Covid-19 Resources

iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 23.03.20

This page is predominantly so I can track resources I come across, for my own reference as much as anyone else’s, as the US faces a pandemic the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1918 (Lord willing, not significantly worse).

Statistics and data (early March)

Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now is an excellent article with thorough projections, and important concepts like morbidity being a more truthful indicator of spread than infections, since many people that develop more mild Covid-19 symptoms will likely go untested. Of note, this article is far more reliable than the mostly fictitious “Evidence Over Hysteria” also posted to Medium, which I shall not give the dignity of linking to. But if you want, here’s a tiny sample of the issues over on twitter.

Are Hospitals Near Me Ready for Coronavirus? Predictive analysis.

Ars Technica: Compreshensive Guide to the Coronavirus (there’s also an article dealing specifically with biology of an effective therapy that I haven’t fully read, but looks great)

CDC Cleaning Disinfection and a list of effective products.

Internet Book of Critical Care (in case you were wondering how hospitals may be addressing the treatment of patients)

Genomic epidemiology of novel coronavirus provides a fascinating map of the virus as it spreads and mutates around the globe.

The state of Michigan.gov is posting updates to the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths daily.

How to Help (mid March)

Folding @ Home allows you to devote unused computer power to processing medical simulations, helping researchers find potential treatments. You can also check out the Vectorform team stats.

Heroes (mid March)

The Metro Detroit area is pretty diverse, and a school asked for bilingual community volunteers to help contacting families for whom English is difficult. The list of languages needed was lengthy, and was very quickly filled. God bless them all!

Good samaritans with a 3D printer were able to replicate an $11,000 part that wasn’t available to save lives, and print them for $1 in a material that could be used by hospitals in Italy. (Follow up: they are of course facing threat of litigation from the company that couldn’t/wouldn’t supply the necessary parts to save lives, because no good deed goes unpunished)

How to Help (late March)

For those that sew, making cloth masks for use as a last resort PPE solution (personal protection equipment) can be an activity that helps the community while keeping social contact at a minimum. It’s far from ideal (cloth masks generally perform at half the efficacy of a proper N95 mask), but it’s something…especially in countries like the USA with critically low medical supplies.

Research into efficacy repeatedly confirms that home made masks are an absolute last resort as they provide far less protection than correct equipment.

Here’s a list of research articles:
Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks
A cluster randomised trial
What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks? (a much more lay-person accessible article)

Requests for help:
Forbes (includes links to pattern and instructions)
ProMedica (links to several good patterns)
Joann Fabrics (multiple pattern options, and the stores are operating as a drop off point for finished masks to be distributed to hospitals and care facilities)

If you are a medical professional in the USA seeking supplies please check out Project N95 which is attempting to track areas of greatest need and direct supplies to the correct areas.

Statistics and data (late March)

Tracking the coronavirus outbreak in the US from AP news, lists official CDC counts per-county.

Debunking nonsense (late April)

Cue the debunking: Two Bakersfield doctors go viral with dubious COVID test conclusions (need I say more?). ACEP responded as well with a Joint Statement on Physician Misinformation. While the article Shoddy statistics and false claims: Dr. Erickson dangerously misled the public on coronavirus is itself highly suspect (the author operates under a moniker with zero accountability), they do link to a few sources that are helpful.

I’m an Investigative Journalist. These Are the Questions I Asked About the Viral Plandemic Video. Great write up on journalistic standards, and the questions we can all ask when looking at a truth claim.

It’s not remotely as popular as flashy nonsense from Bakersfield, California, but an article about face masks has also been making the rounds Review of science and policy around face masks and COVID-19. I’ve tried to check a couple of the sources, and there are serious questions as to the validity of the paper’s conclusions. One test compared N95 masks against cloth masks, saying the cloth masks were much more dangerous. This is true! But irrelevant when discussing NOT wearing masks. Another study (one of the few, if not only, ones studying non-mask wearers against mask wearers) claimed that fabric masks underperformed, but that Further research is needed…. That study was 5 years ago, and the authors have since published an update. This is of particular interest because not only do they point out their study didn’t look at issues from re-use and potentially improper cleaning procedures, but their “control” group, the people ostensibly not wearing masks, actually wore surgical masks. Yep. Turns out their findings are completely unrelated to any discussion about whether to wear masks or not.