Adithya Ramachandran 🇨🇦
@adithyar.bsky.social
6.4K followers 1.8K following 2.7K posts
Canadian living in France. From Saskatoon, SK. @usask alumnus. Farmer (market gardener), scientist, traveler, foodie, husband, & cat dad. He/him.
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adithyar.bsky.social
Us too—always up to date on vaccines. At least once every 6 months.
adithyar.bsky.social
...why wearing an N95 in all indoor public spaces has brought freedom into our lives. We no longer lose a month every year to being sick & miserable (and this is the best-case scenario with no Long Covid). All it takes is one infectious person, and we don't know where or when we'll run into them.2/2
adithyar.bsky.social
Somebody we were cloistered with for an hour-long appointment in a stuffy office a month ago revealed she had Covid at that time. My spouse & I didn't get it 😷😷. This is not just a post about N95 efficacy. We've been in hundreds of such situations and have dodged infection each time. It's about 1/2
adithyar.bsky.social
Even if someone were sick, the mask makes them the safest person to be next to. Most people don't grasp this.
adithyar.bsky.social
Make sure it's an FFP3. Significant improvement in wearer protection over an FFP2, over the long term. I had an argument with some person on here who was downplaying mask effectiveness because she was infected while wearing an FFP2 on a bus.
adithyar.bsky.social
I had a coworker like that too (technically, I was her quasi-supervisor, which gave her even more motive). Three years of mind games.
adithyar.bsky.social
Yes, it is an odds thing. Better to have 200 people sick and 20 in hospital than 500 sick and 100 in hospital. The more universal vaccine coverage is, and the more regular & consistent booster uptake is, the lower all these odds are.
adithyar.bsky.social
Exactly. Effectively nil. It's not a coincidence that those adhering to N95 masking have avoided all respiratory infections. I think this "Jane Hobson" is deliberately sowing disinformation about masking because they blocked me immediately after I pointed it out. Lots of bad players on social media.
adithyar.bsky.social
I'd also like to point out that the Canadian Charter does not differentiate between Canadians born and "raised" in Canada and those who naturalized. I see Canadians using this phrase increasingly often and the connotations aren't nice. All citizens are equally Canadian, regardless of their paths.
adithyar.bsky.social
All the same, those of us who are masking consistently with respirators generally report no respiratory infections at all over the years. The probability that we dodged everything except asymptomatic Covid is low (not zero, but low). I'm quite confident I've never had Covid.
adithyar.bsky.social
Nobody is "provided" a doctor. They just got lucky. I never had a family doctor when I lived in Canada.
Reposted by Adithya Ramachandran 🇨🇦
orla-hegarty.bsky.social
5 years on

“Why good ventilation is key to stopping the spread of Covid-19

Clean air far more important than clean hands”

We had all of the scientific knowledge & tools to stop the pandemic in 2020 without lockdowns.. & they weren’t used
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/why-...
Why good ventilation is key to stopping the spread of Covid-19
Clean air far more important than clean hands
www.irishtimes.com
Reposted by Adithya Ramachandran 🇨🇦
893photo.com
Protesters at Charlie Kirk Memorial (II)

Canon 5D Mark IV
EF 100–400 mm f/4.5–5.6L IS USM
f/5
100 mm
1/200 sec
ISO 10000
Alt text: A pair of protesters at the Charlie Kirk memorial in Windsor, Ontario (Canada). The protester on the left has a sign that says "HE DOESN'T EVEN GO HERE! FUCK NAZIS" and the protester on the right has a sign that says "CHARLIE KIRK WAS A NAZI". The protester on the left is wearing a black top with a white allover pattern, and the protester on the right is wearing a grey t-shirt with a black backpack. This photo was taken with the subjects' permission and insistence that their faces not be blurred.
adithyar.bsky.social
And on transmission:

bsky.app/profile/geor...

However, you're right that many people have adopted the opposite view that they're bulletproof after vaccination. They're not, not even with regular vax. Both extreme viewpoints are incorrect. It reduces infection risk but masking is also needed.
georgiospappas6.bsky.social
One of the most striking slides in yesterday's ACIP: vaccination does affect viral transmission
adithyar.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/adit...

(See the QT within my own QT; some good references in the article).
adithyar.bsky.social
A corollary I'd add is I frequently see the statement "Effectiveness fell off a cliff after Omicron" (or similar). We did hit a nadir in VE in 2022 & early 2023 when we were still using WT & WT/BA.5 vaccines against some very distant variants, such as XBB.1.5. The antigenic match of subsequent 1/3
deonandan.bsky.social
My latest post, because why not trigger some trolls?

"Yes, COVID Vaccines Do Slow Transmission"

medium.com/@deonandan/y...
adithyar.bsky.social
It definitely reduces infection and transmission risk, but yes, only with regular vaccination. It isn't a dramatic 90%-plus reduction like measles, which could then be interpreted as "prevents illness". 50% effectiveness doesn't necessarily prevent, but sometimes it does. Key word is "necessarily".
adithyar.bsky.social
Looks like Lauren Witzke is the one who has trouble assimilating. Like all MAGAs.
adithyar.bsky.social
I could eat 10-15 peaches a day. Love 'em.
adithyar.bsky.social
What did you get last year? If you got JN.1 or KP.2 last year, getting LP.8.1 this year is a good way to diversify. That was my approach.
adithyar.bsky.social
If you mean her comment that vaccines reduce the risk of infection and transmission, she is 100% correct. Nobody is saying they are perfect or that masking isn't necessary as well.
adithyar.bsky.social
It does reduce the risk of infection significantly for a few months following the shot. Frequent revaccination therefore places a person at a much-reduced risk of infection.

Although masking is even more effective at preventing infection, I'd say the two mitigations are equally important.
adithyar.bsky.social
Covid vaccination is necessary *at least* twice a year. Although never 100% effective at preventing infection, twice-yearly vaccination is much more effective at reducing infection risk than annual vaccination is. I've actually been getting it thrice a year.
adithyar.bsky.social
It ticks me off as well. I shared my own reasoning here.

bsky.app/profile/adit...
adithyar.bsky.social
A friendly request to Americans: Please stop pretending to be Canadians when traveling. Find other ways to display that you're not MAGA. A 🌈 sticker, an "I didn't vote for 🍊" tag, anything. Be creative, but also be honest about who you are. As a Canadian living in Europe, it's already 1/2