There are much worse microbes than coronavirus on many publicly-touched surfaces. That doesn’t mean they always or even commonly make people sick. People don’t get instantly infected by making physical contact with a surface where coronaviruses are present - it takes a LOT of viruses to overwhelm the body’s immune…

Now that everyone in the world has heard the message “wear a mask” now, I wish the public marketing campaigns and PSAs would start being more detailed with instructions like this.

And the 20-year-old track star is very likely to be out and about in the world, not in long-term home isolation, while also being unlikely to get very sick or show symptoms.... BUT could get infected and spread it to other people. (Yes, we haven’t yet proven how well the vaccines reduce transmission, but it’s highly…

Not true. We haven’t yet proven or accurately measured how much the vaccine prevents transmission... but that doesn’t mean it “does not at all” do so. Most scientists think it’s very, very likely to prevent most if not all transmission. They are just uncertain of this yet, while more data comes in.

Don’t feel guilty if you’re offered a vaccine (as long as you aren’t cheating to do so)! Take it! And then once you’ve waited about 2-3 weeks after the second dose, put your new immunity to use by volunteering to help others get the vaccine too.

I just today had the second of the two AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine shots, as part of the clinical trial, here in Phoenix. I had the first shot 29 days ago, and had blood draws both times to look for antibody reaction. There’s a 1/3 chance I got a placebo (saline shot)... which I suspect I did, because I’ve had no arm…

Yes, there’s some evidence that viral infection can help trigger mental illness. This study suggests that covid-19 is going above even that baseline.

Setting aside causation for minute; there’s so many lessons from the HIV pandemic that we as a society really need to re-learn, one of which is to balance precaution with stigmatization. The world (regardless of political leadership) has correctly been pushing precaution, but as a result, there’s been a ton of…

(sigh) The bickering about “herd immunity” is getting pretty tedious and stupid on both sides.

I find wireless charging really convenient in two situations:

I suspect the relative population difference doesn’t matter as much as the size difference. The US is 5x the population of the UK, but is 40x the land area.

What does a typical LTE / 4G unlimited data / talk / SMS text plan cost in The UK / Australia / elsewhere?

Yes, and millimeter wave 5G infrastructure really will end up being a future for home and business internet - feeding building WiFi, not as a thing people’s indoor devices connect directly to.

Also, not for nothing, but this study doesn’t point to there being *any risk* beyond a purely theoretical one of contracting Covid-19 (the disease) from a smartphone screen. There are SO MANY pathogens that exist on surfaces out in the world, and yet many of them don’t actually cause truly infectious disease.

They don’t have to do deep nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID PCR tests anymore. Just a painless small q-tip style swab right inside the lower nostril. I’ve had a over a dozen lower nasal covid tests at this point (all negative) and never had to jam a long stick up into my sinus. All I do is take the swab, swirl it around…

I’d much rather see palm or contact-free fingerprint ID used as a biometric identification in public than facial recognition. It’s a lot easier to control access to one’s own hand than it is your face, when walking down the street or entering a store. I mean, it’s all creepy, but if we HAVE to have a biometric future,…

I always tell that story as a counterpoint to the endless anecdotes I still - even today - hear from friends and colleagues: “Oh I never get the flu shot / I always get sick after the flu shot / I don’t think the flu shot is that big a deal”

I’m over age 26, but had it last year (it takes 3 shots, several months apart), and my insurance covered it as preventative. YMMV. 

Get the HPV vaccine series too if you’ve never had it. It prevents HPV related cancers in women and men, and although it’s generally best to get as a child or teenager, you can get it at older ages now. Even if you’ve been exposed to other HPV viruses, the vaccine inoculates against like 9 strains of them, so even if…

I thought that as a young adult, then I got swine flu in 2009 (the last big pandemic). I wasn’t hospitalized but I had a high fever and felt like shit for a week. Got a regular flu shot right after recovering, then got an H1N1 vaccine the next year. I’ve had a flu shot every year since then... and haven’t had the flu…