Featured Articles

An ‘Unprecedented’ Effort to Stop the Coronavirus in Nursing Homes – NYT

Researchers are testing an experimental drug to halt sudden outbreaks. The trial may bring a new type of treatment for the virus. The coronavirus crept into Heartland Health Care Center, a nursing home in Moline, Ill., on the last day of July, when a member of the nursing staff tested positive.

F.D.A.’s Emergency Approval of Blood Plasma Is Now on Hold – NYT

Government health leaders including Dr. Francis S. Collins and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci urged caution last week, citing weak data from the country’s largest plasma study.

Wide Range of Antibody Responses After ‘Mild’ COVID-19 – MedPageToday

Patients hospitalized with mild COVID-19 in China exhibited a wide range of SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies, with a minority of patients with levels below the detectable limit of the assay, researchers found.

CDC Confirms Soaring COVID-19 Rate Among Native Americans – MedPageToday

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people had rates of COVID-19 infection three times higher than whites, CDC data from 23 states found. Among 340,059 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported to the agency from January 22 to July 3, the rate of infection was 3.5 times higher for the AI/AN population than it was for whites (95% CI 1.2-10.1), and more so affected younger people in this population (median age 40 vs 51 years in whites), reported Sarah M. Hatcher, PhD, of the CDC COVID-19 Response Team, and colleagues.

Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 spreads more indoors at low humidity – Science Daily

The airborne transmission of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 via aerosol particles in indoor environment seems to be strongly influenced by relative humidity, concludes the analysis of 10 most relevant international studies on the subject. Therefore, they recommend controlling the indoor air in addition to the usual measures such as social distancing and masks. A relative humidity of 40 to 60 percent could reduce the spread of the viruses and their absorption through the nasal mucous membrane.

Schools Have No Good Options for Reopening during COVID-19 – Scientific American

Bringing students back into classrooms or keeping them home can both have negative consequences. Even as schools have already begun reopening across the United States, debate is still intensifying over whether students should be physically present in classrooms. Children are widely thought to be at relatively low risk of developing severe COVID-19, but a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) indicates that cumulative cases doubled in roughly the past month: between July 9 and August 13, the number increased from about 200,000 to over 406,000. Physically reopening schools might accelerate the increase—potentially raising the number of children with severe symptoms and spurring spread among the community at large.

Nations see COVID-19 spike as they grapple with school reopening – CIDRAP

A safe return to school this fall can be managed only at the local level and only if local disease transmission is low, said Mike Ryan, MD, who directs the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) health emergencies program, in a live Q&A today with Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, the WHO COVID-19 technical lead.

Clinical Considerations

Why Some People Get Terribly Sick from COVID-19 – Scientific American

You might have a sniffle and be done. You might run a fever with a cough and unshakable fatigue for five days—or 10. Or you might end up in a hospital, gasping air into congested lungs, an immunological storm raging in your body. And you might not make it through COVID-19 alive.

Why ‘T Cell Immunity’ Won’t End The Coronavirus Pandemic – Forbes

A bounty of new studies on immune cells and Covid-19 are the inspiration for the latest misinterpretation of Covid-19 research currently infecting social media, particularly among political supporters of President Trump. A casual scan of Twitter shows that some early research from scientists investigating coronavirus and the immune system has been wildly misinterpreted. These social media posts claim that thanks to “T cell immunity,” it will only take about 10-20% of the population to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 to reach herd immunity—the point where the disease will slowly stop its spread. According to some dangerously optimistic tweets, this means the pandemic could be over by October.

New Evidence That Cells in the Nose Are Key Entry Point for SARS CoV-2 / COVID-19 – Science Daily

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine, experimenting with a small number of human cell samples, report that the “hook” of cells used by SARS-CoV-2 to latch onto and infect cells is up to 700 times more prevalent in the olfactory supporting cells lining the inside of the upper part of the nose than in the lining cells of the rest of the nose and windpipe that leads to the lungs. These supporting cells are necessary for the function/development of odor-sensing cells.