The Berlin Files #84: party like
Vaccine progress and much more on hopeful signals, quarantine life, and radical transformations.
Hey all, Eric here. I can't think of a better way to kick off this week than with what might be my new favorite song about quarantining and the current moment -- or make that era -- we're living through.
Okay, let's do it.
Hopeful Signals, Quarantine Life, & Radical Transformations
Vaccine & Prevention Progress
I'm going to make an assumption that you, kind reader, are doing all the right things to stay safe. Youβre washing your hands, donning masks in public, and doing the social distancing a go go dance. And while you and I and all of us are doing this stuff, it's not only to keep ourselves and others safe, but in the hope that we're buying time for really smart people in technology, science, and healthcare to figure out a way past, around, and through this thing.
On that note, I'm an issuing a huge shout out to one of my oldest friends, Luis Estevez, for playing an important role in this effort.
Savvy readers of the Files will already know that Luis will also respond to Lou, Captain Lou, Louie Gwar, or the opening notes of any Alice in Chains song.
We're also hungry to latch onto good news, like this.
And closer to home, random testing in New York City schools revealed only one positive test (.06%) out of 1,751 tests performed in the early going.
Also, you have to consider this a big win of the this can be done variety.
But the big thing we're all holding out for, holding on for is a vaccine. Ideally, an incredibly cheap, wildly effective, and bulletproof safe vaccine would be distributed worldwide lightning fast and then we'd be all set for a glorious return to the Before Times. A scenario that would prompt us to party like, oh... a very specific year, I'd imagine.
But the reality is likely to be far different. That said, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, remains upbeat on when initial vaccine approvals may happen in the U.S. His latest estimate on that score is November or December of this year. And even ahead of those approvals, the gears are in motion for manufacturing and distribution:
Millions of doses will be manufactured in anticipation of those approvals, partially through Operation Warp Speed. It aims to distribute 300 million doses by January,Β relying heavily on the militaryΒ for logistics.
Meanwhile, a full 10 COVID vaccines are in phase III trials, which provides hope that one or more of these vaccines will be effective and safe for large segments of the population.
And this really cool Washington Post interactive feature outlines how we could be leveraging sophisticated tracing techniques using genome sequencing. Important note being that the U.S. is behind other countries in pursuing this research.
That said, other technologies are starting to be deployed to help us better understand the spread of COVID, such as "internet-connected thermometers" that have "shown success in predicting likely COVID-19 hot spots days or even weeks before case counts rise." And we're also getting more sophisticated in our understanding of how to target lockdowns to contain COVID's spread.
I was also really heartened to see the current outlook from Donald G. McNeil Jr., who had been a βconsistently gloomy Cassandra," on why the death rate is proving to be much lower than what was feared in the early days of the pandemic:
Donald... noted that the percentage of infected people who are dying from the virus has been falling because of all of the lessons weβve learned during the last few months. Nursing homes have gotten better at protecting their residents, steroids like dexamethasone have lowered the number of deaths, and tactics like rolling patients onto their stomachs and delaying ventilator use have also been shown to help. Pharmaceutical interventions like monoclonal antibodies, still in the early stages of availability, are likely to become even more effective.
Quarantining
In 2019, seeing dancers wearing masks would have been rather strange. But nowadays, this is just wonderful.
As John Oliver might say: and now, this.
The Future of Concerts
I'm not sure what the future of live events will look like exactly, but maybe this is one of those it's so crazy it just might work things?
The Comedy Club
"Do you remember the '90s?"
I've been remiss in not mentioning Portlandia in the club. Well, that ends today. Or whenever you happen to be reading this, that's the "today" that I'm talking about. Anyway, just watch this.
Fun fact: on my first day working for Tribune Publishing, Fred Armisen walked into the LA Times building just before I did.
The Music Club
I've been on a huge tear listening to new wave and early punk music of late. Right now I'm listening to "Rip Her To Shreds," from Blondie's eponymous record from 1976. Pretty incredible.
Bonus: Elvis Costello's "This Year's Girl," which served as the opening credits theme song for the recent HBO series The Deuce.
Election 2020
Climate Watch
Tweets of the Week
It's a Wrap!
You made it. Now get back to attaching kitchenware to your face.
Also:
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And one last timeβ¦