Just a brief note tonight. I spent some time today trying to help with health care for two friends who became infected with COVID-19 this past week. Both have been remarkably compulsive about trying to avoid infection but despite their caution became infected. They can’t even identify the source of their infection. One developed increasedContinue reading “Despite the decrease in numbers, people are still getting COVID-19.”
Category Archives: Social Distancing
Ventilation, the forgotten protection for children in their school classes.
In honor of the first day of school in Michigan tomorrow, I wanted to bring attention to an article in the Wall Street Journal that reinforces an important concept for COVID-19 safety in classrooms. It is that by simply increasing ventilation and airflow in classrooms, respiratory clouds that contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be disrupted before theyContinue reading “Ventilation, the forgotten protection for children in their school classes.”
More Info: Yahoo’s reported COVID outbreak in Wisconsin.
One of my readers found this data in a tweet from twitter.com/SeanTrende. He was also concerned by reports about increases in cases in Wisconsin, but was able to find the percent positive rate of the state’s testing. As you can see, the rate of positive tests continues to decrease. This suggests that the increase inContinue reading “More Info: Yahoo’s reported COVID outbreak in Wisconsin.”
Yahoo reports “record, daily COVID outbreak in Wisconsin” that does not appear to exist.
Yahoo news goes off the rails again, this time about a Wisconsin “COVID Record!” Yahoo reported Wisconsin saw a “record number of new coronavirus cases and deaths today.” This was a bit confusing as they said “Wisconsin saw a record number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported in a single day on Wednesday, two weeks after theContinue reading “Yahoo reports “record, daily COVID outbreak in Wisconsin” that does not appear to exist.”
COVID hospitalization rates continue to fall despite reductions in social distancing.
Today, there were several stories addressing Secretary Azar’s comments that many states with higher levels of COVID infection are now seeing fewer new cases. He was quoted remarking that in states reducing social restrictions increases in COVID cases aren’t being seen. The reasons behind this may be complex but important to verify. Since reduced socialContinue reading “COVID hospitalization rates continue to fall despite reductions in social distancing.”
The proposed US COVID testing program is inherently flawed.
A commonly heard refrain has been the call for COVID testing as a preamble to reducing social distancing. The concept underlying this is that people will be screened to identify infected individuals, and then they and their contacts will be identified and isolated. This will control transmission and reduce the number of infections. While thisContinue reading “The proposed US COVID testing program is inherently flawed.”
Yahoo “News” screws up; but states need to do better when counting COVID.
Yahoo! “News” has an article today that demonstrates what is wrong with internet coverage of COVID. The article, entitled “Greatest Increases of COVID Deaths Projected in Republican states,” at first confused me, because it wasn’t clear what a “Republican state” is. The author, Kristin Myers, seems to define a kind of state that isn’t in theContinue reading “Yahoo “News” screws up; but states need to do better when counting COVID.”
Sweden May Show the US the Way Forward
As we try to extract ourselves from lockdown, one approach to move forward is based on Sweden’s response to the pandemic. For those who haven’t heard of Sweden’s approach, they are not doing universal social distancing, did not close down any businesses, and did not cancel any large events. Sweden’s plan was crafted by theirContinue reading “Sweden May Show the US the Way Forward”
Social Distancing does work!
To end the week, I want to talk about the impressive impact of social distancing. As you can tell from these curves, remarkable changes have happened in the United States in just the past 10 days. This is the period after strict social distancing guidelines and shelter in place were enforced by most states. AsContinue reading “Social Distancing does work!”
Why Do Young Healthy People Die-Continued.
There are several articles out today on the evolving finding that coronavirus infection appears to result in a binary outcome in otherwise healthy young people; you are either well with minimal symptoms or (in a minority) you get life-threatening disease. I’ve written about this topic before, but articles from Science Magazine and on CNN reinforceContinue reading “Why Do Young Healthy People Die-Continued.”
Pandemic Pondering 