Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

If I have to hear one more promo for ESPN 3D (and ESPN the Phone, for that matter)...

 

Final Destination?

 

I still have my Olympus digital recorder I've had for the last 12 years. As long as MP3's are still a thing, it'll have use. Only bad thing about it is it records in mono (left channel only).

 

Cases are down dramatically this week but I’m not sure what to make of that. I think some of it might be the ebb and flow of reporting around the holidays. It would be nice if it were real.

hospital numbers remain the most immune to holiday reporting artifacts. Total hospitalized is down 6.1% over last week, icu census is at its lowest level since Dec. 29

 

West Virginia governor says state is "diamond in the rough" for successful vaccine distribution - CBS News

Being a smaller, compact state does have its advantages.

 

I hope that's what's happening. It just seems to be showing a persistent way of evolving, which is sort of nerdly charming.

 

One of my best students told me today she and her household have it. She said they’re really not feeling good. She’s living with uncle/aunt because mom, dad and siblings are in her home country. She came to the US to go to school. So smart. So determined. Her English isn’t great but they doesn’t stop her. Wish I had 120 of her. Just devastated for her.

 

I definitely think we’ve turned a major corner. I said two months ago that people would be shocked how bad it got in December and then shocked how quickly it got better in January.

I just don’t know if we are getting better *that* fast. Cases are down 25% over the last week. But, tests are actually up, so it’s not just labs closing for the holidays.

If things are actually improving 25% week over week, we will have this thing wrapped up in a month or so

 

my opinion in the evolution thing is that it’s 5% real problem, 5% something that could theoretically become a problem that isn’t yet, and 90% media hype.

99.9999% of variants, literally, are meaningless differences. So far, we have only had one that is starting to compile real evidence that it’s a problem: the UK one that does appear to be more transmissible over a broad range of trials, although I think 30% is more accurate than the 50-70 I see quoted a lot.

Now nobody wants to be left out of the news cycle, so everyone is looking for stories about variants, almost all of which are meaningless but scientists still need to keep an eye on them just in case.

It’s like if you’re a security guard and you see someone holding a small black object in their hands. It’s going to turn out to be a phone or a wallet and not a gun almost every time, but you still have to look twice to be sure.

 

Rick-
I hear you, but I think everyone who got into hard news never dreamt they would be writing about a virus for 300-plus days. No one was ready for this, or ready to know how to cover it.

The variants are alarming because they are unknown, and we know only a speck about their relative.

Even Donald Trump was a virus expert after a week. d e r i s i v e b a r k i n g l a u g h