Today is Groundhog Day, as in the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray. The movie is about Phil, a weatherman, who is once again sent by his company to Punxsutawney, PA to report on the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney on Groundhog Day. Phil hates everything about the assignment; the groundhog and the silly shadow superstitions, the town, and the ceremony. His planned departure after the ceremony is upended by a snow storm. Phil wakes up the next morning to find that it’s Groundhog Day all over again, as it will be the next day, and countless others!
Today, like every day the last few weeks, feels like Groundhog Day in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that the early days of the pandemic are on repeat. In the southern states, cases are now at levels not seen since February 2021. Hospital ICUs for adults and pediatric patients are full and bed capacity at or near zero. With an overload of coronavirus cases, the University of Mississippi Medical Center opened a surge facility in the medical center’s parking garage today.
Yet there are notable differences in this current surge with the Delta coronavirus then earlier waves. The Delta variable is far more contagious than prior variants. The majority of hospitals’ severely ill patients are not the elderly but instead middle aged or younger. Even more troubling is the number of severely ill children – hospitals are reporting more critically ill children than they have at any previous point of the pandemic.
Perhaps, this is Groundhog Day 2.0?
This Weekend Reading series begin with It’s Groundhog Day 2.0 with the latest CDC guidelines for construction, business and other new information on COVID-19 and vaccines. Next check out More than Just the Groundhog Day Blues to explore articles on the mental and physical toll Delta is taking on the vaccinated, doctors and nurses. In Groundhog Day 2.0 Wisdom explore perspectives from leading doctors, Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., and E. Wesley Ely, M.D as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger and ethics experts! Last but not least, do not miss No Groundhogs Here and my personal favorite The great American dog shortage.
I hope you enjoy the following:
1. It’s Groundhog Day 2.0
New CDC Guidance:
- Construction COVID-19 Checklists for Employers and Employees
- Resuming Business Toolkit
- Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools
- Families and COVID-19
- NPR: Vaccinating During Pregnancy Has Become Even More Urgent As ICU Beds Fill Up
- NPR: CDC Recommends 3rd Vaccine Dose For Immunocompromised People
2. More than Just the Groundhog Day Blues
- Anchorage Daily News: Why this stage of the pandemic makes us so anxious
- Scientific American: Critical Care Doctors Are in Crisis, Who’s caring for the ICU physicians?
- The Atlantic: Vaccine Refusers Risk Compassion Fatigue
- Reuters: U.S. nurses’ COVID-19 grief pours out online: ‘I just don’t want to watch anyone else die’
3. Groundhog Day 2.0 Wisdom
- The Atlantic: Arnold Schwarzenegger: Don’t Be a Schmuck. Put on a Mask, Generations of Americans made incredible sacrifices, and we’re going to throw fits about putting a mask over our mouth and nose?
- Washington Post: Wesley Ely, M.D., In the South, the delta surge will force impossible choices for ICU doctors like me.
- Journal of Clinical Investigation: Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. America’s deadly flirtation with antiscience and the medical freedom movement
- Public Health Ethics: Alberto Giubilini, Julian Savulescu, Vaccination, Risks, and Freedom: The Seat Belt Analogy
4. No Groundhogs Here
- USA Today: Fact check: Table salt shouldn’t be used to treat burns or wounds, experts warn
- JSTOR Daily: You’ll Never Believe Who Invented Curbside Recycling
- Axios: The great American dog shortage.
- The New York Times: Meet Delta, the good Samaritan robot in an Indonesia village
Enjoy your weekend!
Best,
Suzanne
Suzanne Daniels, Ph.D.
AEPC President
P.O. Box 1416
Birmingham, MI 48012
Office: (248) 792-2187
Email: [email protected]
