May 5, 2020
Tuesday
Happy Tuesday. Language is on my mind today. The struggle we are having translating technical or scientific concepts into a commonly understood vocabulary for public discussion is evident. Data, probability, models, and related notions are nuanced and often require time to digest and understand. And as time goes on, the collective "we" have less tolerance and patience for such detail. More articles looking at this gap are popping up.
-----
Latest data
FT data (No change in the presentation)
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
Death vs. Cases in the US.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-cases-deaths?country=US
An estimate of the effective reproduction number by state (not updated daily)
https://rt.live/
What is this analysis about? http://systrom.com/topic/coronavirus/
-----------
I have had several conversations about coronavirus transmission in the last few days. The essential variables are time and proximity. However, Dr. Cevik (an actual infectious disease expert) explains it better:
https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1257392347010215947
Likewise, you can now simulate various aspects of viral transmission. I am not in a position to judge the precision, but here is an interactive simulator:
First, read about it
https://infectiousmatter.com
and https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1257392347010215947
Second, play with it:
https://infectiousmatter.com/fullsim/
Andy Slavitt has some thoughts (28 of them in this thread) to share on the politics and science of the models regarding infection and death. I would ask you to focus on comments such as post #14 in his thread. Assumptions. All models must have assumptions, and that impacts what the model can tell us.
https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1257477460519763969
The post thread commentary/discussion is worth reading as well.
And we have now entered the Stanger Things-like Upside Down world of the politics of face mask-wearing. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/masks-are-tool-not-symbol/611134/
The nuance of science is lost in emotion and politics. What else is new?
The complexity of health insurance and healthcare payment in the US is remarkable. Here is a Kaiser Health article from last week discussing the delta between public officials' comments on costs during the epidemic and how that intersects with various insurers' policies and contracts.
https://khn.org/news/telehealth-will-be-free-no-copays-they-said-but-angry-patients-are-getting-billed/amp/
Loyal reader #3 sent me this article on the vaccines under development. We will all be immunology experts by the time this thing is done.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/the-ars-covid-19-vaccine-primer-100-plus-in-the-works-8-in-clinical-trials/
(I remember when Ars Technica was mostly about IT!)
I found a visual essay on the role of Palliative Care during COVID. It is worth the time and read (using the Medscape account I told you to register for a few weeks back, ahem).
https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/palliative-care-6012838?nlid=135370_5653&src=wnl_newsalrt_daily_200503_MSCPEDIT&uac=68144FY&impID=2368558&faf=1#1
Infographic twitter feed of the day: I was alerted to the Terrible Maps twitter feed yesterday
https://twitter.com/TerribleMaps
I highly recommend:
Population per capita map of Europe
https://twitter.com/DanielaKayB/status/1229383480783572993?s=20
Tan(Zania) Map
https://twitter.com/TerribleMaps/status/1255456299971751942?s=20
---Bonus Round: Arts and Entertainment edition (that's the orange slice in Trivial pursuit)
The history of linguistics is fascinating to me. Words and grammar reflect the most fundamental aspects of how humans think about and navigate their world. Linguistic diversity is one of the victims of globalization and electronic communication tools. Here is one Peruvian artist working to popularize the use of Quechua, the native language of the Incan Empire.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/peruvian-singer-rapper-renata-flores-helps-preserve-quechua-with-viral-hits-on-youtube.html
Background:
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2011/03/01/language-diversity-index-tracks-global-loss-of-mother-tongues/
https://www.vox.com/2014/11/17/7082317/language-maps-charts
During the Depression, the Works Project Administration (WPA) employed thousands of artists to document American life in the 1930s. Both the artistic output and the politics of this are worthy of exploration. In the article below, looking at the work of the WPA artists, notice the appearance of names like Harry Hopkins (previously discussed in the Bonus Round). Irrespective of your feelings on the public funding of art, the WPA supported many (ultimately) well-recognized artists of the 20th century.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/the-art-of-the-new-deal.html
More: http://www.wpamurals.com/
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1997-08-12-1997224099-story.html
Clean hands and sharp minds
-AW
Happy Tuesday. Language is on my mind today. The struggle we are having translating technical or scientific concepts into a commonly understood vocabulary for public discussion is evident. Data, probability, models, and related notions are nuanced and often require time to digest and understand. And as time goes on, the collective "we" have less tolerance and patience for such detail. More articles looking at this gap are popping up.
