Week of March 14, 2022
Two years ago this week, I wrote my first newsletter on COVID. That week felt like a zombie apocalypse. My goal was to offer some thoughtful commentary on the high volume of information and share a little joy in the absurd. The question is, should I continue, or has the world (and my readers) moved on?
Please help me decide - I have put together a 6 question, 3-minute survey to gauge ongoing reader interest: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XFGKMDX
---- Latest Data
Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to decline in the U.S., but we may be seeing a plateau. We are still seeing about 1200 deaths a day in the U.S.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
and
https://theuscovidatlas.org/map
Cases in the U.K., China, and Australia are rising:
Country Comparison from FT.com
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areas=hkg&areas=chn&areas=jpn&areas=aus&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usla&areasRegional=usnv&areasRegional=usar&areasRegional=usks&areasRegional=usmo&cumulative=0&logScale=1&per100K=0&startDate=2021-06-01&values=deaths
The CDC weekly review discusses protection for high-risk individuals.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
------------------
The Financial Times offered this article on how genomic sequencing monitoring new variants :
https://www.ft.com/content/bdb5e0ff-65fc-4dd7-a7bc-7fe2510476de
I offer dueling Erics to frame the rise of Omicron BA.2
Eric Topol (usually balanced and data-driven)
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1502675479077130240
and
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1503104942772346880
and Eric Feigl-Ding (usually a bit more alarmist)
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1502947990214004737
I am concerned that when BA.2 becomes the predominant strain, we will see another wave
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions
There was a fair bit of discussion about the change in COVID's infection-fatality ratio (IFR) last week. COVID'S fatality rate is now lower than flu (in England) due to vaccinations and prior infections.
https://www.ft.com/content/e26c93a0-90e7-4dec-a796-3e25e94bc59b
HOWEVER, the IFR is only ONE measure of the impact of coronavirus. I am still anxious about the long-term consequences, and, of course, the fatality ratio does not apply to compromised populations.
more discussion
https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1502240909244649480
Medscape offers a scathing commentary on the recent Florida Surgeon General and the FL department of health's advice to NOT vaccinate healthy children.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/969958
Infographics!
Rude Hand Gestures by region of the world
https://www.justtheflight.co.uk/images/blog/rude-hand-gestures.png
from
https://www.justtheflight.co.uk/blog/14-rude-hand-gestures-from-around-the-world.html
Things I learned this week:
Russia, Israel, and U.S. navies have all used trained sea mammals for various tasks. But ONLY the U.S. uses trained sea lions!
http://www.hisutton.com/Navy-Marine-Mammal-Programs.html
I stumbled on this fascinating discussion on Reddit regarding the history of N.Y. State high school standardized Regent Exams. The thread started with the question, "In 1950s America was it typical for a boss to have dinner at an employee's home, or is that purely a sitcom plot?" The discussion includes examples of questions covering "Comprehensive Vocational Homemaking," including questions added in the 1930s, such as:
"The following is a dinner menu for a married couple entertaining the husband's supervisor. Dinner is to be served at 6 PM. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, fresh spinach, bread, gravy, (canned) buttered beets, butter, chocolate cornstarch pudding, coffee, or milk
List four items from the following plan which indicate good timing in preparing the meal described above. Give reason for each answer."
I would not pass this portion of the test.
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/kyb18x/in_1950s_america_was_it_common_for_the_boss_and/
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
Comments
Post a Comment