Face masks, lessons from the pandemic, and ergodicity
Hi! A quick update on COVID centered on face masks, ergodicity, and lessons from the pandemic.
Face masks
I recently published an article on the 5 ways that face masks protect us even though they let the virus pass through. It also includes a rebuttal of 8 common bad arguments against face masks. You can find it here.
I wrote that article because I think it’s crazy that many countries are heading towards a second lockdown and yet some of their citizens still find it hard to cover their nose with a face mask.
Lessons
In January, before any known COVID death in the Western world, I published an article called “What will we have learned” (link).
In the essay, I made the point that it will be possible that we win the pandemic (or the first wave) and yet fail to learn the lessons that would protect us from the second one.
Sadly, Europe being taken “by surprise” by the second wave seems to have made the point that we went through a lot but learned little, or at least translated little of that knowledge into proactive action.
We now have a second chance; let’s not squander it again by celebrating a victory before having implemented the long-term changes that will solve the structural problems that made us vulnerable to a pandemic in the first place.
Ergodicity
Finally, I just published a new book on ergodicity that includes a couple of chapters on how a misunderstanding of this key concept led us to underestimate the early stages of the pandemic. You can check it out here.
Stay safe,
Luca Dellanna