Blog

COVID-19

Data reports for worldwide, national, and South Dakota COVID-19 data. Once a week I try to give an Epi 101 Mini-Lesson to clarify misunderstandings that are out there. Check the archives if you want to see mini-lessons from previous weeks and contact me if you would like a particular topic covered.

March 15, 2023: COVID Weekly Data Update

Excellent Blogs Below are links to two excellent blogs and brief summaries of recent posts:  Ground Truths by Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute: https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-next-phase-of-ground-truths?utm_source=substack The March 7th edition has a discussion about the COVID outbreak moving from pandemic to endemic status, the high baseline…

March 8, 2023: COVID Weekly Data Update

South Dakota 2022 Death Data The Department of Health has updated the provisional 2022 mortality data (link), which is graphed below.  The first thing to notice is that for 2022, the number of deaths each month is still running higher than what was seen before the pandemic (2010 to 2019).  Another thing to notice is…

March 1, 2023: COVID Weekly Data Update

Predominant Variant XBB.1.5 is the predominant variant in the U.S., as well as in HHS Region 8, which includes South Dakota (link).  Last week, the CDC released a report comparing reinfection rates and severity of disease between the BQ.1 and XBB.1.5 variants (link).  Data in that report indicates that there is currently no indication that…

Smallpox: The 1876 New Iceland Outbreak on Lake Winnipeg

After I retired early in the pandemic, it became clear that historical novels may be a vehicle for teaching important lessons about epidemiology and society’s response to disease outbreaks.  In October 2021 I published my first historical fiction, Spot On: The 1846 Faroe Islands Measles Outbreak, which was inspired by the true story of Peter…

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