September 22, 2020, Tuesday
I apologize in advance for my tone. It isn't easy to find uplifting news regarding COVID over the last 24 hours. The degree to which politics has shaped our pandemic response is increasingly explicit. The HHS secretary diminished the FDA's rulemaking authority. There appears to be a struggle within the CDC to publish clear guidance on coronavirus exposure. The task force assigned to lead our national COVID response efforts operates in secrecy. And, irrespective of our politics, the pandemic ebbs and flows. An uninformed and distracted populace can only lose. Stay focused.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/21/coronavirus-task-force-stop-hiding-weekly-reports/
https://khn.org/morning-breakout/azar-bars-fda-cdc-from-issuing-rules-escalating-fears-of-political-meddling/
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/517354-cdc-quietly-shifts-guidance-on-coronavirus-transmission-through-the-air
further commentary:
https://twitter.com/ct_bergstrom/status/1308142798709772288?s=10
-----Latest Data---
Cases rates are rising in much of the world. Death rates are falling for now.
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
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 U.S. 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 COVID tracking project Blog offered two outstanding articles last week:
How a more in-depth look at metropolitan and county-level data gives insight into the pandemic's variability.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/state-level-data-obscures-important-variations
AND
Their weekly data roundup covered case rates, death rates, testing, hospitalization rates, and data problems. Of note, they saw a spike in deaths last week, which may be a more granular view of the data from the Financial Times.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/weekly-covid-19-update-holiday-reporting-lags-interrupt-positive-trends
The NY Times published an article on how vaccine development is not focused on children at the moment. The 2021-22 school year is now of concern.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/parenting/kids-vaccine-coronavirus.html
AstraZeneca released more data on their vaccine trial and the adverse events. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/health/astrazeneca-vaccine-safety-blueprints.html
Wastewater-based epidemiology for coronavirus amazes me. Here is an infographic and overview article about how it works.
https://twitter.com/DavidPoloM/status/1305513978328739841
and
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135420309398?via%3Dihub
Sort of infographic of the day: Medical Procedures in Playdough
I found a surgeon who is a mom that teaches her kids anatomy and surgery with Playdough. It is simultaneously disturbing, anatomically accurate, and entertaining. Her twitter feed is outstanding. More extended versions of the Playdough surgeries are on YouTube.
https://twitter.com/TheBreakfasteur
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7J5njZ1UHnmKLuNSToKkUQ
------ Bonus Round - Back to Ancient Civilizations
With the kids back in school, Gilgamesh and Beowulf are floating around my house. In retrospect, this would have been a reasonable justification for paying better attention in high school - "One day, you will have to help your kids write essays about this!" In all likelihood, this will be the last year for these texts as we will be out of children going through 9th grade. To be sure, it is remarkable how the themes of politics, sex, and death transcend time and cultures. For those of you helping (or about to help) your kids edit their essays, I found some interesting, modern commentary on these texts:
The women-warriors of Beowulf:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/154137/listen-bro
An unironically titled not-so-easy to read article on How to Read Gilgamesh
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/14/how-to-read-gilgamesh
A more readable guide to Gilgamesh:
https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
I apologize in advance for my tone. It isn't easy to find uplifting news regarding COVID over the last 24 hours. The degree to which politics has shaped our pandemic response is increasingly explicit. The HHS secretary diminished the FDA's rulemaking authority. There appears to be a struggle within the CDC to publish clear guidance on coronavirus exposure. The task force assigned to lead our national COVID response efforts operates in secrecy. And, irrespective of our politics, the pandemic ebbs and flows. An uninformed and distracted populace can only lose. Stay focused.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/21/coronavirus-task-force-stop-hiding-weekly-reports/
https://khn.org/morning-breakout/azar-bars-fda-cdc-from-issuing-rules-escalating-fears-of-political-meddling/
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/517354-cdc-quietly-shifts-guidance-on-coronavirus-transmission-through-the-air
further commentary:
https://twitter.com/ct_bergstrom/status/1308142798709772288?s=10
-----Latest Data---
Cases rates are rising in much of the world. Death rates are falling for now.
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
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 U.S. 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 COVID tracking project Blog offered two outstanding articles last week:
How a more in-depth look at metropolitan and county-level data gives insight into the pandemic's variability.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/state-level-data-obscures-important-variations
AND
Their weekly data roundup covered case rates, death rates, testing, hospitalization rates, and data problems. Of note, they saw a spike in deaths last week, which may be a more granular view of the data from the Financial Times.
https://covidtracking.com/blog/weekly-covid-19-update-holiday-reporting-lags-interrupt-positive-trends
The NY Times published an article on how vaccine development is not focused on children at the moment. The 2021-22 school year is now of concern.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/parenting/kids-vaccine-coronavirus.html
AstraZeneca released more data on their vaccine trial and the adverse events. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/health/astrazeneca-vaccine-safety-blueprints.html
Wastewater-based epidemiology for coronavirus amazes me. Here is an infographic and overview article about how it works.
https://twitter.com/DavidPoloM/status/1305513978328739841
and
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135420309398?via%3Dihub
Sort of infographic of the day: Medical Procedures in Playdough
I found a surgeon who is a mom that teaches her kids anatomy and surgery with Playdough. It is simultaneously disturbing, anatomically accurate, and entertaining. Her twitter feed is outstanding. More extended versions of the Playdough surgeries are on YouTube.
https://twitter.com/TheBreakfasteur
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7J5njZ1UHnmKLuNSToKkUQ
------ Bonus Round - Back to Ancient Civilizations
With the kids back in school, Gilgamesh and Beowulf are floating around my house. In retrospect, this would have been a reasonable justification for paying better attention in high school - "One day, you will have to help your kids write essays about this!" In all likelihood, this will be the last year for these texts as we will be out of children going through 9th grade. To be sure, it is remarkable how the themes of politics, sex, and death transcend time and cultures. For those of you helping (or about to help) your kids edit their essays, I found some interesting, modern commentary on these texts:
The women-warriors of Beowulf:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/154137/listen-bro
An unironically titled not-so-easy to read article on How to Read Gilgamesh
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/14/how-to-read-gilgamesh
A more readable guide to Gilgamesh:
https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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