Just clustering a few bits here this morning, from the past few days’ world watching and trying to gain traction on my own inefficiencies and perplexities. As a biology watcher, I do follow with special interest the world-health event we are now facing. Some of these resources are data points in tracking the evolution of this event as CoVid19 comes closer and closer to where each of us live.
â–º Past Time to Tell the Public: “It Will Probably Go Pandemic, and We Should All Prepare Now” – Virology Down Under
For weeks we have been trying to get officials to talk early about the main goal of containment: to slow the spread of the virus, not to stop it. And to explain that containment efforts would eventually end. And to help people learn about “after containment.” This risk communication has not happened yet in most places.
â–º Preparedness: Community is the key
Preparedness of the ‘fortress’ type is not what we consider resilience — it’s not long-term effective or desirable, on any level. As Prof Tim Flannery said about the climate crisis: “no-one can outrun this — we have to stand and face it”. Together.
The same is true for many of the shocks we’ll face as communities. So get prepared on a household level, and then think about what preparedness looks like in your community, and work towards that.
â–º And if it’s any consolation to all that is not right with the world, Spring will be earlier this year than any in 124 years. This is because the “day” is not exactly 24 hours and there is a course correction required. So mark your calendars: March 19 the Earth tilts back toward the sun in the northern hemisphere.
â–º CoVid19: Worse for men than women
â–º CoVid19: you can be reinfected and it does not go well.
Around 14 per cent of patients who recovered from the Covid-19 virus and were discharged from hospitals in China’s Guangdong province tested positive again in later check-ups, reported Chinese media outlet Caixin.
In a briefing on Tuesday (Feb 25), Dr Song Tie, deputy director of the Guangdong Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, reportedly said there is no clear conclusion on why this happens and whether such patients could still be infectious.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/world/14-patients-who-recovered-covid-19-test-positive-again-guangdong-report
â–º Progressive Summarization: A Practical Technique for Designing Discoverable Notes — Praxis | related to my eternal quest to find order in the chaos, signal in the noise, and the tools to help maybe just a little in this work.
The challenge of knowledge is not acquiring it. In our digital world, you can acquire almost any knowledge at almost any time.
The challenge is knowing which knowledge is worth acquiring. And then building a system to forward bits of it through time, to the future situation or problem or challenge where it is most applicable, and most needed.
â–º The World On Fire: Five Global Health Stories To Watch In 2020
The Global Risks 2020 Report, released last week, just ahead the WEF meeting that begins Tuesday in Davos (21-24 January), notes “climate response shortcomings” as well as “biodiversity loss impacts” among the top two out of five categories of risks faced by the world for 2020. “Creaking health systems” is listed as a sixth.
â–º How one man changed the meaning of past, present and future | Aeon Essays Pastness, presentness and futurity seem to be real features of the world, but are they really?
I had fun reading your link to the philosophy of time. I enjoy your blog every day.
Hey Fred. . .Just a note. . . The northern hemisphere has been tilting back “toward the Sun” since December 21, 2019. The Winter Solstice. I do enjoy reading your column!!
Errata: of course Skyler is right. Days have been getting noticeably longer lately, but the shortest day is in December. The equinox in march comes when day length equals night length, with days longer than nights thereafter until June solstice. Check my math.