Good morning! It has been 334 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19. As mentioned yesterday, we’re very close to the 3-month mark for this newsletter. It will pass over the weekend, this Saturday, so raise a toast to COVID Transmissions if you get a chance.
Headlines and an educational video about Immunology, today. Have a great weekend!
As usual, bolded terms are linked to the running newsletter glossary.
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Now, let’s talk COVID.
Europe and US on the rise for case numbers
Case numbers for Europe and the US are going up. Today in the US there were 62,000 new daily cases, which is the highest since June, if I’m not mistaken. This is not encouraging. We need to do something about this.
“The John Snow Memorandum”
Scientists from all over the world have published an article describing the best public health response that they believe possible for COVID-19. Importantly, they have repudiated the concept of seeking “herd immunity” through widespread infection, and with good reason: this isn’t a strategy. It has never happened naturally for any virus, and has always required the availability and widespread adoption of an effective and safe vaccine.
The open letter discussing this appeared in The Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32153-X/fulltext
The scientific community—and the authors of the letter—are calling it “The John Snow Memorandum.” John Snow is a famous scientist from the 19th century who developed many of the foundations of modern immunology and infection control. He effectively traced an outbreak of cholera in London to a contaminated water source, understanding for the first time how this devastating disease can spread through a population. His findings laid the groundwork for the understanding of epidemiology that we have today, and for modern understanding of germ theory. By naming this letter after him, the authors are making it clear that this is an attempt to bring real understanding of epidemiology to a world that is severely lacking it. I hope that when scientists attempt to speak truth to power in this fashion, someone will listen.
Disclosure: I have applied to become a signatory to the John Snow Memorandum, under my legal name of Leighland Feinman, PhD. As you may have noticed, I do not use this name in my public writings, partly because at one point I didn’t think it would fit on a book cover.
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
SQUASH SEASON
We have reached the time of year when those of us who do community-supported agriculture/farm shares get an unreasonable amount of squash. Well, I take that back. It’s very reasonable if you’re like me and you like squash. But the point is that it’s an awful lot of squash.
Personally I like to just halve squashes and roast them for 30-40 minutes at 350F, but lately I’ve also taken to dusting them with a bit of powdered ginger and then brushing them with a little oil. It turns out pretty:
Image is of two halves of one butternut squash, post-roasting. They sit upon a foil, aluminum. Shiny side up.
Immunology 101 from Dr. Akiko Iwasaki
I don’t really have a section for this kind of thing, because it’s not news and it’s not analysis from me. However! I just heard about this YouTube video, “COVID-19 Immunology 101 for Non-Immunologists,” by Dr. Akiko Iwasaki of Yale University. Dr. Iwasaki is a superstar, and I’ve featured some of her papers in this newsletter before. If you haven’t seen this I think you should check it out:
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No corrections since last issue.
Thanks for reading, everyone! Kick back this weekend—enjoy yourselves.
See you all next time.
Always,
JS