Monday, March 22, 2021
Over the weekend, numerous media outlets started reporting on the 4th wave. To be sure, it appears the U.S. case rate data (7-day rolling average) is plateauing at ~55,000 new cases per day, more than our March 2020 and slightly less than our August 2020 peaks. We will have to see how much impact vaccinations have had. Deaths and hospitalizations are lagging indicators, as we all know.
-----Latest Data---
The U.S. surpassed 110 million vaccine doses delivered last week. We are now injecting more than 2.5 million doses a day, on average.
CDC National Hospitalization trend data
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#hospitalizations
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
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
Vaccine Tracker
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-trends
-----
The CDC's March 19 COVID data tracker review is well done and marks the 1st anniversary of the pandemic.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
I found this not yet peer-reviewed U.K. study looking at vaccination-associated reductions in coronavirus transmission. The review was an observational study of 194,00 family members linked to 144,000 healthcare workers. There were significant drops in transmission rates for both the vaccinated healthcare workers and their household members after the healthcare workers received 1st and second doses, but more so 14 days after the second dose.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.11.21253275v1
Summary Tweets:
https://twitter.com/ecgrhythms/status/1373862883310800901
https://twitter.com/andrew_croxford/status/1373727693779386374
Dr. Gandhi, infectious disease from UCSF, updated her vaccine table
https://twitter.com/MonicaGandhi9/status/1373693016532078598/photo/1
from
https://twitter.com/monicagandhi9/status/1373693016532078598?s=10
The central vein thrombosis complications from the AZ vaccine were getting more attention and discussion over the weekend. It appears to be a rare complication, possibly due to the interaction of the vaccine and auto-antibodies made in a small group of recipients. My suspicion is some genetic variations make some people more prone to this outcome, but it seems atypical, to be sure. Thank you, loyal reader, for the article!
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/21/979781065/european-scientists-zero-in-on-astrazeneca-blood-clot-link
One last one today, STAT news printed an Op-ed on Thursda calling for the CDC to allocate vaccine directly to all dialysis units. I could not agree more.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/19/dialysis-clinics-vaccinate-patients-on-site/
Infographic of the day - Penguin Awareness
I missed the celebration for the penguin awareness day on January 20. I am, however, happy to report I generally feel aware of penguins. My issue is more about not knowing how to take action on my penguin awareness.
https://earthlymission.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/know_your_penguins.jpg
Fortunately, the Cincinnati Zoo can help lift me from my pit of uncertainty
http://blog.cincinnatizoo.org/2016/01/20/happy-penguin-awareness-day/
Bonus Round -- The ROI of moral and ethical turpitude
Over the weekend, my family watched the Netflix documentary on Operation Varsity Blues, the college cheating scandal from a few years ago. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14111734/
The blend of actors, reenactments, and actual interviews was confusing at times. However, the story provoked enough righteous indignation to make it a compelling watch.
Our conclusions:
1) Neither my wife nor I am willing to go to jail to get our kids into college.
2) We could not figure out how the children who had test scores boosted or admitted through bribes to schools would actually perform in those environments.
3) Most of the kids came from families that were so wealthy it shouldn't matter where they went to college. Interestingly, quite a few of the parents were in finance and the law, which should connote some ability to estimate reward vs. risk‽
4) We could not figure out how this paid off in the long-run (other than having a "branded" degree). Paying 3-10 times the tuition cost, risking the legal trouble, and demonstrating mediocre to poor performance at school above the kids' capacity was hard to wrap our minds around.
Fortunately, someone has done the calculations for us:
https://www.payscale.com/data/college-bribery-scandal
The ease with which Rick Singer, the center of the scandal, moved coaches with money was eye-opening. The whole notion of "everyone has a price" is something I have had the "pleasure" of encountering a few times in my 20+ years in healthcare. How much are your career, reputation, and freedom worth? I am always shocked at how low a price people are willing to sell themselves. Some updated related info:
https://www.complianceweek.com/anti-bribery/benefits-of-bribery-new-study-separates-fact-from-fiction/29431.article
Clean hands, sharp minds, and legitimate sources of income, team
Adam
Over the weekend, numerous media outlets started reporting on the 4th wave. To be sure, it appears the U.S. case rate data (7-day rolling average) is plateauing at ~55,000 new cases per day, more than our March 2020 and slightly less than our August 2020 peaks. We will have to see how much impact vaccinations have had. Deaths and hospitalizations are lagging indicators, as we all know.
