Week of August 5, 2024
A week punctuated by travel and urgent, unexpected surgery in two people with whom I am close yielded time for reflection on life and gratitude. Among the many things to be thankful for are the positive comments from my reader survey. With an approximate 15% response rate ( I don't know the exact number of readers), I have a reasonable sample telling me this newsletter's Opening and "Things I Learned This Week" are the most popular sections, followed by "Medical Trends and Technology." I also appreciate the supportive, anonymous comments about my article choices, commentary, and wit, including the one loyal reader asking for "more stories about my grandkids." I am sure many of you feel my kids are like family now.
By the way, I am slowly posting all the back issues of the newsletter to
http://www.whatadamisreading.com/
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COVID rates continue to rise. Per some data, 1 in 37 Americans is now infected.
https://x.com/jpweiland/status/1819434300380487895
I also note that wastewater data indicates there is influenza A in the Denver area, implying H5N1 may be prevalent in humans (though human-to-human transmission is not confirmed).
https://flualert.substack.com/p/h5n1-outbreak-weekly-update-27-july
and
https://x.com/flualert_/status/1819386305173729776
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) website uses wastewater levels to forecast 4-week predictions of COVID rates.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
Wastewater Scan offers a multi-organism wastewater dashboard with an excellent visual display of individual treatment plant-level data.
https://data.wastewaterscan.org/
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COVID articles
I want the COVID nasal spray vaccine already! The nasal vaccines (currently being tested in hamsters) demonstrate protection from infection and the ability to minimize spread between individuals.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp1290
and
https://x.com/sailorrooscout/status/1819078227807391911
Hamsters aren't the only animals impacted by coronavirus.
[Researchers] tested 1000 dogs and cats belonging to employees of a U.S. veterinary hospital network exposed to human COVID-19 between January 1, 2020, and March 10, 2022. [Thirty-three percent [of the] 747 dogs and 27% of the 253 cats demonstrated seropositivity.] Pet seropositivity correlated with the U.S. human case rates over time, exhibiting peaks corresponding with the COVID-19 surges. Antibodies persisted longer than previously documented (828 days in dogs; 650 days in cats).
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/16/7/1157
As a big fan of nasal sprays (dilute iodine - carrageenan - in particular), I was excited to find a recently published large trial looking at the role of saline or saline-gel sprays in reducing upper respiratory symptoms. This randomized, controlled, open-label, parallel-group trial involved 14,000 individuals in the U.K. Participants reported the total number of days of illness due to respiratory tract illnesses (coughs, colds, sore throat, sinus or ear infections, influenza, or COVID-19) over six months. Individuals randomized to use saline at or just after exposure to large group settings had fewer days of illness than those who did not use any saline. The study is not perfect (self-reported symptoms every month), but the construct is good and includes many participants.
https://x.com/EnemyInAState/status/1819086823479541898
and
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(24)00140-1/fulltext
Medical Trends and Technology
N95 Masks do not expire when packaged and stored appropriately. "Researchers at the University of North Carolina and the EPA tested brand new and 10-year-old expired 3M N95 face masks. The oldest masks had expired 11 years before the study. If the expiration lifespan is 5 years, the oldest masks will be 16 years old. Fit tests found less than a 1% difference in effectiveness between 10-year-old expired N95 masks and brand new masks."
https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/do-n95-masks-expire/
and
https://x.com/algorithmus22/status/1817554051489263973?s=42&t=cHtDhpWgAdi0UhIayqsoag
and
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2769443
Last week, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif became the center of numerous conversations regarding gender in sports. While I have not found a reliable source of information on Khelif's exact genetics or other hormonal variations, several endocrinologists and biologists wrote extensive posts about the wide range of genetic and hormonal variations not captured by the binary labels "male" and "female." Irrespective of the boxer, this is an excellent opportunity to remind ourselves how varied biology can be.
https://x.com/hoovlet/status/1819041282594873759
And
https://x.com/robertbohan/status/1819012599796707358
Infographics
U.S. Presidential Campaign fundraising totals by party 2000-2024 (so far)
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/campaign-fundraising-in-u-s-presidential-elections-2000-2024/
Things I learned this week
According to USA Today, the "Father of Tiramisu," Roberto "Loli" Linguanotto, died last week. Historians disagree on the dessert's history. Linguanotto was a pastry chef at the Treviso restaurant and developed the recipe with the restaurant owner's wife, Alba Campeol (whose family also claimed creator credit when she died). In addition, some historians report that 18th-century Italian brothels used the dessert to "reinvigorate exhausted clients." [As a medical professional, I will not opine whether tiramisu can truly serve this reported use.]
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/07/30/tiramisu-inventor-roberto-linguanotto-death/74611121007/
and
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/07/30/tiramisu-creator-roberto-linguanotto-dies/
and
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/eat/the-sexy-history-behind-this-popular-italian-dessert/news-story/f8641d35e7e83f97e89f6e501ecb94e5
Angry whales seem very intentional when attacking yachts in the Mediterranean. While the Daily Beast is not my go-to source of reliable information, Scientific American writes that researchers observed several Orcas have healed injuries associated with fishing or collisions with boats and speculate the pod may now be "fighting back."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/killer-whales-sink-yacht-in-med-knew-what-they-were-doing
and
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-has-a-group-of-orcas-suddenly-started-attacking-boats/
Living with A.I.
I do not know if and when I will be ready for an A.I.-driven dental robot that cleans, drills, and performs various common dental procedures without a human. The dental robot has not yet been FDA-approved, but at least one human received fully automated care. I can only imagine who and why that person chose to be patient #1.
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/robot-dentist-world-first/
and
https://www.perceptive.io/
and
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/perceptive-completes-world-first-fully-120000236.html
Nikhil Krishnan is a "business of healthcare" educator. He recently hosted a generative A.I. in healthcare hackathon. The project list is a sample of thoughtful generative A.I. healthcare use cases.
https://x.com/nikillinit/status/1818667188296864243
A.I. art of the week (A visual mashup of topics from the newsletter).
A table of angry orca whales eating tiramisu. One is wearing a leather jacket.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GOz_uuwsSdUU-hDBKrEE_beVNSTnTYx3/view?usp=sharing
Clean hands and sharp minds, team
Adam
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