COVID-19 Update: Friday, October 2nd

AstraZeneca, Numbers, Findings from a large Contact Tracing Study, Amazon, and the President.

1. The FDA is still investigating the AstraZeneca trial extending their review to include prior studies conducted by the researchers. They are not suggesting misconduct but instead, they are looking to see if there were any similar negative responses of candidates in other vaccine trials using a similar technique. Unlike other vaccines, they use adenoviruses found in chimpanzees to build from – so the FDA is exploring that a little more before approving the trial to resume.

2. Numbers are holding somewhat steady despite increases in about ½ the states. From June-August we saw the increases among those ages 20-29 (roughly 20% of all cases). Increases in this age group have been linked to increases in the 30+ group and finally into the 60+ group creating a bit of a ripple effect that takes from 4-15 days to occur. I am including a little chart today (see below) showing that we are trending down for deaths, which is great news.

3. A study out of India used contact tracing to redefine some of what we know about the spread of the disease. This study looked at around 500k cases and found that about 60% of all traced cases were traced back to about 8% of those infected. Meaning a small number of people seem to be responsible for the bulk of the diseases spread. They also found that those ages 20-45 were the biggest spreaders due to the number of contacts they tend to have and that children were quite efficient at spreading it to other children. These findings suggest that super-spreaders are more the norm than the exception and that a lot of the spread is coming from them.

4. Amazon and Wholefoods say that over 19k of their employees have COVID.

5. And in case you somehow missed it, the President and his wife have tested positive for COVID.

FINAL THOUGHTS: today I want you to hear me say that you are enough. You are enough. You don’t have to be more, do more, or give more. You have nothing to prove. You are enough. Have a great weekend, rest, relax, and ignore the haters.

US Deaths from COVID