I saw a tufted titmouse and two eastern bluebirds at my new house. Thanks to the pandemic, I now seem overly observant of birds, making me feel old. It also feels a bit like the sensation of seeing your model of a new car everywhere after you buy it. I have embraced the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (which is either a type of cognitive bias or a 70s jazz/rock-fusion band that opened for Emerson, Lake, and Palmer when touring for their 1971 album, Tarkus).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarkus
And, thanks to the above, I learned an acceptable plural of tufted titmouse is tufted titmice.
https://www.birdsandblooms.com/birding/birding-basics/titmouses-titmice-ask-bird-experts/
-----Latest Data---
CDC National Hospitalization trend data
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#hospitalizations
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
Vaccine Tracker
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
---
It is a few days old, but I discovered the CDC offers data interpretation similar to the COVID tracking project. It is refreshing seeing data discussed for what they are. On the CDC website. By CDC employees. In this case, examining the health disparities of the pandemic, objectively and thoughtfully.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
I want to fast forward to the data. Having unvaccinated teenagers scares me.:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/16/health/children-vaccinated-moderna-covid-19-trial-bn/index.html
A loyal reader asked, "What do symptoms of COVID look like in vaccinated adults?" Symptoms feel like COVID in unvaccinated adults but with less severe symptoms and much, much less risk of hospitalization and death. Great question!
more
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/post-vaccine-considerations-healthcare-personnel.html
From another loyal reader - Clinical Infectious Disease, last week - "COVID-19 vaccination with an mRNA-based vaccine showed a significant association with a reduced risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection as measured during pre-procedural molecular screening." It is a retrospective cohort study looking at 39,000 adults who were PCR tested due to scheduled medical procedures between 12/2020 and 2/2021. All were without symptoms of COVID by hospital screening procedures. As compared to patients who had not been vaccinated, patients who received at least one dose of mRNA vaccine had a 44% lower relative risk of asymptomatic infection. Based on these data, the likelihood of a fully vaccinated adult having an asymptomatic infection is lower. Comforting. Even more comforting if everyone is vaccinated and the risk of getting others sick is lower too.
https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab229/6167855
And in tech news:
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/03/apple-maps-now-displays-covid-19-vaccination-locations/
a month ago
https://www.verywellhealth.com/google-vaccine-finder-covid-19-5111315
two weeks ago
And soon, there will be more vaccines to find!
Infographic of the day: Melting Cheese
Newly removed from the list of unknown unkowns in my head:
we need guides to the "relative meltability" of cheese
There is a grilled cheese month (April each year)
and, Check:
https://www.fiftyplusadvocate.com/2020/03/01/get-ready-for-national-grilled-cheese-sandwich-month/
You should be asking yourself how one maintains a list of unknown unknowns if they are unknown.
--- Bonus round - Chaos and Fractals
Thanks to this article, I was reminded of a book on chaos theory I read a few years ago. It included an extensive biography of Benoit Mandelbrot, the Jewish refugee from Nazi-occupied Europe who first described fractal geometry - or the mathematical order in apparent chaos.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2021/02/22/mandelbrot-fractals-chaos/
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benoit_Mandelbrot
Maria Popova (the Brain Pickings website author) is, I think, a bit out there. Extrapolating quantitative ideas into qualitative notions reminds me of the artsy-ist of my liberal arts college courses. However, the book is excellent, and the linked article is an enjoyable read. I also like to point out the Mandelbrot's son is a nephrologist. (Which further supports my belief that nephrology is all about bringing order to chaos.)
The book
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64582.Chaos
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
