Thursday, May 20, 2021
I need a word for my newly forming irrational fear of being unable to get things around my house repaired post-pandemic. There will be a point, hopefully soon, when I am no longer able to reply, "Wednesday 11 am to 5 pm is a totally reasonable time window, I'm here."
-------
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
-----
It looks like there was a liberalization of the storage and handling rules around Pfizer's vaccine. "Unopened, thawed vials of the vaccine can be stored in a refrigerator at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for up to a month, up from a previous maximum limit of five days."
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-can-be-stored-refrigerator-month-us-says-2021-05-20/
Learn about small-interfering RNA (siRNA). An Australian lab is demonstrating direct anti-viral activity against coronavirus using these kinds of molecules. The links below are exciting, but this is all benchtop work for now. We will see if this can translate to an effective medicine in living organisms.
https://news.griffith.edu.au/2021/05/17/researchers-develop-direct-acting-antiviral-to-treat-covid-19/
abstract
https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/fulltext/S1525-0016(21)00256-2
more background
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_interfering_RNA
Spanish researchers have published data on 672 volunteers who received a single dose of the AZ vaccine followed by the Pfizer vaccine for their second shot. It appears the data is a bit messy, but the report indicates it is safe and possibly more effective than two doses of the AZ vaccine alone.
https://english.elpais.com/society/2021-05-18/study-under-60s-who-received-first-astrazeneca-dose-can-safely-be-given-pfizer-for-second-shot.html
National Geographic offered this excellent discussion of how the collective "we" have very high expectations for vaccines. My favorite sentence in the article, "[The pandemic] should have awakened people to the fact that when you put an enormous amount of money into something, we have the scientific ability and know-how to do something as remarkable as [these vaccines]."
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-covid-19-is-changing-our-expectations-for-other-vaccines
I found this guide to "[Safely] reignit[ing] the magic at Disneyland" during a pandemic. I have never felt the prospect of visiting Disney as "magical." (Even if I wasn't worrying about unvaccinated or immunocompromised family members.)
https://pursuitist.com/how-to-visit-disneyland-during-covid-19/
Here is my favorite Twitter thread from yesterday: an academic excoriation of a paper on correlating the ability to bullshit with intelligence. And I learned the word teleosemantics. https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1395175885708398596
Infographic of the day: Aliens‽
I have a morbid interest in UFOs. I both want them to be real and have a justifiable fear of technologically advanced societies coming to visit. This niche hobby has gone mainstream this week, thanks to the 60 minutes piece on Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon (UAPs). Here is a very comprehensive infographic speculating on the Origins of UAP:
https://twitter.com/Berlinghoff_R/status/1313171646828613632/photo/1
60 Minutes piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtMbBPzqHY
----Bonus Round - The History of Organizing Data
I have been listening to a biography of Christopher Columbus' son, Hernando. He was a bibliophile who acquired and cataloged one of the largest book, pamphlet, and illustrations collections in modern history. Though the book is more focused on the struggles (and quirks) of the Columbus family, the book details Hernando's efforts at organizing and indexing his collection. He was, almost by accident, one of the founders of modern library science and recorded a unique snapshot of many everyday printed items that are now lost and would be unknown. It is an amazing (and somewhat tedious) story but highlights the real-world problems of analog and manual data acquisition, reconciliation, and indexing. (Another takeaway: better to be gainfully employed than living on an allowance from the King of Spain.)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38185567-the-catalogue-of-shipwrecked-books
And just when I thought, "what could be banaler than a book about organizing books?," I came upon The History of the File Cabinet! With references. I am not sure I could sum up this article better than, "The affordances of the filing cabinet as an information technology have produced new relationships between power and epistemology." We could have a full-day symposium on that sentence. Better get that second cup of coffee and be grateful for living in the age of the Google.
https://placesjournal.org/article/the-filing-cabinet-and-20th-century-information-infrastructure/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
PS Clinic tomorrow, I'll be back on Monday.
