COVID Transmissions for 10-26-2020
Good morning! It has been 344 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19. The newsletter comes a little late this morning due to an issue with the scheduler.
For our headlines today, do you want the good news or the bad news first? If you want the good news first, read them in the order written. Otherwise, read them backwards.
Let’s try to have a good week.
As usual, bolded terms are linked to the running newsletter glossary.
Keep the newsletter growing by sharing it! I love talking about science and explaining important concepts in human health, but I rely on all of you to grow the audience for this:
Now, let’s talk COVID.
Big drop in mortality rates for COVID-19 patients since the start of the pandemic
Two recent studies have shown that in the US, the healthcare community has managed to cut the death rates of COVID-19 patients substantially since the beginning of the pandemic. This is well-covered by NPR here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/20/925441975/studies-point-to-big-drop-in-covid-19-death-rates
Schools being open appears not to be a major source of cases
The New York Times continues to impress with its sweeping reviews of medical literature that provide an overview of a key topic. In this case, you may recall that over the summer Tony Fauci said that schools reopening would be an “experiment” because of the massive political will to reopen them. I found this very worrisome, and I am happy to say that apparently I was wrong!
It looks like the experiment has been a success. As Apoova Mandavili reports, it appears that schools, particularly elementary schools, have not been sources of notable new clusters of infection overall. This may be due in part to mitigation measures, but whether or not it is, I think it’s good news.
Read the story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/coronavirus-schools-children.html
Importantly, if you don’t click the link, I want to pull out a few key points:
Children can get sick and children can transmit the virus—this has not changed
Major clusters are not appearing from schools—particularly elementary schools
The situation with middle schools and high schools is less clear
Pence Aides infected; White House gives up on controlling virus
In addition to news this weekend that several aides of Vice President Pence have tested positive for COVID-19, the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Meet the Press this weekend said, “"We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas."
Perhaps this is a misunderstanding of what “control” means in the context of disease, but it sounds awfully like an admission of defeat to me. I don’t understand this messaging or how it is helpful.
Disease control is the use of vaccines, therapeutics, and other measures to contain a disease. That’s what the CDC was created to do, as well as state and local health authorities. I believe we can control the pandemic, if we have the will to do it.
82,000+ new daily cases in US on Friday
Speaking to the danger we are in, the US posted at least 82,900 daily new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, link here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/10/23/covid-us-spike-cases/
It’s worth pointing out that this is approximately equal to the entire total number of infections that were documented in Wuhan, China during the initial outbreak. While that number is probably an underestimate—as most numbers from early in the pandemic are—it is concerning that the US is now matching that in a single day.
Europe at record highs of new cases
The situation in Europe is not much better, with 1.3 million new cases recorded across the continent last week: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/10/25/927637746/europe-imposes-new-restrictions-as-covid-19-cases-soar
I hope this illustrates that the situation around the world is not trending well, and that we should prepare for difficult times until an effective vaccine can be globally deployed.
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
Deep cleaning
I spent the weekend doing a deep clean on parts of our apartment. I have a feeling that as the fall continues, the burden of living in American society is going to get heavier. To me having a clean home will help with this, both from limiting the amount of stuff I have to deal with and also from the mental calm that cleanliness can instill.
Join the conversation, and what you say will impact what I talk about in the next issue.
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This newsletter will contain mistakes. When you find them, tell me about them so that I can fix them. I would rather this newsletter be correct than protect my ego.
Though I can’t correct the emailed version after it has been sent, I do update the online post of the newsletter every time a mistake is brought to my attention.
No corrections since last issue.
Thanks for reading, everyone! Enjoy your week.
See you all next time.
Always,
JS
I continue to appreciate the effort you put into keeping politics out of your newsletter, thereby reinforcing its very informative credibility.
Today, however, I believe you slipped a little, and I will try to be careful in my description of that slip.
Referencing a statement made by a government official made during a clearly contentious interview by a clearly biased interviewer making every effort to frame his questions in a way so as to generate a clickable sound bite is not a reliable way to source official government policies or positions.