Thread 1/4: So tonight @BBCWorld @bbcworldservice I'm a bit freer to express my concerns for #Texas, and less time-constrained than US where everything so heavily scripted:

Thread 2/4: #COVID19 numbers going up precipitously, 1,000 new cases daily in #Houston, with @PolicyLabCHOP estimates indicating 4,000 new cases by July 4th weekend without intervention

Thread 3/4: We have a depth and breadth of poverty in #Houston and the US Gulf Coast that few understand and mostly unseen. Social distancing impossible, and high rates of diabetes HTN renal disease = toxic mix accounting for big rise in hospitalizations/ICU admissions

Thread 4/4: At the other extreme we also have an aggressive #antivax antiscience lobby invoking "health freedom" or "medical freedom" that targets me as the "OG Villain" blocking vaccines, social distancing, contact tracing, masks, much less App based syndromic surveillance

Thread 5/4: OK so I went over. These forces (which I've written about recently https://muse.jhu.edu/book/75688 
@JHUPress produce a toxic mix. Unless we intervene by the weekend, we are potentially facing a humanitarian catastrophe over the summer.

Thread 6/4: Our amazing @TXMedCenter has extraordinary ICU capacity, but eventually staff becomes inundated, and this is where mortality rises. This was situation in S Europe, NY. We're better prepared now, we have convalescent plasma, remdesivir, Mabs, but deaths will mount