Some COVID snippets from the last week that surprised me.

I don't remember all the sources, so I won't even bother.

1. Since the pandemic started, COVID has killed 5x more cops than gunfire.
   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/16/us/police-vaccine-covid-deaths/index.html

2. Delta is not only about 3x more contagious than the original strain, it also hits you faster and makes you contagious sooner, so the serial interval may be as low as 3 days vs. 6 for the original. (Serial interval is the average time between steps in a transmission chain, i.e. days from infection to spread.)

3. Nearly half of child infections are asymptomatic. Adult infections are more like 87% symptomatic. I hadn't realized how much it has shifted from the early estimates of 60/40 or so.

4. Among adults, INCLUDING asymptomatics as zero days, the average is 15 days of symptoms, with most people in the 7-22 day range. Ouch.