Featured Articles
U.S. tops 6 million coronavirus cases as nation continues to struggle with pandemic – NBC News
The U.S. has surpassed 6 million coronavirus cases as the country struggles to reopen schools and rebuild its economy as the pandemic rages with no end in sight.
India Is Becoming the World’s New Virus Epicenter – Bloomberg
India is fast becoming the world’s new virus epicenter, setting a record for the biggest single-day rise in cases as experts predict that it’ll soon pass Brazil — and ultimately the U.S. — as the worst outbreak globally.
Global COVID-19 total tops 25 million amid WHO warning – CIDRAP
Over the weekend, global COVID-19 cases topped 25 million, much of the activity fueled by steady, high daily cases in Americas countries and India, which yesterday reported the highest daily total of any country during the pandemic.
When my 13-year-old son was diagnosed with covid-19 in April, after getting it from me, one of my friends reached out via email. “Look on the bright side,” she wrote. “Now he’ll have antibodies. When the kids go back to school, you won’t have to worry.”
Several trials are underway giving patients immune proteins called interferons, either alone or in combination with other treatments, to see if they speed recovery.
One way to slow the spread of COVID-19? Stop talking. Seriously. – Popular Science
As Labor Day approaches and autumn inches closer, the coronavirus continues to spread across the country. When fall hits, it will mark the start of the third full season that many Americans have spent practicing social distancing to prevent the novel virus’s spread—but there are some indications that the White House could now have a different tactic in mind. Here’s everything you need to know.
The setting was rustic, romantic: a lakefront inn in rural Maine at the height of summer. Inside, the bride smiled in a lace-covered V-neck dress.
There was a three-tier cake, a flower garland strung up by the entry and a crowd of about 65 family and friends gathered to celebrate Aug. 7 just outside the rural town of Millinocket.
U.S. Cases Rise 0.4%; Big AstraZeneca Trial Begins – Bloomberg
U.S. coronavirus cases topped 6 million, with outbreaks accelerating on college campuses. Hard-hit states including Arizona, California and Florida showed daily new infections shrinking.
Yet more data support COVID-19 aerosol transmission – CIDRAP
Two studies published late last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases highlight the role of airborne spread of COVID-19 and the importance of efficient ventilation systems. One study found that patients can exhale millions of viral RNA particles per hour in the early stages of disease, and the second tied an outbreak affecting 81% of residents and 50% of healthcare workers at a Dutch nursing home to inadequate ventilation. [Related Study] [Related Study]
Clinical Considerations
COVID-19 Can Wreck Your Heart, Even if You Haven’t Had Any Symptoms – Scientific American
A growing body of research is raising concerns about the cardiac consequences of the coronavirus
How chemicals like PFAS can increase your risk of severe COVID-19 – TheConversation
Nearly a year before the novel coronavirus emerged, Dr. Leonardo Trasande published “Sicker, Fatter, Poorer,” a book about connections between environmental pollutants and many of the most common chronic illnesses. The book describes decades of scientific research showing how endocrine-disrupting chemicals, present in our daily lives and now found in nearly all people, interfere with natural hormones in our bodies. The title sums up the consequences: Chemicals in the environment are making people sicker, fatter and poorer.
Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 in tears of moderate to severe COVID-19 patients – Ophthalmology
To investigate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome corona virus 2 Ribo nucleic acid) in tears of moderate to severe COVID-19 patients.
Official Reporting for August 31, 2020
World Health Organization
Cumulative Cases: 25,118,689
Cumulative Deaths: 844,312
ECDC
Confirmed Cases: 25,251,334
Deaths: 846,841
Johns Hopkins
Confirmed Cases: 25,334,339
Deaths: 848,084
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Total deaths: 182,622
Surveillance Headlines
USA
U.S.: Most states yet to hit pandemic peak for COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations – USA Today
Arizona: Number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations declining across Arizona – Community Impact
Minnesota: active cases reach record high – MN Public Radio
Maryland: Hospitalizations Down As Nearly 500 New COVID-19 Cases Reported Sunday – CBS Baltimore
EUROPE
Spain: Europe’s Second Wave Is Cresting in Spain – NYT
Science and Tech
Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 spreading in an airplane toilet – MedicalNews.Net
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is still actively spreading like wildfire, with nearly 300,000 new infections reported daily across the globe. Early on in the outbreak in China, scientists said that the virus could spread through respiratory droplets, when a person coughs, sneezes, or speaks. [Related Study CDC]
Antibodies at work in the time of SARS-CoV-2 – Cytotherapy
Even after a decade of continuous emergence of coronaviruses, there aren’t any licenced vaccines or therapeutics against the deadly infection. The age-old passive immunization with protective antibodies to neutralize the virus is one of the strategies for emergency prophylaxis and therapy for COVID-19. In this review, we discuss the up-to-date advances in immune-based therapy for COVID-19. The use of convalescent plasma therapy as the first line of defences to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection has been established with encouraging results.
Vaccine
China’s Vaccine Front-Runner Aims to Beat Covid the Old-Fashioned Way – Bloomberg
Many of the 200-plus Covid-19 vaccine projects under way around the world are focused on new technologies—inoculations based on messenger RNA, for example, or genetically modified cold viruses. The company developing one of China’s leading vaccine candidates, by contrast, is betting that humanity’s best chance may lie with a shot not too different from the kind that’s been in use for hundreds of years.
Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who has been under pressure from the White House to speed coronavirus treatments, said in a newspaper interview that his agency would be willing to approve a coronavirus vaccine before Phase 3 clinical trials were complete if the agency found it “appropriate” to do so.
Social and Psychological Impact
Humans are hard-wired to make sense of each other’s actions. Never has this inclination been more on display in America than now, as society grapples with tough choices about how to safely send children back to school amid Covid-19. Do policies like mandatory masking reflect no-brainer public health measures or indefensible assaults on civil liberties? Do efforts to fully reopen in-person schools represent uncompromising commitment to education or blatant disregard for teacher and student safety?
Published Research
Asymptomatic Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 on Evacuation Flight – CDC
We conducted a cohort study in a controlled environment to measure asymptomatic transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 on a flight from Italy to South Korea. Our results suggest that stringent global regulations are necessary for the prevention of transmission of this virus on aircraft.
Outbreak of COVID-19 in a nursing home associated with aerosol transmission as a result of inadequate ventilation – Clinical Infectious Diseases
COVID-19 patients in earlier stages exhaled millions of SARS-CoV-2 per hour – Clinical Infectious Diseases
Coping in Quarantine