Thursday, October 22, 2020
I finally resumed our Physician Experience Team coronavirus Q&A call yesterday. I am grateful for the open and thoughtful discussion. We have a consistent audience of more than 60 participants. Hearing others' concerns helps me better focus these morning emails and gets me out of the echo chamber in my head. That echo chamber can be lonely and, at times, a museum that is more gift shop than exhibit - filled with frivolous, shiny distractions and pabulum that is like intellectual space ice cream.
-----Latest Data---
Case rates are still trending up in many states and parts of the world. Death rates are still stable - remember it is often a 2+ week lagging indicator. The US is now diagnosing more than 55,000 new cases per day and rising (7-day rolling average). The death rate is increasing, and now at >700 deaths per day (7-day rolling average).
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 US Regionally - NY. Times:
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.
----
A participant in the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine trial died. The participant was in the placebo arm, and this was UNRELATED TO THE VACCINE.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-21/astrazeneca-dips-on-report-of-brazil-death-in-vaccine-trial
Commentary:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1318977406816915456
One Q&A participant asked if getting the flu vaccine change impact your likelihood of getting COVID. NO. All data to date indicates "no difference in COVID-19 incidence or severity between people who received adjuvant-free influenza vaccines in the fall or winter of 2019 and those who did not receive the vaccine. Both groups had a comparable risk for hospitalization, admission to an intensive care unit, and death."
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/flu-vaccinations-not-linked-to-increased-covid-19-risk#Cleveland-Clinic-study
There were a surprising number of physiology questions about coronavirus. I strongly recommend a few of these recorded MIT lectures on coronavirus:
Lecture #6 Physiology of immune system:
Lecture #5 Viral Immunology
Lecture #7 Clinical update on COVID
Lecture #4 Insights on the pandemic from Dr. Fauci
https://biology.mit.edu/undergraduate/current-students/subject-offerings/covid-19-sars-cov-2-and-the-pandemic/
Based on our discussion yesterday, please remember we have data on venues associated with the highest likelihood of COVID transmission.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7499837/figure/F1/ from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7499837/
NPR had an excellent review of the available data on how masks prevent coronavirus spread on long plane flights. This data is reassuring.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/10/20/925892185/do-masks-really-cut-your-risk-of-catching-covid-19-on-long-plane-flights
Equally as provocative as the NEJM editorial harshly criticizing President Trump, the Lancet has offered a similar editorial.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32140-1/fulltext
The Authors offered some Twitter commentary:
https://twitter.com/rheaboydmd/status/1318962656385011713?s=10
Infographics of the day: end of week intellectual detritus
I sort through a lot of infographics to get to those I share. Here are a few I found that have not yet made it to the morning email:
Safe sheep Handling Guide from New Zealand:
https://worksafe.govt.nz/assets/Topic/Working-With-Animals/Working-with-Sheep/working-with-animals-sheep-figure-3.png
from https://worksafe.govt.nz/topic-and-industry/agriculture/working-with-animals/working-with-sheep/safe-sheep-handling-gpg/
The Ultimate Commercial Refrigerator Buying Guide. (My previous commercial refrigerator buying guides were flawed, apparently).
https://www.ancasterfoodequipment.com/ultimate-commercial-refrigerator-buying-guide/
---Bonus Round - Rational speculation on extraterrestrial life
I found an article about 17th-century polymath Christiaan Huygens. It covers many of my favorite things - the ongoing history of ideas about science, philosophy, history, and aliens. Seriously. He was the first scientist to publish a rational argument for extraterrestrial life. He was so afraid of the religious and political backlash he only permitted its publication after his death.
From Huygens writing: "A man that is of Copernicus's Opinion, this Earth of ours is a Planet, carry'd round and enlighten'd by the Sun, like the rest of the Planets, cannot but sometimes think, that it's not improbable that the rest of the Planets have their Dress and Furniture, and perhaps their Inhabitants too."
But, as the article points out, Huygens's ability to think critically, creatively, and without dogma is probably his most valuable gift to science. Sharp minded, indeed.
Huygens is your coffee read of the day.
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-uncertain-heavens
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
I'm out tomorrow. Back on Monday.
