Nice article on how a New Orleans pastor is using Zion to inspire people to help others during the pandemic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...-congregation/
Here's a really good, but scary, article by Ed Yong of the Atlantic, on how this pandemic may play out. Yong is a very good science writer. His book I Contain Multitudes is a great read.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...us-end/608719/
Nice article on how a New Orleans pastor is using Zion to inspire people to help others during the pandemic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...-congregation/
Thank you, this articulates something I've been noticing: in country after country in Europe and the U.S. the same pattern happens:
(1) Coronavirus is happening in other countries but not enough people take it seriously enough to take action
(2) Coronavirus happens
(3) People lament that their citizens and/or their politicians are uniquely stupid in failing to stop an eminently stoppable disaster
...except if the same thing happens over and over in different countries, maybe it's a human thing and not unique to your country? There are a lot of criticisms I could make (and have made) about folks' reactions in the U.S. but we're not so different from a lot of other countries. Asia seems to handle it better, but maybe that's because they've had previous virus scares (SARS) that have worked their way into the public memory? Apparently it's difficult to respond to something that's not within the realm of public experience. We know the Spanish flu happened, but it's not really within living memory (barring a few centenarian outliers) so it doesn't spring to mind for most people when assimilating information about the current environment.
I agree with the sentiment in your post but I don't think Asia has handled it better because of SARS and such. It has more to do with societal and cultural norm differences between Asian and Western cultures. The U.S. and Europe is all about individual liberties and freedom. In Asia, societies are much more likely to follow guidelines of authority and frankly have more reverence for the elderly. So, governments that imposed rules in Asia where largely followed. Governments in Europe and the U.S. are less likely to impose similar limitations to begin with and even when they do, it's citizens are less likely to be in 100% lockstep. Easier to control it when you can set up strict rules that nearly everybody is going to follow from the onset.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...ot-resucitate/
Wow.
This article is extremely provocative and discusses how hospital systems are beginning to have discussions about changing the way we respond to "Code Blue" calls for patients with COVID 19.
Several hospital systems are saying that having a "all hands on deck" response should not occur due to the excessive use of PPE and potential futility in doing CPR in patients with COVID 19. When a code is called in a hospital now a call goes out over the PA system and beeper system and a whole slew of people respond (interns, residents, nurses, respiratory therapists, anesthesiologists, intensivists, and clergy). Sometimes it's hard to get into the room as the attending physician with so many people there.
Several approaches, it seems, are being discussed. First, make all intubated patients with COVID 19 "NO CODE" despite their or their families wishes, second, override patient and family wishes on a case by case basis, or third, limit the number of people who respond to the code and change some methods during resuscitation.
This wanders deeply into the Public Policy restrictions on this board and I won't offer any opinion here. It is just fact. This is being discussed.
This is very real.
Have not seen a lot of discussion about the potential impact of weather on coronavirus and the spread of C-19. This BBC article seems to do a good job of addressing various theories, although it’s clear from their repeated reference to unpublished analysis that no one is at all sure what will happen. But there are glimmers of hope that a change in weather could help buy us some added time to keep flattening the curve.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...-kill-covid-19
“Coach said no 3s.” - Zion on The Block
Reasonably good chance we take over as the most confirmed cases in the world by the end of the day. China is about 13,000 cases ahead of us, Italy about 6,000. But China until yesterday hadn't had any new confirmed cases in a while (had 67 new cases and 6 new deaths yesterday), and Italy's new case rate appears to have finally peaked (around 5,500-6,000 new cases per day the past 3 days), while our new case rate was up to 13,000+ yesterday and appears to still be climbing quickly as our testing increases and as the virus circulates. So unless we see a sudden decline in incidence or Italy or China sees another rebound, we will probably overtake both today. If not today, almost certainly tomorrow.
Now, of course it's important to note that our population is ~5.5 times greater than Italy's, and our containment strategy pales in comparison to that of China. So it shouldn't be shocking that we'll overtake them. I guess it is a bit more surprising how quickly it is happening. And I do wonder where and when our peak will be.
Here's some good news.
Necessity is the mother of invention once again:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/tech/...rus/index.html
Dyson developed a ventilator for mass production in 10 days and he is calling it the CoVent. 15,000 to be made in short order.
Brilliant!
I hope it doesn't suck
Question from the non-statistician in the group - they have been reporting the increase in confirmed cases locally. Wouldn't the number of cases as a percent of those tested be a relevant piece of information? If the cases doubled but the number tested also doubled, it doesn't seem as troubling to me but if the number tested stayed the same, it would be much scarier. Example - Day 1 150 positive out of 1000 tested and 300 out of 2000 on Day 2 vs 300 out of 1500 tested on Day 2.
I've seen this sentiment expressed in many places, and I'm sympathetic to the argument, but on the other hand: did the Great Depression increase death rates? Did death rates increase in the civilian population in World War 2 when a massive chunk of our GDP was diverted to military production? AFAIK the answer is no, but history buffs may know better.
If anybody's interested in testing data by state, here you go:
https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en/test
Also political regimes and history. I have a friend in Poland who indicated that they are taking the government closure rules, which are country-wide, much more seriously than we are in the US. Democracy is fairly new (comparatively) so the older population is conditioned to follow government rules/orders. When the government recently issued a stay in place edict, people didn't object and just follow it.
Rich
"Failure is Not a Destination"
Coach K on the Dan Patrick Show, December 22, 2016