damont

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

Today's episode of "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA / traditional weblogging and the usual begging post mashup" brings more links from all over. I had a BIG list to post after the past week-and-change's large increase in news about the pandemic, so this is the second of the promised 3-4 posts. That doesn't count checking back in with Derek Lowe, either, which I'll get to in a couple of days.

To start with, here's some pandemic-related news that doesn't fit in any of the subcategories I have further down.

‘Concerning’: Allegheny Co. Health Dept. Reports Big Jump With 45 New Coronavirus Cases, Bringing Countywide Total To 2,220

FDA revokes authorization of drug Trump touted

Next, some overall statistics over time regarding the pandemic over the course of the first five months of 2020 (or thereabouts):

Coronavirus Disease 2019 Case Surveillance — United States, January 22–May 30, 2020

Genomic epidemiology of novel coronavirus - Global subsampling

Global Deaths Due to Various Causes and COVID-19

CDC says COVID-19 cases in U.S. may be 10 times higher than reported

Some notes on how to proceed moving forward:

Face Masks May Be The Key Determinant Of The Covid-19 Curve, Study Suggests

The New Rules of Social Distancing: Health Experts Answer Your Questions

And now on to the usual begging stuff. As has been my habit during the pandemic, before and in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who are able to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES. Most states are now in various stages of reopening after the spring lockdowns, even if that might actually be premature from a public health standpoint. Nevertheless, as things start to open up again, help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat. Locally owned businesses are, and will continue to be, struggling to get back on their feet, so please patronize them as much as you can. BUY LOCAL. Please however, do so in a safe manner. Keep on wearing masks and other protective equipment when going shopping, continue social distancing. Act intelligently, because I know you can.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

It's been a week since my last installment of "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA / traditional weblogging combined with the usual begging post" so let's check in with Derek Lowe's posts in his blog for Science Transitional Medicine. Of the four posts this week, three are pandemic-related. The first of these discusses in what ways clinical trials of vaccines and treatments might not work out the way we hope.

What Might Go Wrong

Next, an update on one of the possible treatments:

Dexamethasone for Coronavirus Infection

And finally, a more general look at how the virus might change over time.

A Wide Look at Coronavirus Mutants

And now on to the usual begging stuff. Anyone who's been reading any of these non-photo posts in the past several weeks can guess what comes next: before and in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who are able to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES. Most states are now in various stages of reopening after the spring lockdowns, even if that might actually be premature from a public health standpoint. Nevertheless, as things start to open up again, help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat. Locally owned businesses are, and will continue to be, struggling to get back on their feet, so please patronize them as much as you can. BUY LOCAL. Please however, do so in a safe manner. Keep on wearing masks and other protective equipment when going shopping, continue social distancing. Act intelligently, because I know you can.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

I've crossposted the first 10 entries in my "SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 related post" series, which take me through the end of April. I'll get May and June up later, maybe tomorrow. Anyway, here are quick links to those first ten posts in case backdated posts don't show up in your reading page. (And if they DO show up in your reading page, I apologize for cluttering it up like that.)

001: Supply chains (focus on coffee) supporting local businesses

002: What the Coronavirus Proteins Are Targeting (Derek Lowe update 01)

003: Safe Grocery Shopping Tips

004: Mathematics, Epidemiology and the Coronavirus

005: Derek Lowe update 02

006: Derek Lowe update 03

007: Derek Lowe update 04

008: The #LeftoversChallenge

009: Derek Lowe update 05

010: Random links amid mourning

I'm really close to filling mine in. You probably are too.

I haven't posted here in, what, three months? And I'm not going to be posting anything substantial tonight. But I have a lot of stuff on my GoFundMe that really merits crossposting here. I'm probably going to end up posting it here but backdated to when I put it up elsewhere, and then put pu a current post with links to the backdated posts, as and how I manage to cross them over. But, as I said, not happening tonight.

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

This installment of "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA combined with traditional weblogging and begging post" looks at various links related to the pandemic. This one's going to be kind of scattershot. It's now the end of May and I've been posting about two of these every week for quite a while. I'm considering dropping the frequency to maybe six for the entire month of June. But I'll keep my eye on things and may up the frequency if there's enough to post about, and that goes for July and beyond as well. Bear in mind that I'm expecting a jump in infection rates as states reopen, which may prompt enough articles to justify more frequent posts here. Anyway, on to today's links.

