COVID Transmissions for 9-30-2020
Good morning! It has been 318 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19. September is on its way out.
Welcome back to this newsletter and thank you for your patience; I took an extra day off after Yom Kippur, which I hope everyone will understand was a direct result of the fast that day. I’m getting back into the swing of things now and it’s nice to be writing to all of you again.
Today we will focus on headlines.
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.
204,000 deaths and 7 million cases
In the US, we have reached 204,000 dead and 7 million cases of COVID-19. Neither of these are good news. I am deeply concerned that signals of increases around the country mean these numbers will continue to alarmingly rise.
Reopening colleges appears to have led to more infections among college-aged people
In serious “duh” news, the reopening of colleges seems to have led to a spike in COVID-19 infections in people in the 18 to 22 year-old age group. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report has an analysis of the epidemiology: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6939e4.htm
Everyone knew this would happen, but importantly this work analyzed whether an increase in testing frequency was responsible. They determined that this is a genuine case uptick and not a testing effect.
100 million tests being shipped to states by US government
In order to encourage continued opening of K through 12 schools, the US government is planing to distribute 100 million tests to states across the country: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-donald-trump-archive-elections-7ad94115ac126ce1eb7a38bee6c5eedf
This may help to better contain outbreaks, but I am not certain that having schools open right now is going entirely well.
Operation Warp Speed org chart
STAT News obtained an organizational chart for the $10 billion Operation Warp Speed, headlining that civilian scientists are heavily outnumbered in the project by military personnel: https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/28/operation-warp-speed-vast-military-involvement/
This may be a prudent approach, because the US military has a national logistical network that would be able to rapidly get a vaccine candidate around the country in a rapid fashion. Primarily, Operation Warp Speed is about distribution of a vaccine once one becomes available. It involves the rapid manufacture of vaccines “at risk”—at risk that they will not work—so that they will be ready if they do happen to work.
I think that STAT may be trying to sensationalize this, but I honestly don’t know enough about what alternative options could have been considered that were not.
On the other hand, I am highly reassured by the presence of Dr. Nancy Messonnier in the organization. You may remember Dr. Messonnier from her warning to the American people in February that we should prepare for “significant disruptions” to daily life. This was the first stark warning to US citizenry from a government official regarding COVID-19, and it was what made me realize that the virus would not burn out in China on its own. Her presence, at least, is something I can report on as good.
The organizational chart is below.
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
Yom Kippur
We stayed in during Yom Kippur because of a mild fever that both my wife and I had. This is likely following on from the illness that I’ve been getting over. We are both fine now; this was a precaution to avoid the possibility of our community needing to get tested.
I was delighted to see, though, that the services that our community designed went off without a hitch, as reported in the hyperlocal news source West Side Rag: https://www.westsiderag.com/2020/09/28/photo-of-the-day-outdoor-worship-transforms-a-block
I helped to design these services, as a small part of a team that considered the various medical, theological, and community issues involved. I’m very proud to see how well this went, and very grateful to have been involved with a group that contained so many hardworking people dedicated to a safe and meaningful service.
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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!
See you all next time.
Always,
JS