C’mere to me

Share this post
Sniffing Out Covid 🐾 & Media Obligations 🎾
cmeretome.substack.com

Sniffing Out Covid 🐾 & Media Obligations 🎾

Tuesday, June 1st 2021

Guy Boggan
Jun 1, 2021
1
Share this post
Sniffing Out Covid 🐾 & Media Obligations 🎾
cmeretome.substack.com

Hey,

Can’t quite believe it’s June 😎

The hottest day of the year so far was recorded on Sunday, at 23.1°C, out West at Newport Furnace, Co. Mayo, according to
Met Éireann.

Balmy for Ireland but certainly not impressive…

Nevertheless, summer is upon us! 🌞


Anyway,
C’mere to me…


🐾

Dogs Sniffing Out Covid


The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) released a pre-print paper on dogs, determining that they can detect Covid-19 on clothing worn by infected people with a 94% accuracy.

“The highest performing dogs in the trial detected the odour of the virus in the samples with up to 94.3% sensitivity (meaning a low risk of false negative results) and up to 92% specificity (meaning a low risk of false positive results). This is a greater accuracy than recommended by the World Health Organization for COVID-19 diagnostics, with the dogs consistently outperforming lateral flow tests across sensitivities between 80-90%, which have an overall sensitivity of between 58-77%.

While PCR is the gold standard of tests, with 97.2% sensitivity and 90% specificity, the researchers emphasise the dogs have the advantage of being incredibly rapid, and non-invasive, with the potential to quickly and passively screen individuals in public places without inconvenience.”

— LSHTM

A Covid-19 detection dog in training.
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine


Similar studies are emerging in countries all over the world, all with promising results.

A French study by Paris’s Necker-Cochin hospital found that dogs were much better than fast lateral flow tests (LFTs) and were able to detect the presence of the virus with 97% accuracy. The canine friends were 91% correct in identifying negative samples.

Another study at the University of Pennslyvania in the US, published in PLOS One, determined that dogs can sniff out COVID-19-positive samples with 96% accuracy.

Finland and many other countries are currently using dogs in their airports to test for Covid-19.

“Some methods of detection, like temperature screening, can’t identify infected people who have no symptoms. But dogs can, because the infected lungs and trachea produce a trademark scent. And dogs need fewer molecules to nose out Covid than are required for P.C.R. testing, Thai researchers said.”
— New York Times


Whilst they are not going to replace a PCR test, it seems that dogs are far more effective and accurate than rapid antigen tests.

They are also much less intrusive and can work much quicker. A commonly suggested use case is to have dogs walk through crowds at the entrances to events and at stadiums, airports, train stations etc

A two dog team could screen a 300 passenger plane in 30 minutes. Those identified as having Covid-19 would then be required to get a PCR test and quarantine while awaiting results, but this would still be more efficient than everyone having to be tested days beforehand and far cheaper too.


Important 🧠

Media Obligations in Professional Sport 🎾

Naomi Osaka is one of Tennis’ biggest young stars, at just 23 she’s a four-time Grand Slam winner and the worlds highest-paid female athlete.

Last week, before the French Open began, she made it clear that, for the sake of her mental health, she was not going to do press during the tournament.

“If the organizations think they can keep saying, ‘do press or you’re going to get fined,’ and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are the centrepiece of their cooperation then I just gotta laugh,” she wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.

Following her first-round victory on Sunday, she stuck to her word and did not attend post-match interviews.

Within hours she was fined $15,000 by the tournaments referee and received a stern warning that she could face further penalties if she did not fulfil all of her media obligations.

Image
via Naomi Osaka


So on Monday she made the decision to withdraw from the tournament altogether.

naomiosaka
A post shared by @naomiosaka

It raises some really important questions about media obligations in sport. Whilst we, as fans, love to see interactions with the athletes off the courts and pitches, at the end of the day they are there to play and that should be what we tune in for.

Of course, there has to be some media contact, especially with sponsors and the balancing of commercial commitments (who fund professional sport), but that can never come at the cost of someone’s mental health.


Smile 😊

Twitter avatar for @heathercappuLeo @heathercappu
nobody: my pea brain every 5 seconds: castaways we are cAsTaWayS

May 30th 2021

20,365 Retweets105,454 Likes
Twitter avatar for @coolmathgame_cor y @coolmathgame_
water gently running through a stream: beavers: i have got to stop this

May 12th 2021

15,191 Retweets134,278 Likes
Twitter avatar for @maybeeevirgovirgobaby @maybeeevirgo
“you’re so chill” thanks ive lost connection with reality

May 30th 2021

20,690 Retweets66,530 Likes
Twitter avatar for @InternetHippoabolish offices imo @InternetHippo
Don’t post your workout plan if it’s a bunch of hard stuff i have to do for several months, i already know about those. Only post if it’s a Spell

May 12th 2021

6,857 Retweets57,060 Likes


Saved 📷

_fabiozingg
A post shared by @_fabiozingg
willowwpreston
A post shared by @willowwpreston
gopro
A post shared by @gopro
jordevity
A post shared by @jordevity




Think 🌊

It's weird to think that your co-workers might be faking their personalities as much as you are




That’s all 🤙🏽


Feel free to reply to this email ↩️

I love to hear your thoughts, if you ever want to get in touch you can email guyb@cmeretome.ie or simply reply to any of these emails! And if you ever stumble across a cool story/link you think is worth sharing — submit it here.


Please Share
📩🤝🏼

If you enjoy reading this every week I’m sure your friends would too.


Consider Supporting ☕

If you like my content and want to give back in the simplest way possible, please consider buying me a coffee.

Buy Me A Coffee ☕

Shop Clothing


Thank you so much ❤

Guy


Disclaimer.
Share this post
Sniffing Out Covid 🐾 & Media Obligations 🎾
cmeretome.substack.com
Comments

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

TopNew

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Guy Boggan
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing