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.
---
Moderna's vaccine receives emergency use authorization. "The coronavirus vaccine made by Moderna moved closer to authorization on Thursday, a significant step that would expand the reach of the nation’s vaccination campaign to rural areas and many more hospitals.
As the nation buckled from uncontrolled spread of the disease, with 3,611 deaths on Wednesday setting yet another horrific record, a panel of independent experts recommended,by a vote of 20 in favor and one abstention, that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the Moderna vaccine for emergency use. The formal decision, expected on Friday, would clear the way for some 5.9 million doses to be shipped around the country starting this weekend.
Moderna would be the second company allowed to begin inoculating the public, giving millions more Americans access to desperately needed vaccine. The first, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, received authorization last week.
The Moderna vaccine can be distributed more widely because it can be stored at normal freezer temperatures and, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, does not require ultracold storage. It also comes in much smaller batches, making it easier for hospitals in less populated areas to use quickly.
“Moderna can go to more places,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, North Carolina’s secretary of health and human services, said this week. “We hope to be in all 100 counties with some amount of vaccine — small allocations at first — by the end of next week, assuming Moderna gets approved this week and we get our allocations delivered over the course of next week.”"
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/health/covid-vaccine-fda-moderna.html
Commentary: These vaccines can't come soon enough. Logically, Moderna's vaccine will be able to cover more rural areas while Pfizer's vaccine can go to the cities and major healthcare facilities.
---
San Diego removes restrictions. "A California judge cleared the way Thursday for all restaurants in San Diego County to resume on-site dining, marking a major, if temporary, setback to the governor’s stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus before the state’s intensive care units run out of beds.
Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately appealed, bringing uncertainty to restaurant owners weighing whether to buy food and schedule staff a week before Christmas amid the possibility that their victory could soon be reversed.
The case brought to the court by two San Diego strip clubs handed the biggest victory yet to California businesses fighting public health orders that they say have crippled them economically.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil said his ruling Wednesday was “straightforward” in going beyond the strip clubs that sued the county and state, Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club and Pacers Showgirls International. County officials requested the hearing to clarify its scope.
“It is intended to encompass all restaurants within the county of San Diego,” he said in a brief hearing that lasted all but eight minutes.
The county board of supervisors was scheduled to meet Friday in closed session to discuss next steps. The board voted 3-2 last week to appeal any adverse ruling on the strip clubs but that decision didn’t cover restaurants, rending it moot.
“The state of California is already appealing the decision, so whether the county joins it or not will have no impact on the outcome,” said county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who backs restrictions..
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said the city was working closely with the state to understand the implications.
“No one wants our small businesses to be closed, but the science and data are showing a dire trend in hospitalizations and deaths,” Gloria said."
Source: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-d1c6eb525fae58e9a17964d057f2fe83
Commentary: Unfortunately, this will result in more infections, which is not what San Diego needs as it currently has a high infection rate, a high test rate, and very little ICU space left.
One of the critical misunderstandings by many businesses and people is the assumption that the economy and the pandemic are separate entities. They are not. They are entangled; public health and the economy go hand in hand - even open, these businesses will not magically see their normal customer volume. The only surefire way to bring back business is to stop the pandemic, and the only way to stop the pandemic is to embrace all the public health measures necessary to slow the virus down.
---
What does it look like when you embrace public health measures and strictly lock down to get the virus under control? It looks like this:
Source:
Commentary: Wuhan, China is fully reopened after intensely strict lockdowns, contact tracing, and isolation of infected individuals. Note that even with the virus under control, many residents are still wearing masks.
I hope by this time next year, this is what it looks like around the world. Frankly, I hope by this time next year, this newsletter no longer exists.
---
Track American vaccine rollouts in a dashboard.
Source: https://public.tableau.com/profile/benjamin.renton#!/vizhome/COVID-19VaccineAllocationDashboard/Dashboard1
Commentary: This is an excellent visualization of what's happening with the vaccine. This sort of tracking is essential, as vaccine distribution is already running into trouble at the federal level.
---
The aforementioned trouble. "Whoa—Pfizer says Trump admin has stopped giving destinations for “millions more doses sitting in our warehouses”. Trump HHS is allowing #COVID19 vaccines to *just sit there* unused. Is this—
1) Incompetence/negligence?
2) Throttling for 2nd dose?
3) Hoarding for other reason?"
Source:
Commentary: Pfizer confirms that it has millions of doses waiting to ship.
If you're an American, and this makes you unhappy, contact your elected representatives.
---
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. Remember that cleaners are NEVER to be ingested or injected. If you come in physical contact with others, wash your clothing upon returning home.
2. Always wear a mask when out of your home and if going to a high-risk area, wear goggles. Respirators are back in stock at online retailers, too. When going indoors to a place that isn't your home, wear the best protective mask available to you.
3. Stay home as much as possible. Minimize your contact with others and maintain physical distance of at LEAST 6 feet / 2 meters, preferably more. Avoid indoor places as much as you can; indoor spaces spread the disease through aerosols and distance is less effective at mitigating your risks.
4. Get your personal finances in order now. Cut all unnecessary costs.
5. Replenish your supplies as you use them. Avoid reducing your stores to pre-pandemic levels in case an outbreak causes unexpected supply chain disruptions.
6. Ventilate your home as frequently as weather and circumstances permit, except when you share close airspaces with other residences (like a window less than a meter away from a neighboring window).
---
Common misinformation debunked!
There is no mercury or other heavy metals in the Pfizer mRNA vaccine. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/09/1013538/what-are-the-ingredients-of-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine/
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/
Source: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa626/5842161
---
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.
This is also available as an email newsletter at https://lunchtimepandemic.substack.com if you prefer the update in your inbox.