Labor day weekend in our house was marked by cooking for the Jewish holiday, the first round of school projects, and making headway on our household meandering through the Coen Brothers film catalog. On Saturday, my sons had the following exchange: "O brother - art thou joining us for O Brother, Where Art Thou? If so, O brother, where art thou? We are commencing O Brother, Where Art Thou."
I also had a first-hand encounter with belief perseverance last week. One of my vaccine "non-believing" patients received his second dose of Moderna. He reported that he was still skeptical (of something) but was sick of hearing me "bark at him." He also disclosed that he didn't feel comfortable telling his wife (also an unvaccinated skeptic). I cannot fathom the contradictions that coexist in his mind. But, I am amused (and unnerved) that I was able to pester him into vaccination.
---- Latest Data
U.S. Hotspot Map via N.Y. Times. The Current hospitalization map is quite striking.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
Country Comparison from FT.com
CDC Weekly Review of Data and Variant Tracking
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
We are back to questioning masks - now cloth masks. Guess what? Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen are small molecules that can get through masks. Water droplets (possibly containing the coronavirus) and viral particles are larger than oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules. Cloth, surgical, or N95 masks allow the passage of oxygen and carbon dioxide but block varying amounts of water droplets and aerosolized viruses. Not only are there good engineering studies, but epidemiologic data from pre/post mask mandates demonstrates efficacy.
https://www.abc4.com/coronavirus/can-cloth-masks-really-stop-covid-19-from-spreading/
and
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818
and a recent study of 350,000 people in 650 Bangladeshi villages:
https://twitter.com/Jabaluck/status/1433036923610742789
more background on relative sizes
https://www.fi.edu/blog/Your-Mask-Questions-Answered%C2%A0
Ivermectin poisoning rates are rising. Thankfully not leading to death, for the most part.
https://piper.filecamp.com/uniq/ZO3aGrYGXdIUhiJ7.pdf
The American Association of Poison Control Centers data demonstrates that 6-19-year-olds are the least likely to be poisoned by Ivermectin. The bigger question - who was overdosing on Ivermectin in 2019?
More
I am not sure what it says about our fellow citizens that on August 21, the US FDA Tweeted, "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."
https://twitter.com/US_FDA/status/1429050070243192839
Just a reminder, there are well-written, critical reviews of the numerous and flawed Ivermectin studies. Here is an excellent review by epidemiologist @GidMK:
https://twitter.com/gidmk/status/1435128867027501056?s=10
It has been about four weeks since the latest Sturgis, South Dakota bike rally. Here is an article from 14-20 days after the event.
I have been seeing a variety of marketing efforts at promoting vaccination amongst various population segments:
Older adults in Singapore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPRv6WrPThI
Orthodox Jews in New York
https://twitter.com/yair_rosenberg/status/1433147150238691329?s=10
Spanish Catholics in the Western Hemisphere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBvwOTAhgKQ
Serbian Cave Hermits (seriously, this man is a Serb and self -isolates in a cave - seems more toward Serbs in general, but I guess the point is if the cave guy vaccinates, you should too.)
The debate over whether vaccine efficacy is waning (or not) continues. Dr. David Dowdy (Johns Hopkins Epidemiologist) breaks down his thoughts based on data from a New England Journal article from last week:
https://twitter.com/davidwdowdy/status/1433254698316873728
He certainly makes some compelling arguments about Why vaccine efficacy is not waning and points out some of the difficulties of near-real-time analysis of population health data.
The Mu Variant is coming?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/world/americas/mu-variant-who.html
The WHO keeps a running list of variants of interest
https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/
Eric Topol offers some rational perspective on variants
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1434885492198166529
Infographics
Another set of good reasons to get vaccinated
Long term effects of COVID
https://i.redd.it/rtbvd6jxoml71.jpg
I have an odd fascination with knots. I have written about my prized copy of The Ashley Book of Knots. I found this infographic recently.
https://www.seattleyachts.com/SAILOR'S-GUIDE-TO-KNOT-TYING
Oddly, I don't tie knots of any complexity. I am just amazed at how many ways there are to tie them.
Things I learned this week
Lamb Ham is a thing.
And, who wouldn't immediately think of Al Roker (TV weatherman) for testimonial endorsements for lamb ham?
http://www.borderspringsfarm.com/compliments/
One means of measuring the disruption caused by natural disasters is the Waffle House Index.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index
https://twitter.com/ErickFernandez/status/1402270341599272960
David Lee Roth of Van Halen changed his phone number in the 1990s, and author Nancy French got a great story out of it.
I am a sucker for historical connect the dots between disparate items. I thoroughly enjoyed this thread on how cheese, underwear, Jesus, snails, and reading glasses lead to the development of the hardback book.
https://twitter.com/incunabula/status/1434805469441318917
Clean hands and sharp minds team,
Adam
