June 1, 2020
Monday
I needed to learn the word trichotomy to describe the struggle to wrap my head around the protests, the SpaceX + Crew Dragon launch, and COVID this weekend. What a roller coaster of anger, amazement, and, now, routinized frustration, respectively. This weekend demonstrated how a global pandemic could become news story #2 or #3 and (almost) beside the point.
Focusing our collective attention in more directions makes it even more imperative to watch the data. Darkness and distraction can obscure important information and suppresses critical thought.
-----
State comparisons:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data
https://public.tableau.com/shared/7FH637YGW?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
- still not updated from 5/16 - Here is the other source https://rt.live/
FT data is still the best visualization I have found for country comparisons.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=0&values=deaths
The NY Times has hotspot infographics - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?referringSource=articleShare
Our world in data has some interactive features that are worthy of playing with as well. Look at the trajectory of new confirmed cases per million people in India and Sweden, compared to other countries.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?yScale=log&zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-04-16..&country=USA~GBR~CAN~BRA~AUS~IND~DEU~FRA~ITA~SWE&deathsMetric=true&dailyFreq=true&aligned=true&perCapita=true&smoothing=7
The tableau data is from The COVID Tracking Project, which compiles and rates state-reported data. Please review https://covidtracking.com/ to understand the quality of the data.
----------
Another antiviral agent showed up in the news over the weekend - favipiravir. The Russian version of this generic drug has received Russian Health Ministry approval for use in COVID.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-31/russian-health-ministry-approves-anti-coronavirus-drug-avifavir
There is a bit of data from Russian trials
https://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/latest-data-show-above-80-efficacy-for-favipiravir-in-covid-19-say-rdif-and-chemrar
Multiple pharma companies are developing monoclonal antibodies. Here is an overview - https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/01/eli-lilly-begins-first-human-tests-of-an-antibody-drug-against-covid-19/
CDC and WHO are offering some varying advice on masks. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-offer-conflicting-advice-masks-expert-tells-us/story?id=70958380
And, it appears, the US has sent a large quantity of HCQ to Brazil. There is either a lot to consider about this kind of news. One comment on this article I saw stated, "I guess we are just giving them what they want."
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/05/31/us/politics/ap-us-virus-outbreak-united-states-brazil.html
Speaking of giving people false hope, the data-less world of copper-for-arthritis is oozing its way into coronavirus consumer sales.
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/a32711933/copper-face-mask-coronavirus-safety/
While there is data suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 does not live on copper as long as it lives on other surfaces, there is no indication that copper face masks are helpful.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973
Mis-applying data like this is a common example of the composition/division logical fallacy: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/composition-division
An article from yesterday that articulates my concerns about the possible coronavirus spreading amongst protesters and police.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-coronavirus-may31-update-20200531-n6pnguxgjvc4vgstijuil4723m-story.html
Infographic of the day - here is a visual guide to irrational feeling non-metric measurements. My son, the baker, makes fun of me for not having this all memorized.
https://i.redd.it/4iuvy7c8x9251.jpg
----Bonus Round - social issues through time edition
Margaret Sanger was a woman's rights advocate who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. She, along with Katharine McCormick, was instrumental in the development of the birth control pill. She had views on eugenics that make her challenging to admire uncritically. But, when it comes to strong-willed visionaries with a mission, she is very compelling. The story of her long career in the politics and policies of gender, reproductive rights, and the woman's movement is a read well worth the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger
A New Yorker profile https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1930/07/05/they-were-eleven
One of the many barriers Ms. Sanger faced was Anthony Comstock, a U.S. Postal Inspector and member of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. He spent an enormous amount of energy attempting to suppress and censor materials related to sex, abortion, gambling, medical quackery, and related topics. He engaged in activities that, by today's standards, would be considered entrapment. He used his political connections and position in New York social circles to impose his very rigid views of morality on the world around him. Interestingly, J. Edgar Hoover was a great admirer of Comstock. It seems bad ideas evolve through history, just like good ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Comstock
https://medium.com/futures-exchange/the-men-who-open-your-mail-1c6d2587db4a
Clean hands and sharp minds
-AW
I needed to learn the word trichotomy to describe the struggle to wrap my head around the protests, the SpaceX + Crew Dragon launch, and COVID this weekend. What a roller coaster of anger, amazement, and, now, routinized frustration, respectively. This weekend demonstrated how a global pandemic could become news story #2 or #3 and (almost) beside the point.
