This week’s refresh of the excess mortality count from the CDC (last updated November 19, I think). The federal agency identified over 314,000 excess deaths across the country since the start of this year (about 10 thousand more than last week’s estimate). The overall excess mortality rate rose slightly from 11.2% last week to 11.3% this week. Data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, updated November 19, 2020
All posts in COVID-19
This week’s refresh of the excess mortality count from the CDC (last updated November 12). The federal agency identified over 304,000 excess deaths across the country since the start of this year (about six thousand more than last week’s estimate). The overall excess mortality rate remained at 11.2% compared to last week. Data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, updated November 12, 2020
This week’s refresh of the excess mortality count from the CDC (last updated November 4). The federal agency identified over 298,000 excess deaths across the country since the start of this year (about 4,000 more than last week’s estimate). The overall excess mortality rate decreased from 11.3% last week to 11.2% this week. Data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, updated November 4, 2020
“In their 2019 book, The Misinformation Age, Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall explain how false beliefs persist and spread. They emphasise the social character of fake news. The connections between us in groups or networks enable the propagation of misleading evidence as well as true beliefs. Models of communication show the importance of trust in shaping the spread of beliefs. The greater the distrust among those with different views, the greater the risk of permanent polarisation. We are also prey to conformity bias—a desire to agree with others and to trust the judgments of others. Our predilection to conformity … Read More
This week’s refresh of the excess mortality count from the CDC (last updated October 28 [I think]). The federal agency identified over 294,000 excess deaths across the country since the start of this year (about 5,000 more than last week’s estimate). The overall excess mortality rate decreased from 11.4% last week to 11.3% this week. Data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, updated October 28, 2020
“Concerns about hotspots flaring in schools of all types, sports teams, and workplaces lend special urgency to answering how best to limit the spread of COVID-19, and specifically how to test for and track the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the general population. An ongoing public health debate centers on whether we should use sub-optimal tests on a massive scale, testing frequently to overcome their analytical shortcomings. The basic argument was encapsulated in the 9/11 Health Affairs post by Paltiel and Walensky and has two parts. First, that widespread screening will dramatically expand testing capacity and ease ongoing strain on critical supply … Read More
“the F.D.A.’s decision to grant the drug full approval — which means the company can now begin broadly marketing it to doctors and patients — has puzzled several outside experts, who say that it may not deserve the agency’s stamp of approval because it is, at best, a mediocre treatment for Covid-19 [remdesivir..]. “I think most people think that because a drug is F.D.A. approved, that means it must work,” said Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies the drug industry. He and other researchers recently found that less than one-third of new … Read More
This week’s refresh of the excess mortality count from the CDC (last updated October 21 [I think]). The federal agency identified over 289,000 excess deaths across the country since the start of this year (about 15,000 more than last week’s estimate). The overall excess mortality rate increased from 11.1% last week to 11.4% this week. Data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, updated October 21, 2020
“Available guidance documents typically instruct schools to gain access to testing by contacting local public health departments, and few schools appear to have solidified a strategy — especially one that extends beyond testing of symptomatic persons. [..] Most reopening plans instead focus on screening for Covid-19 symptoms. Yet recent research indicates that symptom screening alone will not enable schools to contain Covid-19 outbreaks. Because an estimated 40% of Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic and 50% of transmissions occur from asymptomatic persons, we believe that screening testing is critical. [..] SARS-CoV-2 testing presents at least three challenges for schools. The first is … Read More
“On February 4, 2020, the U.S. secretary of health and human services declared that emergency use of diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 was justified, triggering emergency authority for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a device if it reasonably believes that it may be effective, rather than waiting to grant full approval when it has reasonable assurance that the device is safe and effective. This mechanism expedites access to accurate diagnostic tests during emergencies, when information gaps and false results may adversely affect patient care and public health decision making. The EUA process enabled … Read More