tingilinde

trying to hold the sea back

Expect supply problems triggered by a host of issues - particularly China's zero Covid policy. (via The New York Times)

One has to wonder about the Olympics..

 

 

 

how long can you wear that n95?

Longer than a single use.

a tip of the hat to Greg

 

bob wachter and eric topol on the current and future state of the pandemic

Bob hosts the regular UCSF series on Covid and Eric is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. The series is aimed at people who are following things closely.

 

pandemic-fueled voter purge?

One guesstimate on how many Trump voters are becoming ex-voters every day.

 

 

 

a simple wearable viral air sampler

A small air sampler that can assess exposure to SARS-CoV-2..  It doesn't give realtime warnings to a person, but is useful to see if they've been ni an area where the virus is present. It could be very useful for doing surveys.

snip

...

The researchers developed a wearable passive air sampler, known as the Fresh Air Clip, that continually adsorbs virus-laden aerosols on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface. The team tested the air sampler in a rotating drum in which they generated aerosols containing a surrogate virus, a bacteriophage with similar properties to SARS-CoV-2. They detected virus on the PDMS sampler using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), showing that the device could be used to reliably estimate airborne virus concentrations.

...

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

flu season

The flu is back with us, but not quite as predicted.   Katelyn Jetelina and Lauren Leining comment.

snip

...

We don’t have a good sense of the interaction of circulating respiratory pathogens. I’m hoping that when Omicron recedes, we won’t see increased influenza activity, especially since the more severe influenza strain is circulating. But we are keeping an eye on it. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza placed a large burden on our healthcare system. The CDC reports influenza was responsible for up to 41 million cases, 710,000 hospitalizations, and 52,000 deaths annually between 2010-2020. Influenza during the 2017-2018 year was particularly detrimental, contributing to an increase in excess deaths in the United States. To say the least, a “twin-demic” would be less than ideal, especially for our exhausted, depleted, and thin healthcare and public health workforce and infrastructure.

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an argument for creating a bit of hell on earth

Emmanuel Macron's notion of dealing with antivaxxers.

snip

...

If Macron’s approach has shown anything, it is the sad and apparent truth that the only way to compel citizens to act for the greater good is not to appeal to some higher sense of civic duty but to tell them there will be no restaurant meals if they don’t get their shots.

Funny how even the loudest vaccine skeptics start to reconsider their convictions when they realize there won’t be able to drink wine on cafe terraces. It’s almost as though their convictions are not so much convictions and actually just, well, what Macron said.

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on cdc guidelines

(since this was posted they've been improved a little.. perhaps not enough)

 

facebit

Towards a smart-mask that measures a proxy for mask fit.

 

mocking antivaxxers who die

Assuming they didn't get vaccinated by stubborn choice there may be good reason to mock them..

a tip of the hat to Jim