Week of September 20, 2021
Fall starts this week. While Spring and Summer make me appreciate the diversity and persistence of life, fall prompts me to reflect on the laws of thermodynamics - specifically, that fighting entropy is always a losing battle. And yet, I have numerous tools for blowing, gathering, and shredding leaves. Apparently, these are all instruments of self-delusion, facilitating futile attempts to control disorder. I suppose the comfort is from the perspective of small time scales, like the 2 hours after clearing my driveway from leaves. But in a closed system, all things tend toward randomness over time. To avoid cynicism or doing nothing (what's the point of cleaning and organizing if chaos wins anyway?), it is probably better to focus on the brief windows of order - like my temporarily leafless driveway. And best not to share these thoughts with my kids, who still have to clean their rooms.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introchem/chapter/the-three-laws-of-thermodynamics/
---- Latest Data
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
Country Comparison from FT.com
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=eur&areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usla&areasRegional=usnv&areasRegional=usar&areasRegional=usks&areasRegional=usmo&cumulative=0&logScale=1&per100K=1&startDate=2021-06-01&values=cases
CDC Weekly Review of Data and Variant Tracking
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
------------------
There were numerous discussions of boosters this week. An FDA advisory panel recommends AGAINST boosters for U.S. adults under 60 years of age unless there is another compelling issue (immune-compromised, for instance). Dr. Jeremy Faust breaks down this complex topic on his blog: https://insidemedicine.bulletin.com/149709367281976/
The Office for National Statistics (U.K.) published data on long-lasting COVID symptoms following infections from late April 2020 through August 2021, compared to control groups. The report is easy to read and offers some comfort about symptoms in children.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/technicalarticleupdatedestimatesoftheprevalenceofpostacutesymptomsamongpeoplewithcoronaviruscovid19intheuk/26april2020to1august2021
Twitter discussion
https://twitter.com/apsmunro/status/1438461046956646405
I have found a few articles helping to contextualize and gauge real-world risk.
Ashish Jha, from Brown University School of Medicine, offers some guidance on understanding breakthrough cases.
https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1437971034842542080
and
The Washington Post put out a hand "Should I Cancel Travel?" Q&A
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/08/04/delta-variant-cancel-travel/
and I found this great PowerPoint on understanding the effectiveness of vaccines from Children's Minnesota:
https://www.childrensmn.org/departments/infectioncontrol/pdf/covid-numbers-perspective.pdf
Jose-Luis Jimenez from the University of Colorado shared a consumer-friendly set of data on "The Journey of Virus-Laden Aerosols. A scary, fun, and educational means to understanding transmission.
https://twitter.com/jljcolorado/status/1435977594302713858
A loyal reader shared this related thread by a UT Austin professor, Dr. Corsi, on the concept of inhalation dose. It pairs nicely with the first article.
https://twitter.com/corsiaq/status/1439386096148779011?s=21
There is increasingly compelling data around the origins of SARS-CoV2. It is again looking like this was NOT engineered.
https://twitter.com/canardbruno/status/1438894547338153989
And, from the logical fallacy department, I found this fascinating article on people attempting to use antibody levels as a surrogate for measuring immunity against COVID. Spoiler: there is no way to quantify your immune status or understand the meaning of any given antibody level for one person. Antibody levels should not be used to determine if you are protected or not protected. For any person, antibodies only indicate if you have been exposed to the virus or vaccinated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/18/style/covid-antibodies-calories.html
This week's lesson in things that do not prevent, treat, or cure COVID is Betadine! DO NOT INGEST BETADINE.
https://twitter.com/iamgabesanchez/status/1437490657858240512
I can only imagine the discussions that went on in Avrio Health's comms, medical affairs, and legal departments that resulted in putting together these web pages on how NOT to use their products:
https://betadine.com/covid-19/#1596710159415-df725e36-11d0
And a reminder of how few people it takes to spread bad ideas:
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes
Infographics!
To combat some non-COVID misinformation, I offer the truth behind the (often misunderstood) differing smells between lemons and oranges.
https://twitter.com/ACSReactions/status/1438488332732968963/photo/1
Things I learned this week.
I found this article about the taste of dinosaur meat. You will never guess what the best scientific minds (in speculative gustatory history?) hypothesize. (Remember, birds are tiny dinosaurs.)
https://www.popsci.com/what-did-dinosaurs-taste-like
I am always on the lookout for articles supporting my use of a treadmill desk—more on the benefits of walking.
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/09/happiness-walking-pilgrimage/620075/
Your Aquafina read of the week: Amongst the top 3 questions I get asked as a nephrologist, "How much water should I drink?" is a solid #2. I am pleased to see that N.Y. Times tackled this critical issue, even quoting a few people I know! (After all, kidney doctors are the appropriate SME for such an article.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/well/live/how-much-water-should-I-drink.html
You can potty train a cow. Seriously. But you would need to potty train many herds of cows to help the environment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/15/cows-potty-trained-gas-emissions/
Amongst the many fine things from Scotland, ancient fish in [what would one day be] Scotland started mating (as opposed to spawning) for reproduction. In other words, these fish invented sex. Unclear if single malt scotch was involved.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29661446
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
Comments
Post a Comment