Monday, June 15, 2020
Today, my older son restarts a (COVID-modified) early morning swim team (with associated early bedtimes and workouts). This week, my practice is restarting in-person office visits. I am pensive and reflecting on the value of having been home these last few months. It is humbling to learn I am only a small part of the ecosystem around my house. It is good to make omelets on weekdays. And I learned my younger son could beat me at the 1980's Trivial Pursuit. I am still concerned about this re-opening of life. It will be tempting to let our guard down.
-----
Latest Data
The US's case rate is steady, as measured by 7-day rolling avg and rising when measured by new cases per day. The rate of death is falling but still 700+ people per day. The areas of most activity are still in the southeast and southwest.
Our world in data has interactive features.
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
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 map is an excellent quick glace of rolling 2-week case change
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
State Details:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data
https://rt.live/
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.
---------------
Former CDC head Dr. Tom Frieden offers a thoughtful twitter thread on the week's COVID data.
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1271850285363859457
The NY Times interviewed 511 epidemiologists about when they would feel comfortable re-initiating a variety of activities. Read the article, though. The respondents took umbrage with the survey structure, and a number of them made additional qualifying comments worthy of consideration. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/08/upshot/when-epidemiologists-will-do-everyday-things-coronavirus.html
Wired covers the high-stakes that at-risk/vulnerable patients and family members (rightly) perceive. https://www.wired.com/story/country-is-reopening-im-still-on-lockdown/
Speaking of which, here is a digestible flow diagram from British Columbia. https://twitter.com/pash22/status/1269514564825219073 (To be clear - we have not used the "social bubble" concept in the US - so here is a quick BBC tutorial -- https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52637354)
Some thoughtful discussion on intellectual fallacies of re-opening strategies from Biology Professor Carl Bergstrom
https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1272310035016605697
A loyal reader sent this article on Friday. A fluid dynamics engineer for NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) built a homemade lab to test masks with high-speed photography. https://medium.com/@nist/my-stay-at-home-lab-shows-how-face-coverings-can-block-the-spread-of-disease-5cf07f02894c
Various Johns Hopkins docs offer a critical and thoughtful review of a recent PNAS article on the airborne spread of coronavirus. When flawed articles are released, it makes it harder for us all. The analysis is an excellent overview of what can go wrong in a scientific article.
https://twitter.com/KateGrabowski/status/1271542361244352514
https://twitter.com/NoahHaber/status/1271518754627678208
Here is an interesting article on manufactured multi-antibody therapies being developed for the treatment of COVID. These are still early in development, and we shall see what the data shows. Be wary - there have been many of these stories based on press releases that sometimes align with stock trades. https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/regeneron-antibody-cocktail-trial/
Infographic of the day - The evolution of the alphabet
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1835/6621/files/alphabet-color_09ce9b05-8fc6-475b-af04-a34e5b3314a4.png
(I have read that this chart is a bit of an oversimplification, but interesting nonetheless.)
And, of course, you can learn more - how about an 18-minute video on the history of the letter W?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg2j7mZ9-2Y&pbjreload=101
OR you can learn about why we don't use certain letters anymore
http://steve-lovelace.com/greek-alphabet/
I will add advocacy for bringing back the letter San to the various esoteric and useless causes I can endorse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_%28letter%29
---Bonus Round -- A single life-defining moment
A friend and loyal reader alerted me to the story of Peter Norman, the Australian 200M silver medalist from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. We have all seen the Black Power salute photo during the medal ceremony, with Norman standing in juxtaposition to the two black athletes with gloved-fists raised - Tommie Smith and John Carols. However, the story of that photo is sad, fascinating, and life-defining.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/finally-the-real-story-about-peter-norman-and-the-black-power-salute-20181018-p50abm.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Norman
https://twitter.com/notagain127/status/1271873487305617416
Take home message - sometimes life puts in you challenging positions, pitting principles and ideals against social acceptance. And history takes a long time to vindicate you.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
-Adam
Today, my older son restarts a (COVID-modified) early morning swim team (with associated early bedtimes and workouts). This week, my practice is restarting in-person office visits. I am pensive and reflecting on the value of having been home these last few months. It is humbling to learn I am only a small part of the ecosystem around my house. It is good to make omelets on weekdays. And I learned my younger son could beat me at the 1980's Trivial Pursuit. I am still concerned about this re-opening of life. It will be tempting to let our guard down.
