It now seems that I now need to keep doing a weekly linkfest solely dedicated to the coronavirus pandemic. You can read last week’s edition here. Please be careful and stay safe.

Quote of the week

Tim Harford, “Coronavirus is different. It doesn’t care about cultural norms and barely about the level of economic development. There are ample lessons we can learn from each other about how to deal with it. But they must be learnt quickly — and we are not in the habit of studying.” (FT)

Chart of the week

Masks

The data on face masks are clear: wear one.  (Science Daily)

The pushback against masks is only extending the time the virus is an issue.  (LA Times)

How face coverings likely prevented an outbreak at a Missouri salon.  (Washington Post)

The N95 supply chain issue has not been solved.  (Vox)

Why we now need better masks for the general public.  (HBR)

There are a whole host of reasons why many Americans are reluctant to wear face masks, only some of which have to do with the President.  (MarketWatch)

American Airlines banned a passenger from future flights for refusing to wear a mask.  (Fortune)

AMC Theaters reversed itself and will now require patrons to wear face masks.  (CNBC)

Vaccines

11 candidate vaccines have reached clinical trials, with only Oxford University’s trial reaching Phase 3.  (Washington Post)

Many vaccine trials are not including those most at-risk, seniors, in their protocols.  (NYTimes)

A Covid-19 vaccine will likely not be 100% effective.  (ABC)

Testing

Testing capacity has increased in the US but will have to increase even more this Fall as schools reopen.  (Politico)

Contact tracing is the best tool we have, absent a vaccine.  (Washington Post)

Oura’s smart ring is being tested as a tool to catch Covid-19 cases early.  (FT)

Transmission

There is a growing consensus on how the coronavirus spreads and infects people.  (WSJ)

Why churches seem to be hot spots for superspreader events.  (Business Insider)

Researchers have known that toilets disperse aerosols. The questions is do they spread the coroanvirus? (NYTimes)

There is little sign yet that the wave of protests in the US has caused a tick up in infections.  (WSJ)

Treatment

A cheap, readily available steroid drug reduced deaths by a third in patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in a large study.  (STAT)

The US is sitting on a pile of 66 million anti-malaria pills after they were scrapped as a treatment for COVID-19 by the FDA.  (Business Insider)

Risks

Public bathrooms are in intractable problem in pandemic. (NYTimes)

The case for safely expanding your family’s coronavirus bubble.  (The Conversation)

Health experts answer some common coronavirus questions including whether elevators are risky.  (WSJ)

Health experts rank the risk of various activities.  (MarketWatch)

How a researcher (safely) works with the SARS-CoV-2 virus safely in the lab. (The Conversation)

Children

Why children seem to be so less affected than adults by the novel coronavirus is still a big mystery.  (NPR)

How to use the coronavirus as a teaching tool with your children.  (NPR)

History

Doctors are Covid’s first historians.  (NYTimes)

How America’s hospitals survived the first wave of Covid-19.  (ProPublica)

Covid-19 is bad, but there are other viruses out there.  (Wired)

How the coronavirus will reshape architecture.  (New Yorker)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Coronavirus links: just wear a mask.  (Abnormal Returns)

Coronavirus links: reopening and relapsing.  (Abnormal Returns)

Coronavirus links: testing and safety. (Abnormal Returns)

Acceptable risks in a world full of uncertainty. (Abnormal Returns)

Having no plan is just as bad as not following the plan you have. (Abnormal Returns)

More Posts This Week

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