What Adam is Reading

Week of September 25, 2023

Despite the accumulated data, COVID-19 vaccines seem permanently and uniquely stigmatized among many of my patients. September marks vaccine discussion season in my office. This year, the number of older, chronically ill patients willing to receive the flu and RSV vaccines but not a COVID vaccine is striking. While the conversations are less acrimonious, politicized science has marred my ability to provide ideal care.

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Hospitalizations are still rising, and wastewater RNA concentrations measured the week of 9/11/23 are stable or falling. I hope we are at the peak of this wave.

The N.Y. Times COVID Tracker reflects only CDC-gathered hospital data. Hospitalization data are a (lagging) indicator - most hospitalizations occur 7-10 days after symptoms start.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/covid-cases.html

Wastewater monitoring is more of a LEADING indicator.

https://biobot.io/data/

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COVID articles

NBC published a good overview of the new boosters from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-clears-new-covid-boosters-5-things-know-rcna102577

The Biden administration reinstated the free at-home COVID-19 testing program. Starting September 25, 2023, every U.S. household can again place an order to receive four more free COVID-19 rapid tests in the mail.

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/20/covid-test-program-mail

and

https://www.covid.gov/tests

Medical Trends and Technology

Several readers forwarded me the N.Y. Times article about the second recipient of a gene-edited pig heart transplant at the University of Maryland. More impressive than the technology is the patient's willingness to take risks for a few more months of life.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/health/pig-heart-transplant-faucette.html#:~:text=Surgeons%20in%20Baltimore%20have%20transplanted,procedure%20performed%20by%20the%20surgeons.

Wired's interview with 2020 Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna (for Crispr) combines two of my interests - gene editing and the microbiome. The article discusses some complex topics with many nuances - including the possibility of genetically engineering bacteria that live in cows to reduce methane burps.

https://www.wired.com/story/crispr-jennifer-doudna-microbiome/

Infographics

Who owns the most satellites - from the Visual Capitalist. I'll save you a click; the answer rhymes with Base-X (like more than China and the U.S. combined).

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/who-owns-the-most-satellites/

Things I learned this week

A pandemic of pumpkin spice has permeated our pantry. Seasonal breakfast cereals, frozen waffles, corn chips, chai, and ravioli are now infected. If I were a non-pumpkin flavored food, I suspect I would be sensing a "zombie pumpkapocalypse" vibe - waiting anxiously for infection with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. In 2017, Scientific American examined the origins of this phenomenon. Pumpkin may have been the first genuinely patriotic food - sustaining early colonists and creating the first uniquely "American" culinary distinction.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-rise-of-pumpkin-spice/

Several companies now sell "cultured meats" - meat grown in labs from cell cultures. There are many possibilities beyond chicken and beef - in coming years, you may be ordering lab-grown tiger, lion, and mammoth burgers. (Are dinosaur steaks possible?) Vox offered a somewhat disconcerting overview of our soon-to-be culinary future.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23863488/cultivated-lab-grown-exotic-meat-tiger-mammoth-meatball-veganism-ethics

and

https://www.primevalfoods.co/

I also learned there is a sport called combat juggling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_(juggling)

Oddly, the World Juggling Federation (WJF) sponsors combat juggling events (and is strongly endorsed by Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame). Amazing. You can't make this stuff up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0QbPxZWqSI&list=PLBF4B4D9D51B8B30A&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/@WJF

and the efforts to make juggling an Olympic sport:

https://www.thewjf.com/

Living with A.I.

In October, Open A.I. will release DALL-E 3 and integrate it with ChatGPT to help generate prompts for the text-to-image engine.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/20/23881241/openai-dalle-third-version-generative-ai

and

https://twitter.com/LinusEkenstam/status/1704548965880885335

Here is an A.I.-generated silent-movie-style version of Star Wars circa 1923 (generated with MidJourney).

https://twitter.com/douggypledger/status/1705180699236413538

A.I. art of the week