March 2020
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Would triage plans for the use of ventilators (etc.) that favored those who were younger and healthier violate civil rights law?
I'm curious to hear what informed readers make of this story. Comments may take awhile to appear (as they are moderated when I have time), please submit your comment only once. Thanks.
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How to move forward
There seems to be a consensus among some experts: compare Dr. Scott Gottlieb's report for the American Enterprise Institute with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's recent op-ed in the NYT. Both approaches require widespread testing to permit tracking and isolating of those infected, yet this infectious disease expert tells us that In three to four weeks, there…
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China excluding asymptomatic cases that are positive for the new coronavirus from its offical counts
Worth noting, if China's numbers seem too good to be true.
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Rhode Island police hunting down New Yorkers seeking refuge
Yikes! UPDATE: Listening to New York Governor Cuomo's remarks this morning, I learned that the Rhode Island Governor repealed the executive order requiring police to stop cars with NY plates and require the occupants to self-quarantine if they were stopping in the state.
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Ivanhoe from Sungkyunkwan to Georgetown
Philip J. Ivanhoe, a leading scholar of Chinese and East Asian Philosophy who is currently professor and director of the Institute for Confucian Studies and East Asian Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, will become professor in and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Georgetown University, effective July 1,…
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The next worry on the horizon: sick healthcare workers
This is already happening in Europe (and starting to happen here): because the virus spreads primarily through close contact, healthcare workers are at enormous risk, even more so if they lack adequate protective gear, as is increasingly true in the United States. And without healtchare workers, having enough ventilators won't matter. ADDENDUM: Here are the…
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Even in the midst of a pandemic…
…Chris Bertram (Bristol) still can't stop his petty sniping. Amazing! (More on Bertram for the uninitiated; new readers can safely ignore: academic philosophy has a lot of resentful pests on its margins.) Meanwhile, in the real world, here's a representative nice message I got from a non-philosopher: I discovered your blog just about a week…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Tyrannosaurus Rex, “Hot Rod Mama,” 1968
The lead number of their debut album, before they became the famous T.Rex and Marc Bolan became the face of glam rock in the 1970s:
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Forecasting peak cases and demand for hospital beds, ICU beds, and ventilators by state
MOVING TO FRONT FROM MARCH 26–UPDATED A new study out of the University of Washington, that makes both U.S. forecasts and state-by-state forecasts. The charts starting around page 20 digest the key information. This confirms something we've noted previously, namely, that there is some wide variation by state in terms of capacity to deal adequately…
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Some reading about epidemics of the past
MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–COMMENTS NOW OPEN FOR OTHER SUGGESTIONS Dr. Roger Albin (Michigan) writes: As you publicized the Snowden podcast and as many of your audience are probably compulsive readers looking for useful and engaging reading material, the following may be of interest: Kyle Harper’s The Fate of Rome – which deals extensively with…
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Convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19?
From the editorial in the Journal of the America Medical Association accompanying a newly published research article on this possibility: Shen et al report findings from a preliminary study of 5 severely ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who were treated in the Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, China, using plasma from recovered individuals.1 All…
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A new study of the seasonal variabiltiy of the new coronavirus
Here (not published, not peer-reviewed, but by legitimate researchers). Short version: hot weather and humidity will not extinguish the virus, but it may reduce the spread slightly.
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COVID-19 case tracker…
…by selected cities around the U.S. (Via the map at this site, you can also find state totals, as well as what each state has done in terms of business closures, school closings, etc..)
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Bioethicist Thomas Cunningham to historian Allen Guezlo: cut it out!
(3/27 UPDATE: Professor Cunningham, happily, tested negative for the new coronavirus.) Professor Cunningham invited me to share this letter he sent out to many colleagues: Does anyone know Allen C. Guelzo, a “senior research scholar in Princeton University’s Council of the Humanities?” If so, please tell him to stop it. In his article on WSJ…
Everything you say is true, but what is the alternative? I don’t think people are advocating a return to in-class…