August 11, 2021

NPR walks back one of the summer’s scariest talking points, reporting that a leaked CDC document comparing Delta’s contagiousness to chickenpox is not supported by the data, even as the variant stays highly transmissible. The episode shows how a single internal slide can drive weeks of alarming headlines.

Censorship and its mirror image both surface. YouTube suspends Senator Rand Paul for seven days over videos questioning mask efficacy, prompting him to accuse the platform of ‘acting as an arm of government.’ Facebook shuts accounts tied to a Russia-based marketing firm that had tried to pay influencers to smear Western vaccines.

Reports say the FDA is preparing to authorize booster doses for immunocompromised people, an early crack in the assurance that two shots would be enough.

‘Our Situation Is Apocalyptic’: Bangladesh Garment Workers Face Ruin (Published 2020)

The New York Times

White House: Getting vaccinated against COVID "most important" step in hurricane preparedness

Axios

What will it be like when COVID-19 becomes endemic? | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

In a Q&A, Yonatan Grad, Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, discusses what endemic COVID-19 will look like.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Benefit of COVID-19 vaccination accounting for potential risk compensation - npj Vaccines

Nature

The Delta Variant Isn't As Contagious As Chickenpox. But It's Still Highly Contagious

A leaked CDC document compared it to the highly contagious children's disease. Data does not support this claim. Nonetheless, the variant is one of the world's most contagious respiratory diseases.

NPR

What are the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic? These 5 trends give us a glimpse

The World Economic Forum

Ground vibrations recorded by fiber-optic cables reveal traffic response to COVID-19 lockdown measures in Pasadena, California - Communications Earth & Environment

Changes in ground vibrations suggest decreased traffic volume and increased average speed in Pasadena, California during the COVID-19 lockdown, according to analyses of data from a Distributed Acoustic Sensing array

Nature

A differential equations model-fitting analysis of COVID-19 epidemiological data to explain multi-wave dynamics - Scientific Reports

Nature

Therapeutic efficacy of macrolides in management of patients with mild COVID-19 - Scientific Reports

Nature

Thousands In Germany Thought They Had Their Vaccine. It May Have Been Saline Instead

More than 8,000 people may have been given a fake COVID vaccine in the spring. A nurse is suspected of making the switch.

NPR

Most Parents Don’t Want Their Schools to Require COVID-19 Vaccination, But Most Favor Requiring Masks for Unvaccinated Children and Staff | KFF

Worries about Long-Term and Serious Side Effects are Parents’ Top Concern; Hispanic and Black Parents Are More Likely than White Parents to Cite Access and Cost Issues As schools around the country prepare to reopen, a majority of parents of school-age children say they do not want their children’s schools to require students to get…More

KFF

Covid vaccine: Fertility and miscarriage claims fact-checked

Posts claiming Covid vaccines cause miscarriages are not supported by scientific evidence.

BBC

Altered platelet and coagulation function in moderate-to-severe COVID-19 - Scientific Reports

Nature

Reasons for success and lessons learnt from nanoscale vaccines against COVID-19 - Nature Nanotechnology

Almost all currently used vaccines against COVID-19 consist of either non-viral or viral nanoparticles. Here we attempt to understand the reasons behind the success of such advanced nanoscale vaccine technologies compared with clinically established conventional vaccines, and the lessons to be learnt from this potentially transformative development in the adoption and acceptance of nanotechnology for medicine.

Nature

Mortality in individuals treated with COVID-19 convalescent plasma varies with the geographic provenance of donors - Nature Communications

Regional differences in SARS-CoV-2 variants may affect treatment outcome. Here, the authors show that near-sourced convalescent plasma has higher efficacy, as defined by death within 30 days of transfusion, than plasma sourced more than 150 miles away.

Nature

How Will the Coronavirus Evolve?

Delta won’t be the last variant. What will the next ones bring?

The New Yorker

Coronavirus surge pushes Cuba's healthcare system to brink

Reuters

A modified SEIR model to predict the behavior of the early stage in coronavirus and coronavirus-like outbreaks - Scientific Reports

Nature

Coronavirus: What do we know about the artemisia plant?

Artemisia plant extracts have anti-malarial properties, but there's no evidence they can combat Covid-19.

BBC

Charlotte sees a ‘dramatic uptick’ in kids’ coronavirus cases before school starts

Axios

Covid-19 vaccines: the contracts, prices and profits

Raised charges and Covax deals on order books of Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca

The Guardian

Poland’s vaccine skeptics create a political headache

The core areas of support for the Law and Justice party are also the wariest of vaccines.

POLITICO.eu

Facebook shuts accounts in anti-vaccine influencer campaign

Russia-based marketing firm sought to pay social media influencers to smear Covid vaccines

The Guardian

Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine: rare blood clot syndrome has high mortality rate

Researchers found that clots occurring after first dose of Oxford jab affected otherwise young and healthy people

The Guardian

As vaccine mandates spread, protests follow — some spurred by nurses

A new round of protests like last year’s has sprung up in recent days, fueled in part by nurses who have also been finding audiences on social media.

NBC News

Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women May Opt to Receive the Vaccine (Published 2020)

The New York Times

Dallas school district defies governor’s ban and announces a mask mandate. (Published 2021)

The New York Times

Tensions over school mask mandates roil this Mississippi town

The simple back-to-school precaution of masking has become a source of controversy in Mississippi and around the country as millions of students prepare to enter the academic year and rates of COVID-19 infection soar.

PBS

YouTube suspends Sen. Rand Paul for 7 days over videos questioning the efficacy of masks

Paul accused the "leftwing cretins" at YouTube of "acting as an arm of government and censoring their users for contradicting the government."

Business Insider

Reports: FDA to OK COVID booster shots for immunocompromised people

The update would include Pfizer and Moderna

Spectrum News

Perspective | Why this stage of the pandemic makes us so anxious

The Washington Post

‘It absolutely wrecked me.’ How a lab came back from the pandemic

Science | AAAS

The big drop in American poverty during the pandemic, explained

The lesson from the past year: Poverty is a policy choice.

Vox

Pining for the Intimacy of Pandemic Pods (Published 2021)

The New York Times

Credit ratings are punishing poorer countries for investing more in health care during the pandemic

Low-income countries that sought to spend more on health care during the pandemic have been hit with ratings downgrades, while others avoided borrowing entirely.

The Conversation

How the Pandemic Forced Japan to Rethink Its Work Culture

'Changes that would normally take years in Japan happened in just a few months,' writes Nomura CEO Kentaro Okuda

Time Magazine

Why the 'Great Remote Work Experiment' may have been flawed

We've lived through a global remote-work experiment. But is our assessment of work-from-home flawed since we didn't have a choice?

BBC

CDC urges COVID vaccines during pregnancy as delta variant surges

The advice comes as hospitals in hot spots around the U.S. see disturbing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus. The CDC recommendation echoes recent guidance from top obstetrician groups.

PBS

August 11, 2021

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