June 30, 2020
TuesdayGood morning! One of the many unintended consequences of writing this email is the opportunity to look up unattributed and partially-remembered intellectual detritus floating around in my head. This morning, I woke up with the phrase "nature abhors a vacuum" drifting through my mind. Fascinating backstory on this one, it turns out. Most relevant is how it describes some blips of news in response to lack of centralized pandemic management - states and private organizations begin to fill some of the voids.
Learn about nature abhorring vacuums!
https://www.newamericanjournal.net/2019/07/nature-abhors-a-vacuum-from-aristotle-to-thoreau/
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Latest Data
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 - the second graph down now has state-level data - I suggest setting it to cases, per million, linear, and add your state to the highlighted list.
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 - range bands are widening, even in states where R0 is less than 1.
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.
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China will be testing a COVID-19 vaccine in the military. While I suspect we will only see positive results (if any), it will be interesting to see what else is learned.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-vaccine-idUSKBN2400DZ
More on the disinformation around vaccines. Be critical of what you read. It appears sowing discord is the MO of our adversaries.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/09/in-the-united-states-russian-trolls-are-peddling-measles-disinformation-on-twitter/
We have enough issues with data at the state level. If there were only a coordinated national effort at defining minimum reportable data sets. For example, we could have a center for controlling disease or the like. In the absence of such an organized approach, you get these kinds of stories:
https://twitter.com/Mike_Hixenbaugh/status/1277204625217720320
Remdesivir is expensive. This is a complex subject given the overall costs of drug development and the limited number of successfully launched compounds relative to the work to find the successful ones. But the optics are not good here.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/29/gilead-announces-remdesivir-price-covid-19/
The State of Virginia now has requirements to wear masks. It turns out a government has the power to enforce public health measures, like seatbelts, vaccines in schools, and efforts at diminishing the spread of deadly disease. https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2020/05/26/face-masks-will-soon-be-mandatory-at-times-in-virginia/
and this mandate was upheld in court
https://twitter.com/markherringva/status/1277695930381283329?s=12
Fortunately, we have yet further evidence of the safety of mask-wearing. My favorite tweet of the day - a GI Oncologist who demonstrates that wearing masks (even all the masks in a single box) does not impact one's oxygen saturation.
https://twitter.com/marklewismd/status/1277765139731709952
The BBC had to put together an article on this topic. Dear god.
https://www.bbc.com/news/53108405
Given that there is increasing data on the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in an aerosolized form, perhaps it might be wise to wear masks to decrease, even a bit, the risk of transmission to others and, less likely, from others?
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/9/20-1806_article
This article presents very preliminary data but speaks to a heartiness of SARS-CoV-2 that I find surprising.
Georgetown University and some other organizations provide Coviod-local, a collection of detailed checklists for re-opening state and local communities.
https://covid-local.org/metrics/
Compare and contrast: https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/
More on the inflammatory syndrome, some small number of children are demonstrating due to COVID. This pandemic is rapidly advancing our understanding of immunology and immune response to viral illnesses. It is a shame it is such an awful way to get that knowledge. (I am pretty sure there are numerous allegories and aphorisms about learning from crisis). https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/29/nejm-inflammation-children-covid19-misc/
Infographic of the day #1 Things to Increase Your Life Span
Note the prominence of themes that stem from clean hands and sharp minds, amongst a variety of activities. All the way at the bottom is my new aspirational goal: become a married, happy, outdoors-loving, sex-mad, hippy party-girl in senior management with a cat. I think I am at least halfway there.
https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/what-could-really-increase-life-expectancy-lifespan-and-longevity/
Infographic of the day #2: the Halal/Kosher vertical ven diagram
I am most curious about the tastiness scale. And, of course, the ostrich outlier data.
https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/tooth-law-whats-halal-whats-kosher/
----Bonus Round - Vacuums that were Abhorred
I found an article on the 1746 An Essay Toward the Natural History of Serpents. The writing is an excellent example of mixing knowledge and myth. Written in an age of science but before Darwin and organized field biology, the Author (Charles Owen) filled in gaps of understanding with intellectual nougat. It is easy to mock, but hard to identify our own nougat, assumptions, and biases.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/06/28/an-essay-toward-a-natural-history-of-serpents/
thumb through the original https://archive.org/details/essaytowardsnat00owen/page/42/mode/2up
Another nougat-filled vacuum of knowledge I have recently re-discovered is the biblical interpretations used to justify racism. As a not religious person, I did not appreciate how significant these mental gymnastics were for so many who may have otherwise wondered why it was OK to oppress fellow humans. Though these thoughts evolved, it is clear there are still many threads woven into modern society.
Some background:
https://time.com/5171819/christianity-slavery-book-excerpt/
More recent impact:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/unbuckling-the-bible-belt_b_137782
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/12/05/discriminating-in-the-name-of-religion-segregationists-and-slaveholders-did-it-too/
The book my family was listening to that cued me into my ignorance on this topic:
https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Antiracism-National-Award-winning-Beginning/dp/0316453692
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
-AW
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