-----
Latest Data
The US's case rate is steady, as measured by 7-day rolling avg and rising when measured by new cases per day. The rate of death is falling but still 700+ people per day. The areas of most activity are still in the southeast and southwest.
Our world in data has interactive features.
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
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 map is an excellent quick glace of rolling 2-week case change
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
State Details:
https://public.tableau.com/views/Coronavirus-ChangeovertimeintheUSA/2_Corona?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Rt data
https://rt.live/
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.
---------------
Former CDC head Dr. Tom Frieden offers a thoughtful twitter thread on the week's COVID data.
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1271850285363859457
The NY Times interviewed 511 epidemiologists about when they would feel comfortable re-initiating a variety of activities. Read the article, though. The respondents took umbrage with the survey structure, and a number of them made additional qualifying comments worthy of consideration. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/08/upshot/when-epidemiologists-will-do-everyday-things-coronavirus.html
Wired covers the high-stakes that at-risk/vulnerable patients and family members (rightly) perceive. https://www.wired.com/story/country-is-reopening-im-still-on-lockdown/
Speaking of which, here is a digestible flow diagram from British Columbia. https://twitter.com/pash22/status/1269514564825219073 (To be clear - we have not used the "social bubble" concept in the US - so here is a quick BBC tutorial -- https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52637354)
Some thoughtful discussion on intellectual fallacies of re-opening strategies from Biology Professor Carl Bergstrom
https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1272310035016605697
A loyal reader sent this article on Friday. A fluid dynamics engineer for NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) built a homemade lab to test masks with high-speed photography. https://medium.com/@nist/my-stay-at-home-lab-shows-how-face-coverings-can-block-the-spread-of-disease-5cf07f02894c
Various Johns Hopkins docs offer a critical and thoughtful review of a recent PNAS article on the airborne spread of coronavirus. When flawed articles are released, it makes it harder for us all. The analysis is an excellent overview of what can go wrong in a scientific article.
https://twitter.com/KateGrabowski/status/1271542361244352514
https://twitter.com/NoahHaber/status/1271518754627678208
Here is an interesting article on manufactured multi-antibody therapies being developed for the treatment of COVID. These are still early in development, and we shall see what the data shows. Be wary - there have been many of these stories based on press releases that sometimes align with stock trades. https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/regeneron-antibody-cocktail-trial/
Infographic of the day - The evolution of the alphabet
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1835/6621/files/alphabet-color_09ce9b05-8fc6-475b-af04-a34e5b3314a4.png
(I have read that this chart is a bit of an oversimplification, but interesting nonetheless.)
And, of course, you can learn more - how about an 18-minute video on the history of the letter W?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg2j7mZ9-2Y&pbjreload=101
OR you can learn about why we don't use certain letters anymore
http://steve-lovelace.com/greek-alphabet/
I will add advocacy for bringing back the letter San to the various esoteric and useless causes I can endorse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_%28letter%29
---Bonus Round -- A single life-defining moment
A friend and loyal reader alerted me to the story of Peter Norman, the Australian 200M silver medalist from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. We have all seen the Black Power salute photo during the medal ceremony, with Norman standing in juxtaposition to the two black athletes with gloved-fists raised - Tommie Smith and John Carols. However, the story of that photo is sad, fascinating, and life-defining.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/finally-the-real-story-about-peter-norman-and-the-black-power-salute-20181018-p50abm.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Norman
https://twitter.com/notagain127/status/1271873487305617416
Take home message - sometimes life puts in you challenging positions, pitting principles and ideals against social acceptance. And history takes a long time to vindicate you.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
-Adam
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