I need a word for my newly forming irrational fear of being unable to get things around my house repaired post-pandemic. There will be a point, hopefully soon, when I am no longer able to reply, "Wednesday 11 am to 5 pm is a totally reasonable time window, I'm here."
-------
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
-----
It looks like there was a liberalization of the storage and handling rules around Pfizer's vaccine. "Unopened, thawed vials of the vaccine can be stored in a refrigerator at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for up to a month, up from a previous maximum limit of five days."
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-can-be-stored-refrigerator-month-us-says-2021-05-20/
Learn about small-interfering RNA (siRNA). An Australian lab is demonstrating direct anti-viral activity against coronavirus using these kinds of molecules. The links below are exciting, but this is all benchtop work for now. We will see if this can translate to an effective medicine in living organisms.
https://news.griffith.edu.au/2021/05/17/researchers-develop-direct-acting-antiviral-to-treat-covid-19/
abstract
https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/fulltext/S1525-0016(21)00256-2
more background
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_interfering_RNA
Spanish researchers have published data on 672 volunteers who received a single dose of the AZ vaccine followed by the Pfizer vaccine for their second shot. It appears the data is a bit messy, but the report indicates it is safe and possibly more effective than two doses of the AZ vaccine alone.
https://english.elpais.com/society/2021-05-18/study-under-60s-who-received-first-astrazeneca-dose-can-safely-be-given-pfizer-for-second-shot.html
National Geographic offered this excellent discussion of how the collective "we" have very high expectations for vaccines. My favorite sentence in the article, "[The pandemic] should have awakened people to the fact that when you put an enormous amount of money into something, we have the scientific ability and know-how to do something as remarkable as [these vaccines]."
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-covid-19-is-changing-our-expectations-for-other-vaccines
I found this guide to "[Safely] reignit[ing] the magic at Disneyland" during a pandemic. I have never felt the prospect of visiting Disney as "magical." (Even if I wasn't worrying about unvaccinated or immunocompromised family members.)
https://pursuitist.com/how-to-visit-disneyland-during-covid-19/
Here is my favorite Twitter thread from yesterday: an academic excoriation of a paper on correlating the ability to bullshit with intelligence. And I learned the word teleosemantics. https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1395175885708398596
Infographic of the day: Aliens‽
I have a morbid interest in UFOs. I both want them to be real and have a justifiable fear of technologically advanced societies coming to visit. This niche hobby has gone mainstream this week, thanks to the 60 minutes piece on Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon (UAPs). Here is a very comprehensive infographic speculating on the Origins of UAP:
https://twitter.com/Berlinghoff_R/status/1313171646828613632/photo/1
60 Minutes piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtMbBPzqHY
----Bonus Round - The History of Organizing Data
I have been listening to a biography of Christopher Columbus' son, Hernando. He was a bibliophile who acquired and cataloged one of the largest book, pamphlet, and illustrations collections in modern history. Though the book is more focused on the struggles (and quirks) of the Columbus family, the book details Hernando's efforts at organizing and indexing his collection. He was, almost by accident, one of the founders of modern library science and recorded a unique snapshot of many everyday printed items that are now lost and would be unknown. It is an amazing (and somewhat tedious) story but highlights the real-world problems of analog and manual data acquisition, reconciliation, and indexing. (Another takeaway: better to be gainfully employed than living on an allowance from the King of Spain.)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38185567-the-catalogue-of-shipwrecked-books
And just when I thought, "what could be banaler than a book about organizing books?," I came upon The History of the File Cabinet! With references. I am not sure I could sum up this article better than, "The affordances of the filing cabinet as an information technology have produced new relationships between power and epistemology." We could have a full-day symposium on that sentence. Better get that second cup of coffee and be grateful for living in the age of the Google.
https://placesjournal.org/article/the-filing-cabinet-and-20th-century-information-infrastructure/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
PS Clinic tomorrow, I'll be back on Monday.
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