I caught a cold while visiting my mom and brother last week, which gave me a bit of a cough for a couple days. Out of an abundance of caution I got a Covid-19 test before heading to visit my dad, which came back negative just in time for me to check in for my train.
I expect we’ll see more and more of this (because cheap tech) even as I’ve gotten less and less likely to do it myself (because more risk-averse as I get older):
“an open-source vaccine design, made for self-experimenters, dead simple to make with readily-available materials, well-explained reasoning about the design,”
Source: Making Vaccine
If people will just stay home for the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras, and May Day this whole pandemic thing might well be over by 4th of July.
Trying to think of something nice to say about 2020, I’m tempted to go with, “For introverts the pluses very nearly outweighed the minuses.” But I realize I’m speaking from a position of great privilege. Deepest sympathies for everyone who lost loved ones, jobs, income, homes, health, or peace of mind.
Everybody knows that wearing a mask protects others from your illness, but now (as I’ve suspected right along) there’s good evidence that it protects the mask-wearer as well: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/10/world/covid-19-coronavirus-live-updates/covid-cdc-guidelines-masks
Hopeful, except not low-carb: http://sorrowbacon.com/comic/infinite-sadness by @Millie_Ho.
This is highly realistic, except for the “people talking on the phone” part: xkcd: Curbside
Yes, very sad. However, “limp along with half measures while a lot of people die,” is what I have on my pandemic bingo card. So: Score!
Source: Markets Fall, But Don’t Blame Powell | Tim Duy’s Fed Watch
Thought experiment: Imagine the death rate from Covid-19 were about 1/10th what we’re seeing, making it about as deadly as the flu; now imagine it’s about 10x what we’re seeing, making it about as deadly as smallpox. Would we respond differently?
“The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible”
https://pressthink.org/2020/05/the-plan-is-to-have-no-plan/ by @jayrosen_nyu
