The Latest in COVID-19 News: Week Ending 09.05.20 – NEJM Journal Watch

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Click on the link for the NEJM Journal Watch weekly update.  NO paywalls on any of the links in this article.  (paywalls bother me). There are some really good links in this week’s edition. https://www.jwatch.org/fw117010/2020/09/05/latest-covid-19-news-week-ending-sept-5

Meanwhile in South Carolina…

Shortly after opening its doors to students, the University of South Carolina has recorded 1,026 positive coronavirus tests and in the past week saw a test positivity rate among students and faculty of 26.3 percent, according to its COVID information dashboard.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/university-south-carolina-records-1-026-covid-cases-n1239174

Clusterfuck!

Quote for Today – 09.03.20

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“The lowest risk sexual activity during COVID-19 involves yourself alone.”

Cite this: Wear a Mask While Having Sex, Canada’s Top Doctor Suggests – Medscape – Sep 02, 2020 — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/936773?src=rss

You can’t make this stuff up.

But I suppose if you were six feet apart…

The world has gone mad.

What Is Your Chance of Dying From Covid-19 in Indiana? — The Skeptical Cardiologist

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Data on the recent true infection fatality rate (IFR) of COVID-19 have been difficult to come by. Investigators writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine today have, however, provided us with a solid estimate of the Covid-19 IFR in the state of Indiana for those over the age of 11 years and not living in…

What Is Your Chance of Dying From Covid-19 in Indiana? — The Skeptical Cardiologist

Again, thank you Dr. Pearson. Interesting statistics.

College Clusterfuck 2.0 – “It’s a Dystopian Hell” – Updated

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Update 09.05.20

What could be worse than being stuck at home with Mom and Dad for months on end isolated from friends, activities restricted?

Going back to Mom and Dad to be stuck at home for even longer because you got expelled from college AND telling them they just paid for a year of college and housing for nothing.

The students were part of a special one-semester program for first-year students and according to Globe, the prepaid $US 36,500 cost for the semester won’t be refunded. Students won’t be able to take courses from home but are eligible to return in the fall.

11 freshmen at Northeastern were dismissed for violating COVID-19 rules. Their $35,000 tuition won’t be reimbursed. — https://www.businessinsider.com.au/11-northeastern-students-dismissed-breaking-covid-19-rules-party-2020-9

jordanschachtel.substack.com — America’s college students are returning to campus for the Fall semester, and many are finding themselves in an environment that no longer resembles an academic institution, but something closer to a correctional facility for young adults. It’s not just a handful of schools that are pursuing extreme restrictions and punitive measures in the name of “stopping the spread” of the coronavirus, but something that has become a nationwide norm.

Tales from America’s COVID college campuses — https://muckrack.com/jordan-schachtel/articles

College campuses have transformed into some of the most restrictive environments in America.  After hearing about these conditions, I sent out a post on social media asking for testimonials from students, parents, and educators. The responses below are some of the many replies I received discussing what students are experiencing in colleges and universities that have allowed for students to return to campus.

Tales from America’s COVID college campuses — https://jordanschachtel.substack.com/p/tales-from-americas-covid-college

From what I can tell Jordan Schachtel is an investigative journalist. If you follow the link in the second quote above you’ll find a bevy of quotes from both students and parents on college life 2020 pandemic edition. What you’ll read is absolutely jaw dropping. A lot of prison analogies…

This is not going well nor will it end well. Online education will become the new operating model for higher education sooner rather than later. See my earlier rant Post Pandemic Changes in Consumer Behavior for Professor Galloway’s opinion. He says it’s simple math.

Funny to think how colleges and universities will succeed now that they all have to focus on education and teaching their students. Not sports. No longer modern day fiefoms that exist solely to enrich the clueless intellectual elites. My Dad always told me the purpose of college was to teach you how to think, not what to think. High time to get back to what a “higher” education should be.

College Town Clusterfuck

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Across the United States, at least 36 states have reported positive cases at colleges and universities, adding more than 8,700 cases to the country’s tally. Almost 6 million infections have been recorded in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

36 states report a total of 8,700 Covid-19 cases at colleges and universities — https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/30/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html

No one could have predicted this…said no one. Clusterf**k at UNC was merely early out of the gate.

Minimizing the Social Cost of COVID-19

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East Asian countries were the first to be infected, meaning they had little, if any, time to prepare. And yet many of them are among the countries that have reduced COVID-19 cases to near zero. The difference comes down to attitudes: what role and responsibilities each society attributes to government, and to what extent it expects the community to act as a collective agent of the common good.

