uspol, mental health

Left for a 30-minute walk before lunch (Pacific time), when the latest news out of DC was just Ted Cruz being an ass as usual. Got back, wife cornered me and whispered, “Did you look at the news before you left?”

Been doomscrolling news of the coup attempt for the last 3 hours. She’s stress-baking, I’m stress-eating, kid’s stress-watching youtube game play-throughs.

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covid testing, variants

Cool: Even without specifically testing for the new covid-variant discovered in the UK, it’s possible to estimate an upper bound for its prevalence using standard tests.

Most covid tests look for several segments of the virus’ genome. Some of them look for one of the segments that’s changed in that variant. They’ll still match on the other segments, but not that one.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/30/22206522/coronavirus-test-variant-contagious-uk-gene

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Covid vaccine (+)

The Pfizer vaccine is being distributed in vials that each contain 5 doses’ worth. Or rather, at *least* 5 doses, to account for spills. Official guidance is now to go ahead and use the 6th (or even 7th!) dose in a vial if there’s enough left.

I’m reminded of the feeling when I got a 25th or 26th photo on a roll of film.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/16/947386411/some-vials-of-covid-19-vaccine-contain-extra-doses-expanding-supply

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