messing with AI models
Spiky ‘coronavirus hairdo’ makes comeback in Kenya
Wearing a face mask against COVID-19 results in a reduction of social distancing
Men less than women believe that they will be seriously affected by the coronavirus, and this partly mediates gender differences in intentions to wear a face covering (this is particularly ironic because official statistics actually show that men are affected by the COVID-19 more seriously than women). […] men less than women intend to wear a face covering, but this difference almost disappears in counties where wearing a face covering is mandatory. […] Men more than women agree that wearing a face covering is shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness, and a stigma. [ psyArXiv]
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on female sexual behavior in women in Turkey. Sexual desire and frequency of intercourse significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas quality of sexual life significantly decreased.
Following a 2.5-hour choir practice attended by 61 persons, including a symptomatic index patient, 32 confirmed and 20 probable secondary COVID-19 cases occurred (attack rate = 53.3% to 86.7%); three patients were hospitalized, and two died. Transmission was likely facilitated by close proximity (within 6 feet) during practice and augmented by the act of singing. [CDC]
In studies of people isolated in submarines, space stations or polar bunkers, researchers have found there appears to be an inflection point where the frustration and hardship of being cooped up inside gets suddenly harder to bear. […] there was panic buying and confusion, and then a “honeymoon period” when it felt novel and different to stay at home. “People are now saying they’re feeling really lonely,” Dr Norris said. In the psychological study of extreme confinement and isolation, this is known as the ‘third-quarter phenomenon’. [ABC]
Sweden’s coronavirus strategy will soon be the world’s –Herd immunity is the only realistic option. The question is how to get there safely.
How to Reopen the Economy by Exploiting the Coronavirus’s Weak Spot — People can work in two-week cycles, on the job for four days then, by the time they might become infectious, 10 days at home in lockdown.
There were 93,324 deaths in France between 1 March and 17 April of this year, a difference of 22,198 or about 31 percent over the average 71,126 over the same period for the previous 20 years. […] The Covid-19 epidemic represents one of two spikes in 20 years, the other being the heat wave that killed an estimated 15,000 people over a three-week period in summer 2003. The study also shows Covid-19 is far deadlier than the seasonal flu, which itself took particularly large tolls during epidemics in 2015, 2017 and 2018, without confinement measures. [RFI]
Screening and Severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Children in Madrid, Spain
an hypothesis that there is a potential association between mean levels of vitamin D in various countries with cases and mortality caused by COVID-19 […] Vitamin D levels are severely low in the aging population especially in Spain, Italy and Switzerland.
L.A. County ‘with all certainty’ will keep stay-at-home orders in place through July
Our weird behavior during the pandemic is messing with AI models. Machine-learning models trained on normal behavior are showing cracks —forcing humans to step in to set them straight.
According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes.
My Mask Fogs My Glasses — Health workers have a few tricks for solving this vexing problem, but it will take trial and error to find the one that works for you.
Aztec Kings Had Rules for Plagues, Including “Do Not Be a Fool”
These groups are exploiting loopholes in Facebook anti-violence policies — using satire, code words and other tactics that mask their motives, according to experts who follow fringe groups on social media. One of the more common such phrases is “boogaloo,” which can refer to a kind of music but more recently has come to describe a pending civil war. … Facebook’s efforts to fight everything from Covid-19 misinformation to animal trafficking have been made more difficult by the company’s push into more private, encrypted communication, which can make some illicit activity almost impossible to detect … Facebook is aware that groups try to hide from their detection efforts, which include user flagging, artificial intelligence and human reviewers, the spokeswoman said. For example, the term “boogaloo” doesn’t always refer to civil war — it also refers to a music genre, which means Facebook has to review boogaloo uses in context, according to the spokeswoman. It’s also a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” reference to the 1984 breakdancing movie “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” according to Alice Marwick, an assistant professor of media and technology at the University of North Carolina. [Bloomberg]
