Upcoming Events
Today! COVID-19: The New Orleans Experience
Friday, May 1, 2020 – 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Featured Headlines
COVID-19 clotting and therapeutic anticoagulation – FLARE
The FLARE team discuss the increased activation of the coagulation cascade and reduced fibrinolytic activity in ARDS, therapeutic anticoagulation, and guideline data strategies.
[Opinion] Will Warm Weather Slow Coronavirus? – NYT/John Barry
Will there be another wave of Covid-19? And if so, how big will it be, and will there be more waves after it? The answer to those questions depend on seasonality, the susceptibility of the population to the disease, the rate at which the coronavirus mutates and how we come out of lockdown.
The virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has now become pandemic. How has it managed to spread from China to all around the world within 3 to 4 months? Li et al. used multiple sources to infer the proportion of early infections that went undetected and their contribution to virus spread.
The effect of human mobility and control measures on the COVID-19 epidemic in China – Science
What sort of measures are required to contain the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? The rich data from the Open COVID-19 Data Working Group include the dates when people first reported symptoms, not just a positive test date. Using these data and real-time travel data from the internet services company Baidu, Kraemer et al. found that mobility statistics offered a precise record of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among the cities of China at the start of 2020. The frequency of introductions from Wuhan were predictive of the size of the epidemic sparked in other provinces.
Cytokine release syndrome in severe COVID-19 – Science
n December 2019, a new strain of coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was recognized to have emerged in Wuhan, China. Along with SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome–coronavirus (MERS-CoV), SARS-CoV-2 is the third coronavirus to cause severe respiratory illness in humans, called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020 and has had considerable global economic and health impacts. Although the situation is rapidly evolving, severe disease manifested by fever and pneumonia, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), has been described in up to 20% of COVID-19 cases. This is reminiscent of cytokine release syndrome (CRS)–induced ARDS and secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH) observed in patients with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV as well as in leukemia patients receiving engineered T cell therapy. Given this experience, urgently needed therapeutics based on suppressing CRS, such as tocilizumab, have entered clinical trials to treat COVID-19.
Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infects cells of the intestine – Eureka Alert
Researchers from the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, and Maastricht University in the Netherlands have found that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, can infect cells of the intestine and multiply there. [Related Study in Science]
Russia’s Prime Minister Says He Has Coronavirus, As Country Tops 100,000 Cases – NPR
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin says he’s infected with the novel coronavirus, joining nearly 106,500 others in the country who have been similarly diagnosed.
Speaking during a video conference with President Vladimir Putin that was broadcast Thursday on state-run Rossiya 24 television, Mishustin — who took over as prime minister from Dmitry Medvedev in January — told Putin that he had tested positive for the virus.
Surveillance
Official Reporting for May 1, 2020
| WHO SITREP #101 | ECDC | Country Data | Johns Hopkins | |
| Confirmed Cases | 3,090,445 | 3,214,256 | 3,276,373 |
| Deaths | 217,769 | 232,570 | 235,860 |
Total deaths: 60,057
Surveillance Headlines
USA
Georgia: Cases pass 27K, with 1K added in 24 hours – AJC
LATIN AMERICA
Latin America Wrestles With Reopening as Coronavirus Peak Looms – NYT
Brazil: Virus surge brings a coffin shortage, morgue chaos – AP
EUROPE
UK: ‘Past The Peak’ Of Its Coronavirus Outbreak – NPR
Turkey: Turkey has 84 new deaths amid partial lockdowns – AP
MIDDLE EAST
Iran: False belief poison cures virus kills over 700. – AP
ASIA
Indonesia: Fearing Infection, Some In Indonesia Refuse Nearby Burial Of COVID-19 Victims – NPR
Science and Tech
SARS-CoV-2 Protein Interaction Map Reveals Drug Targets – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News
Vaccine
Find a Vaccine. Next: Produce 300 Million Vials of It. – NYT
Scaling up the manufacturing of syringes and other medical products required to deliver a vaccine to millions of Americans will be just as important as the vaccine itself.
Antivirals
Chinese scientists uncover structural basis for SARS-CoV-2 inhibition by Remdesivir – Eureka Alert
A team of Chinese scientists have reported the high-resolution cryo-EM structure of Remdesivir-bound RNA replicase complex from SARS-CoV-2, the infective virus of COVID-19.
Diagnostics
How Reliable Are COVID-19 Tests? Depends Which One You Mean – NPR
Testing for the coronavirus has been very much in the news. The first and most urgent focus is on increasing access to tests to diagnose people with current infections. But now other tests are appearing as well. Antibody tests, which can identify people with signs of past infection, are starting to be available. And a third type of test is on the way.
Published Research
SARS-CoV-2 productively infects human gut enterocytes – Science
Environmental Contamination of SARS-CoV-2 in Healthcare Premises – Journal of Infection
Children with Covid-19 in Pediatric Emergency Departments in Italy – NEJM
Pre-Pub (not yet peer reviewed, should not be regarded as conclusive)
Coping in Quarantine
Quarantine coping skills on a roadside marquee in Austin Texas wins the internet this week.
It’s been raining in Maryland for days, and days. It’s May, where are the flowers? Our green house is at capacity with little pots of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, and whatever else I could find in seed form from Amazon. The local stores have been wiped out the desirable vegetable seeds, just a few lonley okra packets left. Does anyone really eat okra? It’s time for flowers, and according to the NYT, it’s not too late to grow some.