Thursday, October 27, 2022

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 455 (955)

I survived a yesterday that included behind-the-wheel training on a Honda Prius and a very wide wheelchair. I am pleased to report that the passenger survived in both vehicles as did I. I served as chief for the afternoon session of early voting; we topped out at 428 on the day. I will do it again tomorrow and try not to remember how stressful last week's 493 Friday total was. 

I only saw a headline so I have no details, but apparently a cruise ship on which "hundreds of people are confined to their rooms" is headed to Brisbane, Australia. I'm having flashbacks to the cruise ships affected at the start of the pandemic. Not a cruise I'd like to be on. 

China is giving an orally inhaled vaccine as a covid booster. Administration began in Shanghai. An orally inhaled vaccine could stop the virus before it reaches the rest of the respiratory system. The vaccine was tested in five countries as well as China. Regulators in India have approved a nasal vaccine that has yet to be used. There are about a dozen nasal vaccines being tested around the world. China has confined around 800,000 people in Wuhan. Thursday was the third straight day of over 1,000 new cases being identified nationwide.  

Any quantitative-AI types out there? NIH is running the NIH Long COVID Computational Challenge. The goal is to use artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to identify covid patients with a high risk of developing long covid. The prize pool is $500,000 going to first, second, and third places as well as up to five honorable mentions.

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