From the Science Dept.:

Targets of T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in humans with COVID-19 disease and unexposed individuals

From the "Slightly Weird Science" Dept.:

Fighting COVID-19 With... Llamas?!

From the "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics" Dept.:

The Uncounted Dead: Why some people who likely died from COVID-19 aren’t included in the final numbers

Opinion | My Mother Died of the Coronavirus. It’s Time She Be Counted.

From the "No, Really, This Timeline Needed Even More Weirdness" Dept.:

Monkeys steal coronavirus blood samples in India

And finally back to the Science Dept.: An online acquaintance's family member was on a small cruise ship off South America back in March/April when all this got "real". Turns out there were a couple of medical docs with research backgrounds as passengers (and one working as one of two ship's docs) who have written up the test results and experience for the BMJ. They "describe what we believe is the first instance of complete COVID-19 testing of all passengers and crew on an isolated cruise ship during the current COVID-19 pandemic."

COVID-19: in the footsteps of Ernest Shackleton

And now let's continue on to the usual begging stuff. You probably know all this by now, but I'll say it anyway: before and in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who are able to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen. Please however, do so in a safe manner. Recent news shows that a lot of people, including some militant numbskulls VERY LOCAL to my parents, are acting quite UNintelligently about this. Don't be one of those.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

Today in "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA meets the traditional begging post" there's a link to a funny video... but first we mostly check in with intrepid pharmaceutical chemist Derek Lowe and his blog for Science Translational Medicine. Here's what he's been posting about recently.

More Chinese Traditional Medicine, Unfortunately

Monoclonal Antibodies and Vaccines: Q and A

Criticism of the Oxford Coronavirus Vaccine

First Results from Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine

Another Set of Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates

There May Be a Unique Coronavirus Immune Response

Good News on the Human Immune Response to the Coronavirus

And after all that, here's a bit of topical humor video.

Antonia Bonello on Instagram: “I was shopping for essentials in my local supermarket and it really reminded me of something... Sound on!"

Now it's time for the typical begging stuff. Those of you who've read any of these non-photo posts in the past several weeks can predict what comes next: before and in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who are able to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

I had scheduled the next update for yesterday (Thursday, May 14th). There obviously was no update on that day. Yes, a there was a spanner in the works.

I am now officially one degree of separation from COVID-19.

I lost a friend to the disease on Wednesday afternoon. This threw me for more of a loop than I expected, and yesterday I just couldn't get up the gumption to put together the update. But I've managed it now, and please pardon the length because I actually wrote a bunch of stuff trying to "connect the dots" on the various links I'm including.

Thus it is on Friday the 15th that we get the latest installment of "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA meets the traditional begging post" -- and today we're looking at supply chains. In particular, there are two things -- not all that closely related -- which have been disrupting the supply of certain items.

The first thing is bottlenecks. In the tech industry we think it's a good idea to have resilient development and operational processes. Turns out that, in pursuit of other goals, resiliency of these supply chains got mostly sacrificed. Nobody was allowing for something like a pandemic -- or even a problem such as a major fire that could take out a processing plant for months. And when an industry has concentrated certain aspects into just a few plants, losing even one of them causes REALLY BIG problems. One example in the USA is the meatpacking industry, as discussed here:

Meat shortages expected as coronavirus disrupts production, despite executive order

America’s meat shortage is more serious than your missing hamburgers

I'm not sure the supply chain is as vulnerable as the latter article suggests. But even places such as Forbes and Entrepreneur are saying that some structural changes to increase resiliency would be a good idea:

Covid Shortages: Supply Chains Must Become Less Efficient

3 Fundamentals for Building a Resilient Supply Chain

The second factor is really (1) the inability of certain manufacturing processes to change course quickly, and (2) the unexpected sudden shift of demand in certain areas. This has to do with the fact that COMMERCIAL products and RESIDENTIAL products are vastly different in some ways... and when so much of the USA went into stay-at-home mode, so many people who had been spending 40 to 75 per cent of their lives in non-residential buildings VERY SUDDENLY were spending only *5* per cent or less of their time outside of residences. The industries that supply things such as (but not limited to) toilet paper to office buildings and large-scale food to cafeterias are not, and cannot be, equipped to shift from commercial to residential focus that quickly.

