in adjacent states.
alex | all r equal retweeted
Today in the Bronx, a group of young people confronted Ritchie Torres about his pro-ICE record, and the money he takes from AIPAC and the rest of the pro-Israel lobby.
Instead of listening, he cursed them out.
Here are the facts. Ritchie Torres has taken over $2 million from the pro-Israel lobby. He voted for the Laken Riley Act, the first law Trump signed this term. It enables ICE to lock up undocumented immigrants who have only been accused of a crime, not convicted, even for something as small as shoplifting.
Then he voted for a resolution thanking ICE for “protecting the homeland.”
But Ritchie Torres is the symptom, not the disease. For over 20 years, Democrats have voted with Republicans to fund ICE while promising to deliver on “comprehensive immigration reform” that never came.
That’s how we got the deportation machine we’re living under today.
That same machine came for Alexander Nilaj, a pillar of our community who built the Open Hand food pantry right here in the Bronx. On October 13, ICE kidnapped him and took him to Delaney Hall. Without him, the pantry has stopped giving out food. Ritchie Torres has visited Alexander at Delaney Hall, but he and the Democrats helped build the very same machine that put Alexander there.
The Bronx is sick of ICE tearing our neighborhoods apart. The Bronx doesn’t want more meaningless measures like Ritchie’s proposal to put QR codes on ICE agents. The Bronx wants ICE out of our communities for good. The Bronx deserves leaders who will fight for full rights for every immigrant, now — not as a distant promise.
The Bronx needs and deserves socialism: a system where working people hold the political and economic power, and where billions go to housing, healthcare, and childcare instead of ICE and endless wars abroad.
alex | all r equal retweeted
As we are hit with yet another Covid wave, I want to reflect on the promises of herd immunity by infection, with special consideration of claims that pre-existing cross-reactive T cell immunity to other coronaviruses was aiding in achieving the herd-immunity threshold
alex | all r equal retweeted
🚨 The NYPD has backed away from a $750,000 no-bid contract with Israeli surveillance firm Cognyte after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced backlash over the deal, the New York Daily News reported.
The department confirmed it is restarting the procurement process and will accept competing bids for the technology, a cell-site simulator that mimics a cell tower to locate and track phones.
The three-year deal was for Cognyte's FalcoNet, an AI-driven tracker that can be mounted on police cars and drones or hidden in a backpack. Mamdani's office had said it was "reviewing the proposed contract."
The move reopens the contract to other bidders but doesn't drop the technology itself. Full story linked in reply.
⚡️ Mayor Zohran Mamdani's NYPD is poised to sign a three-year, $750,500 no-bid contract with Israeli surveillance firm Cognyte for FalcoNet, an AI-driven device that mimics a cell tower to track phones and can be mounted on police cars and drones or hidden in a backpack, the New York Daily News reported.
Cognyte won a tender to sell intercept spyware to Myanmar's state telecom weeks before the 2021 military coup, Reuters previously reported. Meta banned the firm the same year, saying its customers used fake accounts to target journalists and politicians in Kenya, Mexico and Indonesia.
The firm is part of an Israeli surveillance industry that grew big as a result of the military's monitoring of Palestinians, whose phone calls Israel's Unit 8200 has intercepted and stored by the millions, including to carry out genocide in Gaza and enforce a brutal illegal occupation in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
alex | all r equal retweeted
Long Covid peeps are bloodied, weary, and often barely hanging on, but if we want to live we will have to fight a system that is trying to bury us (while blaming us).
This isn't going to be won in a month or a year, but if allies step up it can be won. Lives in the balance.
Why We Must Fight for Blood-Brain Barrier Testing in Long COVID 🧠💥
When my partner looked into getting a CSF/albumin ratio (Q_{Alb}) test to evaluate my blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity, we hit a wall: insurance labels it "investigational" or "not medically necessary" for Long COVID. What the actual f*ck!!
Here is why we must push to change this standard of care:
👉 🚫 The "Investigational" Trap:
Insurance policies refuse coverage for Q_{Alb} testing because formal specialty guidelines haven't updated to include Long COVID. This leaves patients trapped without access to objective diagnostic proof of barrier leakage.
👉 ⚠️ Real Medical Dangers:
When doctors don't know a patient's barrier is leaking, they prescribe peripheral medications like alpha-1 agonists assuming they will stay in the body. When these drugs cross a broken BBB, they trigger severe, preventable central nervous system storms.
👉 🏛️ Bridging Science to Practice:
Peer-reviewed studies (Nature Neuroscience, AJNR) repeatedly demonstrate BBB disruption, microvascular damage, and tight-junction breakdown in LC.
🤔We know it's happening.
Many of you are experiencing it everyday and are given inappropriate medications and made worse because they are missing this piece of the Covid picture.
💥We must demand that medical societies, health systems, and insurance payers align their diagnostic policies with current research.
We cannot treat what we refuse to measure! 📢
#LongCOVID #BloodBrainBarrier #Dysautonomia #TestsTreatmentsNow #PatientAdvocacy #MMP9
Coming soon:
The fight for proper diagnostics!! This will be my fight and I want you to join me. We need this now. Our children need this now. It's adding a devastating layer on our illnesses from this disease.
alex | all r equal retweeted
Why We Must Fight for Blood-Brain Barrier Testing in Long COVID 🧠💥
When my partner looked into getting a CSF/albumin ratio (Q_{Alb}) test to evaluate my blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity, we hit a wall: insurance labels it "investigational" or "not medically necessary" for Long COVID. What the actual f*ck!!
Here is why we must push to change this standard of care:
👉 🚫 The "Investigational" Trap:
Insurance policies refuse coverage for Q_{Alb} testing because formal specialty guidelines haven't updated to include Long COVID. This leaves patients trapped without access to objective diagnostic proof of barrier leakage.
👉 ⚠️ Real Medical Dangers:
When doctors don't know a patient's barrier is leaking, they prescribe peripheral medications like alpha-1 agonists assuming they will stay in the body. When these drugs cross a broken BBB, they trigger severe, preventable central nervous system storms.
👉 🏛️ Bridging Science to Practice:
Peer-reviewed studies (Nature Neuroscience, AJNR) repeatedly demonstrate BBB disruption, microvascular damage, and tight-junction breakdown in LC.
🤔We know it's happening.
Many of you are experiencing it everyday and are given inappropriate medications and made worse because they are missing this piece of the Covid picture.
💥We must demand that medical societies, health systems, and insurance payers align their diagnostic policies with current research.
We cannot treat what we refuse to measure! 📢
#LongCOVID #BloodBrainBarrier #Dysautonomia #TestsTreatmentsNow #PatientAdvocacy #MMP9
Coming soon:
The fight for proper diagnostics!! This will be my fight and I want you to join me. We need this now. Our children need this now. It's adding a devastating layer on our illnesses from this disease.
alex | all r equal retweeted
What you guys keep saying for coronavirus immunity versus what keeps happening
alex | all r equal retweeted
“Republicans are bad” can't be what Democrats run on. We need Democrats with a real vision for healthcare, childcare, and housing.
alex | all r equal retweeted
👋😷👋
I would ask “who is still masking” every six months.
I stopped.
Maybe I’m afraid that our group is getting smaller…
Today I ask again - where is the #MaskUp & #ThirstMasking crew?
ALT Thirst Masker sitting in a train with her eyes closed, behind her you see snippets of the blue sky and a red brick building.