Liberty
-
Posts
13,467 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Liberty
-
-
Here it is:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812
Why has the United States handled this pandemic so badly? We have failed at almost every step. We had ample warning, but when the disease first arrived, we were incapable of testing effectively and couldn’t provide even the most basic personal protective equipment to health care workers and the general public. And we continue to be way behind the curve in testing. While the absolute numbers of tests have increased substantially, the more useful metric is the number of tests performed per infected person, a rate that puts us far down the international list, below such places as Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia, countries that cannot boast the biomedical infrastructure or the manufacturing capacity that we have. Moreover, a lack of emphasis on developing capacity has meant that U.S. test results are often long delayed, rendering the results useless for disease control.Although we tend to focus on technology, most of the interventions that have large effects are not complicated. The United States instituted quarantine and isolation measures late and inconsistently, often without any effort to enforce them, after the disease had spread substantially in many communities. [...]
The United States came into this crisis with enormous advantages. Along with tremendous manufacturing capacity, we have a biomedical research system that is the envy of the world. We have enormous expertise in public health, health policy, and basic biology and have consistently been able to turn that expertise into new therapies and preventive measures. And much of that national expertise resides in government institutions. Yet our leaders have largely chosen to ignore and even denigrate experts.
-
Shred in peace, Edward..
-
-
Drosten is even more famous in Germany than Fauci is in America, thanks to a wildly successful podcast he introduced in February. Das Coronavirus-Update rocketed to the top of Germany’s podcast rankings, reliably outperforming programs devoted to sex, crime, and even soccer. Its format is simple: As often as five times a week, he spends an hour answering questions about basic science, the latest Covid research, and how societies might navigate the pandemic. Since starting the show, he’s cut back on contact with the press, reserving most of his comments for the podcast. He declined an interview for this story.
-
https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-43fe5ca3fba1d4ebc05949a11643e03b
“In a well ventilated environment, “6 feet (of separation) is pretty good if everybody’s got a mask on and nobody stays directly downwind of an infected person for very long..” -
Where are the memos for the investments that didn't work out?
Same question came to my mind :)
Here, kind of:
-
Looks like todd:
-
I've recently joined and gave it a try and so far I'm impressed. Gotta use it some more to form an opinion, and I had a few bits of feedback to them about the UI (especially how dates are formatted)..
-
Recent (august 24) interview with Ackman, hour-long:
-
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076020302764?via%3Dihub
AbstractObjective
The vitamin D endocrine system may have a variety of actions on cells and tissues involved in COVID-19 progression especially by decreasing the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Calcifediol can rapidly increase serum 25OHD concentration. We therefore evaluated the effect of calcifediol treatment, on Intensive Care Unit Admission and Mortality rate among Spanish patients hospitalized for COVID-19.
Design
parallel pilot randomized open label, double-masked clinical trial.
Setting
university hospital setting (Reina Sofia University Hospital, Córdoba Spain.)
Participants
76 consecutive patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection, clinical picture of acute respiratory infection, confirmed by a radiographic pattern of viral pneumonia and by a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR with CURB65 severity scale (recommending hospital admission in case of total score > 1).
Procedures
All hospitalized patients received as best available therapy the same standard care, (per hospital protocol), of a combination of hydroxychloroquine (400 mg every 12 hours on the first day, and 200 mg every 12 hours for the following 5 days), azithromycin (500 mg orally for 5 days. Eligible patients were allocated at a 2 calcifediol:1 no calcifediol ratio through electronic randomization on the day of admission to take oral calcifediol (0.532 mg), or not. Patients in the calcifediol treatment group continued with oral calcifediol (0.266 mg) on day 3 and 7, and then weekly until discharge or ICU admission. Outcomes of effectiveness included rate of ICU admission and deaths.
