Free Republic

Covid-19 is once again in retreat.The reasons remain somewhat unclear, and there is no guarantee that the decline in caseloads will continue. But the turnaround is now large enough — and been going on long enough — to deserve attention.The number of new daily cases in the U.S. has fallen 35 percent since Sept. 1:Worldwide, cases have also dropped more than 30 percent since late August. “This is as good as the world has looked in many months,” Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research wrote last week.These declines are consistent with a pattern that regular readers of this newsletter will...

Warm temperatures and tropical climates may really help reduce the spread of COVID-19, a new study suggests. The study found that places with warm temperatures and long hours of sunlight — such as countries close to the equator and those experiencing summer — had a lower rate of COVID-19 cases, compared with countries farther away from the equator and those experiencing colder weather. The findings held even after the researchers took into account other factors that could affect both the spread of COVID-19 and the number of reported cases, such as a country's level of urbanization and the intensity of...

There is growing optimism and hope that by virtue of ongoing immunization efforts, seasonality (declining infections through August), and naturally acquired immunity, by spring and early summer 2021 in the US there will be a substantial decline in the number of deaths and hospitalizations related to COVID-19. However, this optimism must be tempered by several important factors. The likelihood of achieving herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is low simply because not all individuals in the US are eligible to be vaccinated and a quarter of eligible individuals will likely decline to be immunized. Moreover, the vaccines do not provide full immunity...

A recent study by the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor tracked a group of participants over 8 years. The team looked in detail at the prevalence of the four most common human coronaviruses in the population. The research, which now appears in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, shines a light on an understudied aspect of coronaviruses and may prove valuable for scientists trying to make sense of the current pandemic. ...To do so, the team drew on data from a longitudinal study of households receiving primary care from the University of Michigan Health Care System....

Abstract Many causes of death have a clear seasonal pattern. Circulatory and respiratory diseases, which comprise about half of all deaths, have a peak in winter and lowest mortality during summer. Data by cause of death, age, and calendar time (month and year) provided by the National Center for Health Statistics allow an analysis how seasonality has changed over age and time. Using a two-dimensional decomposition and smoothing approach, we show how the amplitude and the phase of selected causes of death have developed since the late 1950s. 9.1 Decomposing Seasonal Data The majority of deaths in most countries can...

Photo by: Gregory DemasSiberian hamsters are used by scientists to study seasonal physiology and behavior. BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A hormone implicated in the onset of human puberty also appears to control reproductive activity in seasonally breeding rodents, report Indiana University Bloomington and University of California at Berkeley scientists in the March 2007 issue of Endocrinology. The paper is now accessible online via the journal's rapid electronic publication service. The researchers present evidence that kisspeptin, a recently discovered neuropeptide encoded by the KiSS-1 gene, mediates the decline of male Siberian hamsters' libido and reproduction as winter approaches and daylight hours wane....