Lunchtime pandemic reading.
Standard disclaimer: this is a roundup of informative pieces I've read that interest me on the severity of the crisis and how to manage it. I am not a qualified medical expert in ANY sense; at best I am reasonably well-read laity. ALWAYS prioritize advice from qualified healthcare experts over some person on Facebook.
This is also available as an email newsletter at https://lunchtimepandemic.substack.com if you prefer the update in your inbox.
You are welcome to share this.
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A common request I'm asked is who I follow. Here's a public Twitter list of many of the sources I read.
https://twitter.com/i/lists/1260956929205112834
This list is biased by design. It is limited to authors who predominantly post in the English language. It is heavily biased towards individual researchers and away from institutions. It is biased towards those who publish or share research, data, papers, etc. I have made an attempt to follow researchers from different countries, and also to make the list reasonably gender balanced, because multiple, diverse perspectives on research data are essential.
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Dr. Emma Hodcroft posts a marathon bundle of tweets about airflow and COVID-19 attack rate.
"What if 2m/6ft is not enough? I'm concerned our 'opening' guidelines & restrictions may not be considering airborne microdroplet transmission of #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 sufficiently. What does that mean?"
Source:
"To be clear from the start: I am *not* discounting other modes of transmission, like closer-contact droplets Droplet & fomites Door (surface transmission). But I feel these are better understood & our strategies consider these heavily already."
Source:
"In a call centre in South Korea, 94/216 employees on a floor (notably - almost all on 1 side of that floor) became infected. The 'attack rate' (proportion who got infected) was 44%."
Source:
"All household contacts were also traced & tested, & interestingly, the 'secondary attack rate' (number of those who got infected) was 16% - much lower. Even though we might expect direct contact & fomite (infection through surfaces) transmission to be higher in households."
Source:
"Clearly, other forms of transmission are also important. However, these studies make me concerned that groups in closed spaces with limited air flow could be a risk for #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 transmission. One that isn't covered by surface cleaning & 2m distance guidelines."
Source:
The entire thread is important and worth reading, but it boils down to this: COVID-19 has exhibited the ability to transmit and attack through airflow - from buses to restaurants to office spaces. As summertime approaches in the northern hemisphere, what happens? We close up windows and turn on air conditioning - which was a major driver of abnormally high infection in other studies.
This bears repeating: masks on, all the time, but ESPECIALLY in any enclosed airspace. Never set foot anywhere indoors (except your own home) without a mask on.
If you live in a building where there's central air flow, block or put a filter over any vents that bring in shared air.
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Cats share COVID-19 with each other. "With reports of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to domestic cats1 and to tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo, coupled with our data showing the ease of transmission between domestic cats, there is a public health need to recognize and further investigate the potential chain of humanācatāhuman transmission. This is of particular importance given the potential for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between family members in households with cats while living under āshelter-in-placeā orders."
Source: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2013400
There is also some evidence dogs can catch COVID-19, though it is unclear if they can transmit it.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2334-5
These studies are important because stopping the pandemic means identifying all the reservoirs where it can hide, from the family cat to the homeless shelter. The virus doesn't discriminate, doesn't respect meaningless human classifications like rich or poor, good or bad. It just exists, and we have to root out where it can exist.
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In a whistleblower complaint, Dr. Rick Bright and and Peter Navarro highlighted one of the logistical challenges of a COVID-19 vaccine. "We face an urgent need to administer large quantities of vaccine once produced. An estimated 850M needles and syringes are required to deliver vaccine. Our current inventory of these supplies is limited and, under current capabilities, it would take up to two years to produce this amount of specialized safety needles. We may find ourselves in a situation where we have enough vaccine but no way to deliver all of it."
Source: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6882560/Rick-Bright-Whistleblower-Complaint.pdf
The entire document is worth reading, but if you're an American citizen (or a concerned friend of America) it'll definitely make you angry. It documents the utter failure of the federal government, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services, to recognize and address the pandemic threat. As a result, many lives that might have been saved will be lost.
If you are a citizen of the USA, urge your legislators to read the complaint and then work to help mandate many of the precautions and tactics outlined in the document, including getting the ancillary supplies for vaccine delivery NOW, before the world's supply is exhausted.
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A reminder of the simple daily habits we should all be taking.
1. Wash/sanitize your hands every time you are in or out of your home for any reason. Consider also spraying the bottoms of your shoes with a general disinfectant (alcohol/bleach/peroxide) when you return home.
2. Wear gloves and a mask when out of your home.
3. Stay home as much as possible.
4. Get your personal finances in order now. Cut all unnecessary costs.
5. Donate any PPE you can. https://getusppe.org/give/
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Common misinformation debunked!
There is no genomic evidence at all that COVID-19 arrived before 2020 in the United States and therefore no hidden herd immunity:
Source:
There is no evidence SARS-CoV-2 was engineered, nor that it escaped a lab somewhere.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/01/29/experts-debunk-fringe-theory-linking-chinas-coronavirus-weapons-research/
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd/
There is no evidence a flu shot increases your COVID-19 risk.
Source: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/no-evidence-that-flu-shot-increases-risk-of-covid-19/