Another superspreader event that did not spread
Chicago health officials on Thursday reported 203 cases of COVID-19 connected to Lollapalooza, casting it as a number that was anticipated and not yet linked to any hospitalizations or deaths.…
Fail: Oregon’s public health guessed wrong
Six weeks ago today, the governor held a ceremony to reopen. Now she’ll announce details of a new statewide mask mandate to slow the delta variant. Source: Here’s what Gov.…
CDC recommends shaving of beards
Certain types of facial hair, like beards, can make mask fitting difficult. Masks that fit well protect you better. To have a better fit, people with beards can shave their…
52 billion face masks were thrown away in 2020
Good thing this environmental degradation was for a good cause – it stopped Covid dead in its tracks!
Masks for vaccinated people are ‘mostly about protecting the unvaccinated’ says NIH Director
Confusing messaging, again: The Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, acknowledged that new COVID-19 restrictions are primarily about protecting unvaccinated Americans as cases of the Delta…
Australia’s smart phone contact tracing app found 17 potential “cases”
The Australian government says its COVIDSafe app identified 2,827 potential close contacts from 37,668 encounters in NSW and Victoria. Only 17 cases in NSW were identified separately to manual contact…
Did you know that Covid can tell the difference between a wedding and a funeral attendee?
Amazing – SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t target funeral attendees, only targets wedding attendees. Can weddings go ahead? People are not allowed to attend or hold a wedding in greater Sydney. What about…
A year ago, I said smart phone tracing apps had numerous problems and were not suited for contact detection … then this happened
Last week, the UK contact dection phone system “pinged” one half million residents who were then forced into isolation for ten days. Even the Prime Minister, who was hospitalized for…
Up to 90% of UK adults have Covid-19 antibodies
This does not distinguish between those with vaccination immunity and natural immunity – just that they are shown to have antibodies to Covid-19 (does not include those with T-cell immunity…
15-days to flatten the curve was 18 months
Following nearly a year and a half of sheltering in place, Oregon reopened for business on June 30. Source: What does reopening Oregon really mean? : Oregon Vaccine News 15-days…
Canada’s smart phone Covid-19 tracking app found to be mostly worthless
I pointed out in the spring of 2020, and several times since then, that smartphone based Covid-19 tracking apps were essentially worthless and applying tech in a way that would…
Follow up: Post Memorial Day Surge in cases?
Back around Memorial Day, the “experts” predicted yet another “surge in new cases”: Follow up in mid June: Post holiday spike in cases? | Coldstreams Business and Tech What actually…
Follow up in 2022: Winter flu season could be big, experts warn
That’s what they said about winter 2020/2021 too – how did that projection turn out? now health experts are warning the public that there could be a very difficult flu…
The Field of Computer Science, summarized
This a great 11 minute video summarizing the breadth of the fields of computer science and computer engineering. There is a lot to cover in this wonderfully done graphical map,…
Historical context for this pandemic
The above author is a Lecturer in history at the Royal Holloway University of London. The ’68 pandemic had less effect in the U.S., with worse outcomes in parts of…