Between travel and weekend backyard gatherings, this summer feels like a race to make up for 2020. Yet, the paucity of data about how fully vaccinated people should approach the Delta Variant is confusing and on my mind. I am wary of populated indoor events and dining. It is hard to estimate the risk of infection when mask use, vaccination effectiveness, and local prevalence are all in flux. To be sure, understanding risk was more manageable before the world of a partially vaccinated population.
Adulting is often about balancing rational and irrational fear - taking appropriate risks to move life forward. Unfortunately, this risk estimation is more prominent and present for mundane events. I am feeling uncertainty as part of simply seeing family and looking at colleges. On the upside, I have a solid supply of masks and know which ones I like.
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Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida are the COVID hotspots, for now.
U.S. Hotspot Map via N.Y. Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
CDC Weekly Review of Data and Variant Tracking
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
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NPR summarized the rising case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths in an article from Saturday. The rise in cases is a pandemic of the unvaccinated with increasing numbers of preventable deaths.:
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/16/1017002907/u-s-covid-deaths-are-rising-again-experts-call-it-a-pandemic-of-the-unvaccinated
The New York Times tells the same story with more data:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/17/us/delta-variant-us-growth.html
The Washington Post published a very detailed look at one town in Missouri with low vaccination rates. It is an excellent exploration of very human traits - fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/15/springfield-missouri-delta-outbreak/
Apparently, kids in the U.K. (looking to stay home from school) are triggering false-positive rapid COVID tests with soft drinks and sharing their anecdotal discoveries via YouTube.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/954622
Researchers from Liverpool have tested 14 drinks to determine how soft drinks impact the rapid test. Ten different beverages were able to generate weakly positive results.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.05.21260003v1.full
The whole notion of YouTube-inspired medical research is scary and intriguing. Just think of what researchable questions cat videos could spawn.
COVID-sniffing dogs are back! Huntah and Duke, employees(?) of the Bristol County, MA Sherrif's Office, are "are available for use at schools, town buildings, non-profits, nursing homes, Councils on Aging, public safety facilities, and medical facilities in Bristol County."
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/07/15/bristol-county-sheriff-covid-sniffing-dogs/
One of the more frustrating problems of the Delta variant is how to interpret this data for those that are fully vaccinated. Exactly, what should fully vaccinated individuals do differently? You can see the lack of clarity amongst some of my go-to Twitter experts - the very optimistic Dr. Ghandi, the more alarmist Dr. Feigl-Ding, and the more neutral Dr. Topol. While all three align on the data, there is a broad spectrum of tone amongst these physicians.
Common Dr. Gandhi comments:
https://twitter.com/monicagandhi9/status/1415440236184707078?s=10
Representative Dr. Feigl-Ding:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1416616553622216706
Dr. Topol:
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1416486898516652034
Unsurprisingly, some Olympians arriving in Tokyo are carrying coronavirus.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/57844406
Infographics
Meat Rolls of the world
https://twitter.com/TasteAtlas/status/1415791450005065730/photo/1
Milk and eggs have origination coding on their packages‽
https://i.redd.it/x1ku4qechlb51.jpg
More!
http://www.whereismymilkfrom.com/finding-my-code
and
https://www.myfearlesskitchen.com/code-egg-carton-mean/
Things I learned this week
Here's another exploration of irrational and rational fears. After a robust debate at dinner, my older son and I started looking for quantitative data about the risks of showering during thunderstorms. Thanks to Shana, a self-appointed bath expert, there is an in-depth analysis of the data and first-person interviews about this issue.
https://bathtubber.com/can-i-take-a-bath-during-a-thunderstorm/
P.S. I feel safe showering during thunderstorms. Though I might wear a mask in the bathroom.
Somebody maintains a MythBusters results database.
One can waste numerous hours finding nuggets such as, "A block of cheese can be fired from a cannon with enough force to shred a ship's sail."
https://mythresults.com/greased-lightning
Of course, it is far more efficient than watching each episode.
I found a great Twitter thread about the geologic history of the fossils found in the Appalachian mountains. It highlights how valuable Twitter can be.
https://twitter.com/AlexPetrovnia/status/1415665948355403778
Clean hands and sharp minds team,
Adam
