October 7, 2020 - Wednesday
My perception of time is way off, thanks to working from home and the rapidity of news events. Some hours feel like days and some days pass in what seems like minutes. Yesterday was Tuesday. The hour I spent yesterday, which was Tuesday, watching the MIT coronavirus lecture was meditative. I learned how the coronavirus avoids intracellular anti-viral defense mechanisms and can set off cascading and unregulated activation of adaptive immune pathways. It is beautiful and elegant - in a Gigeresque way. By the end of the webinar, I found myself (sort of) rooting for the virus. Amongst the plethora of pandemic antagonists, the virus sometimes seems more like an anti-hero. It is what it is, amoral, apolitical, and evolved to replicate. At least I can understand that behavior. Did I mention yesterday was Tuesday?
-----Latest Data---
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.
----
It is about 30 days old, but this JAMA viewpoint on adaptive immunity to coronavirus is a quick technical read.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2770758
Medscape published updates on the latest FDA efforts at setting appropriate guidelines regarding COVID vaccine emergency use authorization. This process has been highly politicized, as you may have noticed. The FDA appears to be attempting to control the politicization.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/938686
The CDC is increasingly in the political maw as well. A former CDC director is calling out the current director. This news was reported first in USA Today, interestingly enough.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/10/06/expert-cdcs-redfield-should-expose-trump-covid-failures-leave-post/5899724002/
The CDC does offer numerous peer-reviewed publications worthy of review. Yesterday (which was Tuesday), MMWR published "Trends in COVID-19 Incidence After Implementation of Mitigation Measures — Arizona, January 22–August 7, 2020." Though it now feels like stating water is wet, it is good to have another article on this topic. Or, as the authors conclude: "Widespread implementation and enforcement of sustained community mitigation measures, including mask-wearing, informed by state and local officials' continual data monitoring and collaboration can help prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and decrease the numbers of COVID-19 cases."
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6940e3.htm
Commentary from The Hill
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/519860-new-cdc-report-shows-effectiveness-of-wearing
Infographic of the day: Facemasks and plunger-free toilet tips!
In a strange harmonic convergence of nephrologist authored COVID email digests and snarky sock and underwear companies pivoting to facemask sales, I offer the sockittome.com blog post - Face Mask Report Card
https://blog.sockittome.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20.05-SITM-Face-Mask-Infographic-v4.png
*This is essentially an ad, but it is clever enough.
As recompense, I offer a second infographic: How to unblock a toilet without a plunger. It is from the U.K., so there may be geographic limitations to this advice.
https://bdsdrainage.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/how-to-unblock-a-toilet-without-a-plunger.jpg
---Bonus Round -- Medical Mysteries in History
Deductive medical diagnosis is a big thing in the last few days. Does knowing a patient's treatment or symptoms let you understand the severity of illness? Maybe, maybe not. When applied in real-time to, say, Presidents, it is a maddening loop of discussion. When applied to historical figures, it is a delightful way to parse literature, words, and cultural context clues.
I found this article on the often discussed death of Edgar Allen Poe - which happened on October 7, 1849 (which was a Sunday, not a Tuesday). Alcohol poisoning, trauma, rabies are all hypothesized. Oddly enough, voting fraud may have played a role. Seriously.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/10/what-caused-the-mysterious-death-of-edgar-allan-poe.html
My interest in this kind of deductive reasoning goes back 20 years. If you are ever in Baltimore at the right time of year, you can check out my medical school's historical clinicopathologic conference (CPC). https://medicalalumni.org/historicalcpc/this-years-event/
Dr. Mackowiak, who was a founder of the conference, wrote a book about this topic.
https://www.amazon.com/Diagnosing-Giants-Mysteries-Thirteen-Patients-ebook-dp-B00E1HGJOO/dp/B00E1HGJOO/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
My perception of time is way off, thanks to working from home and the rapidity of news events. Some hours feel like days and some days pass in what seems like minutes. Yesterday was Tuesday. The hour I spent yesterday, which was Tuesday, watching the MIT coronavirus lecture was meditative. I learned how the coronavirus avoids intracellular anti-viral defense mechanisms and can set off cascading and unregulated activation of adaptive immune pathways. It is beautiful and elegant - in a Gigeresque way. By the end of the webinar, I found myself (sort of) rooting for the virus. Amongst the plethora of pandemic antagonists, the virus sometimes seems more like an anti-hero. It is what it is, amoral, apolitical, and evolved to replicate. At least I can understand that behavior. Did I mention yesterday was Tuesday?
-----Latest Data---
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.
----
It is about 30 days old, but this JAMA viewpoint on adaptive immunity to coronavirus is a quick technical read.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2770758
Medscape published updates on the latest FDA efforts at setting appropriate guidelines regarding COVID vaccine emergency use authorization. This process has been highly politicized, as you may have noticed. The FDA appears to be attempting to control the politicization.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/938686
The CDC is increasingly in the political maw as well. A former CDC director is calling out the current director. This news was reported first in USA Today, interestingly enough.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/10/06/expert-cdcs-redfield-should-expose-trump-covid-failures-leave-post/5899724002/
The CDC does offer numerous peer-reviewed publications worthy of review. Yesterday (which was Tuesday), MMWR published "Trends in COVID-19 Incidence After Implementation of Mitigation Measures — Arizona, January 22–August 7, 2020." Though it now feels like stating water is wet, it is good to have another article on this topic. Or, as the authors conclude: "Widespread implementation and enforcement of sustained community mitigation measures, including mask-wearing, informed by state and local officials' continual data monitoring and collaboration can help prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and decrease the numbers of COVID-19 cases."
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6940e3.htm
Commentary from The Hill
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/519860-new-cdc-report-shows-effectiveness-of-wearing
Infographic of the day: Facemasks and plunger-free toilet tips!
In a strange harmonic convergence of nephrologist authored COVID email digests and snarky sock and underwear companies pivoting to facemask sales, I offer the sockittome.com blog post - Face Mask Report Card
https://blog.sockittome.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20.05-SITM-Face-Mask-Infographic-v4.png
*This is essentially an ad, but it is clever enough.
As recompense, I offer a second infographic: How to unblock a toilet without a plunger. It is from the U.K., so there may be geographic limitations to this advice.
https://bdsdrainage.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/how-to-unblock-a-toilet-without-a-plunger.jpg
---Bonus Round -- Medical Mysteries in History
Deductive medical diagnosis is a big thing in the last few days. Does knowing a patient's treatment or symptoms let you understand the severity of illness? Maybe, maybe not. When applied in real-time to, say, Presidents, it is a maddening loop of discussion. When applied to historical figures, it is a delightful way to parse literature, words, and cultural context clues.
I found this article on the often discussed death of Edgar Allen Poe - which happened on October 7, 1849 (which was a Sunday, not a Tuesday). Alcohol poisoning, trauma, rabies are all hypothesized. Oddly enough, voting fraud may have played a role. Seriously.
http://www.openculture.com/2020/10/what-caused-the-mysterious-death-of-edgar-allan-poe.html
My interest in this kind of deductive reasoning goes back 20 years. If you are ever in Baltimore at the right time of year, you can check out my medical school's historical clinicopathologic conference (CPC). https://medicalalumni.org/historicalcpc/this-years-event/
Dr. Mackowiak, who was a founder of the conference, wrote a book about this topic.
https://www.amazon.com/Diagnosing-Giants-Mysteries-Thirteen-Patients-ebook-dp-B00E1HGJOO/dp/B00E1HGJOO/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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