Tag: covid

California finally has an app that links the Apple/Google contact tracing API with the state public health system

https://canotify.ca.gov/

This is the one that exchanges rotating random numbers between phones over bluetooth, building a pseudonymous list of other people’s phones you’ve been near. You can use the app to report a positive covid result linked to your numbers, or check for exposures against its local list of contact events.

https://www.google.com/covid19/exposurenotifications/

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I remember listening to a podcast on the design way back in…May? It’s an interesting approach to balancing a legit use of tracking vs. limiting chances for abuse of the data by limiting how much is actually collected.

It’s woefully incomplete, of course, but then it’s not like interviews would be complete either, even if we had enough trained people to run them for every single patient.

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covid, competing headlines

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I’m shocked, shocked to find that a student at the kid’s elementary school has tested positive for covid-19 during the week after (checks notes) a holiday that traditionally involves large gatherings over an extended period of time with lots of talking and eating.

OK, not that shocked. Especially with cases *already surging* in the LA area before Thanksgiving.

I wonder if they’re still planning on opening up the TK-2 grades to hybrid on-campus learning.

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As it’s become clear that surfaces are so much less of an issue for covid-19 than droplets, I’ve been trying to go back to being less paranoid about touching crosswalk buttons when I’m out walking.

But today I saw someone reach out her leg as she approached the corner and press the button with the *bottom of her shoe*.

I mean, yay flexibility, but now the paranoia is justified for *non*-covid reasons

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Reply to a post about The evidence is in. WHO says corticosteroids really do save lives of people critically ill with COVID-19, finding that they help treat severe cases.

I’m surprised that the article doesn’t say more about the immunosuppressant effect that corticosteroids have.

Some of the articles I was looking at last week (when I was prescribed a course of prednisone for an unrelated condition) were looking at whether steroids might make mild cases worse by allowing the virus to make more progress.

If that holds up, then it’s *definitely* important to save them for severe cases where the anti-inflammatory effect makes a bigger difference!

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Dreamed I went into the office with several co-workers to fix some problem on-site. When we finished, I decided to grab some things I’d left at my desk back in March.

Found 3 pairs of reading glasses, 2 pairs of sunglasses and a Coraline figurine that I don’t actually have, a desk fan that I do, and 2 computers, a printer, and a fax machine that had been moved onto my desk and left powered on but unused for months.

Fortunately, no 6-month-old banana in the drawer.

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Guess there’s some anxiety about electricity use going on…

Also, IRL, I really was worried for a while about whether I’d left a banana in the drawer. I was out with the flu for the week before the office closed, so I never had a chance to go in and pick anything up. Fortunately I always take my laptop home anyway, and even if I didn’t, we’d been directed back in February to start taking them home nightly. I did have to buy & expense a charger, though.

Biased media always talking about von Doom as if he’s some international criminal instead of focusing on Latveria’s success at eradicating Covid-19 within its borders.

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Team Rocket grunt in a balloon, landing at my house: “What did you hope to achieve by coming here?!”

Um… avoiding Covid?

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It’s starting to look like wearing a mask may not only reduce your chance of spreading the virus to others, but it might also reduce your chance of getting a severe case.

Outbreaks with higher mask-wearing seem to have higher rates of asymptomatic cases among positive tests, and lower death rates.

Speculation is that it might reduce the viral load you get so that you’re still infected & infectious, but not impacted as severely.

Masks offer much more protection against coronavirus than many think

The article is paywalled, but some of the interesting cases they point to include:

– an outbreak at a seafood plant in Oregon where employees had masks, and 95% of those infected were asymptomatic

– a cruise ship where all passengers & crew got masks, & 81% of those testing positive were asymptomatic

-death rates staying low even when cases have surged in places like southeast Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore & the Czech Republic

More research needed, of course!

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Garbage disposal replaced, so we can use both halves of the kitchen sink again. It was leaking from the bottom, which means internal damage. And we couldn’t use that half of the sink at all because of the leak.

The plumber was scheduled to arrive between 10 & 12, got here at 10:30, and was done by 11. First time we’ve had someone else in the apartment in *months*. And it was kind of weird wearing masks at home. It’s like…what’s the etiquette here?

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I just realized we wouldn’t have known without the water detector the landlord put in after the dishwasher leak a few years back.

It’s two contacts on the cabinet floor, hooked up to a battery and very loud speaker. Discovered the leak instantly, instead of weeks later after the cabinet turned into a forest of warped particle board and mold.

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