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.

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Quote of the week

Aaron Carroll, “As we move into the next phases of this pandemic, we must shift from extreme social distancing to risk minimization.”  (Incidental Economist)

Chart of the week

Declaring victory too early has cost the US relative to Europe.  (Bloomberg)

Masks

America has failed the mask wearing test.  (Bloomberg)

Shaming people to wear a mask won’t work.  (The Atlantic)

How much of the mask problem is due to unclear public messaging?  (Axios)

New materials could make masks even more effective.  (Scientific American)

Copper is not going to protect you from the coronavirus.  (NYTimes)

Misinformation

The coronavirus is forcing us to make risk assessments we are not particularly well-suited to do.  (Bloomberg)

What lessons we can learn from secondhand smoke on coronavirus messaging.  (Behavioral Scientist)

Conservative media has been a source of confusion and misinformation throughout the pandemic.  (Washington Post)

Treatments

Gilead Sciences Inc. ($GILD) will soon begin clinical studies of an inhaled form of remdesivir for use earlier in the Covid-19 cycle.  (WSJ)

The steroid, dexamethasone, is already in short supply.  (STAT)

The coronavirus has spurred a surge in ‘alternative therapies’ of little or no therapeutic value.  (The Atlantic)

Government

OSHA has been on the sidelines throughout the pandemic.  (NYTimes)

Why BARDA needs more money to fight the pandemic.  (Marginal Revolution)

Vaccines

Jonathan Herman and Emily Oster, “The speed of vaccine development overall for COVID-19 is unprecedented. Because of the desire to go fast, most of the development has focused on newer technologies, not the traditional weakened virus approach.”  (Slate)

The NIH could claim partial ownership of Moderna ($MRNA) produced vaccine.  (Axios)

Spread

Stopping superspreaders is a key to ending the pandemic.  (Vox)

Slower, less restrictive, responses to the coronavirus across countries meant more deaths.  (STAT)

Long term effects

Covid-19 is leaving some patients with seemingly permanent lung damage.  (New Scientist)

What we know about the lingering symptoms of Covid-19.  (The Conversation)

Immunity

We are starting to get some clues about genetic predisposition towards Covid-19.  (FT)

We really don’t know if a coronavirus infection provides long-term immunity.  (New Atlas)

Data visualization

An eye-popping visualization of how the coronavirus spread in the US.  (NYTimes)

Visualizing the growth in Covid-19 by the data it peaked in each state.  (Visual Capitalist)

Data

We really don’t have enough data on school reopenings.  (Axios)

Testing is up, but many states still aren’t doing the bare minimum.  (Vox)

There is little evidence that the Oura ring, or other device, can reliably predict the onset of Covid-19.  (Slate)

Does the ‘two-meter rule’ have a basis in science?  (FT Alphaville)

A handy list of Covid-19 web resources.  (The Big Picture)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Coronavirus links: lessons not learned. (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)