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NewsPapers
- Death-Spiral Thinking (TheAtlantic.com)
" 'We squandered that time in terms of scaling up testing and contact tracing, enacting policies to protect workers who get infected on the job, getting protective equipment to people in food-processing plants, finding places for people to isolate, offering paid sick leave … We still don’t have those things,' says Julia Marcus, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and regular Atlantic contributor."
- -Don't Let This Be You (LiveScience.com)
Study shows that too many Americans are using disinfectants or bleach on their bodies to try to prevent Covid-19. 05-2020
- -Oxford Vaccine Successful in COVID Study (NewScientist.com)
"A coronavirus vaccine candidate being developed by the University of Oxford in partnership with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is safe and activates an immune response in people, according to preliminary results from trials involving 1077 volunteers. People injected with the vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, made antibodies and immune cells against the coronavirus. The trial results were published today in The Lancet. No serious side effects were found, although 70 per cent of people developed a fever or headache which could be managed with painkillers. It is not yet clear whether this vaccine candidate offers protection against infection with the coronavirus, and we won’t know whether it can stop people from becoming ill with covid-19 until we see the results of larger trials. Those trials will involve 10,000 people in the UK, 30,000 people in the US, 2,000 in South Africa and 5,000 in Brazil.
"The UK government has secured access to 100 million doses of the vaccine candidate, in addition to 90 million doses of other coronavirus vaccine candidates from US and European companies. Globally, more than 140 coronavirus vaccines are currently in development, with 23 candidates being tested in people." 07-20
- Dr. Fauci Explains Where We Are With COVID (ABC News)
Dr. Faoci explains to Zuckerber our current situation in July of 2020.
- Editorial: Pandemic Preparation (YouTube.com)
Argues that President Trump had many resources for responding to a pandemic when he entered office but dismantled the response. 06-20
- Treatment for Virus Shows Promise (Time.com)
"Investigators working on the U.K.-based RECOVERY trial announced today that dexamethasone, a low-cost and widely available steroid that lowers inflammation, improved patients’ chances of surviving severe COVID-19. During the study, about 2,100 COVID-19 patients were treated with dexamethasone for 10 days. Patients on mechanical ventilation who were given dexamethasone were 35% less likely to die compared to patients on ventilators who did not get the treatment. In patients on less invasive forms of breathing support, dexamethasone decreased the risk of death by 20%, while patients who did not require any respiratory help saw no improvements after taking the steroid." 06-20
- Why COVID-19 Kills Some and Not Others (LiveScience.com)
"Underlying health conditions are thought to be an important factor influencing disease severity. Indeed, a study of more than 1.3 million COVID-19 cases in the United States, published June 15 in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that rates of hospitalizations were six times higher and rates of death were 12 times higher among COVID-19 patients with underlying conditions, compared with patients without underlying conditions. The most commonly reported underlying conditions were heart disease, diabetes and chronic lung disease." 06-20
- -Avoiding Infection (Erin Bromage, PhD)
"In order to get infected you need to get exposed to an infectious dose of the virus; the estimate is that you need about ~1000 SARS-CoV2 viral particles for an infection to take hold, but this still needs to be determined experimentally. That could be 1000 viral particles you receive in one breath or from one eye-rub, or 100 viral particles inhaled with each breath over 10 breaths, or 10 viral particles with 100 breaths. Each of these situations can lead to an infection."
"The exposure to virus x time formulae is the basis of contact tracing. Anyone you spend greater than 10 minutes with in a face-to-face situation is potentially infected. Anyone who shares a space with you (say an office) for an extended period is potentially infected."
"This is also why it is critical for people who are symptomatic to stay home. Your sneezes and your coughs expel so much virus that you can infect a whole room of people."
"The main sources for infection are home, workplace, public transport, social gatherings, and restaurants."
- -COVID-19 Virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Provides an overview and updates on COVID-19 (Coronavirus). 03-20
- -COVID-19 Virus - Mortality Rate (LiveScience.com)
"Initial reports of the new coronavirus emerged from Wuhan, China, in December 2019, with patients presenting with pneumonia of unknown origin. As of March 2, more than 90,000 cases had been confirmed worldwide, including 45,705 cases that ended with patients recovering and more than 3,000 fatalities." 03-20
- -COVID-19 Virus Booster Vaccine (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Provides an overview and updates on COVID-19 (Coronavirus). "Updated COVID-19 boosters add Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 spike protein components to the current vaccine composition, helping to restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination by targeting variants that are more transmissible and immune-evading." 09-22
- -COVID-19 Virus Dashboard (Johns Hopkins University)
Provides a daily count of deaths and recoveries by country. 03-20
- -COVID-19 Virus Economic Relief (Investopedia.com)
"The new bill, officially known as the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, was signed into law Friday, April 24 and the SBA is expected to resume accepting loan applications Monday, April 27, 2020." 04-20
- -COVID-19 Virus Treatments Being Tested (LiveScience.com)
"The drugs being tested range from repurposed flu treatments to failed ebola drugs, to malaria treatments that were first developed decades ago. Here, we take a look at several of the treatments that doctors hope will help fight COVID-19." 03-20
- -Contact Tracing (Time.com)
"Contact tracing is a little like detective work: Trained staff interview people who have been diagnosed with a contagious disease to figure out who they may have recently been in contact with. Then, they go tell those people they may have been exposed, sometimes encouraging them to quarantine themselves to prevent spreading the disease any further. Think of it as part public health work, and part investigation."
"The technique is a 'cornerstone' of preventative medicine, says Dr. Laura Breeher, medical director of occupational health services at the Mayo Clinic. 'Contact tracing, it’s having a moment of glory right now with COVID because of the crucial importance of identifying those individuals who have been exposed quickly and isolating or quarantining them,' she says."
- -Coronavirus Pandemic Vaccine Trial Success (CNN News)
"Volunteers who received Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine had positive early results, according to the biotech company, which partnered with the National Institutes of Health to develop the vaccine.
"If future studies go well, the company's vaccine could be available to the public as early as January, Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna's chief medical officer, told CNN." 05-2020
- -Coronavirus Pandemic and Carbon Emissions (LiveScience.com)
"As the coronavirus pandemic forced much of the world into lockdown by early April, daily global carbon dioxide emissions fell by 17% compared with 2019 levels, a new study published May 19 in the journal Nature Climate Change found." 05-2020
- -Making a Face Cover (Time.com)
"Amid a shortage of medical-grade face masks, such as surgical masks (loose-fitting, disposable masks that block large droplets but don’t filter small particles) and N95 respirators (tight-fitting face coverings that filter out small particles), the U.S. federal government recently changed its recommendations, suggesting now that all residents wear homemade facial coverings when they have to go out.."
- -Making a Face Mask (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Describes how to make a face mask or cover.
- Companies Not Providing Paid Sick Leave (NYTimes.com)
"As the new coronavirus spreads across the United States, the time has come for restaurants, retailers and other industries that rely on low-wage labor to abandon their parsimonious resistance to paid sick leave. Companies that do not pay sick workers to stay home are endangering their workers, their customers and the health of the broader public. Studies show that paying for sick employees to stay home significantly reduces the spread of the seasonal flu. There’s every reason to think it would help to check the new coronavirus, too." 03-20
- First Responders Improvise to Stay Safe with COVID-19 Virus (OPB.org)
"Coronavirus risk and ongoing shortages of personal protective equipment are leading fire departments around the region to rediscover the enduring truth of the idiom 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' " 04-20
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