I first started posting about COVID in February, and created a separate "coronavirus" category in early March. Reviewing these posts, here are a few things that lept out at me:
1. When the CDC said wearing masks wasn't needed, that was false: it would have made a difference then, as it does now. It defies belief that there are some states in this benighted country not requiring that masks be worn in public places that are indoors.
2. The anxiety about ventilator supply in the U.S. was mostly misplaced. There was stress in New York City in particular, due to the massive surge in cases, but even there I gather they met the demand. More importantly, we discovered that avoiding ventilators in favor of high-flow oxygen canulas and masks led to better outcomes for patients.
3. The question of heat and the novel coronavirus looks to have been settled: heat doesn't have much or any effect, as the surging cases in Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Southern California, among other places, attest.
4. People rarely get COVID from contaminated surfaces or from passing someone outdoors who has it (are there any confirmed cases of such transmission?). The primary transmission occurs indoors with prolonged exposure (10-15 minutes or more). The worse the ventilation, the more likely transmission is, and the more people are talking, singing, sneezing, or coughing, the more likely transmission is.
It's stunning, though, what we still don't know. We don't know why some people get very sick, while others have no symptoms or mild illness, even when controlling for known variables like age, pre-existing conditions, obesity, and the like. We also don't know why this virus ends up doing damage to so many different organs.
Feel free to offer links to correct any of the preceding claims.
