A coronavirus-focused linkfest is a weekly feature here at Abnormal Returns. Please stay safe, get a booster shotat a vaccination site near you. You can read last week’s edition here.
Quote of the Day
"Despite having arrived via different routes, one far more dangerous than the other, we are, for now, all in more or less the same boat."
(Justin Fox)
Vaccines
- Pfizer ($PFE) and Moderna ($MRNA) are enrolling participants for Omicron-specific vaccine trials. (newatlas.com)
- Given their effectiveness, boosters should not be viewed as 'optional.' (washingtonpost.com)
- Where vaccine uptake, especially boosters, is high Omicron has been a blip. (erictopol.substack.com)
- How long should you wait to get vaccinated after recovering from Covid? (wsj.com)
- Should we swap incentives for mandates to get people boosted? (theatlantic.com)
- Bram Sable-Smith, "To be the parent of an unvaccinated kid these days is to feel constantly at the mercy of the whims of strangers." (npr.org)
- Where does the flu season stand? (scientificamerican.com)
Variants
- Where things stand on Omicron. (elemental.medium.com)
- Early data show the vaccines effective against BA.2. (statnews.com)
- Omicron is driving Delta towards zero. (theatlantic.com)
- Keep an eye on yet another variant, Omicron BA.2. (thedailybeast.com)
- By definition, the next variant will be more contagious than Omicron. (cnbc.com)
Data
- Covid-19 death rates are at their highest level in nearly a year. (wsj.com)
- In 2020, the pandemic led to the biggest U.S. death rate increase from causes other than COVID-19 since 1936. (thinkadvisor.com)
- Excess deaths better capture the toll of Covid-19 on a global basis. (economist.com)
- Just how much worse would things have been without vaccines? (vox.com)
Care
- Nurses are being asked to care for more patients. (wsj.com)
- Small, non-profit hospitals are bearing the brunt of the nursing shortage. (nytimes.com)
- ICU nurses are under relenting pressure with few signs of hope. (wsj.com)
- Some health care systems are bring back workers who are still sick with Omicron. (washingtonpost.com)
- The pandemic plight of pharmacy workers is less well known. (bloomberg.com)
Treatments
- Infectious disease doctors nationwide are riding the omicron wave without the best existing treatments. (bloomberg.com)
- There is now only one monoclonal antibody treatment authorized for use in the U.S. (ft.com)
- Vaccine-resistant Americans are betting it all on antivirals that Big Pharma manufactures. (statnews.com)
Long Covid
- Researchers have identified four factors that lead to long Covid including reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus. (nytimes.com)
- Researchers are looking for parallels between 'chemo brain' and long Covid. (statnews.com)
Masks
- Free N95 masks are showing up in drug stores. (news.yahoo.com)
- N95 masks should be as easy to buy as sunscreen. (wapo.st)
- The case against masking in schools. (theatlantic.com)
- The physics of an N95 face mask. (wired.com)
- How long can you wear a mask? (nytimes.com)
Vaccine cards
- What to do if you lose your vaccine card? (nytimes.com)
- Fake vaccine cards are everywhere. (grid.news)
Public health
- The pandemic highlights problems with the health care system. Will we do anything about it? (wapo.st)
- Is the CDC fixable? (wsj.com)
- Thousands of unvaccinated Americans have needlessly died for 'no reasonable, ethically justifiable social purpose.' (theatlantic.com)
Global
- Rich countries are poaching health care workers from other countries. (nytimes.com)
- The costs of vaccine distribution in poorer countries have been underestimated. (washingtonpost.com)
- These world leaders have gotten Covid twice. (slate.com)
Podcasts
- Dr. Ashish Jha and Emily Oster talk with Kara Swisher about our failed Covid reponse. (nytimes.com)
- Andy Slavitt talks with Dr. Megan Ranney about what it is like currently in ER departments. (podcasts.apple.com)
Mixed media
- Sarah Manavis, "We must accept both the real risks of an unmanaged virus and the injustice of not getting these two years back." (newstatesman.com)
- What it feels like to get Covid after trying to avoid it for two years. (emilyoster.substack.com)
- Some women have used the pandemic to keep their pregnancies private. (nytimes.com)
