Thursday, December 10, 2020
We have a contractor that has been doing some work on the outside of the new house. Despite the prolonged timelines and overruns, we feel fortunate to have his team - the home improvement industry is overwhelmed in our area. And yet, I still have questions. Is there a correlation between the quantity of half-consumed and abandoned beverages and the quality of work? I certainly hope so. Are the hours before 8 am and after 2 pm (the typical workday) spent in restful contemplation about the ideal and efficient means of completing our project? I can only assume. I am curious if anyone has rigorously studied these phenomena. I wonder if our contractor's small team knows what I'm thinking about when I wave each morning. Moreover, I can only imagine what they think of the doctor who spends many hours walking at a treadmill desk while typing and puts on a mask to talk to them outside.
-----Latest Data---
No words.
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.
-----
There has been a lot of discussion about the allergic reaction warnings for the Pfizer vaccine due to two anaphylaxis episodes during the first day of administration to a broader UK population.
Article: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-pfizer-allergy-idUSKBN28J37E
Discussion on Twitter by mostly rational humans with knowledge:
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1336682183294033920
Here is a meta-analysis on kidney injury and the need for dialysis across 54 published and pre-printed studies. This article covers a wide range of experiences probably skew to earlier in the pandemic. Nevertheless, it is striking that 1 in 3 hospitalized COVID patients have acute kidney injury, and a statistically significant number (meaning greater than the typical ICU patient population) required dialysis. Take home is how complicated and devastating COVID is on all organ systems.
https://www.kidneymedicinejournal.org/article/S2590-0595(20)30257-0/fulltext
There are more discussions around liability, workers comp, and related employment issues pertaining to the pandemic. https://abc7.com/8613919/
I am disheartened and baffled by healthcare colleagues' social media posts demonstrating a lack of concern for transmission.
Here is an article discussing how Hawaii is the only state that has genuinely enforced COVID-related post-travel quarantine rules. Here is my favorite quote, "Aloha works both ways."
https://www.route-fifty.com/health-human-services/2020/12/americans-arent-actually-quarantining/170586/
Infographic of the day: About Infographics
https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/technology/infographics-benefits-their-use-online
I think it is worth revisiting this infographic on mRNA vaccines as well
https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/c3a018493c504e8a9c52b59266039de4.html
from
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-16/moderna-pfizer-vaccines-look-strong-here-s-how-they-stack-up
----Bonus Round: Brief but powerful (sort of)
This week, I will leave you with a compelling article published in a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published in 2012. The authors are were (in 2012) psychology graduate students at the University of Hiroshima. This article got some media attention in 2013. Experimental subjects were shown pictures of cute things (puppies and kittens) and neutral things (adult animals and food). Subjects performed various validated fine motor and attention tasks. And while I can identify some methodologic problems around assumptions of cute, the data does indicate "participants performed tasks requiring focused attention more carefully after viewing cute images." In other words, baby animal videos and pictures seem to improve learning and work performance. YouTube may be a performance-enhancing tool. Or not.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0046362
one of the related articles:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25103362
Have a safe weekend.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
We have a contractor that has been doing some work on the outside of the new house. Despite the prolonged timelines and overruns, we feel fortunate to have his team - the home improvement industry is overwhelmed in our area. And yet, I still have questions. Is there a correlation between the quantity of half-consumed and abandoned beverages and the quality of work? I certainly hope so. Are the hours before 8 am and after 2 pm (the typical workday) spent in restful contemplation about the ideal and efficient means of completing our project? I can only assume. I am curious if anyone has rigorously studied these phenomena. I wonder if our contractor's small team knows what I'm thinking about when I wave each morning. Moreover, I can only imagine what they think of the doctor who spends many hours walking at a treadmill desk while typing and puts on a mask to talk to them outside.
-----Latest Data---
No words.
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.
-----
There has been a lot of discussion about the allergic reaction warnings for the Pfizer vaccine due to two anaphylaxis episodes during the first day of administration to a broader UK population.
Article: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-pfizer-allergy-idUSKBN28J37E
Discussion on Twitter by mostly rational humans with knowledge:
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1336682183294033920
Here is a meta-analysis on kidney injury and the need for dialysis across 54 published and pre-printed studies. This article covers a wide range of experiences probably skew to earlier in the pandemic. Nevertheless, it is striking that 1 in 3 hospitalized COVID patients have acute kidney injury, and a statistically significant number (meaning greater than the typical ICU patient population) required dialysis. Take home is how complicated and devastating COVID is on all organ systems.
https://www.kidneymedicinejournal.org/article/S2590-0595(20)30257-0/fulltext
There are more discussions around liability, workers comp, and related employment issues pertaining to the pandemic. https://abc7.com/8613919/
I am disheartened and baffled by healthcare colleagues' social media posts demonstrating a lack of concern for transmission.
Here is an article discussing how Hawaii is the only state that has genuinely enforced COVID-related post-travel quarantine rules. Here is my favorite quote, "Aloha works both ways."
https://www.route-fifty.com/health-human-services/2020/12/americans-arent-actually-quarantining/170586/
Infographic of the day: About Infographics
https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/technology/infographics-benefits-their-use-online
I think it is worth revisiting this infographic on mRNA vaccines as well
https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/c3a018493c504e8a9c52b59266039de4.html
from
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-16/moderna-pfizer-vaccines-look-strong-here-s-how-they-stack-up
----Bonus Round: Brief but powerful (sort of)
This week, I will leave you with a compelling article published in a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published in 2012. The authors are were (in 2012) psychology graduate students at the University of Hiroshima. This article got some media attention in 2013. Experimental subjects were shown pictures of cute things (puppies and kittens) and neutral things (adult animals and food). Subjects performed various validated fine motor and attention tasks. And while I can identify some methodologic problems around assumptions of cute, the data does indicate "participants performed tasks requiring focused attention more carefully after viewing cute images." In other words, baby animal videos and pictures seem to improve learning and work performance. YouTube may be a performance-enhancing tool. Or not.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0046362
one of the related articles:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25103362
Have a safe weekend.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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