COVID Transmissions for 7-30-2020
Greetings from an undisclosed location in my apartment.
It has been 256 (2^8!) days since the first documented human case of COVID-19.
Housekeeping notes:
Welcome, new free and paid subscribers! Lots of new signups yesterday.
No in-depth today because there were two this week already; I might do one more to close out the week. Leave a comment if you have topic suggestions!
Also, I’ve decided that to improve the reach of the newsletter and its content, I will be posting some of the in-depth articles from past newsletters to my Medium.com feed. The Medium editors aggressively publicize articles that meet their content standards, and I am a top writer there in Science and in Health, so my articles often get distributed if I post them under the Medium content paywall (which does allow some free access). This move helps expand reach of good information about COVID-19 and get better communications out there, which is my main goal in writing these things.
To ensure compliance with their paywall rules, that means that when I post such articles I will need to convert the online post here into a subscriber-only post.
This will only occur after more than a week has passed since the original post was sent out. Free subscribers will retain the email that was sent out day-of on such posts, and will also be able to view the in-depth article on my Medium feed if within the monthly quota of free articles. Additionally, all of the archive here will remain visible to paid subscribers.
I’m also happy to provide free-viewing links to anyone who reaches out.
If you like what you see—or what you might see in the future—tell others about it so the newsletter continues to grow:
Now, let’s talk COVID.
150,000:
The US passed 150,000 deaths, as predicted. A sad milestone.
The Hajj begins, scaled back:
CIDRAP reports that as the COVID-19 situation begins to settle in the Middle East, the annual Hajj is moving forward in a scaled-back form: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/07/scaled-back-hajj-begins-mideast-sees-signs-covid-19-stabilization
Of course, only 1000 pilgrims are participating this year compared to the normal 2.5 million, so it’s at quite a reduced scale.
Testing infrastructure is strained:
Testing is in the news, because we’re not doing enough of it, fast enough. Certainly things are better than they were months ago, when we were doing a tiny amount of tests each day, but things are still not where they should be. One of the problems is that the tests are coming back a long time after they are performed—long after the incubation period for the virus would be over.
This video, sent to me by a reader, explains the testing infrastructure (somewhat laboriously; you can probably skip the bit about Quest Diagnostics’ aircraft routes and the ~1 minute of ad at the end, but the overall video is quite good) and ways that we might be able to improve throughput:
My first experience in a lab was regarding developing human disease diagnostic tests (and also forensic diagnostic tests). This is a hard problem to solve and it’s interesting to see the workarounds people are using to try and improve the situation.
One important point made in the video is that influenza symptoms during flu season are going to lead to a spike in demand for testing. While better testing infrastructure will help, there’s one great thing you can do to reduce your risk of flu, and thus stop yourself from being unsure if you have flu or COVID in the fall:
Get the flu shot!
This year, it could make a huge difference in your life. Specifically, whether or not you continue to have one. The flu is a deadly illness, and it’s going to be deadlier in severe cases if it means patients are going to hospitals where they might be exposed to COVID-19 while they recover.
Apologies that this advice doesn’t help any readers with health conditions that impact your ability to get the influenza vaccine; hopefully enough people will get it this year to keep you safe, too. It’s the responsibility of those of us who can get this vaccine to do so, so that we aren’t the reason that someone dies.
According to the CDC, the best time to get vaccinated is in September or October: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2020-2021.htm
Set yourself a calendar reminder.
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
Today is Tisha B’Av, a fast for Jews around the world. I won’t be doing all that much!
Join the conversation, and what you say will impact what I talk about in the next issue.
Also, I welcome any feedback on structure and content. I want this to be as useful as possible, and I can only make that happen with constructive comments.
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.
See you all next time.
Always,
JS
What is your take on walking on the streets of Manhattan- no mask needed or mask required? I definitely wear a mask when I go inside anywhere and would outside if I am somewhere a little more crowded, but what I'm talking about is on a day-to-day basis, passing people as you walk but not staying in close proximity to anyone for more than a few seconds.
The flight logistics needed MORE detail not less!