Results
Of 50 patients treated with calcifediol, one required admission to the ICU (2%), while of 26 untreated patients, 13 required admission (50%) p value X2 Fischer test p < 0.001. Univariate Risk Estimate Odds Ratio for ICU in patients with Calcifediol treatment versus without Calcifediol treatment: 0.02 (95%CI 0.002-0.17). Multivariate Risk Estimate Odds Ratio for ICU in patients with Calcifediol treatment vs Without Calcifediol treatment ICU (adjusting by Hypertension and T2DM): 0.03 (95%CI: 0.003-0.25). Of the patients treated with calcifediol, none died, and all were discharged, without complications. The 13 patients not treated with calcifediol, who were not admitted to the ICU, were discharged. Of the 13 patients admitted to the ICU, two died and the remaining 11 were discharged.
Conclusion
Our pilot study demonstrated that administration of a high dose of Calcifediol or 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a main metabolite of vitamin D endocrine system, significantly reduced the need for ICU treatment of patients requiring hospitalization due to proven COVID-19. Calcifediol seems to be able to reduce severity of the disease, but larger trials with groups properly matched will be required to show a definitive answer.
-
I enjoyed this interview with Matthew Walker about sleep science:
-
Ghibli is great, keep going!
Would recommend Spirited Away, Castle in the sky, Nausicaa, Howl's moving castle.
And when a little older, Princess Mononoke and Grave of the fireflies.
Masterpieces, all of them! (although Totoro is my personal favorite - true magic)
Yeah, amazing stuff.
Last night wife and I watched episode 1 of this NHK documentary. Followed Miyazaki during the early days of the making of Ponyo. Really great to see his creative process, and to realize how much of it is coming straight out of his head and drawings:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/video/10yearshayaomiyazaki/?type=tvEpisode&
-
It would still be valuable, but A LOT less. A LOT.
TikTok basically is its algo. It's not based nearly as much on a social graph or an interest graph as other social media companies. The algo does all the heavy lifting.
-
As the White House coronavirus task force privately warned state officials that they faced dire outbreaks over the summer, top Trump administration officials publicly downplayed the threat of Covid-19, documents released Monday by the House Select Subcommittee on Coronavirus show.
The subcommittee published eight weeks of internal White House coronavirus reports, which are prepared by the task force and sent privately to governors. The newly published reports begin on June 23 and the most recent report that’s published is from Aug. 9. The White House has declined to make all the reports public.
“Rather than being straight with the American people and creating a national plan to fix the problem, the President and his enablers kept these alarming reports private while publicly downplaying the threat to millions of Americans,” subcommittee Chairman James Clyburn, D-S.C., said in a statement.
-
Been going through the Miyazaki movies for the first time with my family. So far it's all been big hits, awesome stuff. In order:
Ponyo (2008), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) and The Cat Returns (2003?).
Highly recommended, especially if you have young kids.
This page gives an idea of what movies are good for what age range:
https://offspring.lifehacker.com/how-to-introduce-your-kid-to-studio-ghibli-1825737607
-
podcast with Ryan O'Connor, his granddad was one of the original investors in the Buffett partnership and has some funny stories.
Is he the guy that used to have a blog called AboveAverageOdds ?
I lost so much money following some of his recommendations in my earlier years of investing...
-
-
-
Navalny apparently poisoned now. This is bad, as Russia may be losing Putin’s most effective courageous critic.
Putin's likely response: YA deystvitel'no ne znayu etogo parnya. YA s nim ne vstrechalsya. Chto yest', to yest'.
;)
-
I re-watched (for the 3rd time, I think) 'Up in the Air' (2009) last night. It holds up. Still liking it quite a bit, and the 2009 recession context kinds of fits today's environment.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/
I love that Sad Brad Smith song, "Help Yourself".
-
I'm about 2/3 of the way through "The Innocence Files" on Netflix, and I think everybody should watch it.
Well made and very interesting, but also important information about the real reliability of things like forensics experts, eye witnesses, etc, vs the perceived reliability (that people mostly get through TV and film and such).
-
-
Spain not looking good..
-
COVID looks rough even if you're young and apparently healthy.. Dave Portnoy:
Coronavirus
in General Discussion
Posted