Amazing Stories of the Pandemic, Energy, and Lockdowns!
• FDA Delays Emergency Vaccine Approval Until They Finish Evaluating New Bagged Salad Kit (The Onion, Nov. 20, 2020)
• Energy Future will be a lot like energy past…
• Schools (and Children) Need a Fresh Air Fix (Wired, Nov. 14, 2020)
If Allen has anything to say about it, in some classrooms this fall you might see a fan with a crinkly white HEPA filter strapped to it. In the walls, ventilation systems may be fitted with filters too. As long as the weather permits it, windows will be flung open and wedding tents will be pitched on fields, as school administrations focus on what seems like a simultaneously simple and overwhelming task: Move the air around. Filter it. Dilute it.
• New Hospital-at-Home Waiver Program Is ‘Another Step Forward’ for Home-Based Care, (Home Health Care, Nov. 30, 2020) A hundred thousand mini-hospitals at home expands choices and allowed much lower costs. The technology is here, they’re just waiting for the permits.
• Vitamin D Insufficiency May Account for Almost Nine of Ten COVID-19 Deaths: Time to Act. Comment on: “Vitamin D Deficiency and Outcome of COVID-19 Patients” (Nutrients, 2020)
• Coronavirus Was In U.S. Weeks Earlier Than Previously Known, Study Says (NPR, Dec. 1, 2020)
People were exposed, some likely got sick with respiratory infections, and maybe some died. But all before coronavirus diagnosed. “Researchers found coronavirus antibodies in 39 samples from California, Oregon, and Washington as early as Dec. 13 to Dec. 16. They also discovered antibodies in 67 samples from Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin in early January — before widespread outbreaks in those states.”
• Vaccine Music To Libertarian Ears, ( Cato at Liberty, Nov. 9, 2020)
Pfizer CEO on why he didn’t take government money and instead privately funded research: “…But the reason why I did it was because I wanted to liberate our scientists from any bureaucracy. When you get money from someone that always comes with strings. They want to see how we are going to progress, what type of moves you are going to do. They want reports. I didn’t want to have any of that.”
• This 2-Acre Vertical Farm Out-Produces 720 Acre ‘Flat Farms’ (Forbes, Nov. 20, 2020)
Technology and energy can provide all the food the world will ever need.
• Ventilation Is Key to Battling Covid. Here’s Why | WSJ (WSJ Video, Nov. 24, 2020)
As the weather gets colder and people head indoors, the risk of catching Covid-19 is rising. WSJ explains why air ventilation and filtration are one of our biggest defenses against the coronavirus this winter.
• Covid Misclassification: What Do the Data Suggest? (AIER, Nov. 30, 2020)
Careful discussion of classification of deaths through pandemic. Many issues discussed that could be reducing or increasing deaths attributed to the virus. Comparing deaths by cause in previous years to 2020 provides insights.
• Viruses, Lockdowns, and Biomic Learning (AIER, Nov. 29, 2020)
In all the annals of Covid, Taiwan remains an outlier. Out of a population of 24 million, and an extraordinary population density of 1,739 per square mile, it registered only 573 “cases.”
• Johns Hopkins: Tips to make the air in your home safer from coronavirus (Boston Herald, Nov 27, 2020)
– Install a higher efficiency filter such as a MERV 13 and make sure the system fan is on. – Use a portable HEPA air cleaner- Make your own air cleaner using a MERV 13 filter over a box fan. Do not place it in a window.
• Covid Was Hiding Among Colds and Flus
Behind paywall. U.S. government scientists now estimate that 40% of cases are asymptomatic and 80% of symptomatic cases are mild—in short, 88% of subjects don’t know they are infected or have no great incentive to find out if they are suffering from Covid or some more familiar bug.
Fact Check: Johns Hopkins Student Paper Retracted Because CDC Data DOES Show Excess Deaths Caused By Covid-19 (Lead-Stories, Nov. 27, 2020)
Their decision to retract the article was their own. Yanni Gu did an excellent at reporting the content of the presentation. The full presentation is available at: Covid-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data – YouTube. I explain during the presentation where I found and downloaded the data from, so anyone can easily replicate my analysis.
• Washington state reports over 4,200 new COVID-19 cases in last two days (Komo News, Nov. 27, 2020)
Peculiar reporting from Washington state: “On Friday, DOH reported 4,261 new COVID-19 cases, 254 additional hospitalizations and one less death.”
• Covid: Free Vitamin D pills for 2.5 million vulnerable in England (BBC, Nov. 28, 2020)
Further research recommended. 400IU isn’t much.
We advise that everyone, particularly the elderly, those who don’t get outside and those with dark skin, take a Vitamin D supplement containing 10 micrograms (400IU) every day.
• Government Model Suggests U.S. COVID-19 Cases Could Be Approaching 100 Million, (NPR, Nov. 26, 2020) Good news if true. “The actual number of coronavirus infections in the U.S. reached nearly 53 million at the end of September and could be approaching 100 million now”
• The Media’s Covid War on the Dakotas, (AIER, Nov. 27, 2020)
• Is Saliva Testing Better? 5 Things To Know About the New COVID-19 Test (Yale Medicine, August 20, 2020)
Before Thanksgiving gatherings, people would self-test with inexpensive home saliva tests (shows who is infectious), had such tests been authorized by FDA. But FDA EUA terms have kept them unavailable. Rutgers had saliva test in May, but home use blocked. Yale Medical announced “game-changer” SalivaDirect test in August. (FDA EUA “authorization for the protocol” August 15).
• The Last Word on Sweden Viral Issue – Understanding the Reality! (Ivor Cummins, YouTube, Nov. 26, 2020)
Sweden update. Google news is feeding me many article claiming failure and new concerns in Sweden due to lack of lockdowns. But there is more to the story..