Week of August 2, 2021
This past week has yielded increasing clarity about living with the Delta Variant. Data from around the world demonstrates that a small percentage of fully vaccinated individuals are getting sick coronavirus. And, amongst those that are sick, very few are being hospitalized or dying. But that number is not zero, and older/immune-compromised individuals are at the highest risk.
I am grateful that most of our remaining summer plans accommodate masking and outdoor activities. I am even more thankful that several of my reluctant patients heeded my begging and got vaccinated a few months back. Vaccination rates are rising again and I hope enough of the world vaccinates to break the cycle of this now groundhog day pandemic (with each repetition presenting different and confusing risks).
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U.S. Hotspot Map via N.Y. Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
CDC Weekly Review of Data and Variant Tracking
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
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Despite the news of breakthrough infections, it is essential to keep the data in perspective. Professor Darrin Saunders shared this data on the last 14 days of Delta Variant data from Australia:
https://twitter.com/whereisdaz/status/1421601391974309893
Here is another way to look at this data. Journalist Benjy Renton provided some visualizations of the CDC data showing cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over time, amongst states with high, moderate, and low vaccination rates (defined as at least one dose of vaccine).
https://twitter.com/bhrenton/status/1421653165578113035
I found this fantastic thread from Dr. Jorge Caballero
(from Stanford) framing and contextualizing the CDC data on Provincetown, MA.
https://twitter.com/datadrivenmd/status/1420931469938024449?s=10
N.Y. Times reporter Apoorva Mandavilli offered some clarifications over the news reports about the Provincetown outbreak.
https://twitter.com/apoorva_nyc/status/1421172375652085760?s=10
Some helpful perspective pieces this week as well:
Andrew Sullivan
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/let-it-rip-f9c
The Atlantic interviews Dr. Gary Simon from GW's Division of Infectious Disease for some "what would a doctor do" perspective.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/covid-vaccine-gary-simon/619623/
Infographics! More smells of summer
https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/04/07/the-chemistry-of-body-odours-sweat-halitosis-flatulence-cheesy-feet/
------Things I learned this week:
Gargoyles are still a thing. A stone bust of Darth Vader is on the Washington National Cathedral.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pop-culture-gargoyles-in-gothic-architecture
In 1954, the BBC produced a TV version of George Orwell's 1984. At the time, The Daily Express linked a woman's death to the "shocking content." You can watch the entire broadcast on YouTube. View at your own risk‽
https://www.openculture.com/2021/07/watch-the-live-tv-adaptation-of-george-orwells-nineteen-eighty-four-the-most-controversial-tv-drama-of-its-time-1954.html
In 2013, SC Johnson developed compostable Zip Lock bags. They couldn't sell them through typical retail outlets.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90375492/my-search-for-compostable-ziplocs-shows-the-huge-branding-problem-for-sustainable-products
Amazon now offers a plethora of compostable, resealable bags.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=compostable+ziploc
Clean hands, sharp minds, (and don't throw out the masks yet),
Adam
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