Friday, April 3, 2020. Damn sure of it.
For me, today is office day. From my desk. At home. I get to see my office patients via telehealth. Translating data and educating patients feels so much harder through the computer screen. Not only do we have to offer the typical CKD care, but do so with the added lens of a pandemic. Do I send someone for an outpatient dialysis access surgery to a hospital filled with COVID patients, or do we wait? How often should I have my transplant patient go to the lab for routine blood work that is typically every eight weeks? The trade-offs of these choices feel more substantial than ever. And, the town hall/Q&A sessions with the physician experience team and my CKD clinic visits remind me how critical it is to try and be a clear communicator. No matter what vaccine trials, mechanism of action for drugs, or related scientific data I read, most of us still focus on how rigorously to wash our groceries.
------------------------
The latest from FT.
A number of you pointed out that the FT switched graphs on us between 4/1-4/2 from new cases (slope was plateauing on 4/1) to death rate (still accelerating).
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
However, even the new case graph may not be plateauing (see daily new case bar graph halfway down https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/).
https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1236372854171750400?s=12
Muge Cevik is a virologist (amongst numerous other skills) who put together some excellent twitter-based literature reviews. The articles reviewed here speak to why we then get more public-friendly articles like this:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615391/coronavirus-uk-social-distancing-science-isolation-covid/
(Thanks for sharing Matt B!)
and
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-i-have-experienced-chinas-approach-to-coronavirus-quarantine-for/
The LEGO set I want right now
https://i.redd.it/ygrrux9skcq41.png
A loyal reader sent in this set of infographics on diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/every-vaccine-treatment-covid-19-so-far/?fbclid=IwAR3KAUebVbbdaHEMVqPzNkRG8x1x1tzmzEsr1SptDNKxgh0bYIAHlH06dgk
I need to spend more time on the Visual Capitalist website.
Several readers sent in articles about the UPMC vaccine. However, it does not seem to be as far along the development path.
And this article speaks about using GMO Tobacco plants to produce viral proteins to develop vaccines. I enjoyed the last paragraph, "The tobacco firm is more typically on the receiving end of criticism from campaigning groups, including the use young and attractive models to entice younger demographics to try e-cigarettes and vaping technology."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/01/british-american-tobacco-plant-based-coronavirus-vaccine
Trials are underway in China too
https://twitter.com/ChinaScience/status/1245984381665267714
More on the unintended consequences of everyone staying home
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-earth-pollution-noise/609316/
And finally, I offer fashion trends from prior pandemics
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/plague-doctor-costumes
-------
Bonus Round - Educators and Communicators edition
Pliny the Elder was a Roman renaissance man (who predated the Renaissance). Aside from political roles, military appointments, and an author, he wrote what would become the model for all Encyclopedias - The Naturalis Historia. He also was a discerning wine and beer critic. It is impressive to read translated passages from his Naturalis Historia and see what we humans were thinking 2000 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder
Naturalis Historia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Pliny)
Article:
https://www.winemag.com/2019/10/10/pliny-the-elder-first-wine-critic/
I recently read about William McGuffey, who had a huge impact on American education. The innovation was to offer mass-produced readers at varying skill levels to help children progress in their thinking and reading. As a result, his McGuffey readers shaped public education through most of the 20th century. While his personal story is not overwhelmingly exciting, his work undoubtedly shaped the minds of some of our grandparents and great-grandparents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Holmes_McGuffey
https://www.theedadvocate.org/story-american-education-mcguffey-readers/
You can buy them https://www.amazon.com/McGuffeys-Eclectic-Readers-Set-Through/dp/0471294284
Clean hands and sharp minds, team.
-AW
For me, today is office day. From my desk. At home. I get to see my office patients via telehealth. Translating data and educating patients feels so much harder through the computer screen. Not only do we have to offer the typical CKD care, but do so with the added lens of a pandemic. Do I send someone for an outpatient dialysis access surgery to a hospital filled with COVID patients, or do we wait? How often should I have my transplant patient go to the lab for routine blood work that is typically every eight weeks? The trade-offs of these choices feel more substantial than ever. And, the town hall/Q&A sessions with the physician experience team and my CKD clinic visits remind me how critical it is to try and be a clear communicator. No matter what vaccine trials, mechanism of action for drugs, or related scientific data I read, most of us still focus on how rigorously to wash our groceries.
------------------------
The latest from FT.
A number of you pointed out that the FT switched graphs on us between 4/1-4/2 from new cases (slope was plateauing on 4/1) to death rate (still accelerating).
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
However, even the new case graph may not be plateauing (see daily new case bar graph halfway down https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/).
https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1236372854171750400?s=12
Muge Cevik is a virologist (amongst numerous other skills) who put together some excellent twitter-based literature reviews. The articles reviewed here speak to why we then get more public-friendly articles like this:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615391/coronavirus-uk-social-distancing-science-isolation-covid/
(Thanks for sharing Matt B!)
and
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-i-have-experienced-chinas-approach-to-coronavirus-quarantine-for/
The LEGO set I want right now
https://i.redd.it/ygrrux9skcq41.png
A loyal reader sent in this set of infographics on diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/every-vaccine-treatment-covid-19-so-far/?fbclid=IwAR3KAUebVbbdaHEMVqPzNkRG8x1x1tzmzEsr1SptDNKxgh0bYIAHlH06dgk
I need to spend more time on the Visual Capitalist website.
Several readers sent in articles about the UPMC vaccine. However, it does not seem to be as far along the development path.
And this article speaks about using GMO Tobacco plants to produce viral proteins to develop vaccines. I enjoyed the last paragraph, "The tobacco firm is more typically on the receiving end of criticism from campaigning groups, including the use young and attractive models to entice younger demographics to try e-cigarettes and vaping technology."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/01/british-american-tobacco-plant-based-coronavirus-vaccine
Trials are underway in China too
https://twitter.com/ChinaScience/status/1245984381665267714
More on the unintended consequences of everyone staying home
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-earth-pollution-noise/609316/
And finally, I offer fashion trends from prior pandemics
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/plague-doctor-costumes
-------
Bonus Round - Educators and Communicators edition
Pliny the Elder was a Roman renaissance man (who predated the Renaissance). Aside from political roles, military appointments, and an author, he wrote what would become the model for all Encyclopedias - The Naturalis Historia. He also was a discerning wine and beer critic. It is impressive to read translated passages from his Naturalis Historia and see what we humans were thinking 2000 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder
Naturalis Historia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Pliny)
Article:
https://www.winemag.com/2019/10/10/pliny-the-elder-first-wine-critic/
I recently read about William McGuffey, who had a huge impact on American education. The innovation was to offer mass-produced readers at varying skill levels to help children progress in their thinking and reading. As a result, his McGuffey readers shaped public education through most of the 20th century. While his personal story is not overwhelmingly exciting, his work undoubtedly shaped the minds of some of our grandparents and great-grandparents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Holmes_McGuffey
https://www.theedadvocate.org/story-american-education-mcguffey-readers/
You can buy them https://www.amazon.com/McGuffeys-Eclectic-Readers-Set-Through/dp/0471294284
Clean hands and sharp minds, team.
-AW
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