A linkfest dedicated to the coronavirus pandemic is now a weekly feature here on Abnormal Returns. You can read last week’s edition here. Please be careful, get a flu shot and stay safe.
Quote of the Day
"The approval of a vaccine may be the beginning of a real coronavirus response; it certainly won’t be the end."
(Aaron Carroll)
Chart of the Day
The US is experiencing twice as many positive tests than it did back in May.
Data
- The US now has a higher per capita death rate than Sweden. (econbrowser.com)
- Arizona's outbreak seems to be in the rear view mirror, for now. (wsj.com)
- A study of the outcomes for young adults with Covid-19 admitted to the hospital. (jamanetwork.com)
- Some evidence that China didn't manipulate its Covid-19 statistics. (sciencedirect.com)
- Stillbirths have increased dramatically in pandemic. (nature.com)
Spread
- Farm workers have been uniquely affected by Covid-19. (bloomberg.com)
- A rural wedding in Maine is officially a superspreader event. (washingtonpost.com)
- How Carnival Cruises's ($CCL) the Ruby Princess helped seed the coronavirus around the globe. (bloomberg.com)
- Early in the pandemic, hospital spread of Covid-19 was a real problem. (wsj.com)
- Could wearing glasses protect you from the coronavirus? Some preliminary evidence. (nytimes.com)
Treatments
- Hospitals are more prepared to deal with Covid-19 patients than they were six months ago. (wsj.com)
- How regulating bradykinin could help prevent inflammation cascades seen in Covid-19 patients. (nbcnews.com)
- A monoclonal antibody from Eli Lilly ($LLY) showed some preliminary promise in clearing coronavirus from patients. (statnews.com)
- How politicizing convalescent plasma has backfired. (washingtonpost.com)
Influenza
- The Southern hemisphere has largely bypassed flu season. (nbcnews.com)
- How to tell the difference between influenza and Covid-19. (wsj.com)
- Don't sweat it, get your flu shot when you can. (nytimes.com)
Lockdowns
- Despite outbreaks, Europe is no mood for locking back down again. (wsj.com)
- Israel is back on a three week lockdown. (nbcnews.com)
- Advisors are proposing a two-week lockdown in the UK. (ft.com)
Vaccine distribution
- A Covid-19 vaccine will only be as effective as its distribution plan. (statnews.com)
- An effective vaccine distribution plan will require close coordination between the states and federal government. (politico.com)
- The CDC is trying to bypass states with a new, untested vaccine tracking database. (politico.com)
- At this pace it's going to take years to vaccinate the entire world. (ft.com)
- What equitable, global vaccine distribution would look like in practice. (ft.com)
Vaccines
- Why some analysts want more transparency into ongoing vaccine trials. (nytimes.com)
- Moderna ($MRNA) and Pfizer ($PFE) has released a lot of documents about their clinical trials. (nytimes.com)
- How a vaccine could roll out to high-risk populations first under an EUA. (wsj.com)
- How trained immunity from the BCG vaccine could be playing a role in slowing Covid-19. (theatlantic.com)
- What it's going to take to convince those reluctant to get a Covid-19 vaccination. (bloomberg.com)
Risk analysis
- The pandemic is a huge experiment in human behavior. (washingtonpost.com)
- How the transition of Covid-19 risk assessments from the government to individuals has wreaked havoc. (vox.com)
- Five lessons learned about the use (and abuse) of statistics from Covid-19. (ft.com)
- We humans are bad at dealing with big numbers like Covid-19 casualties. (slate.com)
Policy (failures)
- The USPS planned to send every household face masks in April. Then the administration intervened. (washingtonpost.com)
- You can thank Jared Kushner, in part, for the government's failed response to PPE shortages. (vanityfair.com)
- The CDC has reverse course and now once again recommends testing for asymptomatic people exposed to the virus. (arstechnica.com)
- Why contact tracing has largely been a failure in the West. (wsj.com)
- How American exceptionalism helped doom the pandemic response. (washingtonpost.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- On the challenge of holding two competing thoughts on the pandemic in your head a the same time. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Coronavirus links: cheap and quick tests. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Acceptable risks in a world full of uncertainty. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Having no plan is just as bad as not following the plan you have. (abnormalreturns.com)
Mixed media
- Public health officials around the world are getting death threats. (washingtonpost.com)
- Herd immunity, at present, is context-dependent and therefore a fragile thing. (marginalrevolution.com)
- Temperature checks don't do much to catch people who are likely to spread the virus. (nytimes.com)
- A breathalyzer-type test for Covid-19 would be great but still a ways off. (wired.com)
