Links That Changed Me

 

A more accurate title would be "Links to articles that have influenced me enough to change my behaviour."  But short snappy headlines are de rigueur in the early 21st C. 😀  Constantly compressing one's thoughts into their core meaning is hard.  Compression generates heat.  There you have it:  Sue's inadequate effort to explain global warming... : )

The order started out chronological, but strayed into 'what's most important to me at the time.'  Right now the most recent one is second from the bottom.

Saving Your Health, One Mask at a Time.  April 7, 2020.   Dr Tippett, MD, PhD, on defining a safe space and the math of multiplying risk factors to achieve, as near as possible, 100% safety.  This was written at the start of the pandemic.  It is the only article I'm remembering a year later as being of any real use.

 Slate article on Delta   July 21, 2021.  More than year later (and after a too-brief summer of freedom), this is the article that had us taking Delta seriously.  After reading this one we almost didn't go to CO; we did change our route to avoid MO, after cases spiked there.

 Atlantic article on Delta   August 12, 2021.  A brilliant discussion of endemicity [when the virus becomes endemic, or normally present] and immunological naivete.  Although long, this one nails it on what we can do to prevent the sickening waves of 'here we go again.'  "Vaccines remain the best way for individuals to protect themselves, but societies cannot treat vaccines as their only defense." -- author Ed Young.

Note that Atlantic magazine allows readers a certain amount of articles free, but after 2 per month you have to pay.

 The 60-year-old mystery:  Aerosols versus droplets  May 13, 2021.  This is the crown jewel of this post's collection.  Why was 6 feet chosen?  Under what conditions does it actually work?  A team of researchers dug into the past and unearthed surprising answers.  This became personal not just because I married a meteorologist  :^)  but because my own grandfather had suffered Tuberculosis as a medical student in the 1920s.

Apologies for not being able to find a simple plume dispersion video!  Really, I had no idea there were so many videos on the subject of airborne transmission...  I watched some pollution and smoke diffusion videos back in fall 2020 (think smokestack) and that did indeed change me.  Here's one of many:  Japanese article on droplets. 

Image source:  Google   origin. from courses.washington.edu

University of AL on vaccine side effects  July 6, 2021.  A friend claims that the side effects of the vaccine are unknown;  This one's for you.  Note that it comes from the Deep South (Alabama), as does the next link (Louisiana).

Dr Catherine O'Neal on Vimeo  August 3, 2021.  This is the one George shows his students.  Darkest days:  She warns that even though hers is a big hospital with many beds, she cannot guarantee there will be a bed if you have an accident.  Compassionate, logical, yet clearly desperate, I found myself trusting her.  He and I are pretty much placing our lives in the hands of his students.

Katelyn Jetelina on Israel  What's going on with Israel?   At Sept 1, 2021, this one is so new that it hasn't yet actually impacted our behaviour.  At least it's trying to get a handle on new information about booster shots.

 How to talk the shots   April 8, 2021.  Here's a good finisher:  Washington Post on how to talk about controversial things.  I read this and thought, We've been practicing these all along.  Any marriage that lasts will recognize these precepts as only logical.  To wit:  Anger doesn't help;   see things from the other's point of view; and above all, Share Everything, and be prepared to look like an idiot --  because the other side is an idiot too.

Truth will out.  I've learned that over 60 years, ... and this:

Your fears are always worse than the reality.

Hugs,

S