What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage

This factor looks to be more of a temporary blip on the radar. The affected industries CAN adapt, just not instantly.

While these two factors have brought problems, they lead to solutions that are starting to pop up all over the place. One example:

Market Comes to Aid of Egg Farmer

Their next sale day is tomorrow, so if you're near Kempton PA (northeast of Reading) and want to pick up 5 dozen eggs at $10 per package, the cash-only sale is at the Kempton Community Center. Distribution is contactless: leave your cash in the trunk, and when it's your turn pull up and open the trunk. They'll take your payment and load your eggs. This isn't a new phenomenon, as farmers markets have been around as long as I can remember, but the scale is ramping up and also the number of locations is likely to increase. Look for this type of sales whenever they make it to your vicinity.

Now it's time for the typical begging stuff. If you've been reading any of the last several weeks of these non-photo posts, you can predict what comes next: in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'll start by asking those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen. The aforementioned farmers markets and other direct-to-consumer sales are one way to achieve this.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

Today in "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA meets the traditional begging post" we get mostly a musical diversion. A number of artists have taken to putting together home videos -- in many cases composite home videos where each member of a band is playing by themselves separately with a "click track" keeping the tempo -- for these days of no love concerts. Leading off for us today is Canada's Barenaked Ladies, who have been releasing at least one such video per week and calling it their "SelfieCamJam" series. Each video plugs a different charity, so if you watch the whole series you'll have a number of different options as to where to direct some of your giving dollars. (After contributing some of it here, of course! :-) )

Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time (SelfieCamJam)

Barenaked Ladies - I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) (SelfieCamJam with Col. Chris Hadfield)

Rounding out today's list is classic roots-rocker John Fogerty and his family, from their basement. His second wife Julie is handling the camera, and John is joined by their three kids doing the music. No specific charities on this one.

Fogerty's Factory - John Fogerty + Family: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Who'll Stop The Rain- Cosmo's Factory/Fogerty's Factory

And now it's time for the usual begging stuff. Anyone who's read these posts in the past few weeks can likely guess that next, before and in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

If I sound down in this post, there's a ready explanation. A friend of mine died yesterday. Not from COVID-19; he'd actually been tested and gotten a totally clean result. Something else got him instead, the details of which I won't go into here.

Anyway... Today's episode of "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA meets the traditional begging post" takes a look at a longer-form video, and an article on what scientists are finding about the various effects this virus can have on the human body (including more than one way it can kill). WARNING: some folks may find either the video or the article a bit more than they want to deal with right now. It's not that either is overly graphic, but the picture they paint is not necessarily pretty.

"How does coronavirus kill? Clinicians trace a ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes"

"Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic? - with Peter Piot"

Note that the video was posted in OCTOBER 2018. A year and a half ago.

And now it's time for the usual begging stuff. If you've read these posts in the past few weeks, you probably know that next, before and in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen. One way to do this is via the #LeftoversChallenge as I discussed last week. There are other ways, which are likely to vary depending on where you are located.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

Taking a break from "updates from the world of pharmaceutical chemistry" for today's installment of "SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 related PSA meets the traditional begging post" hybrid, here's something I ran across over the weekend. Because of its nature, I'm going to jump right into a piece of the begging. As regular readers may expect right now, in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen.

And why did I mention that first? Because today's post is about supporting your local restaurants, for those of you who can afford it, by ordering takeout or delivery but getting TWO (or more) meals worth of food, doing something creative with the leftovers, and posting your results on social media with the hashtag #LeftoversChallenge -- I first heard about this from Binging With Babish, but I actually like this video better because it's a collaboration between three Internet cooking show folks. So here's the #LeftoversChallenge from The Burger Show (warning, NSFW language):

Binging with Babish, Mythical Chef Josh, and Alvin Cook the Ultimate Leftovers Burger

And here's a longer list of YouTube videos on the topic.

And now, on to the rest of the usual begging. ( Which is behind the cut. )