What Adam is Reading Week of 3-7-22

Week of March 7, 2022

 

I have seen several social media posts reflecting on how life, which was so hectic before the pandemic, may have become more manageable in a world that accepts work-from-home and fewer social gatherings. While we are not done with COVID quite yet, it will be interesting to see which trends persist. I also wonder when I will feel comfortable not wearing a mask in a grocery store.

 

---- Latest Data

Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to decline. We are still seeing about 1500 deaths a day, but the trends are still declining in the U.S. for now.  

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

and

https://theuscovidatlas.org/map

 

Cases in the U.K. and the European Union are rising again:

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 the CDC's categorization of community risk levels based on hospitalization rates.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

------------------

 

The Biden administration has published a forward-looking plan on managing future waves of the coronavirus. The ideas are sound and thoughtful.

https://insidemedicine.bulletin.com/breaking-leading-experts-release-comprehensive-covid-19-roadmap

 

The NY Times offers a FAQ about navigating an increasingly maskless world.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/mask-mandates-guidelines.html

 

Epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves offered more comments that are similar and detailed.

https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/status/1500579198141935624

 

The Guardian published an interesting article on people who may be genetically resistant to COVID.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/02/scientists-seek-to-solve-mystery-of-why-some-people-do-not-catch-covid

 

Montreal healthcare journalist Aaron Derfel offered two Twitter threads of note:

A look at Cuba's success in vaccinating its population

https://twitter.com/aaron_derfel/status/1499646784880185346?s=10

and

a round-up of data and media asking the question, "Are we at the end of the pandemic?":

https://twitter.com/Aaron_Derfel/status/1500352049086611457

 

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean at Brown School of Public Health, has another set of thoughts on framing the data and the likelihood of further waves of COVID.

https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1499232065853833222?s=10

 

 

Infographics!

Learn about the life cycle of malaria, the world's most common parasite.

https://twitter.com/JanaSharara/status/1500472590191804422/photo/1

from https://twitter.com/JanaSharara/status/1500469605835419650

which is part of the annual nephrology educational event

NephMadness

https://www.tourneytopia.com/AJKD/NephMadness/default.aspx

 

 

Things I learned this week:

 

This summer, large parachuting Joro spiders will be moving up the East Coast from Georgia. On the upside(?), "[The] Joro spider bite feels far less than a wasp sting, like a little pinch. They do have a little venom but like a bee or wasp sting, most will not need any medical attention."

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2022/03/04/big-invasive-parachuting-spiders-will-begin-to-cover-entire-east-coast-experts-say/

 

Most commonly associated with cats and cat owners, the parasite toxoplasmosis cooperatively helps cats.  Toxoplasma gondii, when it infects mice, removes rodents' innate fear of cats.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2013.13777

 

 

Clean hands and sharp minds,

 

Adam

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