Featured Headlines
Treatments that target the coronavirus in the nose might help prevent COVID-19 – Science News
COVID-19 can ravage the body, targeting the lungs, heart and blood vessels. To curb this wide-ranging attack, scientists are focusing on another part of the body: the nose.
The lasting misery of coronavirus long-haulers – Nature
Months after infection with SARS-CoV-2, some people are still battling crushing fatigue, lung damage and other symptoms of ‘long COVID’.
How Flu Shots Can Help in the Fight Against Covid-19 – NY Times
Experts worry that the two diseases could overwhelm the health care system and create a new shortage of hospital beds and personal protective equipment.
Substance use disorders linked to COVID-19 susceptibility – NIH
A National Institutes of Health-funded study found that people with substance use disorders (SUDs) are more susceptible to COVID-19 and its complications. The research, published today in Molecular Psychiatry, was co-authored by Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The findings suggest that health care providers should closely monitor patients with SUDs and develop action plans to help shield them from infection and severe outcomes.
Army Marshals Resources To Aid In Race For Coronavirus Vaccine – NPR
Agi Hajduczki, a research scientist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Infectious Diseases, opens a large freezer and takes out boxes of DNA. She is part of a team making a COVID-19 vaccine.
Restaurants Are Hurting — But Dining Indoors Poses Real COVID-19 Risk – NEJM Journal Watch
As we learn more about transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the news for restaurants goes from bad to worse. And while there’s a long list of sad things about this pandemic, the decimation of the restaurant business for owners and the people who work there is right up there. The loss of the restaurant experience for us diners is pretty sad, too.
Helen Branswell answers your questions about Covid-19, reinfection, and vaccine efficacy – STAT
t has been over nine months since STAT published reporter Helen Branswell’s first article about a mysterious cluster of pneumonia-like cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The cause of those infections was, of course, a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. That virus and the disease it causes, Covid-19, have since become the biggest story in the world.
Coronavirus cases are growing in 11 U.S. states as Fauci warns of ‘disturbing’ data – CNBC
Coronavirus cases continued to grow over the weekend in nearly a dozen U.S. states as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, warns about the nation’s worrying level of new infections.
Strict Social Distancing Is Working, Study From Johns Hopkins Says – CBS News
Researchers randomly surveyed more than 1,000 people from across Maryland, asking about their social distancing practices and how often they head out of the house.
Here we report a case study of a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak event during bus trips of an index patient in Hunan Province, China. This retrospective investigation suggests potential airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the possibility of superspreading events in certain close contact and closed space settings, which should be taken in to account when control strategies are planned.
Amid spotty response, COVID silently stalked US for weeks – CIDRAP
Two new studies involving evolutionary genomics, computer simulations, and travel records from the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that inadequate travel monitoring, contact tracing, and community surveillance allowed the novel coronavirus to spread unchecked to and throughout North America and Europe in late January or early February.
Clinical Considerations
Kidney injury associated with COVID-19 – CMAJ
As many as 40% of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 have acute kidney injury. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is usually related to disease severity.
Googling for Gut Symptoms Predicts Covid Hot Spots, Study Finds – Bloomberg
Internet searches on gastrointestinal symptoms predicted a rise in Covid-19 cases weeks later, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found, demonstrating a novel early warning system for hot spots of the pandemic disease.
Woman Shares Story Of Double-Lung Transplant To Treat COVID-19 – NPR
A small number of COVID-19 patients have survived after getting a double-lung transplant. One of those patients, Mayra Ramirez, shares the story of her surgery and ongoing recovery.
Official Reporting for September 14, 2020
World Health Organization
Weekly Epi Update SEP 14, 2020
Cumulative Cases: 28,918,900
Cumulative Deaths: 922,252
ECDC
Confirmed Cases: 29,049,134
Deaths: 924,706
Johns Hopkins
Confirmed Cases: 29,136,553
Deaths: 925,820
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Total deaths: 193,705
Surveillance Headlines
UNITED STATES
Wisconsin: Wisconsin reports its record number of new daily cases, with spikes linked to college campuses – NY Times
Midwest: A record surge in new cases has hit the Midwest. – New York Times
EUROPE
France: Cases in France leap past 10,000 a day – BBC
MIDDLE EAST
Israel: To impose three-week national lockdown – BBC
ASIA
India: At Least 25 Indian Lawmakers Test Positive For Coronavirus As Parliament Reopens – NPR
Science and Tech
Boson et al. characterised how the intracellular trafficking and maturation of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein are regulated by the other structural proteins E, M and N. Co-expression of E or M were found to decrease S cleavage, alter the N-glycosylation patterns in the S2 subunit and to retain S protein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) or cis-Golgi, known CoV assembly sites. The S protein expressed alone was found widely distributed within the cell and to promote syncytia, which was prevented with SARS-CoV-2 infection or co-expression with E or M. In contrast, N protein does not appear to have any effect on S maturation or localisation. While E protein was found to influence the level of S expression by inducing a non-specific retention of glycoproteins in the ER and to slow down the cell secretory pathway; M influenced S localisation through direct interaction with S C-terminal moiety. Finally, all structural proteins proved essential for VLP formation.
Community and close contact exposures continue to drive the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. CDC and other public health authorities recommend community mitigation strategies to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (1,2). Characterization of community exposures can be difficult to assess when widespread transmission is occurring, especially from asymptomatic persons within inherently interconnected communities.
Vaccine
Pfizer CEO Says Americans Could Get Covid Shot Before Year-End – Bloomberg
Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said it’s “likely” the U.S. will deploy a Covid-19 vaccine to the public before year-end and that the company is prepared for that scenario, pushing back against more tepid expectations shared by health authorities.
Social and Psychological Impact
Alan Alda On The Importance Of Empathy During The COVID-19 Pandemic – NPR
5 min audio at the link – NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to actor Alan Alda, who started a center focused on communicating scientific information to the public, on how the dearth of empathy is affecting pandemic messaging.
Published Research
Psychiatric presentation of patients with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection: a retrospective review of 50 consecutive patients seen by a consultation-liaison psychiatry team. – Physicians Weekly
SARS-CoV-2 transmission via speech-generated respiratory droplets – The Lancet
Coping in Quarantine
We had a special guest stay at our B&B last weekend. Her name is Pia, and she is an award winning poet who needed a quiet place to finish her latest book of poetry. She was in luck, she had the place to herself for the first part of the weekend, and she finished her book. We shared some conversation and French wine one evening. What an amazing, warm, talented human. She sent her manuscript and I read a few of her poems this morning with a cup of coffee. Mind = blown. They are just words on a screen, configured in such a way upon reading, that the imagination is sparked and mind transported. I started wondering if there was a collection of poetry inspired by this global pandemic. The internet did not disappoint… there are many. This is just one.