Coronavirus Tidbits #46 5/11/20
Quick links
News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty
Announcements:
First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting.
Tidbits will likely be a bit shorter and a little less frequent for the next little bit. I have been immersed in it and I need to spend a little more time on self-care, which for me means seeing the spring flowers emerge and digging in the dirt.
Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that.
News
@EthanJWeiss is a CA physician who was just working in NYC to help with COVID-19. This is how @United endangered him and others enroute home.
I guess @united is relaxing their social distancing policy these days? Every seat full on this 737 pic.twitter.com/rqWeoIUPqL
— Ethan Weiss (@ethanjweiss) May 9, 2020
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From NIH:
Study Finds Nearly Everyone Who Recovers From COVID-19 Makes Coronavirus Antibodies
We don’t know how protective they will be yet, nor how long they will last.
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Eyes are an ‘important route’ for coronavirus to enter the body
https://www.zmescience.com/science/eyes-important-rute-of-infection-14134/
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Why the porn industry has a lot to teach us about safety in the Covid-19 era
Quite an interesting read
https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/08/porn-industry-model-for-reopening-amid-covid19/
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Please read this thread:
https://twitter.com/windthin/status/1259265684925710336?s=20
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1259265684925710336.html
#ItOnlyTakesOne
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Coronavirus case cluster tied to Pasadena birthday party
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That cluster is nothing compared to what we’ll see in Castle Rock, Co. Infuriating:
Not sure if you/others raised this, but just to be sure this was all in defiance of CO state order: https://t.co/zz9zLWB9Gf
— Richard M. Carpiano (@RMCarpiano) May 10, 2020
The venn diagram of "zygotes have rights" people and "fuck your grandma, she's gonna die anyway" people is one big sociopathic circle
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) May 6, 2020
I don’t care if these people kill themselves w Covid in the name of “freedom.” I do care that they are endangering innocent people, including healthcare workers, and may deprive others of essential care. They should waive their rights to such care…like this:
Diagnostics:
still an incredible, negligent lack of testing.
On new Quidel antigen test:
Antigen tests are very specific for the virus, but are not as sensitive as molecular PCR tests which means that positive results from antigen tests are highly accurate, but there is a higher chance of false negatives, so negative results do not rule out infection, it added.
Drugs:
Remdesivir distribution is bizarre, secretive and irrational:
CT (30 cases), Il (140 c), Iowa (10 c), MD (30 c), MI (40 c), NJ (204 c) IN (38 c), MA (117 c), NY (565 c), RI (30 c), TN (7 cases) and VA(33 cases). Hardly equitable.
California got NONE.
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First evidence that early treatment with triple antiviral therapy of interferon beta-1b, lopinavir-ritonavir, and ribavirin – alongside standard care – is safe and shortens duration of viral shedding
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/tl-pss050820.php
Devices:
In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America
Michael Bowen’s Prestige Ameritech tried to mfg N95s but was repeatedly rebuffed….
The government soon spent over $600 million on contracts involving masks. Big companies like Honeywell and 3M were each awarded contracts totaling for over $170 million for protective gear. One distributor of tactical gear — a company with no history of procuring medical equipment — was awarded a $55 million deal to provide masks for as much as $5.50 a piece, eight times what the government was paying months earlier.
On April 7, FEMA awarded Prestige a $9.5 million contract to provide a million N95 masks a month for one year, an order the company could fulfill without activating its dormant manufacturing lines. For the masks, Prestige charged the government 79 cents a piece.
Epidemiology/Infection control:
Good overview on why we should be using “excess mortality” to see how we are doing w Covid pandemic rather than reported Covid deaths.
https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-death-rate-sinking-data-reveals-a-complex-reality/a-53365771
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Video about “Glo-Germ” showing spread of infections via hands.
Next airlines should create a video like this featuring a 7 year old and a 10 year old with fluorescent paint on their hands at the end of the 3 hour flight flip on the black light. https://t.co/eVGqT6m5Zb
— Cool+Dry (@ACOOLDRYPLACE) May 9, 2020
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Interesting routine.
Huh. Can you imagine? We can’t get people to wear masks. pic.twitter.com/laCXe6fCSV
— jamie (@gnuman1979) May 9, 2020
Tips, general reading for public:
StayAtHome
Wash your hands.
Rinse and repeat.
Politics:
Amazing:
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) May 10, 2020
Tyson Foods didn't give masks to pork plant workers
It didn't space them apart
It refused to close
AND it lobbied the White House to get protection from lawsuits.
A thousand workers are now out and three have died. https://t.co/XIbluxvj5P pic.twitter.com/6SNuuyOjro
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Coronavirus researcher Peter Daszak has funding cut, says politicization of science “will probably cost lives”
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Gov. Doug Ducey fires the scientists who warn he’s making a mistake by reopening Arizona
Feel good du jour:
Lovely Banksy superhero nurse.
Comic relief/editorials
My mom is a prosecutor and every year she brings up the fact that Mother’s Day is the day with the lowest crime. I think that says a lot about how many moms commit crimes throughout the year, but can’t today because they’re too busy being celebrated.
On reopening:
https://twitter.com/Rossmac212/status/1258707601140994053
Perspective
“Everybody’s worth more than the worst thing they ever did in their life.”
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 9, 2020
Sister @HelenPrejean on the need for compassion, action, and dramatic decarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/FR5f5a1ddZ
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Professor Peter Piot on his life-changing experience with COVID-19:
https://t.co/PyAjvKsGYh
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Aspirational and surprisingly optimistic…
The potential fallout of an economic downturn on physical and mental health are likely to be profound but they are not inevitable. By identifying and ensuring that the most at risk are protected, government measures will be crucial in mitigating widening inequalities and public health consequences. For Amartya Sen, writing in The Financial Times on April 15 about the policies enacted so far, “equity has not been a particularly noticeable priority”, still a better society can emerge from the lockdowns. The world has paused—there is an opportunity to invest in social protection, to prioritise policies to reduce inequalities, and to give equity a particularly noticeable priority.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30097-9/fulltext?
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Thoughtful read:
Surviving This Pandemic Isn’t Enough
We need to remake the world we left behind. And we need to start with how we care for one another.
MATT THOMPSON https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/05/how-be-hopeful-even-pandemic/611350/Bits of beauty:
