Monday, January 4, 2021
I have a habit of streaming historical fiction series. Part of me likes to watch for the drama enhancements - factual inaccuracies, timeline alterations, and modern points of view employed to make the story more compelling and relatable. I imagine Shakespeare had similar analysis about his plays at the time. And I wonder how the scriptwriter of 2300 will portray our time when it is history. Ponder the lyrics for songs in 2020: The Musical.
-----Latest Data---
It appears, at least in the U.S., the states have caught up with reporting data from Christmas. The U.K. continues to have increasing cases and deaths at an increasing rate as well.
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=casesf
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. 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.
Vaccine Tracker!
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
-----
Since the middle of last week, vaccine delivery and distribution have dominated the COVID-related news. Here is a rundown:
The new variant of coronavirus appears to have a higher R0.
Though the new variant is not more deadly, it is easier to spread and more likely tax the already taxed healthcare system.
Vaccine distribution is slow. Remember, we need 1-2 million vaccines administered a day to vaccinate the U.S. population by Q3-Q4 2021.
So, the choices we have in front of us are some combination of increase the amount of vaccine, increase the rate of distribution (i.e., bolster the supply chain and administration), spread the vaccine we have amongst more people, or stay the course. Not all of these options are equally available, nor is it clear which options are most efficacious.
Population health experts, physicians, and scientists Several reasonable questions - should we delay the second dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines? Could we give 1/2 doses of the Moderna vaccine?
Dr. Bob Wachter offers this summary of the thoughts on delaying the second vaccine dose, i.e., giving more people less effective immunity to mitigate illness severity.
https://twitter.com/bob_wachter/status/1344667655324585986?s=10
Dr. Eric Topol sums up some thoughts from Dr. Fauci on this matter. Dr. Fauci is not in favor of delaying second doses at this time.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1345080202964029442
Florian Krammer, the PhD virologist, offers some thoughts based on his research about the trade-offs of delaying the second dose.
https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1345791187236646912?s=21
Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding reviewed the limited data about using a 50% (50 mcg) dose of the Moderna vaccine based on the published phase 1 and 2 trial data.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1345909232105889793?s=21
At this moment, the best answer is unclear. Carl Bergstrom summed up the paths in front of us well - by sticking to the plan, we have known success benchmarks. Ad hoc changes may lead to compounding errors and consequences that are worse. Or not.
https://twitter.com/ct_bergstrom/status/1345088693074186244?s=10
Infographic of the day: Tempering my enthusiasm for space travel
https://www.slideshare.net/MadgeTechInc/astronauts-in-space-infographic (or https://i.redd.it/ntbggu9rl4961.jpg)
More info: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/12/can-humans-have-babies-on-mars-space-it-may-be-harder-than-you-think/
---Bonus Round -- Colliding interests - fonts and history.
I recently acquired awareness of the words Helvetic and Helvetia. Most simply, they are derivations of Helvetii, the Latin name of the Celtic tribe who occupied what is now Switzerland in Roman times. Of course, that got me to Helvetica, the font name.
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-8-fonts-got-their-names
But the real rabbit hole is the discussion of San Serif font development.
http://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html
Who knew someone could write so much about serifs, or their absence, as the case may be.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
I have a habit of streaming historical fiction series. Part of me likes to watch for the drama enhancements - factual inaccuracies, timeline alterations, and modern points of view employed to make the story more compelling and relatable. I imagine Shakespeare had similar analysis about his plays at the time. And I wonder how the scriptwriter of 2300 will portray our time when it is history. Ponder the lyrics for songs in 2020: The Musical.
-----Latest Data---
It appears, at least in the U.S., the states have caught up with reporting data from Christmas. The U.K. continues to have increasing cases and deaths at an increasing rate as well.
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=casesf
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. 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.
Vaccine Tracker!
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
-----
Since the middle of last week, vaccine delivery and distribution have dominated the COVID-related news. Here is a rundown:
The new variant of coronavirus appears to have a higher R0.
Though the new variant is not more deadly, it is easier to spread and more likely tax the already taxed healthcare system.
Vaccine distribution is slow. Remember, we need 1-2 million vaccines administered a day to vaccinate the U.S. population by Q3-Q4 2021.
So, the choices we have in front of us are some combination of increase the amount of vaccine, increase the rate of distribution (i.e., bolster the supply chain and administration), spread the vaccine we have amongst more people, or stay the course. Not all of these options are equally available, nor is it clear which options are most efficacious.
Population health experts, physicians, and scientists Several reasonable questions - should we delay the second dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines? Could we give 1/2 doses of the Moderna vaccine?
Dr. Bob Wachter offers this summary of the thoughts on delaying the second vaccine dose, i.e., giving more people less effective immunity to mitigate illness severity.
https://twitter.com/bob_wachter/status/1344667655324585986?s=10
Dr. Eric Topol sums up some thoughts from Dr. Fauci on this matter. Dr. Fauci is not in favor of delaying second doses at this time.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1345080202964029442
Florian Krammer, the PhD virologist, offers some thoughts based on his research about the trade-offs of delaying the second dose.
https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1345791187236646912?s=21
Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding reviewed the limited data about using a 50% (50 mcg) dose of the Moderna vaccine based on the published phase 1 and 2 trial data.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1345909232105889793?s=21
At this moment, the best answer is unclear. Carl Bergstrom summed up the paths in front of us well - by sticking to the plan, we have known success benchmarks. Ad hoc changes may lead to compounding errors and consequences that are worse. Or not.
https://twitter.com/ct_bergstrom/status/1345088693074186244?s=10
Infographic of the day: Tempering my enthusiasm for space travel
https://www.slideshare.net/MadgeTechInc/astronauts-in-space-infographic (or https://i.redd.it/ntbggu9rl4961.jpg)
More info: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/12/can-humans-have-babies-on-mars-space-it-may-be-harder-than-you-think/
---Bonus Round -- Colliding interests - fonts and history.
I recently acquired awareness of the words Helvetic and Helvetia. Most simply, they are derivations of Helvetii, the Latin name of the Celtic tribe who occupied what is now Switzerland in Roman times. Of course, that got me to Helvetica, the font name.
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-8-fonts-got-their-names
But the real rabbit hole is the discussion of San Serif font development.
http://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html
Who knew someone could write so much about serifs, or their absence, as the case may be.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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