Featured Headlines
Americans better get used to wearing masks and practicing social distancing for another year, Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a virtual discussion with Maryland doctors Thursday.
Pain Relief Caused by SARS-CoV-2 Infection May Help Explain COVID-19 Spread – University of Arizona
Video –The finding may explain why nearly half of all people who get COVID-19 experience few or no symptoms, even though they are able to spread the disease, according to the study’s corresponding author Rajesh Khanna, PhD, a professor in the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Department of Pharmacology.Rajesh Khanna, PhD. (Photo: Kris Hanning/University of Arizona Health Sciences)“It made a lot of sense to me that perhaps the reason for the unrelenting spread of COVID-19 is that in the early stages, you’re walking around all fine as if nothing is wrong because your pain has been suppressed,” said Dr. Khanna. “You have the virus, but you don’t feel bad because your pain is gone. If we can prove that this pain relief is what is causing COVID-19 to spread further, that’s of enormous value.”
What A Positive Coronavirus Test Means For President Trump’s Health – NPR
3 minute audio at the link – The coronavirus can be very serious for anyone at any age but is especially concerning for a man of President Trump’s age, 74.
As COVID-19 total tops 34 million, World Bank offers vaccine plan for poorer nations – CIDRAP
The global COVID-19 total topped 34 million cases today, as an official from the World Bank announced a $12 billion plan to help lower-income countries buy vaccine and as US lawmakers clung to the hope of a still-elusive stimulus bill to limit the pandemic’s economic damage to families and businesses.
Amazon says nearly 20,000 U.S. employees have contracted Covid-19 – NBC News
The announcement, part of a blog post published by Amazon, offers the public’s first national overview of how the pandemic has hit the company’s sizable workforce.
Why Some People Are Still Getting Sick—but Not with COVID – Scientific American
On September 18 Orianna Carvalho woke up at 3 A.M. with a sore throat and the sniffles. At first, she thought her symptoms were caused by allergies. But as the minutes ticked by, she began to worry they were caused by COVID-19. The following morning, Carvalho got tested at the University of Rhode Island, where she is a first-year doctoral student.
One in Seven Dire COVID Cases May Result from a Faulty Immune Response – Scientific American
Perhaps the most unnerving aspect of COVID-19 is its startling range of severity: from completely asymptomatic to deadly. Starting early in the pandemic, researchers identified factors that put people at risk of a serious case of the disease, such as advanced age, having certain chronic diseases and being male. But these demographic trends do not get at the biological mechanisms that actually cause a life-threatening infection. Nor do they explain why some young, fit, healthy people become mortally ill from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
A study investigating SARS-CoV-2 infections across 16 mink farms in the Netherlands, presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from September 23-25, 2020) shows that the virus likely jumped between people and mink and back, providing strong evidence that animal to human (zoonotic) transmission is possible.
Kids And Superspreaders Are Driving COVID-19 Cases In India, Huge Study Finds – NPR
In the largest study ever of transmission patterns for COVID-19, researchers in India tested more than a half-million contacts of 85,000 cases to examine how and to whom the coronavirus is spreading.
Covid-19 Vaccine Trials Need Only a Fraction of People to Get Sick – Wall Street Journal
Late-stage trials for Covid-19 vaccines are signing up tens of thousands of volunteers, but only a tiny fraction will help decide whether the shots work safely enough to be given widely. Just 150 or so of the 30,000 or more subjects enrolled in each trial need to be infected and show symptoms to provide the data to assess the vaccines, according to a Wall Street Journal review of researchers’ plans for U.S. studies from the four most advanced candidates.
COVID-19 spread freely aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt – CIDRAP
The COVID-19 outbreak on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier that ultimately infected more than 1,200 sailors and killed one, leading to the firing of its captain and the resignation of the Navy’s top official, shows how easily the virus spreads in close quarters, according to a research letter published today in JAMA Network Open.
Clinical Considerations
Sarilumab use in severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia – The Lancet
Interleukin-6 signal blockade showed preliminary beneficial effects in treating inflammatory response against SARS-CoV-2 leading to severe respiratory distress. Herein we describe the outcomes of off-label intravenous use of Sarilumab in severe SARS-CoV-2-related pneumonia.
Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in people with an acute loss in their sense of smell and/or taste in a community-based population in London, UK: An observational cohort study
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Gilead has worked diligently to ramp up production and rapidly expand the supply of our investigational antiviral drug Veklury® (remdesivir) by making significant investments to increase internal manufacturing capacity, expand our contract manufacturing network and implement process improvements. While working to increase our manufacturing capacity over these past months, the company also donated 1.5 million vials of Veklury and provided clinical drug supply at no cost for evaluation as an investigational agent in clinical trials around the world. As a result of the decision to make early investments to increase Veklury manufacturing efforts, Gilead is now meeting real-time demand for Veklury in the United States and anticipates meeting global demand for Veklury in October, even in the event of potential future surges of COVID-19.
CSF Leak From COVID-19 Nasal Swab Reported – MedPageToday
Nasal swabbing to test for COVID-19 may have caused a patient to begin leaking cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), researchers reported. The woman in her 40s underwent testing prior to an elective hernia repair, and shortly thereafter developed a variety of symptoms, including unilateral rhinorrhea, headache, and vomiting, but her nasal drainage tested positive for β2-transferrin, reported Jarrett Walsh, MD, PhD, of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, and colleagues.
Official Reporting for October 2, 2020
World Health Organization
Weekly Epi Update SEP 28, 2020
Cumulative Cases: 34,161,721
Cumulative Deaths: 1,016,986
ECDC
Confirmed Cases: 34 350 717
Deaths: 1 023 876
Johns Hopkins
Confirmed Cases: 34,450,697
Deaths: 1,025,354
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Total cases: 7,260,465
Total deaths: 207,302
Surveillance Headlines
UNITED STATES
Utah: Thousands of Minks Dead as COVID Outbreak Escalates on Utah Farms – Kaiser Health Network
EUROPE
Italy: Tops 2,000 Daily Coronavirus Cases for First Time Since April: Health Ministry – US News
France: Europe’s Virus Woes Sharpen Clash Over Big-City Restrictions – Bloomberg
Science and Tech
Antiviral
Remdesivir and COVID-19 – The Lancet
In the first published placebo-controlled trial of remdesivir for treating severe COVID-19, Yeming Wang and colleagues1
were unable to attain their primary endpoint of time to clinical improvement. Although admittedly underpowered due to early trial termination, remdesivir did not appear to affect rates of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral RNA load decline and mortality when compared with placebo. Given these disappointing findings, we are left to wonder if a lack of clinically significant outcomes in placebo-controlled trials could have been predicted.
Vaccine
Moderna chief says Covid-19 vaccine won’t be widely available before late March – CNN
If Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is proven safe and effective, the general population could have access to it by late March or early April next year, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said on Wednesday.
Published Research
Case Series of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Adults Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the UK and US – CDC
Incidence and Outcomes of Thrombotic Events in Symptomatic Patients With COVID-19 – Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology
Antithrombotic therapy in patients with COVID-19? -Rationale and Evidence- – International Journal of Cardiology
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
Definition of Terms:
Misinformation: False or inaccurate information. Not always intended to be deceptive, but factually inaccurate.
Disinformation: False information spread deliberately to deceive. Closely related to the Russian word “dezinformatsiya.” Russian use of the word began with a “special disinformation office” in 1923 with the mission of using false information with the intention to deceive public opinion.
Propaganda: Persuasion in the service of an agenda. Most commonly uses reinforcement of cultural myths, and stereotypes deeply embedded in culture. The ultimate goal of propaganda is subversion.
Featured Headlines
Misinformation spikes as Trump confirms COVID-19 diagnosis – AP
Tweets shared thousands of times claimed Democrats might have somehow intentionally infected the president with the coronavirus during the debates. Others speculated in Facebook posts that maybe the president was faking his illness. And the news also ignited constant conjecture among QAnon followers, who peddle a baseless belief that Trump is a warrior against a secret network of government officials and celebrities that they falsely claim is running a child trafficking ring.
Published Papers
Effects of misinformation on COVID-19 individual responses and recommendations for resilience of disastrous consequences of misinformation – Science Direct