Follow up: How long are people (in my echo chamber) isolating with Covid these days?

Also: has Threads replaced Twitter/X as the go-to place for scientists and physicians?

Quick reminder that we’re on the PBS/NPR model here. If you’ve already upgraded, I truly appreciate your support and your partnership. And for everyone else, I hope you consider joining them if you’re able. Above all, thank you so much just for being here! —Jeremy

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How long are you isolating?

This week, I wrote about California’s new Covid-19 isolation guidelines. But I was also curious about what people are really doing these days when they get Covid.

So, I asked my social media followers on Twitter/X and Threads. Now, I realize that my Twitter/X and Threads followers are a highly biased sample who are unlikely to reflect the general population. But I still thought it would be an interesting way to get some insights on life with Covid-19 in 2024, even if it only indicates what’s going on in my personal online echo chamber.

Before I reveal the results, I’m interested in knowing what your approach to Covid isolation is these days. Without peeking at the results below (because they’ll influence your choices), please chime in…

MedTwitter is dying. Threads is coming along to replace it.

One more interesting tidbit before I reveal the results of my two social media polls (and an excuse to buy some real estate here so that your eyes did not automatically see the poll results before voting above…)

We’ve all heard about and seen the slow demise of Twitter (now called “X”) since Elon Musk bought it and began to screw it up. That’s a real shame because prominent physicians and scientists used to gather on Twitter to discuss high level issues, and to disseminate reliable information against a sea of misinformation online. It was also a nice forum for rising stars in those fields to make a name for themselves, a kind of proving ground. That community was called “MedTwitter.” During the pandemic, Twitter became a great way for journalists to find experts quickly. I loved old Twitter and so did many of my brightest colleagues. So, it was sad when many prominent science and medical voices either left the platform, or stopped using it.

Threads has taken some time to get up and running. On one hand, it had a slow start in the medical and science communities, because of its funky early algorithm. On the other, it basically had a built-in user base, as anyone with an Instagram account automatically had a Threads account. That has given it a huge leg up over other would-be Twitter replacements like Mastodon and Post, which had 15 seconds of hope/fame.

That brings us back to my poll. A couple of times recently, as an experiment, I have posted identical polls on Twitter/X and Threads at exactly the same time, both lasting 24 hours. The idea was to see how much engagement the polls received on each platform, and to find out if the two audiences would yield different results.

The upshot is that Twitter/X is comparatively dead these days. I have around 100,000 Twitter/X followers, compared to around 6,000 Threads followers. Now, the Threads followers are all recent (since the platform was only released last summer), but even so, my ratio of followers is over 16:1. But recently, in another poll I conducted, the number of votes on the Twitter/X poll was only 2 or 3-times higher than the number of votes on the Threads poll. All things equal, it should have been 16-times higher, given the follower difference.

On this latest poll—the one you just participated in above—my Threads poll had more engagement (2,689 votes) than the Twitter/X one (1,179 votes). That tells me that that Twitter/X really is a comparative ghost town these days. Now, I do not pay for the premium service on Twitter/X. So, perhaps people are still around there but they are just not seeing my posts because the algorithm punishes people like me who are not willing to give Elon Musk their money. But most of my medical and scientific colleagues are not paying Elon either. Bottom line: Twitter/X really is a shadow of its former self, and Threads is coming along. I hope Threads continues to grow and improve. Old Twitter/X was a marvelous resource. It’s where I met my podcast co-host Dr. Lauren Westafer, and any number of people who I now consider very good friends in real life.

The results.

Most of my social media followers are waiting either 5-10 days or until a negative rapid antigen test before ending their isolation after getting Covid-19. Given that Twitter/X has gained something of a reputation for being an anti-science cesspool, it was actually reassuring to see that a vast majority of my followers (at least) are likely staying home during their most contagious periods. And even though both platforms attract followers in my personal echo chamber, I was a bit surprised that the results were so similar across the two sites. (I thought the Twitter/X folk would be a little less cautious.)

Left: the final results from the Threads poll. Right: the final results from the Twitter/X poll.

Again, this is an audience that chooses to follow me on social media. So it hardly reflects the general population. But, I thought the results were interesting. And I’ll be curious to see how you all vote!

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Please share any and all of that below!