virus news … (+ some dark humor)

Rings:https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2020/04/19/WVU-rockefeller-neuroscience-smart-rings-apps-algorithms-identify-COVID-19-infections-before-symptoms/stories/202004150090

WVU is using smart rings, apps and algorithms to identify COVID-19 infections before symptoms occur

“….Within a week, 1,000 healthcare workers will be wearing the rings and using the apps with expectations that in a month participation will grow to 10,000 in West Virginia, Philadelphia, New York, Florida and elsewhere to determine how effectively the system provides early warning signs of infection.

“[Healthcare workers] interested in participating should contact us, and we’re interested in working in partnerships,” said Dr. Ali Rezai, executive chair of the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. “The key thing is, we’ve been doing this for three years, and that is why we have taken a big leap ahead with this concept.” ….
….
….Rings, apps and algorithms

Sensors in the Oura Health smart ring record and analyze physiological responses to assess sleep duration and quality, body temperature, and variation in pulse rate and heart function.

Each morning the ring provides a sleep rating based on length of deep sleep (REM) and light sleep.

Leslie Crossley, 51, of Morgantown, serves as RNI’s director of nursing and clinical programs, and is involved in enrolling participants, providing and instructing them about the apps and fitting participants with rings.

“It looks like a normal ring and has some sensors that you can’t feel,” she said. “It’s not uncomfortable, and its waterproof so you don’t take it off, and you charge it once a week. A charger comes with the ring.”….see link

Antibody test in Europe. Seems like big news.
link:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-antibody-test-approval-news-europe-uk-accuracy-abbot-a9490026.html

Coronavirus: New antibody test ‘with 99 per cent accuracy’ approved for use across Europe

New lab test will help identify people infected with Covid-19 who have developed antibodies

Shaun Lintern
Health Corresponden

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241784446.html

Florida isn’t reporting Covid-19 data any longer, apparently, and my guess is that few states are giving us the correct totals, even when they do make their reports public. Two major reasons for this (IMO):

1. They aren’t doing postmortems of people outside hospitals, for the most part. So even if they wanted to tell us the absolute truth, they don’t have the data.

2. There is little incentive for those in charge to be absolutely honest — in the private or the public sector. The higher the totals, the worse they look. The more they look like failures, etc. Dangerous failures.

This is why it strikes me as bizarre, not to mention dangerous, when the right pushes the idea that the numbers are over-hyped. And I’m beginning to see that go somewhat mainstream. Caught a bit of Smerconish (CNN) this morning, which even under the best of circumstances is really bad TV. He was hyping the overhype garbage too, via a guest from the Hoover Institute at Stanford (a decidedly right-wing think-tank).

Took me all of two seconds to see the logical mistakes being made. Basically, highlighting studies that tell us that infection rates are much higher than we’ve been told — which is true — without addressing the undercount for deaths. As in, concluding that the mortality rate is far lower than we’ve been told, cuz the actual infection numbers are much higher.

Again, unless (at least) the same scrutiny is paid to the death totals, such a deduction is patently absurd — and dangerous. And it still doesn’t tell us we shouldn’t “social distance” or take serious preventative measures. A higher infection rate actually tells us we’re not doing enough of that.