-----Latest Data---
The U.S. surpassed 110 million vaccine doses delivered last week. We are now injecting more than 2.5 million doses a day, on average.
CDC National Hospitalization trend data
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#hospitalizations
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
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
Vaccine Tracker
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-trends
-----
The CDC's March 19 COVID data tracker review is well done and marks the 1st anniversary of the pandemic.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
I found this not yet peer-reviewed U.K. study looking at vaccination-associated reductions in coronavirus transmission. The review was an observational study of 194,00 family members linked to 144,000 healthcare workers. There were significant drops in transmission rates for both the vaccinated healthcare workers and their household members after the healthcare workers received 1st and second doses, but more so 14 days after the second dose.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.11.21253275v1
Summary Tweets:
https://twitter.com/ecgrhythms/status/1373862883310800901
https://twitter.com/andrew_croxford/status/1373727693779386374
Dr. Gandhi, infectious disease from UCSF, updated her vaccine table
https://twitter.com/MonicaGandhi9/status/1373693016532078598/photo/1
from
https://twitter.com/monicagandhi9/status/1373693016532078598?s=10
The central vein thrombosis complications from the AZ vaccine were getting more attention and discussion over the weekend. It appears to be a rare complication, possibly due to the interaction of the vaccine and auto-antibodies made in a small group of recipients. My suspicion is some genetic variations make some people more prone to this outcome, but it seems atypical, to be sure. Thank you, loyal reader, for the article!
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/21/979781065/european-scientists-zero-in-on-astrazeneca-blood-clot-link
One last one today, STAT news printed an Op-ed on Thursda calling for the CDC to allocate vaccine directly to all dialysis units. I could not agree more.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/19/dialysis-clinics-vaccinate-patients-on-site/
Infographic of the day - Penguin Awareness
I missed the celebration for the penguin awareness day on January 20. I am, however, happy to report I generally feel aware of penguins. My issue is more about not knowing how to take action on my penguin awareness.
https://earthlymission.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/know_your_penguins.jpg
Fortunately, the Cincinnati Zoo can help lift me from my pit of uncertainty
http://blog.cincinnatizoo.org/2016/01/20/happy-penguin-awareness-day/
Bonus Round -- The ROI of moral and ethical turpitude
Over the weekend, my family watched the Netflix documentary on Operation Varsity Blues, the college cheating scandal from a few years ago. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14111734/
The blend of actors, reenactments, and actual interviews was confusing at times. However, the story provoked enough righteous indignation to make it a compelling watch.
Our conclusions:
1) Neither my wife nor I am willing to go to jail to get our kids into college.
2) We could not figure out how the children who had test scores boosted or admitted through bribes to schools would actually perform in those environments.
3) Most of the kids came from families that were so wealthy it shouldn't matter where they went to college. Interestingly, quite a few of the parents were in finance and the law, which should connote some ability to estimate reward vs. risk‽
4) We could not figure out how this paid off in the long-run (other than having a "branded" degree). Paying 3-10 times the tuition cost, risking the legal trouble, and demonstrating mediocre to poor performance at school above the kids' capacity was hard to wrap our minds around.
Fortunately, someone has done the calculations for us:
https://www.payscale.com/data/college-bribery-scandal
The ease with which Rick Singer, the center of the scandal, moved coaches with money was eye-opening. The whole notion of "everyone has a price" is something I have had the "pleasure" of encountering a few times in my 20+ years in healthcare. How much are your career, reputation, and freedom worth? I am always shocked at how low a price people are willing to sell themselves. Some updated related info:
https://www.complianceweek.com/anti-bribery/benefits-of-bribery-new-study-separates-fact-from-fiction/29431.article
Clean hands, sharp minds, and legitimate sources of income, team
Adam
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