Featured Headlines
Linking Air Pollution To Higher Coronavirus Death Rates – Harvard
In an analysis of 3,080 counties in the United States, researchers at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that higher levels of the tiny, dangerous particles in air known as PM 2.5 were associated with higher death rates from the disease. [Related Study]
Singapore had a model coronavirus response, then cases spiked. What happened? – CNN
Less than a month ago, Singapore was being hailed as one of the countries that had got its coronavirus response right. Since March 17, Singapore’s number of confirmed coronavirus cases grew from 266 to over 5,900, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
What Does Coronavirus Look Like? CDC Releases Images From First American COVID-19 Patient – Forbes
The new images from the CDC Public Health Image Library (PHIL) show the SARS-CoV2 virus looking like small pepperoni pizzas (colored blue in the image above). But, these images are hard and labor-intensive to produce and for most people with COVID-19, pictures like this will never be made.
Notes From the Field – Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
Tulane Outbreak Daily is happy to present Notes From the Field, a new segment that seeks to cover stories about the activities and experiences of the COVID-19 epidemic from around the world and places that are not always prominent in the news. The virus arrived early to many places in Asia and is arriving last in South America and Africa. These places have government and health care structures, as well as experiences in neighborhoods and on streets, that are both similar and different from that experienced in the United States. Tulane faculty and staff conduct the video interviews of faculty, alumni, public officials, community workers, and friends. From time to time messages submitted from students, faculty, and alumni studying and working abroad will also be included. The interviews are edited to be short (2-3 min), but links to the full interviews are included with each video.
Many hospitalized victims are developing potentially lethal secondary co-infections such as bacterial pneumonia and sepsis [Related Study]
These Are the Drugs and Vaccines That Might End the Coronavirus Pandemic – Bloomberg
Clinical trials are almost all in the early stages, and it could take weeks or months to get answers on what works.
C.D.C. Labs Were Contaminated, Delaying Coronavirus Testing, Officials Say – New York Times
Fallout from the agency’s failed rollout of national coronavirus kits two months ago continues to haunt U.S. efforts to combat the spread of the highly infectious virus.
An Overlooked, Possibly Fatal Coronavirus Crisis: A Dire Need for Kidney Dialysis – New York Times
Ventilators aren’t the only machines in intensive care units that are in short supply. Doctors have been confronting an unexpected rise in patients with failing kidneys.
Surveillance
Official Reporting for April 20, 2020
| WHO SITREP #90 | ECDC | Country Data | Johns Hopkins | |
| Confirmed Cases | 2,241,778 | 2,355,853 | 2,435,876 |
| Deaths | 152,551 | 164,656 | 167,369 |
Total deaths: 39,083
Surveillance Headlines
USA
USA: States grapple with timing of reopening as COVID-19 deaths spike – CIDRAP
New York: coronavirus deaths still ‘horrifically high’ even as outbreak appears to slow – CNBC
Maryland: secures 500,000 coronavirus test kits from South Korea – Baltimore Sun
Michigan: Coronavirus Devastates Detroit Police, From the Chief on Down – New York Times
Massachusetts: In rare but growing number of cases, children hospitalized with coronavirus in Massachusetts – Boston Globe
EUROPE
Germany: Relaxes Shop Closures – BBC
Spain: confirmed coronavirus cases surpass 200,000, health ministry says – CNBC
Turkey: Coronavirus Crisis Grows as Infections Exceed China’s – Foreign Policy
MIDDLE EAST
Afghanistan: Dozens Test Positive for Coronavirus at Afghan President’s Palace – New York Times
ASIA
Singapore: 1,369 of the 1,426 coronavirus cases confirmed in S’pore are foreign workers living in dormitories – Straights Times
Japan: Coronavirus total surpasses 10,000 as Tokyo adds 181 cases – Japan Times
Science and Tech
From mice to monkeys, animals studied for coronavirus answers – Science Magazine
Beloved as pets, Syrian hamsters are winning another kind of attention from scientists trying to understand and defeat COVID-19. Fifteen years ago, scientists found the hamsters could readily be infected with the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Their symptoms were subtle, so the animals didn’t get much traction as a model for the disease. But with COVID-19, caused by a related virus, SARS-CoV-2, the model’s prospects appear brighter.
On rounds in a 20-bed intensive care unit (ICU) one recent day, physician Joshua Denson assessed two patients with seizures, many with respiratory failure and others whose kidneys were on a dangerous downhill slide. Days earlier, his rounds had been interrupted as his team tried, and failed, to resuscitate a young woman whose heart had stopped. All shared one thing, says Denson, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Tulane University School of Medicine. “They are all COVID positive.”
Bats Are a Key Source of Human Viruses—but They May Not Be Special – Scientific American
Bats and rodents are considered high-risk viral reservoirs—a source for diseases that can hop over to humans, and sometimes lead to epidemics. Some scientists have even argued that the animals have certain traits that increase the likelihood of spillover events from animal to people, and that they should be monitored more closely as a result. But a new analysis suggests that bats and rodents are “unexceptional” in their propensity to host viruses that infect humans.
Hydroxychloroquine Phase 3 Study Launching in the USA – Precision Vaccinations
April 20, 2020 – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reached an agreement with Switzerland based Novartis to proceed with a Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 disease. Announced on April 20, 2020, the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with approximately 440 patients will be conducted at more than a dozen sites in the USA.
Antivirals
Remdesivir shows promising results – CIDRAP
In medical news, the antiviral drug remdesivir showed promising results when used on severely ill COVID-19 patients at the University of Chicago. The trial, however, was not randomized and did not contain a control arm of patients who did not receive the drug, so the data are not definitive.
Diagnostics
Aggressive marketing of the tests could confuse those clamoring for the products to determine who may have developed disease-fighting antibodies
Published Research
SARS-CoV-2 and viral sepsis: observations and hypotheses – The Lancet
Pre-Pub (not yet peer reviewed, should not be regarded as conclusive)
Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and Their Potential for Therapeutic Passive Immunization – preprint.org