Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Breaking news updates from my desk and window: Birds are now eating, plants are still alive, and thanks to a loyal reader, I now know there is an electronic health record for gardening. Who will keep an eye on all these critical events when I start traveling again?
https://www.gardenize.com/
---
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 and FDA lifted the J&J vaccine pause last week. I have started getting questions from patients. CNN released this very useful Q&A:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/health/blood-clots-johnson-johnson-vaccine-wellness/index.html
While I thought the vaccine was a gift unto itself, I'm always curious to see how behavior-shaping programs work. West Virginia will begin offering a $100 savings bond to each person from 16 to 35 years old who chooses to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2021/Pages/COVID-19-UPDATE-Gov.-Justice-West-Virginia-offering-100-savings-bond-to-residents-age-16-to-35-who-get-vaccinated.aspx
This article is interesting - Pfizer is adapting its antiviral protease inhibitor technology (1st used in treating HIV) to develop an oral medication for post-exposure prophylaxis for coronavirus. The Forbes article is not perfect (I'm not sure long-term contagious viral shedding is a thing), but a pill for household members of people found to be COVID positive would be fantastic. https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/04/05/pfizers-new-oral-protease-inhibitor-could-possibly-treat-and-prevent-covid-19/
India's COVID experience is heartbreaking, but the virus doesn't care about borders. I see data from around South Asia is moving in the wrong direction.
https://twitter.com/celinegounder/status/1386834532599537674?s=10
Unsurprisingly, there are numerous conversations about vaccination differences between countries and equitable vaccine distribution.
https://twitter.com/helenbranswell/status/1386406321700827138?s=10
But I am also finding more detailed threads about the bottlenecks of vaccine production in India (and elsewhere). One takeaway of note, Moderna is waiving patent protection for its COVID-19 related vaccines during the pandemic.
https://twitter.com/KEBrightbill/status/1386175654346084353
I think global vaccination is a more complex problem than just inequity and relative wealth. Nevertheless, we will not be done with this pandemic until enough of all humans are effectively vaccinated.
Infographic of the day: Real-world uses of AI
https://twitter.com/thinksysinc/status/1385672332300144642/photo/1
The question is, when these AI monitoring and analysis programs will "close the loop," and send the Boston Dynamics dog-robot to enforce the social media policy at our cubicles? Hopefully, it will have the courtesy to wear a mask. Of course, the robot dog doesn't have a mouth.
A kinder, gentler Skynet‽ https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot
-----Bonus Round - Breakfast Cereal and Government Balloons
I had the opportunity to help the production of the Annapolis Book Festival this past weekend. As such, I spent a few minutes with some authors on Zoom before their sessions. It turns out that even sort-of-famous people like to talk about their rooms and decorations. One author was in a rented house decorated with original NASA artifacts and aerospace technical drawings. These are the sort of artifacts sold at auction to people that can buy things at auction. Thanks to the Zoom tour of this well-appointed rental house, I learned about Winzen Research and the story of its founders, Otto Winzen and Vera Simons.
Here are 3 of the many drawings from the house. I believe these are the exact items I saw on the wall:
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19144/#/aa1=1&MR1_length=12&w1=list&q1=Winzen&m1=1
Meet high-altitude engineer, balloonist, and artist Vera Simons - a mid-20th-century pioneer in getting humans safely into high places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Simons
Now, read about Otto Winzen, who started working on balloons at General Mills (yes, the breakfast cereal company), but then left to start Winzen Research, his balloon engineering firm. His story does not end so well, but Winzen did critical work in the 1950s and 1960s with polyethylene balloons. Hence the technical drawings on the wall of the house.
https://www.popsci.com/how-otto-winzen-took-men-into-stratosphere/
The General Mills connection:
https://blog.generalmills.com/2011/08/the-daddy-of-the-balloon-industry/
(I wonder if they provided little snack bags of cereal on the ballooning flights?)