Focusing our collective attention in more directions makes it even more imperative to watch the data. Darkness and distraction can obscure important information and suppresses critical thought.
-----
State comparisons:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data
https://public.tableau.com/shared/7FH637YGW?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
- still not updated from 5/16 - Here is the other source https://rt.live/
FT data is still the best visualization I have found for country comparisons.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=0&values=deaths
The NY Times has hotspot infographics - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?referringSource=articleShare
Our world in data has some interactive features that are worthy of playing with as well. Look at the trajectory of new confirmed cases per million people in India and Sweden, compared to other countries.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?yScale=log&zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-04-16..&country=USA~GBR~CAN~BRA~AUS~IND~DEU~FRA~ITA~SWE&deathsMetric=true&dailyFreq=true&aligned=true&perCapita=true&smoothing=7
The tableau data is from The COVID Tracking Project, which compiles and rates state-reported data. Please review https://covidtracking.com/ to understand the quality of the data.
----------
Another antiviral agent showed up in the news over the weekend - favipiravir. The Russian version of this generic drug has received Russian Health Ministry approval for use in COVID.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-31/russian-health-ministry-approves-anti-coronavirus-drug-avifavir
There is a bit of data from Russian trials
https://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/latest-data-show-above-80-efficacy-for-favipiravir-in-covid-19-say-rdif-and-chemrar
Multiple pharma companies are developing monoclonal antibodies. Here is an overview - https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/01/eli-lilly-begins-first-human-tests-of-an-antibody-drug-against-covid-19/
CDC and WHO are offering some varying advice on masks. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-offer-conflicting-advice-masks-expert-tells-us/story?id=70958380
And, it appears, the US has sent a large quantity of HCQ to Brazil. There is either a lot to consider about this kind of news. One comment on this article I saw stated, "I guess we are just giving them what they want."
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/05/31/us/politics/ap-us-virus-outbreak-united-states-brazil.html
Speaking of giving people false hope, the data-less world of copper-for-arthritis is oozing its way into coronavirus consumer sales.
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/a32711933/copper-face-mask-coronavirus-safety/
While there is data suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 does not live on copper as long as it lives on other surfaces, there is no indication that copper face masks are helpful.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973
Mis-applying data like this is a common example of the composition/division logical fallacy: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/composition-division
An article from yesterday that articulates my concerns about the possible coronavirus spreading amongst protesters and police.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-coronavirus-may31-update-20200531-n6pnguxgjvc4vgstijuil4723m-story.html
Infographic of the day - here is a visual guide to irrational feeling non-metric measurements. My son, the baker, makes fun of me for not having this all memorized.
https://i.redd.it/4iuvy7c8x9251.jpg
----Bonus Round - social issues through time edition
Margaret Sanger was a woman's rights advocate who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. She, along with Katharine McCormick, was instrumental in the development of the birth control pill. She had views on eugenics that make her challenging to admire uncritically. But, when it comes to strong-willed visionaries with a mission, she is very compelling. The story of her long career in the politics and policies of gender, reproductive rights, and the woman's movement is a read well worth the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger
A New Yorker profile https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1930/07/05/they-were-eleven
One of the many barriers Ms. Sanger faced was Anthony Comstock, a U.S. Postal Inspector and member of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. He spent an enormous amount of energy attempting to suppress and censor materials related to sex, abortion, gambling, medical quackery, and related topics. He engaged in activities that, by today's standards, would be considered entrapment. He used his political connections and position in New York social circles to impose his very rigid views of morality on the world around him. Interestingly, J. Edgar Hoover was a great admirer of Comstock. It seems bad ideas evolve through history, just like good ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Comstock
https://medium.com/futures-exchange/the-men-who-open-your-mail-1c6d2587db4a
Clean hands and sharp minds
-AW
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