This is one of the best visualizations I have ever seen to show how viral outbreaks work. The Washington Post offers a simulator that randomly depicts an outbreak in a town of 200 and provides four different scenarios. Below are screenshots I took of some of the results generated. The grey blue section represents people
Happy April Fools! Pretty much every blog joke I thought of came across trite, cruel or inappropriate, so I decided to forego attempts at humor this year. Instead, I’m offering up some interesting historical death facts. The infographics in the History of Pandemics are fascinating. You can see COVID-19 in comparison to other great pandemics
The CDC has published an article on super spreading events and their mitigation. In the report, the CDC cites a Japanese study that shows that all of their super spreading events started indoors. That study concluded that indoor locations were 18.7 times more likely to spread COVID-19 than open air locations. Dividing a 2-3 R0
There are two main factors that determine the potency of a pandemic: 1) How contagious the virus is; and 2) how potent the virus is. I have commented often on COVID-19’s basic reproductive ratio or R0. Potency is more difficult to quantify. There are many factors. The duration of the illness. The percentage of the
I have mentioned the Basic Reproductive Ratio (R0 or R Naught) in prior blogs. This is the expected number of cases directly generated by one case in a population where no other individuals are infected or immunized. The effective reproductive number (R) is the number of cases generated in the current state of a population
There are been 4-5 drug combination studies or trials that are showing promising results for treating COVID-19. High dose intravenous vitamin C is being used in New York with success. Intravenous injections of vitamin C have also been shown to be useful for certain types of cancer treatment or prevention. It must be intravenous as
The COVID-19 outbreak is a serious situation. A lot of what is happening is out of our control. In situations like these, I try only to focus on what I can control. For instance, proactive ways to boost immune system defenses against COVID-19. Below is an overview of suggested risk reduction strategies along with my
