Hahahahaha noooooooo my promotion is at stake

Unfortunately, the new agency is not on Bluesky. But that also means my bosses are probably not here too! Woo hoo~

Understanding the burden of flu and COVID-19 in the post-pandemic era is just one part of our work at the new Communicable Diseases Agency. My current spark is to look at forecasting respi viral activity, optimising digital contact tracing and setting up sero surveillance. Stay tuned!

The outcomes of this study help to put the burden of different respiratory pathogens in SG into perspective. While it uses community viral surveillance and hospital admission to estimate the burden, this study supplements other efforts to recruit and test patients admitted for ARI/pneumonia.

Excess Respiratory Hospitalisations Associated with Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus and SARS‐CoV‐2 in Singapore from 2015 to 2023 Background The patterns of circulation and burden of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in Singapore are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures. These patterns in relati...

Reviving my account with new work here! doi.org/10.1111/irv....

We estimated that:
- Burden flu and COVID in SG were in a comparable range and about 3-4 times higher than RSV.
- Peak seasonal flu is now 3-8 weeks later as compared to pre-COVID
- Flu positivity didn't return to pre-COVID levels

Very tickled by one of the descriptions at the Amazonia photography exhibition at the national museum of sg. I might laugh to death if this is how I resolve conflicts 😂 That aside, some pretty amazing B&W pieces.

Yeah I saw it, as a reviewer 😆 Though I missed out on their replies cause was inundated with work.

This study is also a first step towards better characterising features of temporal network. Couldn't have done this without key support from @adamjkucharski.bsky.social, Josh Firth 🙆🏻‍♀️

Temporal contact patterns and the implications for predicting superspreaders and planning of targeted outbreak control | Journal of The Royal Society Interface Directly transmitted infectious diseases spread through social contacts that change over time, but outbreak models typically make simplifying assumptions about network structure and dynamics. To assess how common assumptions relate to real-world ...

Are superspreaders always social butterflies? 🦋🦠

Our new study on temporal social contacts showed most people are highly connected only for brief periods. Crucially, this challenges the idea that respi outbreaks naturally subside once highly connected people becomes immune.

doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

It's been about 2 years since I returned from overseas and not many things have changed. Writing has been therapeutic and helps me understand that certain things are not within my control. What is within my control, is to redirect my boss to reading this commentary when drafting the workplan 😅

Am finally here on Bluesky with @rachaelpung as my handle (no more @PungRachael). As my first post, here's a recent piece with @adamjkucharski.bsky.social on planning for a more sustainable distribution of modelling work between government and academia doi.org/10.1016/j.ep...