5/27/20 - smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19
PUBLIC HEALTH:
1) In an interview with Soo Kim at Newsweek (5/27/20), Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House COVID-19 task force, is quoted as saying, “we can prevent a second wave if we respond to the inevitable infections we’ll see in the fall and winter.” To prepare, the nation should put in place systems to test for SARS-CoV-2, isolate cases, trace their contacts and test them too to see if they also should isolate, Fauci says in the piece. It is highly unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 will be eradicated, as was done with smallpox, Fauci says: https://www.newsweek.com/dr-anthony-fauci-how-america-can-avoid-second-wave-coronavirus-1506785.
2) A 5/27/20 essay by three University of Pennsylvania public-health and human-behavior faculty members asserts that mask-wearing should be made “easy, understood, and expected,” rather than enforced legally. Masks are “widely viewed as critical to stopping the transmission of the novel coronavirus,” the researchers write in The New York Times, yet many people routinely do not wear masks. Easy — e.g. set up a web site where people can register for free delivery of masks (Utah and Hong Kong do this). Understood — public officials could explain why the recommendations for mask-wearing have changed. Expected — draw attention to people, including well-known people wearing masks (rather than to non-compliant people) as a trend and to the drawbacks of not wearing masks. By Angela Duckworth, Lyle Ungar, and Ezekiel J. Emanuel: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/opinion/coronavirus-masks.html.
SCIENCE:
3) It’s easy and arguably justifiable in some cases to point fingers at people who don’t wear masks or socially distance these days to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. A 5/26/20 feature story at Knowable by freelance journalist Katherine Harmon Courage intelligently reports on factors identified by behavioral scientists that influence the decisions we make, including how individuals respond to the new coronavirus pandemic and do or do not wear masks. Courage details factors including “the bias of the here and now” (e.g. not knowing anyone with COVID-19), our tendency to seek information that confirms what we already believe, and peer pressure. Researchers are studying ways to make public-health behaviors more likely for people to adopt (e.g. automatic scheduling of flu shots), she writes: https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2020/how-we-make-decisions-during-pandemic.
4) Dan Vergano at BuzzFeed News describes a loop structure in a complex molecule (the “spike protein” — which “harpoons its prey,” Vergano nicely writes) on the surface of SARS-CoV-2. The loop could be key to the virus's infectiousness and its ability to infect our lung cells, he reports. It could also explain why we don’t feel sick for days after infection and contagion start, Vergano writes. The piece includes helpful images, including one showing the loop and a graphic showing the biology of how SARS-CoV-2 “ docks" with and infects a cell (5/22/20): https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/coronavirus-tips-spike-loop-protein-symptoms-death.
5) A Twitter thread by virologist Peter Kolchinsky describes ways that various viruses — SARS-CoV-2, HIV, rabies, influenza, cytomegalovirus — have evolved to evade immune systems and keep on keeping on (5/23/20): https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1264297311469010945.html.
6) This Twitter thread by University of California, San Francisco physician Bob Wachter includes one of the few explanations of Bayesian statistics I’ve ever understood and describes how they are applied by doctors to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 test results (5/26/20): https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1265482749701308417.html.
PRACTICAL:
7) A 5/27/20 piece by Lisa Heffernan at The New York Times offers advice on how college students can still find summer internships working remotely: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/well/family/virtual-summer-internship-college-students-coronavirus.html.
8) In her 5/25/20 “Personal Health” column for The New York Times, Jane Brody draws attention to what she calls somewhat overlooked factors that increase the risk of COVID-19 and severe cases of it — inflammation (which should be suppressed, she writes) and immunity (which should be boosted, she writes). Increased vulnerability to COVID-19 starts around age 55, according to the scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, who is quoted in the piece. Brody links that with aging, and describes the usual lifestyle changes — increased exercise and improved diet — as ways to address these risk factors: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/well/live/to-fight-covid-19-dont-neglect-immunity-and-inflammation.html.
COOL STUFF:
9) For Space.com, Tariq Malik notes the various ways to watch the launch of two astronauts on SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission — set for 4:33pm Eastern today from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Weather is almost always a factor that can scrub a launch down there, but this launch is historic. If successful, it’d be the first commercial mission to carry NASA astronauts to space). So, it’s probably worth tuning in today for pre-coverage, too (5/27/20): https://www.space.com/how-to-watch-spacex-nasa-demo-2-astronaut-launch-webcasts.html.
10) Fuzzy, squishy, wet pillows of moss roll atop glaciers in Alaska, Iceland, Svalbard, and South America in coordinated colonies or herds, for years, a new study finds, as reported by Nell Greenfieldboyce for NPR (5/22/20): https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/858800112/herd-like-movement-of-fuzzy-green-glacier-mice-baffles-scientists.
11) Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is publishing a fairy tale, “The Ickabog,” free online, in installments: https://www.theickabog.com/read-the-story/.
————
BUY ME A CUP OF TEA: Please consider a contribution to support my work making this newsletter. Or use PayPal (robinlloyd99 at aol), GooglePay (ask me for details), or Venmo (ask me for details). Thanks to my patrons!
ABOUT THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY: A lot of online media content is free during the pandemic, as a public service, but publishing, like many industries, is struggling. If you have the means, please subscribe to or purchase worthy publications.
TAG ME: Please send feedback and/or good COVID-19 science coverage that you’ve read, written, or produced in English, Spanish, French, etc. to robinlloyd99 at aol.
RESOURCES, WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS AT SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, ARCHIVE TO 3/11/20
Love/In friendship, Robin