Wednesday, March 3, 2021
I am not fond of cats. But I have never had to determine whether my distaste was due to my allergy to feline fur or for other reasons. The question is, if evolving medical technology allows me to find out, will I? The future is now! "One dose of the [monoclonal antibody against cat dander], REGN1908-1909 (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals), resulted in a rapid and durable reduction in cat-allergen-induced bronchoconstriction in cat-allergic subjects with mild asthma."
https://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/236623/asthma/novel-agent-shows-promise-against-cat-allergy/page/0/1
and
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5897525/
Of course, compared to refusing other vaccines and treatments, a refusal to take anti-cat dander antibodies puts no one else at risk. (But might risk irking my loyal reader-cat lovers.)
-----Latest Data---
I note the vaccination 7-day rolling average is now close to 2 million. And J&J has not fully shipped.
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/
-----
I suspect we will all learn the legal intricacies of mandatory vaccination policies in the coming year.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/do-c3-b1a-ana-county-detention-officer-sues-over-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/ar-BB1e7Ylh
contrast with
https://www.aarp.org/work/working-at-50-plus/info-2020/employer-require-covid-vaccine.html
And if Dolly Parton can, so can you!
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/02/us/dolly-parton-gets-her-covid-19-vaccine-trnd/index.html
Mississippi and Texas lifted mask mandates yesterday. My clinical opinion is this is foolish and short-sighted. It will likely cost lives. You should still wear a mask until the vaccination process is far closer to completion. We will see the outcome of these bets in 2-3 weeks. Watch the cases.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1366865160686751746
and
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days
Here is more discussion about the value of wastewater surveillance. Which seems to have a high predictive value as an early warning for rising cases of COVID in a community - by 7-21 days.
https://msystems.asm.org/content/6/2/e00045-21
Discussion started by Eric Topol
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1366895586020974594
A loyal reader brought up how vaccines open a new world of complexity.
Your risk of hospitalization or death from COVID is very, very low
Your risk of getting infected or mildly ill is much less, but not zero
You can probably, but with less chance, spread the virus to others
Or, to quote this Atlantic article, "Getting vaccinated means that your choices no longer endanger you [as] much, but they still might make you a risk to everyone else."
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/02/covid-19-vaccine-golden-rule/618140/
Infographic of the day: Type of Vaccines
Boston University Epidemiology has a fantastic visual guide to vaccines
https://sites.bu.edu/covid-corps/projects/science-communication/types-of-vaccines-infographics/
Meet the BU Epi Team leads
https://twitter.com/epiellie
https://twitter.com/epidancer
Bonus Round --- Medical History Part 3
It is easy to dismiss our medical colleagues from the past. However, the absence of complete scientific understanding does not undermine the validity of their observations. Some of these observations have not been fully explained (due to changing technology or practice) but seem to have enough case reports to make them still worthy of discussion. Likewise, some observers are the foundational thinkers in new branches of healthcare.
Here is what got me started exploring this topic:
http://bedside-rounds.org/episode-4-happy-birthday/
The wind of Cannonballs. As I explore medical topics from the 1800s, I encountered frequent discussions about the injuries from being nearly hit by a cannonball fire. Most plausibly, these injuries seem related to the air pressure wave caused by large, round, fast-moving chunks of metal. To be sure, this topic made into the 1812 inaugural issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
brief overview discussion:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/wind-of-ball-theory-could-a-near-miss-of-a-cannonball-kill-you.156146/
in-depth:
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2019/03/12/wind-of-ball-theory/
Another great observer of the 1800s was John Snow (not from GoT). I had written about him back in the spring. It is worth appreciating his methods of determining the source of the 1854 Broad Street Pump cholera outbreak (all before it was known a bacteria cause cholera). He is a critical point in the history of modern contact tracing.
https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/snowcricketarticle.html
I highly recommend the book on this:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36086.The_Ghost_Map
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
I am not fond of cats. But I have never had to determine whether my distaste was due to my allergy to feline fur or for other reasons. The question is, if evolving medical technology allows me to find out, will I? The future is now! "One dose of the [monoclonal antibody against cat dander], REGN1908-1909 (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals), resulted in a rapid and durable reduction in cat-allergen-induced bronchoconstriction in cat-allergic subjects with mild asthma."
https://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/236623/asthma/novel-agent-shows-promise-against-cat-allergy/page/0/1
and
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5897525/
Of course, compared to refusing other vaccines and treatments, a refusal to take anti-cat dander antibodies puts no one else at risk. (But might risk irking my loyal reader-cat lovers.)
-----Latest Data---
I note the vaccination 7-day rolling average is now close to 2 million. And J&J has not fully shipped.
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/
-----
I suspect we will all learn the legal intricacies of mandatory vaccination policies in the coming year.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/do-c3-b1a-ana-county-detention-officer-sues-over-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/ar-BB1e7Ylh
contrast with
https://www.aarp.org/work/working-at-50-plus/info-2020/employer-require-covid-vaccine.html
And if Dolly Parton can, so can you!
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/02/us/dolly-parton-gets-her-covid-19-vaccine-trnd/index.html
Mississippi and Texas lifted mask mandates yesterday. My clinical opinion is this is foolish and short-sighted. It will likely cost lives. You should still wear a mask until the vaccination process is far closer to completion. We will see the outcome of these bets in 2-3 weeks. Watch the cases.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1366865160686751746
and
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days
Here is more discussion about the value of wastewater surveillance. Which seems to have a high predictive value as an early warning for rising cases of COVID in a community - by 7-21 days.
https://msystems.asm.org/content/6/2/e00045-21
Discussion started by Eric Topol
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1366895586020974594
A loyal reader brought up how vaccines open a new world of complexity.
Your risk of hospitalization or death from COVID is very, very low
Your risk of getting infected or mildly ill is much less, but not zero
You can probably, but with less chance, spread the virus to others
Or, to quote this Atlantic article, "Getting vaccinated means that your choices no longer endanger you [as] much, but they still might make you a risk to everyone else."
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/02/covid-19-vaccine-golden-rule/618140/
Infographic of the day: Type of Vaccines
Boston University Epidemiology has a fantastic visual guide to vaccines
https://sites.bu.edu/covid-corps/projects/science-communication/types-of-vaccines-infographics/
Meet the BU Epi Team leads
https://twitter.com/epiellie
https://twitter.com/epidancer
Bonus Round --- Medical History Part 3
It is easy to dismiss our medical colleagues from the past. However, the absence of complete scientific understanding does not undermine the validity of their observations. Some of these observations have not been fully explained (due to changing technology or practice) but seem to have enough case reports to make them still worthy of discussion. Likewise, some observers are the foundational thinkers in new branches of healthcare.
Here is what got me started exploring this topic:
http://bedside-rounds.org/episode-4-happy-birthday/
The wind of Cannonballs. As I explore medical topics from the 1800s, I encountered frequent discussions about the injuries from being nearly hit by a cannonball fire. Most plausibly, these injuries seem related to the air pressure wave caused by large, round, fast-moving chunks of metal. To be sure, this topic made into the 1812 inaugural issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
brief overview discussion:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/wind-of-ball-theory-could-a-near-miss-of-a-cannonball-kill-you.156146/
in-depth:
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2019/03/12/wind-of-ball-theory/
Another great observer of the 1800s was John Snow (not from GoT). I had written about him back in the spring. It is worth appreciating his methods of determining the source of the 1854 Broad Street Pump cholera outbreak (all before it was known a bacteria cause cholera). He is a critical point in the history of modern contact tracing.
https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/snowcricketarticle.html
I highly recommend the book on this:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36086.The_Ghost_Map
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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