Tulane Outbreak Daily | March 27, 2020

Featured Headlines

72 Hrs Inside a New York City ICU – NYT  [short video] An emergency room doctor in Elmhurst, Queens, gives a rare look inside a hospital at the center of the coronavirus pandemic. “We don’t have the tools that we need.”

The Coronavirus Pandemic May Be Loosening Links In The Supply Chain – NPR Truckers, warehouse workers and cargo handlers, all in a vast network, find themselves one endless day after the next getting food, medicine and, yes, toilet paper to customers.

Men are getting sicker, dying more often of covid-19, Spain data shows – Washington Post Pneumonia cases, hospitalizations, ICU visits, deaths and even basic symptoms were more frequent in males. The data arriving from Spain, combined with similar findings from other countries with large outbreaks, such as Italy, China and France, are increasingly suggesting that the top risk group for the novel coronavirus is not simply older adults, but older men. A Washington Post analysis of U.S. deaths so far also found that nearly 60 percent of deaths, in cases where a gender could be identified, were male. The Spain data, based on an analysis of 20,648 cases so far and 722 deaths by the country’s Institute of Health Carlos III, a national public health agency, delivers a new level of detail. It shows that men are faring worse on multiple metrics for the disease. Among gender-identified disease cases, men make up 60 percent of those that progress to the dangerous pneumonia stage. They make up 59 percent of the hospitalizations, 72 percent of the intensive care unit admissions and 65 percent of the deaths.

A South Korean Covid-19 Czar Has Some Advice – Wired  “We need global cooperation,” says Min Pok-kee, who heads the response in the hard-hit city of Daegu. “Top government leaders don’t seem to get that yet.” When we hit 5,000 confirmed cases in Daegu, we figured Seoul was going to have 30,000. That’s an absolute disaster. The mayor of Daegu, to his credit, really heard me out. To be honest with you, the president of Korea did not do the same. The doctors advising the president, many of us specialists believe, did not do right by him. Their main misstep was saying everything was fine, that there wasn’t any problem.

How Monoclonal Antibodies Might Prove Useful Against The Coronavirus – NPR  Scientists working to quell the COVID-19 pandemic think it will be possible to figure out which antibodies are most potent in quashing a coronavirus infection, and then make vast quantities of identical copies of these proteins synthetically. This approach — using infusions of what are known as monoclonal antibodies – has already proved to be effective in fighting a variety of diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and some cancers.

Pfizer reports safety data of azithromycin in Covid-19 trial – Clinical Trials Arena  Pfizer has announced positive data for the use of its azithromycin (Zithromax) drug, along with hydroxychloroquine, in a coronavirus (Covid-19) clinical trial performed in France. The trial was conducted to assess anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine in 20 patients, six of which were also administered with azithromycin.

James Dyson designed a new ventilator in 10 days. He’s making 15,000 for the pandemic fight – CNN   Dyson has received an order from the UK government for 10,000 ventilators to support efforts by the country’s National Health Service to treat coronavirus patients.

CPAP Machines Were Seen As Ventilator Alternatives, But Could Spread COVID-19 – NPR  The limited supply of ventilators is one of the chief concerns facing hospitals as they prepare for more COVID-19 cases. In Italy, where hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients in respiratory failure, doctors have had to make difficult life-or-death decisions about who gets a ventilator and who does not.