Thursday, February 25, 2021
This week has been confusing in good ways. Lots of positive data. Lots of anticipation and eagerness to get back to life. We are closer, but the U.S. still diagnoses 80,000 new COVID cases per day. As of yesterday, only 13% of the U.S. population has had one vaccine dose, and 6.2% of the population has had two doses of vaccine. We will need masks and distancing for a while still, but the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter. Follow the data.
-----Latest Data---
7-day average case and death rates are still trending down.
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/
-----
NEJM published data on the Israeli vaccine experience. Dr. Gandhi offered some Twitter commentary. The data covered close to 600,000 vaccinated Israelis (wow!) and demonstrated 92% efficacy against infection, 94% in stopping symptomatic COVID-19; 87% efficacy for COVID-19 in preventing hospitalization; 92% efficacy against severe disease.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2101765
and
https://twitter.com/MonicaGandhi9/status/1364749968355954688?s=20
It appears there is increasing confidence in storing the Pfizer vaccine in refrigerated (and not -80) conditions for up to 2 weeks. This change, which still needs FDA approval, bodes well for widescale distribution.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/covid-vaccine-pfizer-asks-fda-to-approve-storing-doses-at-higher-temperatures.html
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine (single-dose, more typically available storage temperatures) released data yesterday. Like Pfizer and Moderna, it was 100% effective at eliminating death and hospitalization but somewhat less effective against transmission and mild to moderate illness.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02/24/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine/
related: comparison of latest data from 5 phase 3 vaccine trials
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1364703838100316162
All of this data is heartening. I wonder if we are in the downswing of cyclical illness or getting to a new, lower steady-state of the disease. The N.Y. Times covered this nicely yesterday:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/briefing/tiger-woods-daniel-prude-death-illinois-bail.html
Infographic of the day: Reborrowed words
I recently became aware of this linguistic phenomenon. And, of course, there are some fantastic infographics.
https://starkeycomics.com/2020/06/06/reborrowings/
I vote we migrate "snack" back to the middle Dutch "snacken." I would add an apostrophe but still use it as a noun - "release the snacken'!" (To eat my mid-day hunger. Can you eat hunger‽)
---Bonus Round -- healthcare in science fiction
I had some windshield time and listened to the Bedside Rounds podcast I referenced yesterday. Episode 7 (of the podcast) was a well-referenced review of healthcare in The Empire Strikes Back. I highly recommend this.
http://bedside-rounds.org/episode-7-the-medicine-of-the-empire-strikes-back/
It turns out this genre of healthcare science fiction analysis is a thing.
Tor Publishing (which distributes the outstanding Martha Well's MurderBot series) had this blog post on fictional health care delivery systems:
https://www.tor.com/2020/08/12/five-science-fictional-approaches-to-healthcare/comment-page-1/
Space Rickets and Space Sex (via SpaceX)! Of all the science fiction I read, The Expanse most plausibly employs science (including healthcare). I found someone who agrees - a physician who has training in space medicine who reviews the series:
https://screamingfirehawks.live/t/space-doctor-analyses-medicine-in-the-expanse/234
And, way back in 2016, I published my first (and only) piece of speculative healthcare fiction in Nephrology News and Issues. No Hugo awards, but I had fun writing it.
https://www.healio.com/news/nephrology/20180227/zen-and-the-future-of-nephrology
Clean hands and sharp minds team,
Adam
Back on Monday. Have a safe, distanced, and masked weekend.
This week has been confusing in good ways. Lots of positive data. Lots of anticipation and eagerness to get back to life. We are closer, but the U.S. still diagnoses 80,000 new COVID cases per day. As of yesterday, only 13% of the U.S. population has had one vaccine dose, and 6.2% of the population has had two doses of vaccine. We will need masks and distancing for a while still, but the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter. Follow the data.
-----Latest Data---
7-day average case and death rates are still trending down.
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/
-----
NEJM published data on the Israeli vaccine experience. Dr. Gandhi offered some Twitter commentary. The data covered close to 600,000 vaccinated Israelis (wow!) and demonstrated 92% efficacy against infection, 94% in stopping symptomatic COVID-19; 87% efficacy for COVID-19 in preventing hospitalization; 92% efficacy against severe disease.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2101765
and
https://twitter.com/MonicaGandhi9/status/1364749968355954688?s=20
It appears there is increasing confidence in storing the Pfizer vaccine in refrigerated (and not -80) conditions for up to 2 weeks. This change, which still needs FDA approval, bodes well for widescale distribution.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/19/covid-vaccine-pfizer-asks-fda-to-approve-storing-doses-at-higher-temperatures.html
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine (single-dose, more typically available storage temperatures) released data yesterday. Like Pfizer and Moderna, it was 100% effective at eliminating death and hospitalization but somewhat less effective against transmission and mild to moderate illness.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02/24/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine/
related: comparison of latest data from 5 phase 3 vaccine trials
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1364703838100316162
All of this data is heartening. I wonder if we are in the downswing of cyclical illness or getting to a new, lower steady-state of the disease. The N.Y. Times covered this nicely yesterday:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/briefing/tiger-woods-daniel-prude-death-illinois-bail.html
Infographic of the day: Reborrowed words
I recently became aware of this linguistic phenomenon. And, of course, there are some fantastic infographics.
https://starkeycomics.com/2020/06/06/reborrowings/
I vote we migrate "snack" back to the middle Dutch "snacken." I would add an apostrophe but still use it as a noun - "release the snacken'!" (To eat my mid-day hunger. Can you eat hunger‽)
---Bonus Round -- healthcare in science fiction
I had some windshield time and listened to the Bedside Rounds podcast I referenced yesterday. Episode 7 (of the podcast) was a well-referenced review of healthcare in The Empire Strikes Back. I highly recommend this.
http://bedside-rounds.org/episode-7-the-medicine-of-the-empire-strikes-back/
It turns out this genre of healthcare science fiction analysis is a thing.
Tor Publishing (which distributes the outstanding Martha Well's MurderBot series) had this blog post on fictional health care delivery systems:
https://www.tor.com/2020/08/12/five-science-fictional-approaches-to-healthcare/comment-page-1/
Space Rickets and Space Sex (via SpaceX)! Of all the science fiction I read, The Expanse most plausibly employs science (including healthcare). I found someone who agrees - a physician who has training in space medicine who reviews the series:
https://screamingfirehawks.live/t/space-doctor-analyses-medicine-in-the-expanse/234
And, way back in 2016, I published my first (and only) piece of speculative healthcare fiction in Nephrology News and Issues. No Hugo awards, but I had fun writing it.
https://www.healio.com/news/nephrology/20180227/zen-and-the-future-of-nephrology
Clean hands and sharp minds team,
Adam
Back on Monday. Have a safe, distanced, and masked weekend.
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