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Links for 2020-09-08

  • illustration of how a rise in SARS-CoV-2 positivity in younger groups can soon become a rise in older groups

    via Vincent Glad, on Twitter: the positivity rate stratified by age, in the Marseilles region

    (tags: testing covid-19 age epidemiology dataviz statistics marseilles france)

  • The timing of COVID-19 transmission

    new preprint on medRxiv:

    We examined the distribution of transmission events with respect to exposure and onset of symptoms. We show that for symptomatic individuals, the timing of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is more strongly linked to the onset of clinical symptoms of COVID-19 than to the time since infection. We found that it was approximately centered and symmetric around the onset of symptoms, with three quarters of events occurring in the window from 2-3 days before to 2-3 days after. However, we caution against overinterpretation of the right tail of the distribution, due to its dependence on behavioural factors and interventions. We also found that the pre-symptomatic infectious period extended further back in time for individuals with longer incubation periods. This strongly suggests that information about when a case was infected should be collected where possible, in order to assess how far into the past their contacts should be traced. Overall, the fraction of transmission from strictly pre-symptomatic infections was high (41%; 95%CI 31-50%), which limits the efficacy of symptom-based interventions, and the large fraction of transmissions (35%; 95%CI 26-45%) that occur on the same day or the day after onset of symptoms underlines the critical importance of individuals distancing themselves from others as soon as they notice any symptoms, even if they are mild. Rapid or at-home testing and contextual risk information would greatly facilitate efficient early isolation.

    (tags: covid-19 transmission infection epidemiology)

  • AVIF has landed

    the latest hot new image format — pretty impressive compression numbers vs quality thresholds here

    (tags: images web avif webp jpeg compression formats)

  • [MA] Post-it notes left in apartment. : legaladvice

    Classic Reddit thread. Guy finds mysterious post-it notes around his apartment, suspects his landlord is breaking in and leaving them. I won’t spoil it, but it’s quite a twist ending…

    (tags: reddit stories legaladvice apartments landlords post-its)