Wednesday, August 26, 2020
There were several remarkable articles released in the last day or so. The intellectual wins from broader understanding are muted by the continued inability to offer a coherent policy or demonstrate an appreciation of the magnitude of this pandemic's human toll.
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Latest Data
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
There is a continued slow decline in new cases in the US (40,000 a day, still) and stable deaths @ 2.9-3.0 per million (or about 900 deaths per day), but the data varies by state and region.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=cases
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The US Regionally:
The NY Times state-level data visualization:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
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The pandemic continues to be a regional problem, ebbing and flowing in waves. The COVID Tracking project blog offered a cautious optimism and a good overview of the trends of lower case rates.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/finally-some-good-news-this-week-in-covid-19-data-aug-20
Yesterday's Medscape COVID round up offered several interesting data points. Remdisivir is probably helpful in non-critically ill patients, but not dramatically so. Articles covering the variability in COVID severity - from asymptomatic patients to total immune system activation and devastating illness. And what I find most intriguing, is more data demonstrating that the H2 blocker famotidine offers lower mortality and a lower likelihood of a combined endpoint of death/intubation.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/936310
Famotidine article: https://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/227464/coronavirus-updates/another-observational-trial-finds-famotidine
A pre-release article was released yesterday, describing a very comprehensive genomic analysis of the early outbreak in Massachusetts. It follows two or three super-spreading events in late February and tracks over 800 resultant cases. The article is a bit dense, but the Washington Post does an excellent job putting the narrative into a more readable story.
Original article (pre-print and not yet reviewed: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.23.20178236v1
WaPo https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/25/boston-coronavirus-superspreading-event/
Some more follow up comments on convalescent plasma and correction of misstated data from Sunday's statements by FDA's Dr. Hahn.
https://twitter.com/SteveFDA/status/1298071620414824452
Here is the impact of poorly worded comments resulting in a need to explain relative and absolute risk reduction:
https://twitter.com/Neil_Mehta/status/1298068199716589569
Infographic of the day: Generational timelines
I was looking for the name of Generation Alpha. I found 1) this cool infographic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers#/media/File:Generation_timeline.svg
and 2) one of the many hobbyist illustrators on Wikipedia
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cmglee/svg
Here is my favorite of this person's graphics -
the Homograph/Homophone Venn diagram:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cmglee/svg#/media/File:Homograph_homophone_venn_diagram.svg
------Bonus Round: Plaid
In the house we rented, there were numerous pictures of the owner's family in hunting gear (along with many mounted antlers). One family member sported a red and black plaid hunting outfit from the 1950s and 1960s. These photos got me thinking about how diverse those that wear plaid can be - from rural NRA hunters to the grunge rockers. And then I wondered, who invented plaid? Thanks to a solid DSL line in our PA cabin, I was able to satisfy this curiosity. I went down the rabbit hole - from Scotland to Celtic tribes, to archeology in northern China.
Start here: https://www.stitchfix.com/men/blog/features/the-history-of-plaid/
Then here: http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-birth-of-tartan/
Then: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/science/16archeo.html
Then: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/07/18/these-red-haired-chinese-mummies-come-from-all-over-eurasia-dna-reveals/#694eaed73e2c
Finally, I stopped here: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ancient-mummies-of-the-tarim-basin/
Conclusions: Plaid is old, and both hunters and grunge kids were 4000 years late to the party. And, of course, the mental whiplash of ignorance to knowledge about plaid is remarkable.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
There were several remarkable articles released in the last day or so. The intellectual wins from broader understanding are muted by the continued inability to offer a coherent policy or demonstrate an appreciation of the magnitude of this pandemic's human toll.
----------------
Latest Data
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
There is a continued slow decline in new cases in the US (40,000 a day, still) and stable deaths @ 2.9-3.0 per million (or about 900 deaths per day), but the data varies by state and region.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=cases
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The US Regionally:
The NY Times state-level data visualization:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
-----------
The pandemic continues to be a regional problem, ebbing and flowing in waves. The COVID Tracking project blog offered a cautious optimism and a good overview of the trends of lower case rates.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/finally-some-good-news-this-week-in-covid-19-data-aug-20
Yesterday's Medscape COVID round up offered several interesting data points. Remdisivir is probably helpful in non-critically ill patients, but not dramatically so. Articles covering the variability in COVID severity - from asymptomatic patients to total immune system activation and devastating illness. And what I find most intriguing, is more data demonstrating that the H2 blocker famotidine offers lower mortality and a lower likelihood of a combined endpoint of death/intubation.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/936310
Famotidine article: https://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/227464/coronavirus-updates/another-observational-trial-finds-famotidine
A pre-release article was released yesterday, describing a very comprehensive genomic analysis of the early outbreak in Massachusetts. It follows two or three super-spreading events in late February and tracks over 800 resultant cases. The article is a bit dense, but the Washington Post does an excellent job putting the narrative into a more readable story.
Original article (pre-print and not yet reviewed: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.23.20178236v1
WaPo https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/25/boston-coronavirus-superspreading-event/
Some more follow up comments on convalescent plasma and correction of misstated data from Sunday's statements by FDA's Dr. Hahn.
https://twitter.com/SteveFDA/status/1298071620414824452
Here is the impact of poorly worded comments resulting in a need to explain relative and absolute risk reduction:
https://twitter.com/Neil_Mehta/status/1298068199716589569
Infographic of the day: Generational timelines
I was looking for the name of Generation Alpha. I found 1) this cool infographic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers#/media/File:Generation_timeline.svg
and 2) one of the many hobbyist illustrators on Wikipedia
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cmglee/svg
Here is my favorite of this person's graphics -
the Homograph/Homophone Venn diagram:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cmglee/svg#/media/File:Homograph_homophone_venn_diagram.svg
------Bonus Round: Plaid
In the house we rented, there were numerous pictures of the owner's family in hunting gear (along with many mounted antlers). One family member sported a red and black plaid hunting outfit from the 1950s and 1960s. These photos got me thinking about how diverse those that wear plaid can be - from rural NRA hunters to the grunge rockers. And then I wondered, who invented plaid? Thanks to a solid DSL line in our PA cabin, I was able to satisfy this curiosity. I went down the rabbit hole - from Scotland to Celtic tribes, to archeology in northern China.
Start here: https://www.stitchfix.com/men/blog/features/the-history-of-plaid/
Then here: http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-birth-of-tartan/
Then: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/science/16archeo.html
Then: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/07/18/these-red-haired-chinese-mummies-come-from-all-over-eurasia-dna-reveals/#694eaed73e2c
Finally, I stopped here: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ancient-mummies-of-the-tarim-basin/
Conclusions: Plaid is old, and both hunters and grunge kids were 4000 years late to the party. And, of course, the mental whiplash of ignorance to knowledge about plaid is remarkable.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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