5 Hacks And Tips To Make Your Face Mask More Protective – NPR
“A cloth mask might be 50% effective at blocking viruses and aerosols,” says Linsey Marr, a researcher at Virginia Tech who studies airborne virus transmission. “We’re at the point now … that we need better than 50%.”
Two additional cases of a more infectious variant of the coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom have been found in Louisiana and another 17 suspect cases are awaiting confirmation, state health department officials said Tuesday.
Recovered COVID patients likely protected for at least six months, study finds – Reuters
Almost all people previously infected with COVID-19 have high levels of antibodies for at least six months that are likely to protect them from reinfection with the disease, results of a major UK study showed on Wednesday.
Inside The World Health Organization’s Investigation Into How Pandemic Began – NPR
Scientists sent by the World Health Organization are wrapping up a visit to Wuhan, China. They were investigating how the coronavirus began, but it’s not clear how much they were able to find.
A Rocky Road On The Way To Herd Immunity For COVID-19 – NPR
Scientists estimate that somewhere between 70% and 85% of people need to be immune from the coronavirus before the disease will wane through a process known as herd immunity. Both natural immunity and vaccines can play a role in achieving that goal. But getting there won’t be easy.
Vaccine Headlines
The AstraZeneca vaccine may slow transmission of the virus – NYT
The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has the potential to slow the transmission of the virus. [Related preprint in the Lancet]
If all goes well, the U.S. could see 110 million doses of the Novavax vaccine in June – NYT
As recently as December, the vaccine maker Novavax appeared to once again be on the brink of failure. Manufacturing troubles had forced the little-known Maryland company, which in its 34-year history had never brought a vaccine to market, to delay the U.S. clinical trial of its experimental Covid-19 inoculation, jeopardizing its $1.6 billion contract with the federal government. And two Covid-19 vaccines made by its competitors were already shipping around the country, leaving some to wonder whether Novavax would ever catch up.
An international program to supply Covid-19 vaccines at low or no cost to countries around the world plans to deliver more than 300 million doses by June 30, it said on Wednesday.
Clinical Considerations
Saliva for Detection of SARS-CoV-2 – NEJM
Wyllie and colleagues (Sept. 24 issue)1 provide helpful data regarding the use of saliva samples for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We would like to call attention to one detail. For most of the PCR data, absolute quantification was applied, which provided data on the viral load of the samples in units of copies per milliliter. Wyllie et al. did so using a formula that was based on a standard curve that was generated by measuring serial dilutions of known quantities of SARS-CoV-2 RNA transcripts, which was done during a previous study.2 In order to gain reliable results on quantitative PCR (qPCR), standards are usually amplified in parallel with samples during each individual PCR test, which generates a new standard curve for every test run.
Association of Psychiatric Disorders With Mortality Among Patients With COVID-19 – JAMA Psychiatry
In this cohort study of 7348 adults with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in a New York health system, a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis was associated with an increased risk of death after adjusting for demographic and medical risk factors. Mood and anxiety disorders were not associated with increased risk of mortality.
Official Reporting for February 4, 2021
World Health Organization
Weekly Epi Update February 1, 2020
Confirmed Cases: 103 362 039
Deaths: 2 244 713
Johns Hopkins
Confirmed Cases: 104,340,939
Deaths: 2,265,935
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Total cases: 26,277,125 (+116,915 New Cases)
Total deaths: 445,264 (+3,433 New Deaths)
Science and Tech
What Can Covid-19 Teach Us About the Mysteries of Smell? NYT Magazine
Danielle Reed stopped counting after the 156th email arrived in a single afternoon. It was late March, and her laboratory at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia had abruptly gone into Covid-19 lockdown. For weeks, there had been little to do. Reed, who is famous in her field for helping to discover a new family of receptors that perceive bitter flavors, had spent years studying the way human genetics affect the way we experience smell and taste. It was important but niche science that seemingly had little to do with a dangerous respiratory virus spreading around the globe.
What Science Can and Cannot Do in a Time of Pandemic – Scientific American
The COVID-19 pandemic is at the core of a triple crisis facing the U.S. population. The economic impact, both as a direct consequence of the pandemic and from the cost of accompanying mitigation measures, is the second element of the crisis; it has manifested in lingering high levels of unemployment, with some 26.8 million workers, almost 16 percent of the entire U.S. workforce, either unemployed, otherwise prevented from working by COVID-19, or employed but on reduced pay.
Psychological and Sociological Impact
How Covid-19 Changed The Supermarket Assortment – Forbes
There has been a lot written and discussed about how Covid-19 exposed the supply chain, how transportation flaws forced the surge in oat milk sales and how being stuck at home fueled the sales of baker’s yeast, flour and bread making machines. There is a lot more to the story that will, perhaps, change the way supermarket shelves look in the future.
Society and disease: Lessons on pandemic from the pages of history – Yale News
While doing research as an undergraduate in Australia during the late-1970s, Naomi Rogers stumbled upon some dusty volumes of the British Medical Journal in her university’s medical library. They hadn’t been used in a very long time, but for Rogers — who was searching for debates, from the 1870s and 1880s, about whether women should be admitted to medical schools — there was something “magical” in those pages. At the time torn between a career in music or history, she began to lean toward life as a historian.
Published Research
Convalescent Plasma Antibody Levels and the Risk of Death from Covid-19 – NEJM
Single Dose Administration, And The Influence Of The Timing Of The Booster Dose On Immunogenicity and Efficacy Of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) Vaccine – The Lancet (preprint)
Bioaerosol sampling for SARS-CoV-2 in a referral center with critically ill COVID-19 patients March-May 2020 – Clinical Infectious Diseases
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
Ukraine sanctions TV channels to counter Russian “propaganda” – Reuters
Medvedchuk told Reuters propaganda was designed to deflect from Zelenskiy’s falling political ratings and what they depicted as policy blunders on fighting poverty and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coping in 2020 (and probably most of 2021)
A year in portraits