In the US, there is a long-standing emphasis on personal freedom. “Small government” is a commonly heard refrain, with many arguing that individuals acting as self-interested participants in markets and in social and political processes will naturally produce positive outcomes. Government intervention – even in the event of a pandemic – infringes on individual rights and, indeed, on the very meaning of being an American. Protests over shelter-in-place orders and mask mandates reflect this view.

Minimizing the Social Cost of COVID-19 — https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/east-asia-covid19-successful-responses-institutional-arrangements-by-andrew-sheng-and-xiao-geng-2020-08

Meanwhile SD reported another triple digit increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases, as 380 new positive tests were recorded Sunday.

Sturgis resident here, the 5 days before the event were much bigger this year than normal because people had the wrong dates and then just kept those reservations instead of switching (or couldn’t switch because the places were full.)… The official count is around 460,000 and I’d say there was another 75-100 thousand the week before.

You Tube comment on a Tectonix video on cell phone migration patterns exiting Sturgis SD

Covid-19 in Australia: most infected health workers in Victoria’s second wave acquired virus at work

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Australia’s 14 day mandatory quarantine rules for overseas travelers are cited as a major reason for the country’s initial success in containing the virus, but unlike other states and territories, Victoria decided to contract private security firms to police them.10 The quarantine inquiry was told that, as a condition of the government’s contracts with the security firms, guards underwent just 30 minutes of online infection control training. There have also been lurid stories in the local media of security staff having sex with the quarantined travelers and claims that guards escorted some travelers on shopping trips despite the infection risks. But it has also been said that security staff were given insufficient supplies of PPE, which was often worn wrongly or for too long, and that there was a lack of medical waste bins in the hotels and insufficient medical oversight.11 As a result, security workers acquired infections from travelers who took it back to family members and other contacts in the community.

Covid-19 in Australia: most infected health workers in Victoria’s second wave acquired virus at work — BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3350 (Published 27 August 2020) — Citation: BMJ 2020;370:m3350

Metformin Should Not Be Used to Treat Prediabetes

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Based on the results of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS), in which metformin significantly decreased the development of diabetes in individuals with baseline fasting plasma glucose (FPG) concentrations of 110–125 vs. 100–109 mg/dL (6.1–6.9 vs. 5.6–6.0 mmol/L) and A1C levels 6.0–6.4% (42–46 mmol/mol) vs. <6.0% and in women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus, it has been suggested that metformin should be used to treat people with prediabetes. Since the association between prediabetes and cardiovascular disease is due to the associated nonglycemic risk factors in people with prediabetes, not to the slightly increased glycemia, the only reason to treat with metformin is to delay or prevent the development of diabetes. There are three reasons not to do so. First, approximately two-thirds of people with prediabetes do not develop diabetes, even after many years. Second, approximately one-third of people with prediabetes return to normal glucose regulation. Third, people who meet the glycemic criteria for prediabetes are not at risk for the microvascular complications of diabetes and thus metformin treatment will not affect this important outcome. Why put people who are not at risk for the microvascular complications of diabetes on a drug (possibly for the rest of their lives) that has no immediate advantage except to lower subdiabetes glycemia to even lower levels? Rather, individuals at the highest risk for developing diabetes—i.e., those with FPG concentrations of 110–125 mg/dL (6.1–6.9 mmol/L) or A1C levels of 6.0–6.4% (42–46 mmol/mol) or women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus—should be followed closely and metformin immediately introduced only when they are diagnosed with diabetes.

Metformin Should Not Be Used to Treat Prediabetes — Diabetes Care 2020 Sep; 43(9): 1983-1987. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc19-2221

Quote for Today – 08.28.20

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A vocal minority argues that Covid-19 is not much worse than the influenza we ignore every winter, so both mandatory lockdowns and voluntary precautions have been unnecessary.

A glance at the data gives that argument a veneer of plausibility. The UK has suffered about 65,000 excess deaths during the first wave of the pandemic, and 25,000-30,000 excess deaths are attributed to flu in England alone during bad flu seasons. Is the disparity so great that the country needed to grind to a halt?

The flaw in the argument is clear: Covid was “only” twice as bad as a bad flu season because we took extreme measures to contain it. The effectiveness of the lockdown is being used as an argument that the lockdown was unnecessary. It is frustrating, but that is the nature of a self-defeating prophecy in a politicised environment.

Rats, mazes, and the power of self-fulfilling prophecies https://timharford.com/2020/08/rats-mazes-and-the-power-of-self-fulfilling-prophecies/