And, of course, there is a book discussing the work of Winzen for the Navy - the aptly named Project Manhigh:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22312378-breaking-the-chains-of-gravity
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
Breaking news updates from my desk and window: Birds are now eating, plants are still alive, and thanks to a loyal reader, I now know there is an electronic health record for gardening. Who will keep an eye on all these critical events when I start traveling again?
https://www.gardenize.com/
---
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 and FDA lifted the J&J vaccine pause last week. I have started getting questions from patients. CNN released this very useful Q&A:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/health/blood-clots-johnson-johnson-vaccine-wellness/index.html
While I thought the vaccine was a gift unto itself, I'm always curious to see how behavior-shaping programs work. West Virginia will begin offering a $100 savings bond to each person from 16 to 35 years old who chooses to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2021/Pages/COVID-19-UPDATE-Gov.-Justice-West-Virginia-offering-100-savings-bond-to-residents-age-16-to-35-who-get-vaccinated.aspx
This article is interesting - Pfizer is adapting its antiviral protease inhibitor technology (1st used in treating HIV) to develop an oral medication for post-exposure prophylaxis for coronavirus. The Forbes article is not perfect (I'm not sure long-term contagious viral shedding is a thing), but a pill for household members of people found to be COVID positive would be fantastic. https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/04/05/pfizers-new-oral-protease-inhibitor-could-possibly-treat-and-prevent-covid-19/
India's COVID experience is heartbreaking, but the virus doesn't care about borders. I see data from around South Asia is moving in the wrong direction.
https://twitter.com/celinegounder/status/1386834532599537674?s=10
Unsurprisingly, there are numerous conversations about vaccination differences between countries and equitable vaccine distribution.
https://twitter.com/helenbranswell/status/1386406321700827138?s=10
But I am also finding more detailed threads about the bottlenecks of vaccine production in India (and elsewhere). One takeaway of note, Moderna is waiving patent protection for its COVID-19 related vaccines during the pandemic.
https://twitter.com/KEBrightbill/status/1386175654346084353
I think global vaccination is a more complex problem than just inequity and relative wealth. Nevertheless, we will not be done with this pandemic until enough of all humans are effectively vaccinated.
Infographic of the day: Real-world uses of AI
https://twitter.com/thinksysinc/status/1385672332300144642/photo/1
The question is, when these AI monitoring and analysis programs will "close the loop," and send the Boston Dynamics dog-robot to enforce the social media policy at our cubicles? Hopefully, it will have the courtesy to wear a mask. Of course, the robot dog doesn't have a mouth.
A kinder, gentler Skynet‽ https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot
-----Bonus Round - Breakfast Cereal and Government Balloons
I had the opportunity to help the production of the Annapolis Book Festival this past weekend. As such, I spent a few minutes with some authors on Zoom before their sessions. It turns out that even sort-of-famous people like to talk about their rooms and decorations. One author was in a rented house decorated with original NASA artifacts and aerospace technical drawings. These are the sort of artifacts sold at auction to people that can buy things at auction. Thanks to the Zoom tour of this well-appointed rental house, I learned about Winzen Research and the story of its founders, Otto Winzen and Vera Simons.
Here are 3 of the many drawings from the house. I believe these are the exact items I saw on the wall:
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19144/#/aa1=1&MR1_length=12&w1=list&q1=Winzen&m1=1
Meet high-altitude engineer, balloonist, and artist Vera Simons - a mid-20th-century pioneer in getting humans safely into high places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Simons
Now, read about Otto Winzen, who started working on balloons at General Mills (yes, the breakfast cereal company), but then left to start Winzen Research, his balloon engineering firm. His story does not end so well, but Winzen did critical work in the 1950s and 1960s with polyethylene balloons. Hence the technical drawings on the wall of the house.
https://www.popsci.com/how-otto-winzen-took-men-into-stratosphere/
The General Mills connection:
https://blog.generalmills.com/2011/08/the-daddy-of-the-balloon-industry/
(I wonder if they provided little snack bags of cereal on the ballooning flights?)
And, of course, there is a book discussing the work of Winzen for the Navy - the aptly named Project Manhigh:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22312378-breaking-the-chains-of-gravity
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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