-----
Latest data
FT data (No change in the presentation)
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
Death vs. Cases in the US.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-cases-deaths?country=US
An estimate of the effective reproduction number by state (not updated daily)
https://rt.live/
What is this analysis about? http://systrom.com/topic/coronavirus/
-----------
I have had several conversations about coronavirus transmission in the last few days. The essential variables are time and proximity. However, Dr. Cevik (an actual infectious disease expert) explains it better:
https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1257392347010215947
Likewise, you can now simulate various aspects of viral transmission. I am not in a position to judge the precision, but here is an interactive simulator:
First, read about it
https://infectiousmatter.com
and https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1257392347010215947
Second, play with it:
https://infectiousmatter.com/fullsim/
Andy Slavitt has some thoughts (28 of them in this thread) to share on the politics and science of the models regarding infection and death. I would ask you to focus on comments such as post #14 in his thread. Assumptions. All models must have assumptions, and that impacts what the model can tell us.
https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1257477460519763969
The post thread commentary/discussion is worth reading as well.
And we have now entered the Stanger Things-like Upside Down world of the politics of face mask-wearing. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/masks-are-tool-not-symbol/611134/
The nuance of science is lost in emotion and politics. What else is new?
The complexity of health insurance and healthcare payment in the US is remarkable. Here is a Kaiser Health article from last week discussing the delta between public officials' comments on costs during the epidemic and how that intersects with various insurers' policies and contracts.
https://khn.org/news/telehealth-will-be-free-no-copays-they-said-but-angry-patients-are-getting-billed/amp/
Loyal reader #3 sent me this article on the vaccines under development. We will all be immunology experts by the time this thing is done.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/the-ars-covid-19-vaccine-primer-100-plus-in-the-works-8-in-clinical-trials/
(I remember when Ars Technica was mostly about IT!)
I found a visual essay on the role of Palliative Care during COVID. It is worth the time and read (using the Medscape account I told you to register for a few weeks back, ahem).
https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/palliative-care-6012838?nlid=135370_5653&src=wnl_newsalrt_daily_200503_MSCPEDIT&uac=68144FY&impID=2368558&faf=1#1
Infographic twitter feed of the day: I was alerted to the Terrible Maps twitter feed yesterday
https://twitter.com/TerribleMaps
I highly recommend:
Population per capita map of Europe
https://twitter.com/DanielaKayB/status/1229383480783572993?s=20
Tan(Zania) Map
https://twitter.com/TerribleMaps/status/1255456299971751942?s=20
---Bonus Round: Arts and Entertainment edition (that's the orange slice in Trivial pursuit)
The history of linguistics is fascinating to me. Words and grammar reflect the most fundamental aspects of how humans think about and navigate their world. Linguistic diversity is one of the victims of globalization and electronic communication tools. Here is one Peruvian artist working to popularize the use of Quechua, the native language of the Incan Empire.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/peruvian-singer-rapper-renata-flores-helps-preserve-quechua-with-viral-hits-on-youtube.html
Background:
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2011/03/01/language-diversity-index-tracks-global-loss-of-mother-tongues/
https://www.vox.com/2014/11/17/7082317/language-maps-charts
During the Depression, the Works Project Administration (WPA) employed thousands of artists to document American life in the 1930s. Both the artistic output and the politics of this are worthy of exploration. In the article below, looking at the work of the WPA artists, notice the appearance of names like Harry Hopkins (previously discussed in the Bonus Round). Irrespective of your feelings on the public funding of art, the WPA supported many (ultimately) well-recognized artists of the 20th century.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/the-art-of-the-new-deal.html
More: http://www.wpamurals.com/
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1997-08-12-1997224099-story.html
Clean hands and sharp minds
-AW
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