raphlinus

On the question of whether we need to update the vaccines: Sara Gilbert spoke to this in some detail in her TWiV interview [813]. They have been testing versions specific to other variants, but haven&…

It's discussed in TWiV [811], skip to 11:58. I'm not going to pretend to be able to interpret it myself, there are a lot of factors. [811]: https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/t…

Sure. Here are some picked from recent TWiV episodes, which probably represents the polar opposite of the Brownstone Institute in terms of approach to science. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr…

The rapid antigen test is considerably less accurate than a PCR test if the goal is individual medical treatment, but if the goal is public health, it's potentially more effective. Michael Mina…

Here is a point I'll concede to the skeptics. By my interpretation, our health system is dysfunctional to the point that it can't reliably and practically collect immunity information in a w…

Thanks for posting actual data, it's helpful to understand a complex story. Here's another well-done analysis, by the Kaiser Family Foundation: https://www.kff.org/coronaviru…

That study is seriously out of date, as it addresses the optimal strategy to prioritize vaccinations when the vaccines are scarce. That's still, sadly, a major concern in many parts of the worl…

It's impressive how well they can find lack of evidence when they look hard for it. The fact that there is a strong correlation is undeniable. Here are 3 links with charts that show the connectio…

SARS-CoV-2 is not a retrovirus. That said, it is likely effective against a wide range of RNA viruses, and its original testing and development was mostly done against influenza[1]. [1]: https:/…

Yes, there are 14 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the Cochrane review of Ivermectin. The results are mixed (some show a bit of improvement) but overall weak. In addition, ACTIV-6 is a m…

At least two pro-ivermectin studies have been retracted. The remaining evidence is weak. I don't think your claim of misinformation is well supported. https://www.nature.com/artic…

A more sophisticated exploration of this topic is Calling Bullshit[1], by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. That's a book, but the linked website also has a lot of freely available resources. It…

The extraspectral hues require mixing light of at least two different wavelengths (red and blue in different proportions), while the other hues can all be made from a single wavelength of light. I und…

There is in fact a book in the works: https://www.handprint.com/CE/book.html I'm looking forward to it, it's likely to be one of the definitive resources on color. I be…

The balloon in the artwork I had made for my undefined behavior blog post[1] was an homage to that cover. [1]: https://raphlinus.github.io/programming/rust/2018/08/…

If people are looking for a real meta-analysis, currently the best one is from Cochrane. They recently put out an author interview[1] putting it into context. I find this whole topic fascinating, firs…

I flagged this because it's a biased source, not the best review. The most authoritative review currently is this one from Cochrane: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi&…

The Android calculator is indeed doing unbounded precision calculations[0.999999999999]. It was developed by Hans-J Boehm, also known for the Boehm-Weiser conservative garbage collector. [0.9999999999…

A Rust implementation, with visuals and pointers to other resources: https://crates.io/crates/rbf-interp …

This sounds to me not unlike the "zero worlds interpretation" in Ron Garret's talk. Are you familiar with it and would you happen to know if it's roughly the same or whether there …

Sure. Here's a recent article by one of the authors of the 2015 paper on Marek, claiming that it is being twisted to support an antivax narrative. It also goes into considerable detail explaining…

Considerably greater risk of myocarditis and other heart issues from infection than the vaccine. See Fig 4 of [1] in particular. When reading that chart, keep in mind that lymphadenopathy is just swel…

I think coming up with an appropriate stippling algorithm is part of what makes it art; different techniques make different textures. But here's an example that comes with full source and is not …

I wrote a little on this last year, mostly still valid: https://raphlinus.github.io/rust/druid/2020/09/28/rust-2021.... I think there are approximately five v…

That seems very unlikely. If a variant evolves that has significant evasion of the vaccines, then we should be able to retool the mRNA vaccines quickly. And T-cell response is more robust to antigenic…

Buckle up. Quoted tweet[1] below: Congrats to Ben Jackson, @maciekboni, @viralverity, @AineToole, @robertson_lab, @EvolveDotZoo, @arambaut et al for their recent Cell paper. Rock solid evidence of alp…

It's best to think of R0 as a summary. For a detailed discussion, see TWiV [792] with epidemiologist Jeff Shaman. First link in this show notes is "A guide to R"[2]. [792]: https:/…

Novavax is a protein subunit vaccine, with the spike protein only. The Chinese CoronaVac and Indian Covaxin are traditional inactivated virus vaccines.

Because "science by PR" is the new fashion. Back in my day, we waited for the peer reviewed publication, and tied onions to our belts, which was the style at the time.

1965: https://www.ecma-international.org/publications-and-standard... pdf page 36…