Andrew Althouse, in Medscape, on vaccines and the failure of NNTs.
John Michael McGrath, in TVO, makes the case for paying people to get vaccinated
Zeynep, in Insight, on the gaslighting of science.
And in non-COVID writing, here's my latest in Medscape How Dare There Be Effective Drugs for Obesity? which covers the bizarrely negative reaction that effective drugs for obesity face from the medical community and society as a whole
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| Dangerous numpty. If you see, ignore. |
Leslie Boehm and Gregory P. Marchildon, in Policy Options covers the past realities and future needs of Canadian vaccine manufacturing.
Isaac Bogoch and David Naylor, in The Globe and Mail, present the case for not delaying second shot vaccinations for Canada's most vulnerable.
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| Javed Anees, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons |
James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, on what summer might look like (in the US mind you, here in Canada, given our exceedingly slow pace of vaccination, this might not apply)
Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, on the waste of resources and the disinformation that is hygiene theatre
Brooks Fallis, in The Globe and Mail, on how Canada is sleepwalking into our next disastrous surge.
Photo by By Jesus Solana from Madrid, Spain - Black sheep . Do u also feel different? // la Oveja negra. Tambien te sientes diferente?, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5050231
Julia Belluz and Umair Irfan, in Vox, on the new South African COVID variant that may challenge current vaccines.
André Picard and Adalsteinn Brown in conversation with Matt Galloway on CBC's The Current on Ontario's disappointments in our fight against COVID (do give this a listen, and wow, Dr. Brown's frustration is something to hear)
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| If you're not already following Dr. Popescu, you should be. |
Gideon M-K, in Medium, with the plain truth - COVID is absolutely controllable through government interventions and if your government isn't controlling it, that's a choice they've made.
Jessica Gold, in Forbes, on the many layers of added nonsense that women who are COVID experts face online and in the media.
Kai Kupferschmidt, in Science, with what you need to know, and why people are concerned, about the more virulent new strain.
Melissa Davey, in The Guardian, digs past the alarmist headlines and breathless tweets and speaks with epidemiologist Gid MK to explore that study suggesting school closures shortened kids' life expectancies.
Jordan Kisner, in The Atlantic, on the calculus behind the lineup of when and who should be vaccinated first and last
Helen Branswell, in STAT, on how we might make best use of the vaccines once they arrive.
Jennifer Yang, Kate Allen, and Andrew Bailey, in the Toronto Star, with our shameful failure to protect our racialized neighbourhoods from the second wave.
Rachel Gutman, in The Atlantic, with the most important rule to follow to protect yourself from COVID this winter.
Zoë Hyde, in The Conversation, covers what we now know about kids, schools, COVID, and transmission.
And I know that I haven't been blogging, but it just feels wrong to be writing about nutrition, medicine, or weight management in the face of our tragic new realities.
I do hope this post finds you and yours healthy and spared from the pandemic's impact, but I don't know that any of us have been spared, and for some of you I'm sadly sure, the costs have been beyond horrible.
Consequently I debated whether or not I was going to do Movember this year or send out this post. I'm still not convinced it's the right thing to do as people have given up so much, many have seen their incomes drop dramatically, and if an option, charity can certainly be metered out more locally and urgently (for instance we chose back in March to have a standing monthly donation set up with Ottawa's Food Bank).
With that said, no doubt charities are hurting too, and the causes they fund haven't gone away which is why in the end I decided to throw my moustache in the ring. Contrary to what some believe, Movember is not simply a prostate cancer charity, and though some of its funds do go to prostate cancer research and treatment, Movember funds multiple men's health initiatives including those involving mental health, suicide, body image, eating disorders, substance use disorders, testicular cancer, and more.
As a show of respect for Alex Trebek, I've done my best to shape my moustache accordingly, and as a thank you for donating, I'll send the top 3 donors a bottle of my homemade, home-grown, 6 week fermented, mesquite smoked red habanero and carolina reaper hot sauce (pictured below at the start of the ferment and ready to be bottled next weekend).
Thank you and stay safe out there.
Yoni
James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, on honouring the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday by cancelling it this year.
Julia Belluz, in Vox, on how prioritizing supporting the vulnerable has led to Vermont's standout success in controlling COVID.
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Gideon M-K, in Medium, explains why the concept of a 'casedemic' is misguided and wrong.
Jon Henley, in The Guardian, discusses how the surging cases right now in Sweden demonstrate that herd immunity through infection is not going to happen.
Helen Branswell, in STAT, with some reassurance on Danish COVID minks. Yes minks.
Jeff Passan, in ESPN, discusses how this year's World Series was a metaphor for 2020 America.
Helen Branswell, in STAT, on how now might be the time for us to reset our expectations of when vaccines will pull us out of this mess.
Photo By TonyTheTiger - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62897879
Amy McDermott, in PNAS, on how it'll likely be rapid home COVID testing that brings back some sense of normalcy - it can't come soon enough
Christie Aschwanden, in Nature, on the false promise of herd immunity.
Photo by By Tkarcher - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56760604
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Marc Lipsitch, Gregg Gonsalves, Carlos del Rio, and Rochelle P. Walensky, in The Washington Post, on the why the so-called Great Barrington Declaration is far from well named.
Kelly Bjorklund and Andrew Ewing, in Time, cover the disastrous truths of COVID in Sweden.
And as a response to renewed interest in herd immunity and that Great Barrington Declaration comes a competing declaration, the John Snow Memorandum, which explains why herd immunity strategies are dangerous and why, and unlike the Barrington document, does not include the signatures of Dr. Person Fakename, Professor Notaf Uckingclu, Dr. Johnny Fartpants, Dr. Very Dodgy Doctor, Dr. Brian Blessed Doctor in Winged Flight (truly, they are actual Barrington signatories)
The Editors of and in The New England Journal of Medicine, on with paragraphs of fire regarding the coming American election.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how toxic masculinity is insufficient as a COVID treatment
Zeynep Tufekci, in The Atlantic, on super-spreading.
David Frum, also in The Atlantic, asks, what did you expect?
Indi Samarajiva, in Medium, on the overwhelming racism of COVID media coverage.
Karim Abdul-Jabbar, in the Los Angeles Times, on athletes, COVID, and nonsense
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| Dr. Anna DeForest |
