8 votes

Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of May 3

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Tags: ask.survey, recurring.weekly, coronaviruses.covid19, coronavirus

This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!

11 comments

  1. ali
    Link
    getting my first jab tomorrow, my gf gets hers on Thursday. I can't wait. I am so happy to finally get vaccinated

    getting my first jab tomorrow, my gf gets hers on Thursday.

    I can't wait. I am so happy to finally get vaccinated

    10 votes
  2. [2]
    skybrian
    Link
    Mexico looks for U.S. help as AstraZeneca admits Latin American vaccine delay

    Mexico looks for U.S. help as AstraZeneca admits Latin American vaccine delay

    Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday the United States would probably send his country 5 million more doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, as the company admitted production in Latin American had suffered multiple setbacks.

    Mexico is struggling with behind-schedule local AstraZeneca production and shortfalls in deliveries from foreign suppliers and has asked the United States to help with more vaccines. The request is in addition to some 2.7 million AstraZeneca doses Washington sent to Mexico in March.

    5 votes
    1. skybrian
      Link Parent
      How two young math geeks solved the mystery of Mexico City’s covid-19 dead [...]

      How two young math geeks solved the mystery of Mexico City’s covid-19 dead

      The death certificates were issued in ascending order by each of the city’s 52 civil registry offices, starting from No. 1 in 2020. “A rookie mistake, if this was the programmer’s decision,” Romero Zavala noted. And then it hit him: All they had to do was identify the highest-numbered certificate in each office. Add them up, and you’d have the Mexico City death toll.

      An algorithm could do the work. Romero Zavala, a graduate of Mexico’s prestigious Tec de Monterrey, wrote it quickly. It would act like a citizen seeking a copy of a death certificate, but bombard the system with ever-more-refined guesses about the top numbers.

      Five days later, on a Sunday afternoon, Sebastián Garrido glanced at his email. He was editor of the data blog at Nexos, a Mexican magazine. He’d never heard of these two young data experts but was stunned by their pitch. Romero Zavala and Despeghel had found 8,072 excess deaths in the capital from January through May 20, while the government had confirmed only 1,832 covid-19 fatalities. “There was no other source of information that came close,” he said. The blog post, published on May 25, exploded on social media and rippled across the Mexican and international press.

      [...]

      Finally, two months after the Nexos article published, the city’s first report appeared. Its overall death figures differed by less than 2 percent from those found by Romero Zavala and Despeghel.
      In August, the city posted its full database of deaths, scrubbed of IDs. “That’s something you normally have to wait two years” for the government to produce, Merino said in an interview.

      In August, the city posted its full database of deaths, scrubbed of IDs. “That’s something you normally have to wait two years” for the government to produce, Merino said in an interview.

      5 votes
  3. skybrian
    Link
    COVID-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths globally, more than double what official reports show The article has a table with estimates for the 20 countries with the highest number of deaths. Their...

    COVID-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths globally, more than double what official reports show

    The article has a table with estimates for the 20 countries with the highest number of deaths. Their methodology is based on adjusting total deaths:

    IHME estimated total COVID-19 deaths by comparing anticipated deaths from all causes based on pre-pandemic trends with the actual number of all-cause deaths during the pandemic. This “excess mortality” figure was then adjusted to remove deaths indirectly attributable to the pandemic (for example, due to people with non-COVID conditions avoiding health care facilities) as well as deaths averted by the pandemic (for example, declines in traffic deaths due to lower mobility). The resulting adjusted estimates include only deaths directly due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.

    4 votes
  4. [3]
    monarda
    Link
    Western Washington University to require COVID-19 vaccines Not much info in the press release, but it looks like besides Western Washington University, University of Washington and Washington...

    Western Washington University to require COVID-19 vaccines
    Not much info in the press release, but it looks like besides Western Washington University, University of Washington and Washington State University, are also requiring vaccinations for fall. I know there have been some lawsuits around vaccine requirements in other states and am wondering how this will play out in Washington.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      FrankGrimes
      Link Parent
      I've been confused about the lawsuits. When I went to college, there were certain vaccines that were required to attend - I don't see how adding another to the list is any different. What am I...

      I've been confused about the lawsuits. When I went to college, there were certain vaccines that were required to attend - I don't see how adding another to the list is any different. What am I missing?

      4 votes
      1. monarda
        Link Parent
        I read this in the Washington Post today: Yes, it’s legal for businesses and schools to require you to get a coronavirus vaccine: That’s true even though the vaccines are approved only for...

        I read this in the Washington Post today: Yes, it’s legal for businesses and schools to require you to get a coronavirus vaccine: That’s true even though the vaccines are approved only for “emergency use."

        It looks like they are using the fact that the vaccines have not yet had full FDA approval, that they have been approved under “emergency use.”

        1 vote
  5. Omnicrola
    Link
    This is an ad, but goddamn if it didn't make me tear up. EXTRA Gun: For When It's Time Gave me so many warm fuzzies.

    This is an ad, but goddamn if it didn't make me tear up. EXTRA Gun: For When It's Time

    Gave me so many warm fuzzies.

    2 votes
  6. skybrian
    Link
    Trevor Bedford on Twitter says that the CFR (case fatality rate) for the US dropped below 1% in April, likely due to older people getting vaccinated. Before that it was mostly around 1.5%.

    Trevor Bedford on Twitter says that the CFR (case fatality rate) for the US dropped below 1% in April, likely due to older people getting vaccinated. Before that it was mostly around 1.5%.

    1 vote