[AKN #12] Another non-doctor gives you COVID advice, COVID visualizations, when men were men, and excuse me while I virtue signal

another krappy newsletter #12

Hola!

Coming to you live from Northern California. Still an indoors kind of guy and it definitely got to me this week. Found myself in a mental rut. One of those ruts where you sit around and tell yourself that everyone feels this way right now. Especially at technology companies.

Every night felt a lot like this:

(h/t NK for the meme)

This week punched me square in the gut. I had a work thing go sour and it felt devastating all week. One of those weeks where you stare at your reflection in the mirror and tell yourself you are pretty.

You start reading inspirational quotes trying to comfort yourself:

I just keep saying don't lose who you are, in the blur of the stars.

Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing.

It's okay not to be okay.

You just got Jessie J’d. Its like getting Rick Rolled. But instead of pasty ass Rick Astley, you get England’s greatest export of the last 32 years, Jessie J.

We like to have fun here.

Onward to another krappy newsletter!

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This edition of another krappy newsletter is going out to 87 homies. Which is 31 more homies than last week. THATS HELLA NEW HOMIES!

Sup, homies? Feel free to reply to this email to say what’s up. I will answer.

If you think someone else in your life would enjoy receiving a weekly email from me about nothing, feel free to forward this email to them and have them push the button below:

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How to COVID Pandemic (as of October 16, 2020)

I normally avoid writing about a hot topic unless we are literally talking about the clothing store, Hot Topic. Because in normal circumstances, if something has 1,000 articles written about it every day, everything useful is written about it already. But oddly enough that is not the case for COVID. The useful articles are few and far between. One side is all in on it being a hoax and the other is all in on performative hygiene.

Given an inevitable next wave coming as we all seek shelter indoors from the cold of winter, it is important to have a plan about limiting your exposure. So I thought I would share my plan to help you decide what to do.

Below is my personal plan and current understanding of the virus.

Note: I am not a medical professional. This is just what I plan on doing.

How worried are you about it?

I worry about giving it to people I care about or who are immune compromised.

I don’t worry about getting it myself especially if the hospital is not over capacity. Given my demographic, the odds are high that I would recover from it. From the data I have seen today, I am comfortable with that risk. But that does not mean I am actively seeking it out. We are best off not getting sick. That has always been true for all illnesses.

I am also open to the idea that we could learn something new tomorrow that would make me rethink my conclusions. This is how nuance works. You are allowed to do it too.

How does this thing get transmitted?

I recommend this presentation on it.

Highlights:

• Most of the evidence points to COVID being airborne.

• Does not mean you should go around licking hand rails. It is generally a good idea to wash your hands. So keep doing that, you filthy animal.

Two important slides from this presentation:

Slide 8: Do’s and Don’ts one pager

Slide 15: Mask fit

What should I buy to prepare for COVID winter?

• Masks. These keep others around you safe. Most masks don’t keep you personally safe. Generally avoid strangers who do not have a mask or have an ill fitting mask because they are a danger to you. I got these over head masks from Proper Cloth. They have a little nose bridge that you can use to secure a tight fit. I wore these on a roundtrip cross country flight and barely hated it. Which is high praise for a mask. Those N95 painter masks from Home Depot are a fate I wish on no one.

• Vitamin D. Link to buy some. It makes sense to take Vitamin D. It has no downside effects. Most Americans are deficient in it because we don’t get outside and see the sun often. We have also started to see data that suggests it helps with COVID recovery:

  1. Severe vitamin D deficiency in people with COVID-19 was associated with a significantly higher mortality risk than COVID-19 patients with normal vitamin D levels (retrospective study in Bari, Italy) (Link)

  2. Mendelian randomization studies have found that genetically low vitamin D levels are associated with higher mortality from respiratory infections. (Link)

What actions are safer than we think?

• Flying. Talked about it in the last newsletter.

• Seeing your friends in groups under 10 provided there is good ventilation.

What should we be doing on a national level?

No. We should not do a full lock down. The WHO agrees. Not earning money is far more dangerous to most people than coronavirus. It is unfortunate. But it is true. I know money is fake and capitalism is evil, but allow me to bring you back from the fantasy world you live in, JRR Tolkien, and remind you that this is how the world works.

There are great plans out there to address virus spreading given what we know today.

My favorite is this one. Read that and notice your reactions to it.

How weird is it to read an actual fucking plan about how to deal with COVID? Wild, right?

Bonus goodies

• Reinfection appears to be a rare event. Interesting one to keep watching.

• Initial signs of lung recovery from people with lung damage from COVID. Pretty wild how good the lungs are at healing themselves. Also a good one to keep watching as we try to assess long term health impacts.

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Visualizing pandemic trends

In the year 2020, we have to ask ourselves “if it didn’t get visualized and put in a simple yet engaging graphic, did it actually happen?”

Here are a few cool visualizations looking at the results of the pandemic as of today.

Sports viewership

There is a desire to attribute this to one thing.

Is it sports becoming too political? But then how do you explain the apolitical sports like the Preakness that took a dive?

Is it people not paying for cable anymore? So why did PGA Tour non-majors go up?

We most likely have a confluence of several things all coming together for this to happen.

In my opinion, it is most likely due to throwing off people’s habits. We were watching the NBA in October. I constantly feel like I am at the office. Of course, I am not going to be ready for the The Belmont Stakes. I don’t even know what day of the week it is most of the time…

I am always ready for the WNBA though. Don’t you dare normalize the greatness of the Seattle Storm.

Retail and food sales

As mentioned above, we give American consumers money and they spend it. This would be an interesting data point in favor for something like Universal Basic Income in the time of a crisis.

Luxury homes

The pandemic has been a story of two worlds for people. Some can’t purchase their first home. Others are looking in to purchasing a second luxury home in Tahoe.

COVID cases between EU and USA

Something that does not seem to be getting a ton of publicity in the US is how bad the second wave has been on the EU. They are now on par with us in terms of daily cases per day.

It is worth noting that the areas where the US saw a spike this summer was the south (ie: too hot so you want to be inside).

Now we are seeing a spike in Europe (ie: too cold so you want to be inside.)

The simplicity of that narrative is very appealing.

COVID deaths vs economic outcome

(h/t JF for the graphic)

Very interesting graph. Makes intuitive sense. If you didn’t have to shut down for seven months then why would your economy go down that far?

I am super skeptical of the China (X, Y) coordinates here. Reporting zero deaths and zero economic impact sounds scientifically impossible. Especially when you factor in the number of urns that were seen entering the city of Wuhan. But what do I know…

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Colorized footage of when men were men

This year unprecedented numbers of people are complaining about burn out during virtual work. Myself included.

In 1929, this is what work looked like. No one complained about burn out…

So get over yourself, me.

Michael Warburton @mikewarburton

Incredible colorised footage from 1929 of construction workers on THE CHRYSLER BUILDING in NEW YORK.

Also none of them died! So perhaps the cure to COVID is working on the Chrysler Building. It is outdoors…

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Catching the rare Californian virtue signaler in the wild

Here we catch the middle aged Californian mid ballot drop off. The faux surprise he exhibits is mostly performative. In reality he wanted you to catch him so that he could be seen voting. Because in 2020 it is more important for people to know that you voted than to actually vote. Low key, some phenomenal calves on the virtue signaler though.

Live. Laugh. Love.

K. Rapp