Week of July 18, 2022
We visited my older son, who is spending a month at a residential summer bioengineering program (for high school students) hosted by Johns Hopkins University. When tasked with thinking of novel solutions to humanity's problems, my son quipped that he would like to invent a neural-interfaced bionic tongue that signals satisfying tastes for any food without the consequences of ingesting sodium or calories. Sadly, he is late to the game. Sometimes, it feels like all the good thoughts have been thunk.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956566319307523
and
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095656631530631X
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Case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths are rising.
N.Y. Times Tracker
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=twn&areas=nzl&areas=e92000001&areas=fra&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usnm&areasRegional=uspr&areasRegional=ushi&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=1&per100K=0&startDate=2021-06-01&values=deaths
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Omicron BA.5 is a highly contagious variant, better able to evade the immunity conferred by prior Omicron infections and three doses of the COVID vaccine. The more remote your vaccinations or previous COVID infections, the more likely you will get infected with this variant. Fortunately, fully vaccinated individuals still have considerable protection from critical illness and death.
Should I get a fourth dose of the vaccine now? Washington Post editorial board discusses the pros and cons. There is a discussion about offering 4th doses (2nd booster) to adults < 50 yrs old amongst CDC/NIH/HHS officials.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/11/biden-officials-second-booster-shots-all-adults/
and
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/13/booster-shot-confusion-get-them-now-or-wait-better/
As always, Eric Topol has some good thoughts on this topic:
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1546900251319013376
For a deeper dive, I found this article on Medscape from (the sometimes controversial) Dr. Monica Gandhi. She discusses the difference between humoral (antibody) and cellular immunity and Omicron BA.5.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976945#vp_1
Epidemiologist Dr. Saskia Popescu offers some interesting insights on individual risk tolerance and the struggle of living in a world where risk mitigation (masks sometimes, avoiding indoor events, etc.) is variable.
https://twitter.com/SaskiaPopescu/status/1548497127654928384
Dr. Zoe Hyde pointed to two interesting studies on nasal sprays associated with antiviral activity, including the coronavirus. While it is too early to recommend these, it is fascinating to see the range of medications evaluated as COVID therapies.
https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1547992443446243328
and
https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/prp2.810
Random Medical Technologies and Realities
Science and physiology is often a game of understanding associations and relationships. Eric Topol Tweeted about new data further demonstrating the link between Epstein-Barr Virus infections and Multiple Sclerosis.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1548823768985767937
The commentary from the linked articles offers a great example of how to carefully discuss iterations of studies linking data to a clinical outcome :
"Multiple sclerosis is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The underlying cause of this disease is not known, but Epstein-Barr virus is thought to be a possible culprit. However, most people infected with this common virus do not develop multiple sclerosis, and it is not feasible to directly demonstrate causation of this disease in humans. Using data from millions of U.S. military recruits monitored over a 20-year period, Bjornevik et al. determined that Epstein-Barr virus infection greatly increased the risk of subsequent multiple sclerosis and that it preceded the development of disease, supporting its potential role in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (see the Perspective by Robinson and Steinman)."
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj8222
Infographics!
I missed Capybara appreciation day on July 10. But it is not too late to appreciate the many names of this animal.
https://twitter.com/CAPYBARA_MAN/status/1438209969233481731/photo/1
Capybaras are legal to keep as pets in Texas, Pennsylvania, and New York state, but not in New York City.
https://capybaraworld.wordpress.com/2021/04/12/us-states-which-allow-you-to-keep-a-capybara-as-a-pet/
Things I learned this week
There is an endless exploration of oddities from A.I. engines that generate images and text on demand. I highly recommend exploring the A.I. Weirdness blog. I particularly enjoyed the articles on The Kitten Effect (errors created by A.I. engines asked to generate kitten pictures) and Weird Donuts (asking an A.I. engine to generate text descriptions of atypical donut types). I think it is advantageous to know the robot overlords' weaknesses before they take over.
https://www.aiweirdness.com/the-kitten-effect/
https://www.aiweirdness.com/ai-generated-donuts/
Recently a man from Colorado Springs set the world record (amongst a total of 4 people) for pushing a peanut up Pikes Peak with his nose. Using a CPAP mask, he designed a face mask with a peanut-pushing tool. Given his proximity to Denver, I can only assume we will be recruiting him as a speaker for a team gathering.
https://www.cpr.org/2022/07/15/colorado-springs-man-completes-pikes-peak-peanut-push/
and
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/12/1111131915/a-man-is-using-his-nose-to-push-a-peanut-up-to-the-summit-of-colorados-pikes-pea
and Background
https://manitouspringsheritagecenter.org/6156-2/
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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