I finally resumed our Physician Experience Team coronavirus Q&A call yesterday. I am grateful for the open and thoughtful discussion. We have a consistent audience of more than 60 participants. Hearing others' concerns helps me better focus these morning emails and gets me out of the echo chamber in my head. That echo chamber can be lonely and, at times, a museum that is more gift shop than exhibit - filled with frivolous, shiny distractions and pabulum that is like intellectual space ice cream.
-----Latest Data---
Case rates are still trending up in many states and parts of the world. Death rates are still stable - remember it is often a 2+ week lagging indicator. The US is now diagnosing more than 55,000 new cases per day and rising (7-day rolling average). The death rate is increasing, and now at >700 deaths per day (7-day rolling average).
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 US Regionally - NY. Times:
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.
----
A participant in the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine trial died. The participant was in the placebo arm, and this was UNRELATED TO THE VACCINE.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-21/astrazeneca-dips-on-report-of-brazil-death-in-vaccine-trial
Commentary:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1318977406816915456
One Q&A participant asked if getting the flu vaccine change impact your likelihood of getting COVID. NO. All data to date indicates "no difference in COVID-19 incidence or severity between people who received adjuvant-free influenza vaccines in the fall or winter of 2019 and those who did not receive the vaccine. Both groups had a comparable risk for hospitalization, admission to an intensive care unit, and death."
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/flu-vaccinations-not-linked-to-increased-covid-19-risk#Cleveland-Clinic-study
There were a surprising number of physiology questions about coronavirus. I strongly recommend a few of these recorded MIT lectures on coronavirus:
Lecture #6 Physiology of immune system:
Lecture #5 Viral Immunology
Lecture #7 Clinical update on COVID
Lecture #4 Insights on the pandemic from Dr. Fauci
https://biology.mit.edu/undergraduate/current-students/subject-offerings/covid-19-sars-cov-2-and-the-pandemic/
Based on our discussion yesterday, please remember we have data on venues associated with the highest likelihood of COVID transmission.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7499837/figure/F1/ from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7499837/
NPR had an excellent review of the available data on how masks prevent coronavirus spread on long plane flights. This data is reassuring.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/10/20/925892185/do-masks-really-cut-your-risk-of-catching-covid-19-on-long-plane-flights
Equally as provocative as the NEJM editorial harshly criticizing President Trump, the Lancet has offered a similar editorial.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32140-1/fulltext
The Authors offered some Twitter commentary:
https://twitter.com/rheaboydmd/status/1318962656385011713?s=10
Infographics of the day: end of week intellectual detritus
I sort through a lot of infographics to get to those I share. Here are a few I found that have not yet made it to the morning email:
Safe sheep Handling Guide from New Zealand:
https://worksafe.govt.nz/assets/Topic/Working-With-Animals/Working-with-Sheep/working-with-animals-sheep-figure-3.png
from https://worksafe.govt.nz/topic-and-industry/agriculture/working-with-animals/working-with-sheep/safe-sheep-handling-gpg/
The Ultimate Commercial Refrigerator Buying Guide. (My previous commercial refrigerator buying guides were flawed, apparently).
https://www.ancasterfoodequipment.com/ultimate-commercial-refrigerator-buying-guide/
---Bonus Round - Rational speculation on extraterrestrial life
I found an article about 17th-century polymath Christiaan Huygens. It covers many of my favorite things - the ongoing history of ideas about science, philosophy, history, and aliens. Seriously. He was the first scientist to publish a rational argument for extraterrestrial life. He was so afraid of the religious and political backlash he only permitted its publication after his death.
From Huygens writing: "A man that is of Copernicus's Opinion, this Earth of ours is a Planet, carry'd round and enlighten'd by the Sun, like the rest of the Planets, cannot but sometimes think, that it's not improbable that the rest of the Planets have their Dress and Furniture, and perhaps their Inhabitants too."
But, as the article points out, Huygens's ability to think critically, creatively, and without dogma is probably his most valuable gift to science. Sharp minded, indeed.
Huygens is your coffee read of the day.
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-uncertain-heavens
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
I'm out tomorrow. Back on Monday.
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