Reader Survey Results
If you filled out the Quick and Painless Survey thanks! If you have not, please do.
What we learned from your responses
- The Tulane Outbreak Daily has 3,088 subscribers from all over the world. Countries include; United States, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, China, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, Japan, Peru, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria, Mexico, Brazil, Romania, Nigeria, Turkey, Norway, Finland, Iran, South Korea, Estonia, and Malaysia.
- Readers are primarily healthcare professionals treating patients, researchers, academia, and government.
- Featured headlines, Science and Tech, and Published Research are the most popular categories.
- Thank you for the comments! We had suggestions for more local news, not just the national headlines. The paywall on some links is a problem for some readers. Leave a comment on website, or send an email with the title of the article you can not link to. From my end, I can not tell which articles require a subscription.
- Coming soon to the website, a searchable/sortable database listing every published research reference we have posted in the Tulane Outbreak Daily.
Featured Headlines
Responding to President Trump’s call to develop 300 million doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine by January under Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and AstraZeneca are collaborating to make available at least 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine called AZD1222, with the first doses delivered as early as October 2020.
WHO Reports Record-Breaking 100,000 Global New Covid-19 Cases In One Day – Forbes
More than 100,000 new Covid-19 cases were reported to the World Health Organization over the previous 24 hours on Wednesday, the most in one day since the start of the pandemic.
USA: All 50 U.S. States Have Now Started To Reopen, Easing COVID-19 Shutdown – NPR
The U.S. economy, frozen by COVID-19 shutdowns, is in the process of thawing out. All 50 states have at least partially eased tight restrictions on businesses, with a mix of policies letting restaurants or stores welcome customers. Just after midnight Wednesday, Connecticut became the final state to let business serve customers more directly than they have in weeks. The state is now allowing outdoor seating at restaurants, and non-essential retail stores and malls can also reopen.
Low white blood cell counts linked to severe COVID-19 cases – Modern Healthcare
Host factors rather than viral genetic differences appear to influence disease outcomes among COVID-19 patients, according to a new study from China. Researchers in Shanghai examined clinical, molecular, and immunological data from more than 300 people with confirmed COVID-19. While infection with SARS-CoV-2 can lead to severe respiratory disease and death, it also can result in more mild pneumonia in some patients. [Related Study]
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—a nonprofit with more than 12,000 doctor members—has filed an Emergency Petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture requiring that slaughterhouses test meat and poultry for SARS-CoV-2 prior to making it available for sale and requiring groceries to warn consumers of the potential presence of SARS-CoV-2 on meat and poultry products.
COVID Narratives by Dr. David Nabarro
Across the world, the nations that are getting ahead of the virus know that economies and societies can thrive if they implement comprehensive action to keep it at bay. Yet, not all the nations represented at the Assembly are implementing the COVID-19 containment policies that have been continuously advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO) since late January 2020.
Tedros hails WHO ‘landmark resolution’ to accelerate COVID-19 response – UN
With “unprecedented solidarity”, the World Health Assembly adopted a “landmark resolution” on Tuesday, which sets out a “clear roadmap” of the actions needed to sustain and accelerate the COVID-19 response at both national and international levels, the UN health agency chief told a press briefing on Wednesday, the day after the meeting concluded.
As COVID-19 cases near 5 million, WHO sees long road ahead – CIDRAP
As cases neared 5 million today, the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general said that a record daily high of 106,000 cases were reported over the past day. And with worries rising about cases in low- and middle-income countries, there’s still a long road ahead with the pandemic.
What a Second Wave of Coronavirus in the Fall Could Look Like – Healthline
As temperatures and humidity levels rise, there are hopes that infection rates of the new coronavirus may drop in the spring and summer — following a similar seasonal pattern as the flu and common cold.
COVID-19 & PEPFAR: Implications for the Future – Kaiser Family Foundation
COVID-19 has the potential to deeply impact PEPFAR countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa and, as such, affect PEPFAR’s future trajectory.
As the largest U.S. global health program, PEPFAR is in a unique position to respond to COVID-19, but the outbreak also raises urgent new questions for PEPFAR, as well as underscores existing challenges.
Dutch farm worker contracted coronavirus from mink: agriculture minister – Reuters
A person who worked on a farm where mink are bred to export their fur contracted the coronavirus from the animals, the Dutch Agriculture Minister said in a letter to parliament on Wednesday.
Europe learning the dangers of going back to school after coronavirus – Politico
Europe has two problems when it comes to reopening schools. First, there’s weighing the risks of opening the gates again against the potential damage done by keeping them closed, whether to economic recovery or mental health. Even more challenging may be convincing anxious parents that now is the time to send their children back to school.
Official Reporting for May 21, 2020
| WHO SITREP #121 | ECDC | Johns Hopkins | |
| Confirmed Cases | 4,789,205 | 4,960,975 | 5,047,377 |
| Deaths | 318,789 | 327,904 | 329,816 |
Total deaths: 93,061
Surveillance Headlines
USA
Colorado: Coronavirus deaths at Colorado nursing homes, senior facilities reach 711 – Colorado Sun
Texas: Children Suffering From COVID-19-Linked Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome Identified In North Texas – Texas Local News
Georgia: COVID-19 swamps another rural Georgia county – Atlanta Journal Constitution
EUROPE
Germany: Virus outbreaks push Germany to clean up abattoirs – BBC
Spain: Valencia region decides not to loosen restrictions – Washington Post
AFRICA
South Africa Covid-19 deaths ‘to soar’ in coming months – BBC
ASIA
China: After New Coronavirus Outbreaks, China Imposes Wuhan-Style Lockdown – NYT
Science and Tech
Main receptors used by SARS-CoV-2 for cell entry are absent in the human placenta – Medical News
Although severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is unlikely to infect human placenta through the canonical cell entry mediators, Wayne State University researchers showed that other interacting proteins may still play an important role during the viral infection. [Related pre-print]
Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots – MIT Tech Review
There has been a huge upswell of Twitter bot activity since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, amplifying medical disinformation and the push to reopen America.
