Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) minimally changed the definition of “close contact” with a person having COVID-19 in terms of time and spacing. For months, the agency said close contact meant spending 15 minutes within 6 feet of someone who tested positive for coronavirus. On Wednesday, the CDC changed this definition  to a total of 15Continue reading “From the much noise with little significance file …”

There was a flurry of news alerts today that a participant in the Brazilian cohort of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial had died. This created an enormous rush of commentary on this event and reporting that the Brazilian regulators had stated that the trial would continue regardless. Since the trial is still on clinical holdContinue reading “A death in AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine Trial.”

Today the Washtenaw County Health Department (WCHD) put the undergraduate population of the University of Michigan in lock down in their dormitories. This was done over concerns about COVID-19, and means that they cannot leave their dormitories for the next 14 days other than for essential activities including classes that require in-person activity.  Among the activitiesContinue reading “The University of Michigan is put in lock down over COVID-19.”

This evening the CDC issued ‘strong recommendation’ for a mask mandate on airplanes, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-share vehicles. This seems almost ridiculously late given that all airlines, Amtrak, most public transit systems and all U.S. airports already require all passengers and workers to wear masks, as do ride-sharing firms Uber and Lyft.  TheContinue reading “From the file entitled “Does the CDC actually know what is happening out here?””

Much of the feedback from my recent blogs involves asking me what I believe will happen with the pandemic in the U.S. There are a number of websites and news organizations claiming that there is “uncontrolled spread” of the virus in most states. When I look at the data, the most reasonable conclusion is noContinue reading “What you should do about COVID-19 right now.”

Note: if you read this blog on your phone please do it in landscape orientation. I had two interesting responses to my blog about the “third Peak.” From C. Goller: It would be interesting to see the rate of hospitalization over the same time period. That rate might be a good intermediary between reported tests andContinue reading “More unanswered questions about the US “Third Peak.””

The numbers across the U.S. today show an increase in COVID-19 infections that appears to be a “3rd peak” occurring since the pandemic started in early March. The dynamics of this 3rd peak, which has been called the 2nd wave by some media outlets, are interesting and deserve further discussion. When one looks at theContinue reading “The 3rd COVID-19 peak — is it really different from the first two?”

An article yesterday in Science Magazine by Jocelyn Kaiser highlights one of the most crucial questions on COVID-19 illness.  Why are there people who get horribly ill with COVID-19? In fact, COVID-19 seems to be almost a binary disease, with people becoming deathly ill or having a relatively mild or even no apparent illness. Most of us inContinue reading “Why do some people get so sick from COVID-19? Is it in their Neanderthal genes?”

Two recurring news items raised substantial noise in the media concerning COVID-19.  The first item was the publication of the reported case of reinfection from Nevada. This case report was published in the Journal “Lancet Infectious Disease” and purports to show the first individual in the United States who suffered a re-infection with coronavirus.  The evidenceContinue reading “Two follow ups on important news items.”

A friend who was not a physician once told me drug companies were “stupid” since most therapies fail in advanced clinical trials after spending lots of money. I responded that given the complexity of human biology, it is almost impossible to anticipate the bad effects that cause most drugs to fail!  Therefore, it is notContinue reading “Three major COVID human trials have now been stoppd over safety issues”