COVID Transmissions for 9-20-2020

Good morning! It has been 308 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19.

Over the weekend, I had a sore throat, now resolved, and had to isolate from Rosh Hashana services. I’ll have to get a COVID-19 test. It feels silly; it was just a sore throat! Even I am vulnerable to this kind of thinking, and I know that it could still be COVID. I overcame my feelings and stuck with a policy of isolating, for the sake of my community.

I was of course saddened to hear of the death of a towering public servant in Ruth Bader Ginsburg right as the holiday began. Normally Jews say “baruch dayan emet” when someone is taken from us, which is usually translated as “blessed is the righteous judge.” This is a situation where that seems even more applicable.

Just headlines today, as I try to keep myself healthy.

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.

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30 million global cases

Over the weekend, the number of global cases surpassed 30 million, having just passed 29 million 4 days earlier.

If this pace continues, COVID-19 will soon surpass the ongoing HIV pandemic.

Vaccine confusion impacts public perception

Pew has a recent poll regarding US perceptions of a COVID-19 vaccine. The numbers indicate a nervous public who have had their faith in a potential vaccine undermined.

In late April, 72% of Americans said that they would definitely or probably take a COVID-19 vaccine if it were available today. Now that’s down to 51%.

This was regardless of demographic or political group.

We can get an understanding of why from some of the other questions in the poll.

77% said they think it's very or somewhat likely that a vaccine will be approved before we have a fully understanding of its safety and effectiveness, and 78% said their chief concern was a rushed approval process.

76% said concern about side effects would be a major reason not to get the vaccine, while 72% cited uncertainty about effectiveness.

Full poll results here: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/09/17/u-s-public-now-divided-over-whether-to-get-covid-19-vaccine/

Animal transmission

A study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases looked for presence of virus in 50 house cats in Hong Kong from households with SARS-CoV-2 infections. They found that 6 of the 50 cats (12%) tested PCR-positive for SARS-CoV-2, with virus genomes that were identical to those of their owners. The cats were all asymptomatic, but had some lung lesions that are similar to those seen in humans. The researchers weren’t able to culture virus recovered from the cats—in line with previous work where virus couldn’t be recovered from infections in cats.

The study can be found here: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/12/20-2786_article

There have been other reports of infections in cats earlier in the pandemic, and I don’t know that this implies any particular danger to cats or other house pets. But out of an abundance of caution, it might be worthwhile to keep pets isolated from people with COVID-19.

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What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:

Rosh Hashana

I had an uneventful Rosh Hashana due to my sore throat, but I slept a lot, which was nice. I’m now feeling much better and will get a COVID-19 test to be on the safe side.

The main reason I’m sharing this information is to model good behavior. I think my synagogue has good procedures for preventing spread of this disease—I helped write them. But part of those procedures is to avoid coming if you feel sick, and despite the minor nature of my symptoms, I felt sick, so I avoided coming.

We need to recalibrate our lives a little bit to this pandemic. There are no minor illnesses anymore. Imagine if I had gone, and infected someone in a high-risk group? I could have been responsible for someone’s death. I don’t want that on my conscience.

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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! Let’s have a great week.

See you all next time.

Always,

JS