COVID-19 exposure notification settings begin to go live for iOS users with new update – Tech Crunch
Apple has released iOS 13.5, which includes support for the Exposure Notification API that it co-created with Google to support public health authorities in their contact-tracing efforts to combat COVID-19. The API requires third-party apps developed by public health authorities for use, and none have yet been released, but iOS device users already have access to COVID-19 Exposure Logging global settings.
Building a Mouse Squad Against COVID-19 – Smithsonian
The Covid-19 pandemic has skyrocketed the demand for new strains of mice to help scientists understand the progression of the disease, test existing drugs, find new therapeutic targets and develop vaccines.
Enlisting Monoclonal Antibodies in the Fight Against COVID-19 – NIH Director’s Blog
We now know that the immune system of nearly everyone who recovers from COVID-19 produces antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes this easily transmitted respiratory disease [1]. The presence of such antibodies has spurred hope that people exposed to SARS-CoV-2 may be protected, at least for a time, from getting COVID-19 again. But, in this post, I want to examine another potential use of antibodies: their promise for being developed as therapeutics for people who are sick with COVID-19.
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is one of more than 30 genome sequencing hubs worldwide participating in a study to sequence the DNA of young, healthy adults and children who develop severe COVID-19 despite having no underlying medical problems. The researchers also will study people who never become infected despite repeated exposures to coronavirus. Knowledge gained from understanding COVID-19’s extremes could lead to new therapeutic strategies for the illness.
Emory’s antibody study sheds light on COVID-19 immunity – Emory
New research from Emory University indicates that nearly all people hospitalized with COVID-19 develop virus-neutralizing antibodies within six days of testing positive. The findings will be key in helping researchers understand protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and in informing vaccine development. The test that Emory researchers developed also could help determine whether convalescent plasma from COVID-19 survivors can provide immunity to others, and which donors’ plasma should be used.
Diagnostics
Antivirals
A Trial of Lopinavir–Ritonavir in Covid-19 – NEJM
After a review of the findings of Cao et al. (published in the Journal online on March 18),1 many clinicians are abandoning the use of lopinavir–ritonavir for the treatment of Covid-19. We consider this action to be premature. It is crucial to realize that although this trial did not show that the time until clinical improvement was meaningfully better than standard care among patients with severe Covid-19 who received lopinavir–ritonavir, the trial was statistically underpowered to show this outcome. In addition, the analyses of secondary outcomes (which still require confirmation) suggested that lopinavir–ritonavir may be associated with substantial lowering of overall mortality (19% in patients in the lopinavir–ritonavir group vs. 25% in the standard-care group), the risk of severe adverse events (20% vs. 32%), and the risk of respiratory failure or acute respiratory distress syndrome (13% vs. 27%).
Vaccine
SARS-CoV-2 Prototype Vaccine Protects Macaques – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News
The only thing better than one new study showing positive COVID-19 vaccine results in monkeys is two studies. The papers, published back-to-back in Science this week are some of the first to show that non-human primates can develop protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2—a finding critical for vaccine and public health strategies.
How Supercomputers Are Getting Us Closer to a Covid-19 Vaccine – University of Texas
The global scientific community has joined forces in an unprecedented effort to understand, track, forecast, test for, and find a cure for the current coronavirus pandemic. But in a crisis where every second lost means more loss of lives, solidarity alone isn’t enough. Supercomputers are enabling a vastly accelerated pace by which scientists can conduct research and collect and analyze data. Never have they proven their value to society more than during this COVID-19 pandemic.
How the Moderna vaccine works, and what it means for coronavirus pandemic – Cleveland.com
Optimism about a vaccine to battle the coronavirus pandemic spiked this week, as Moderna announced results from a Phase I vaccine trial where patients developed antibodies against COVID-19.
Amid High Stakes, China Is Fast-Tracking COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts – NPR
[4 min audio at link] This week, Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. reported promising preliminary results for the vaccine it is developing. It’s one of eight vaccines under development that have been approved for clinical trials, according to the World Health Organization.
Infection Prevention
Why Soap Works: The Macromolecules of SARS-CoV-2 – Cold Springs Harbor Lab
[Video at the link] This simple animation gives an overview of the macromolecules that make up SARS-CoV-2 as well as a basic chemical explanation as to why soap destroys the virus. Keep on scrubbing!
U.S. calls ingredients in some ethanol-based hand sanitizers unsafe – Reuters
Restrictions on the use of ethanol in hand sanitizer, citing safety concerns and forcing some suppliers to halt sales at a time of soaring demand, according to sources and documents seen by Reuters.
Published Research
Symptomatic Infants have Higher Nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 Viral Loads but Less Severe Disease than Older Children – Clinical Infectious Diseases
Viral and host factors related to the clinical outcome of COVID-19 – Nature
Structure of replicating SARS-CoV-2 polymerase – Nature
Pre-Pub (not yet peer reviewed, should not be regarded as conclusive)
Does the human placenta express the canonical cell entry mediators for SARS-CoV-2? – BioRXiv
Coping in Quarantine