Tuesday, January 26, 2021
One upside of our government's political wrangling is the opportunity to learn (and have opinions on‽) the most minute aspects of the legislative process. Last night, I went to school on the budget reconciliation process, a likely tool in delivering the next round of COVID relief. Trying to be an informed citizen is exhausting. Maybe I'll move to Key West (see below).
https://www.vox.com/22242476/senate-filibuster-budget-reconciliation-process
-----Latest Data---
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=casesf
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
Vaccine Tracker
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
-----
The Atlantic has an excellent compare and contrast article looking at Israel's successful vaccine delivery. Here is the secret - a funded and organized public health system. One that spans an entire country and has unified data definitions, tools, and standard operating procedures. Shocking, I know. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/why-israels-vaccine-success-might-be-hard-replicate/617780/
A loyal reader offered some follow-on data of note:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9179677/Israeli-healthcare-group-says-coronavirus-infections-plunged-vaccinated-60s.html
Virologist Florian Krammer shared some detailed thoughts on the coronavirus variants. He is less concerned about the benchtop data that the variants may evade a vaccine-induced immune response. If you make it to the end of his 30+ tweets, his point is that vaccines induce very high antibody titers that may be enough, even against strains to which the antibodies have less affinity.
https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1353904529406832641
Moderna (and likely Pfizer) will be working on a booster to generate more specific and higher-affinity antibodies to these new strains.
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1353706396282474499
and
https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-retains-neutralizing-activity-against
Epidemiologist Michael Mina discussed how rapid home testing could offer significant freedom from lockdowns. I am not as confident in my fellow humans (when it comes to self-testing and self-isolation), but his thoughts are reasonable.
https://time.com/5912705/covid-19-stop-spread-christmas/
more
https://twitter.com/michaelmina_lab/status/1328873625894719489
Infographic of the day: The Bear Revolution
For all my wilderness loving friends out there, today I found How to Use Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Against a Bear:
https://i.redd.it/mhavaf3gmywy.jpg
from https://bearmageddon.com/, an ursine-flavored Planet of the Apes.
------Bonus Round - Civil Secession
I recently learned that Key West, Florida, once seceded from the United States, forming, for a brief moment, the Conch Republic. In 1982. If there is a suitable type of secession, this is probably it.
It would be best if you read the articles for context, but here is the crux:
"[A]t noon on April 23, 1982, Mayor Wardlow read a Proclamation of Secession, declaring that Key West would now be a sovereign nation known as the Conch Republic.
Having changed his title from Mayor of Key West to Prime Minister of the Conch Republic, Dennis Wardlow followed his mock secession with a declaration of war on the United States. The "war" started and ended with loaves of stale Cuban bread broken over the head of a man dressed in a U.S. Navy uniform.
After one minute of rebellion, Prime Minister Wardlow surrendered to Union forces at the Navy Base in Key West. He immediately demanded one billion dollars in foreign aid and war relief "to rebuild our nation after the long Federal siege."
Ahhh, Florida.
https://myfloridahistory.org/frontiers/article/14
https://conchrepublic.com/our-founding-in-1982
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
One upside of our government's political wrangling is the opportunity to learn (and have opinions on‽) the most minute aspects of the legislative process. Last night, I went to school on the budget reconciliation process, a likely tool in delivering the next round of COVID relief. Trying to be an informed citizen is exhausting. Maybe I'll move to Key West (see below).
https://www.vox.com/22242476/senate-filibuster-budget-reconciliation-process
-----Latest Data---
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=casesf
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
Vaccine Tracker
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
-----
The Atlantic has an excellent compare and contrast article looking at Israel's successful vaccine delivery. Here is the secret - a funded and organized public health system. One that spans an entire country and has unified data definitions, tools, and standard operating procedures. Shocking, I know. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/why-israels-vaccine-success-might-be-hard-replicate/617780/
A loyal reader offered some follow-on data of note:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9179677/Israeli-healthcare-group-says-coronavirus-infections-plunged-vaccinated-60s.html
Virologist Florian Krammer shared some detailed thoughts on the coronavirus variants. He is less concerned about the benchtop data that the variants may evade a vaccine-induced immune response. If you make it to the end of his 30+ tweets, his point is that vaccines induce very high antibody titers that may be enough, even against strains to which the antibodies have less affinity.
https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1353904529406832641
Moderna (and likely Pfizer) will be working on a booster to generate more specific and higher-affinity antibodies to these new strains.
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1353706396282474499
and
https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-retains-neutralizing-activity-against
Epidemiologist Michael Mina discussed how rapid home testing could offer significant freedom from lockdowns. I am not as confident in my fellow humans (when it comes to self-testing and self-isolation), but his thoughts are reasonable.
https://time.com/5912705/covid-19-stop-spread-christmas/
more
https://twitter.com/michaelmina_lab/status/1328873625894719489
Infographic of the day: The Bear Revolution
For all my wilderness loving friends out there, today I found How to Use Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Against a Bear:
https://i.redd.it/mhavaf3gmywy.jpg
from https://bearmageddon.com/, an ursine-flavored Planet of the Apes.
------Bonus Round - Civil Secession
I recently learned that Key West, Florida, once seceded from the United States, forming, for a brief moment, the Conch Republic. In 1982. If there is a suitable type of secession, this is probably it.
It would be best if you read the articles for context, but here is the crux:
"[A]t noon on April 23, 1982, Mayor Wardlow read a Proclamation of Secession, declaring that Key West would now be a sovereign nation known as the Conch Republic.
Having changed his title from Mayor of Key West to Prime Minister of the Conch Republic, Dennis Wardlow followed his mock secession with a declaration of war on the United States. The "war" started and ended with loaves of stale Cuban bread broken over the head of a man dressed in a U.S. Navy uniform.
After one minute of rebellion, Prime Minister Wardlow surrendered to Union forces at the Navy Base in Key West. He immediately demanded one billion dollars in foreign aid and war relief "to rebuild our nation after the long Federal siege."
Ahhh, Florida.
https://myfloridahistory.org/frontiers/article/14
https://conchrepublic.com/our-founding-in-1982
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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