links to other web sites

Outdoor Activities, and Educational Events in the Pacific Northwest

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCES (by date):

Current: State Resources for finding a location for inoculation: This is the URL for the link to Washington State Department of Health "Phase Finder tool" and Vaccine Locator map. The process is to go through the "Vaccine Phase Finder" questionnaire which will at the end print out a certificate that you currently do or do not qualify for a shot under current state guidelines. Keep this print out and take it to your vaccine provider. The second link the "Vaccine Locator" is a map of the locations of all the registered vaccine providers in the state by county. This is a difficult process and requires persistence and patience to find a location. Another approach is to call your family doctor or healthcare provider to see if you can get an appointment through them. The third approach is to just go to a mass vaccination site near the end of the day even if you do not have a reservation. Bring your qualification certificate and tell them you are a voluntary extra arm if there are any left over vaccinations. Most of the providers do a very good job of social distancing people, checking temperatures, and require masks on everyone even when there may be several hundred people in line for the shot. URL: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/COVID19/VaccineInformation/PhaseFinderTool
Current: One of the best web resources I have seen for finding and certifying for an inoculation anywhere in the country was put together by NPR Radio. The resource is at URL: www.npr.org/shots. or more specifically: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/18/967448680/how-to-sign-up-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-your-state
Current: Another potentially great resource for finding vaccinations is Vaccinefinder.org. This looks like it may turn out to be the resource we have all been waiting for to find inoculation stock nearby, but they do not have our state (Washington) fully current yet. They are adding states as they can. It is map based and allows you to search by zip code and right on the page it lists rather the location has vaccine stock or is out of stock. The locations that have stock are green and those who are out of stock are greyed out. Lets hope they get Washington State up and running soon. https://vaccinefinder.org/search/
Current: World Map of Corona Case Counts by Johns Hopkins University Med URL: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html This site has most of the countries of the world listed and their daily case counts, death counts, and cumulative counts. I find the chart of daily cases most interesting as it shows whether the count is going up, leveling out, or declining, and you can see how it compares to the early spring peak counts.
Current: Washington Coronavirus Case Counts by The New York Times As of February 2021 cases and hospitalizations are down significantly from the peak this fall but not yet down to the levels of the worst of the spring peak levels. This is a good resource to monitor to see where we are currently. The objective is of course to develop "herd immunity" or get the new infection rate back to where we can trace and isolate any new cases that happen. This is why only inoculating, or only social distancing & masks alone will not solve the problem. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/washington-coronavirus-cases.html
Current: King County case count charts URL: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/daily-summary.aspx
02/02/21 Comparing the Covid-19 Vaccines by Helen Branswell https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/02/comparing-the-covid-19-vaccines-developed-by-pfizer-moderna-and-johnson-johnson/ This is a good article on a direct comparison between Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson's one dose inoculations. The interesting figure for the new one dose J&J inoculation is that while it only provides 66% protection in worldwide tests (72% in the US, & 57% in S.Africa) from moderate infections (typically very good for other flu like shots), it evidently provides an 85% protection against severe disease. It is also a much simpler fluid to transport and store than the others. The first two provide 94-95% protection from moderate to severe infections but we do not yet know whether any of them prevent all infection, or whether the disease is still spread by inoculated patients. The resulting advice is of course still take all precautions even after inoculation. The shot should be best viewed as protection against having to go to the Emergency Room, not as total immunity.
01/01/2021: How Long Does Coronavirus Live on Surfaces? by WebMD Some easy reading on how to help prevent the virus from invading your home. URL: https://www.webmd.com/lung/how-long-covid-19-lives-on-surfaces Remember that infection is based on exposure concentration and duration. All surfaces have a different half life so while paper may still have traces of the virus after five days it is probably only a couple days before the majority of the live virus has died. Washing with soap and water (20+ seconds) is best because this virus is lipid incased (protected by a fatty shell) so the soap will dissolve the fat and expose the virus. Alcohol spray and gel will kill the virus if in contact with it long enough to denature the protein so if it is 100% alcohol with no water it will evaporate too rapidly and not be very effective. If it is less than 60% ethanol (or 70% propanol) it will not be potent enough. See Compounding Alcohol Based Hand Sanitizer at URL: https://www.usp.org/sites/default/files/usp/document/about/public-policy/usp-covid19-handrub.pdf
