Things from my Newsblur; 2020 Part 1

With COVID-19 having spread to the West, OM has repurposed this Things from my Newsblur into a COVID-19 special.   Hopefully, a non-COVID-19 mental health break Things from my Newsblur will soon be upcoming. 

Stay safe people and WASH YOUR HANDS!

It’s hard not to drown in the sea of information, and misinformation, out there on COVID-19.  For OM, the single best curator of all things COVID-19 has been Azeem Azhar (@azeem), who’s refocused his weekly newsletter towards the subject.  His Exponential View newsletter is always one of OM’s weekly must reads.  That is especially the case this week, so if you read nothing else find time for this one.

Exponential View Newsletter #262 (free)
Read this; great curation of all things COVID-19, from progress against the virus, to China after covid and what it may mean for business models.  (Azeem Azhar)

Can Handwashing Really Stop the Spread of COVID-19

In short, it won’t eliminate the risk of infection but there’s evidence that it’s a simple and powerful safety measure.  Importantly, it also allows people to feel that they have something they can control in this fight.  (Sara Rigby, Science Focus)

Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now
Coronavirus: The Hammer & the Dance (follow-up to above article)

Tomas Pueyo’s original post used statistical analysis of the data available in early March to show why Western nations had to move far more aggressively on COVID-19.  It has been viewed 40 million times, and widely shared and quoted by numerous experts.   His follow-up article on what the next 18 months might look like offers a glimpse at the potential road ahead.  (Tomas Pueyo, published in Medium)

Why the Coronavirus Has Been So Successful

This clear and detailed report on the pandemic explains why we should all be taking social distancing and self-isolation seriously.  (The Atlantic, Ed Yong)

But it’s not all bad news; having most of the world’s best scientists focus on one disease, leads to jumps in progress.

There are over 250 clinical trials for COVID-19 currently underway.

There’s already new cheaper and quicker tests developed for testing for it and numerous groups are racing to develop antibody tests that can show if you’ve previously had COVID-19 (and thus potentially be immune to it).

We can learn best practices from some other countries’ success in stopping the virus affecting their healthcare workers.