On the need for Americans to practice social distancing, and why this helps in the case of pandemic disease, by "flattening the curve" and allowing our health care system and supply chains to work — March 3. 2/
On the reasons for, and benefits of, reactive, and, even more important, proactive, school closure, even if kids do not often get sick with COVID19 — March 4. 3/
On how flu actually spreads in social networks, based on our detailed study of the H1N1 epidemic in 2009, and on how we can use social networks to forecast the epidemic — March 5. 4/
On how flu epidemics come in waves, and on how this is in part related to the weather, with preliminary data on what to expect for COVID19 — March 6. 5/
On how COVID19 will strike vulnerable groups, such as those with chronic disease, especially hard, including in particular those with renal disease on dialysis — March 7. 6/
On the astonishing Chinese response to COVID19, with a detailed description of the extraordinary efforts they implemented to reduce social mixing among nearly a billion people, with photos and anecdotes from colleagues in China, too. — March 9. 7/
On whether COVID19 can be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers, and the "quarantine loophole." — March 12. 8/
A short list of some things employers can do to decrease social mixing at workplaces — March 12. 9/
An assessment of where COVID-19 falls with respect to the pandemics that periodically afflict our species, and an argument that, in terms of scale and mortality, it may resemble the 1957 pandemic — March 14. 10/
My response to contrarian view by John Ioannidis, arguing for better data collection (which I agree with), but minimizing the problem we face with COVID19 pandemic (primarily because he ignores the temporal aspect of the wave hitting us) — March 17. 11/
On how people acquire immunity to COVID19 & on the crucial importance of being able to *test* whether they have had it in the *past* & are thus now immune. Such testing would be good for both individuals & our society, & should be free — March 19. 12/
On the endearing fact that young people are much less affected by the COVID19 pandemic than they were in past pandemics, which is a welcome blessing in an otherwise worrisome story — March 28. 13/
On the need for first-rate end-of-life care for COVID19 patients, especially if they are triaged not to get a ventilator, and on possible shortages of essential medicines to relieve pain and shortness of breath (e.g., morphine & midazolam) — April 4. 14/
When people move, they take contagious diseases with them. Their movements are thus a harbinger of the future status of an epidemic in their destinations. This offers the prospect of forecasting and (partially) controlling an epidemic — April 29. 15/
