Week of January 31, 2022
Work, winter storm Keenan and the pandemic minimized in-person events last week. But it did make me wonder when we started naming winter storms or who gets to decide a storm is worthy of a name. Anthropomorphizing the weather certainly amps the drama. One needs to gear up to fight Winter Storm Keenan, right? (Follow the money to shovel and snowblower manufacturers?!?)
The BBC educated me on storm naming, which varies by country. I prefer the UK names. Winter storm Dudley or Herman sounds so sociable. More like friends dropping by than the weather causing disruption. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/34581210
---- Latest Data
Case rates and hospitalizations continue to decline. Death rates are still rising.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
and
https://theuscovidatlas.org/map
(You need to play with the variables on this one)
Country Comparison from FT.com
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=eur&areas=usa&areas=gbr&areas=rus&areas=rou&areas=lva&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usla&areasRegional=usnv&areasRegional=usar&areasRegional=usks&areasRegional=usmo&cumulative=0&logScale=1&per100K=1&startDate=2021-06-01&values=cases
The CDC weekly review discusses vaccines and vaccine-induced immunity.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
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Numerous articles from non-medical journals this week
Dr. Bob Wachter offered a fantastic 25-Tweet thread on the value of a 4th dose of the covid vaccine. It appears the marginal increase in protection is most valuable for the very old and immunosuppressed. This detailed and data-driven discussion is well worth your time.
https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/1486726062855708690
Dr. Jeremy Faust reviews some recently published data demonstrating that school and childcare programs that used masks had markedly fewer closures related to Covid-19 than those that did not, even after controlling for other variables.
https://insidemedicine.bulletin.com/mask-use-associated-with-fewer-school-and-daycare-closures-study-finds/
Wired offered two articles I found valuable:
The physics of how N95 masks work
https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-the-n95-face-mask/
And how well the team behind the federal government's COVID test request website worked on day 1.
https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-joe-biden-free-covid-test-website/
For hipster readers (do I have hipster readers?) - the Huffington Post offers a round-up of suggestions for individuals with facial hair who are looking for N95 masks.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/best-masks-for-beards_l_61f00ebce4b010a5a235f3d4
National Geographic (accessible with a Disney+ subscription) offers an excellent overview of the long-term neurologic complications of COVID, even in individuals with mild cases.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-does-covid-19-affect-the-brain-a-troubling-picture-emerges
Gizmodo covered a COVID outbreak due to hamster to human transmission at a pet store in Hong Kong. It did not end well for the hamsters and illustrates how difficult it will be to eradicate COVID.
https://gizmodo.com/why-pet-hamsters-are-the-latest-suspect-in-coronavirus-1848401773
Here is a technical article about airplane wastewater sampling for tracking COVID variants. While not everyone on an airplane uses the restroom, the report highlights monitoring methods for variants of concern.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722002613
Infographics!
An interactive chart on media bias from https://adfontesmedia.com/
https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/
Things I learned this week:
There is an interesting debate about pre-release, non-peer-reviewed articles. The pandemic has demonstrated the value of rapidly sharing data. However, the balance between data integrity and availability has been problematic (think of the many retracted ivermectin and vitamin d studies).
Carl Bergstrom offered a series of thoughts on this - advocating that a historical record of pre-print articles, even if flawed, is valuable.
https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1487916295874293760
From Nature:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02081-w
A loyal reader pointed me to an article describing how Trix (the cereal for kids) is not for ants. Oleic acid is the culprit. You, too, can know why Trix Cereal Makes Ants Aware of Death.
https://mediachomp.com/trix-cereal-makes-ants-aware-of-death/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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