12/22/2020 Duration of Moderna inoculation Antibodies/Affects. Below are two articles, the first one is an easier to understand Forbes Magazine article and the second is the study it is based on. Both deal with the duration of the inoculation affects of the Moderna vaccine. The one paragraph summary is that initial studies of a very small group of patients (34 patients) shows that the first dose in the 56-70 age group provides an initial jump from zero to about a level of 40 units of Neutralizing Antibodies. This then falls back to near zero by the scheduled second booster inoculation. At this point the count jumps to somewhere under 1000 Neutralizing Antibodies. This then starts to fall back to about half of that after three months. No studies have any statistics on patient outcome beyond this yet, of course, but projecting this forward would suggest some immunity effects lasting seven months to a year or more. Effectively this means that we will likely need an annual booster shot against the Coronavirus. URL: -Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/12/22/the-moderna-vaccines-antibodies-may-not-last-as-long-as-we-hoped/?sh=204d5ead4567 -Study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2032195?query=RP The Neutralizing Antibody count is the important chart here because the human body generates antibodies which seek out and attach to proteins with the form they are looking for. The neutralizing antibodies then effectively prevent the virus from further attaching to or infecting human cells and/or divert them to the body's waste system. Other antibodies may attach but not prevent infection.
11/24/2020 Corona Exposure risk based on Masking and Distance by the Mayo Clinic. Preliminary results of a recently done (November 24th 2020) Mayo Clinic study demonstrated the effectiveness of both masks and the 6 foot distance. The full article can be read at: https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-research-confirms-critical-role-of-masks-in-preventing-covid-19-infection/ The brief summary is that they used dummies to simulate particle spread of Covid-19 between a source and a target. "We found that both disposable paper medical masks and two-layer cloth masks were effective in reducing droplet transmission". The study also showed that if the source was wearing a mask even if the target mannequin was only 1 foot away there was less than a 1% chance of catching the virus, and also that if the target was masked and the source unmasked yet they were 6 feet apart there was only ~2% chance. However if no masks were worn at 1 foot there was a 100% chance of getting infected and at 3’ ~17% chance, and at 6 feet about 3%. No discussion of duration of the test exposure was mentioned and this test was for droplet transmission not fine aerosols. Nonetheless both masks and distance appear to be helpfull! So doing both gives some redundancy and a possible safety margin. With up to 40-45% of sources currently believed to be entirely asymptomatic, and still contagious, every precaution should be taken.
11/1/2020 Studies of Neurological, Cardio Vascular, and inflammatory complications from Covid-19, by Kirsten Weir (American Psychological Association). Long term after effects of catching the Coronavirus appear to be fairly common in severe cases, and not uncommon even in mild cases. One of our club members relatives caught a mild case of Covid-19 which only lasted a couple of weeks. Then within a month the doctors believe it turned into a secondary bacterial complication that affected one of her heart valves which necessitated open heart surgery to replace the valve. There have also been several reports of children developing severe inflammatory problems after having asymptomatic Covid-19 infections. The lesson here seems to be that it is important to get this pandemic under control by all means possible and not to take any unnecessary chances with exposure regardless of your age or health. URL: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/11/attacks-brain
03/25/20 "Compounding Alcohol Based Hand Sanitizer" USP.org sourced from CDC URL: https://www.usp.org/sites/default/files/usp/document/about/public-policy/usp-covid19-handrub.pdf Be careful when selecting your source of hand sanitizer products. Often the dollar store bottles are not concentrated enough or are improperly made. The CDC has a list of product brands to avoid. They still believe Covid-19 is primarily spread by inhaling droplets or aerosols from other infected people but it can be also spread by touching infected surfaces and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Wash you hands often and keep your house and inside your car clean!
03/20/2018 1918 Influenza Pandemic by CDC & NCIRD This is a brief historical outline of the 1918 Flu Pandemic which is a good case study of the previous worldwide viral pandemic for comparison. URL: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/pandemic-timeline-1918.htm
01/01/2008 Chemical Disinfectants by CDC URL: https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/disinfection-methods/chemical.html This is a good guide to surface and wound disinfection with detailed explanation of the advantages and effectiveness of various Alcohol based chlorine based hydrogen peroxide based and other compounds. Interestingly ethanol (drinking alcohol) and isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) alcohol are both good disinfectants but methanol (wood alcohol, gas additive) is not effective. Methanol also should not be applied to wounds or the skin and can cause blindness if swallowed! So choose your alcohol wisely. Also interestingly Isopropyl Alcohol (propanol) and ethanol are particularly effective against lipophilic (fat based) viruses, like Coronavirus, but propanol is not as affective against hydrophilic viruses like rhinovirus.