Author Archive
11 Feb 2021
COVID19 Wins the Race for the Bomb
TLDRUpFront: A new variant SARS-COV-2 undermines current vaccines and is better able to reinfect people previously infected. It’s probably too late to stop the global spread of this strain. We still need swift, substantial action to slow the spread while we develop vaccines that work against the new strain.
11 Feb 2021
Moving Goalposts: COVID19 Variants & Herd Immunity from Vaccines
TLDRInTheFront: Currently-known variants of SARS-COV-2 move the goalposts on public health responses and raise the bar for reaching herd immunity through vaccination. Evolution, too, is a complicated "frenemy" in this fight and understanding the forces involved help us make sense of how to better manage the pandemic going forward.
11 Feb 2021
Playing Darts: Explaining Mutation, Isolate, Strain & Variant for COVID19
TLDRUpFront: Science Decoded decodes COVID19 technical terms related to strategic risk: mutation, isolate, strain, and variant.
20 Dec 2020
New COVID19 Variant in UK exposes Strategic Risk of Failing to Contain & Eradicate Pandemic
TLDRUpFront: TLDRUpFront: Pandemic response consists of tactical responses to contain the virus while we gain a strategic advantage through vaccines. But a failure to contain the pandemic increases global viral load leading to new variants and strategic risk. The risk is that one of these variants will be more contagious, more deadly, or resistant to
25 Nov 2020
InfoMullet: Something Minks in the state of Denmark
TLDRUpFront: The Danish government has killed several million mink in order to control the spread and mitigate the danger of COVID-19. Several mutations have already been observed in the minks, and one that might constitute the beginnings of a new "strain" of COVID-19. That threatens the efficacy of a vaccine, and so it is very
25 Nov 2020
InfoMullet: Bamlanivimab da bang, da bang, diggy, diggy, said up jump the boogie
TLDRupfront: Bamlanivimab is not the game-changer drug hoped for. Complexities and ethical questions in administration, distribution, and prescription remain. Still struggling with a drug that works is better than having no drugs that work at all.
21 Nov 2020
InfoMullet: Moderna Joins Pfizer in the ‘Pfight Club’ of COVID19 Vaccines
TLDRUpFront: There is a lot of promise in Pfizer's announcement, but we should be cautious about investing too much hope in it too soon. It bodes well for the pandemic long term, and I hope that we get similar announcements from AstraZeneca and Moderna soon, but there are major challenges ahead in both approval and