Featured Articles

How Do People Catch Covid-19? Here’s What Experts Say – Washington Post/Bloomberg

The modus operandi is becoming clearer. For the most part, SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, spreads by close personal contact via tiny particles emitted when an infected person coughs, sneezes, speaks, sings — or even just breathes normally. These can infect another person by falling into an eye, nose or mouth, by being inhaled or getting stuck on a hand and transferred to one of these entry sites. Here’s an explanation of the established route of contagion and other pathways under investigation.

Hospitals Are Counting Beds Again With Cases Rising – Bloomberg

As several U.S. states see a rising swell of Covid-19 patients, hospitals are trying to avoid a scenario where they face more sick patients than they have beds to hold them. The situation reflects the persistent threat that unchecked spread of the virus can overwhelm hospitals, as it did in Wuhan, China, and Lombardy, Italy. That fear prompted radical measures across the U.S. to lock down movement and commerce, allowing hard-hit areas like New York City, Detroit and New Orleans to handle the outbreak without needing to triage patients.

Birx says she wishes US lockdown had resembled the one in Italy – CNN

Looking back to the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator said Monday she wished the United States had gone into a stricter lockdown.

Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission on an International Flight and Among a Tourist Group – JAMA

This case series assessed a commercial airline flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Frankfurt, Germany, that occurred on March 9th, 2020. Among 102 passengers on a Boeing 737-900 aircraft were 24 members of a tourist group. Starting 7 days earlier, the group had contact with a hotel manager who later received a diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). No member of the group had received a diagnosis of COVID-19 before the flight, and no measures to prevent transmission (eg, wearing of masks) had been applied. The flight duration was 4 hours 40 minutes.

Nine COVID-19 Myths That Just Won’t Go Away – Scientific American

From a human-made virus to vaccine conspiracy theories, we rounded up the most persistent false claims about the pandemic. As the world continues to battle the coronavirus, it is also fighting a different sort of epidemic: misinformation. This “infodemic” is just as harmful as COVID-19 itself, leading people to downplay the severity of the disease and ignore public health advice in favor of unproved treatments or “cures.”

What can we learn from South Korea’s response? – Medical News Today

A new research article identifies the factors that enabled South Korea to handle the COVID-19 pandemic particularly well.

What the immune response to the coronavirus says about the prospects for a vaccine – Nature

Viral immunologists say that results so far have been predictable — here’s why that’s good news.

Young Americans Are Partying Hard and Spreading Covid-19 Quickly – Bloomberg

The dropping age of the infected is becoming one of the most pressing problems for local officials, who continued Wednesday to set curfews and close places where the young gather. U.S. health experts say that they are more likely to be active and asymptomatic, providing a vast redoubt for the coronavirus that has killed almost 130,000 Americans.

How Bars Are Fueling COVID-19 Outbreaks – NPR

From the early days of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, states have wrestled with the best course of action for the nation’s imperiled bars and nightclubs. Many of these businesses find their economic prospects tied to a virus that preys on their industry’s lifeblood — social gatherings in tight quarters. Public health experts and top health officials, including the Dr. Tony Fauci, say the evidence is abundantly clear: When bars open, infections tend to follow.

Less than half of Americans say they’ll get a coronavirus vaccine – NBC News

Clinical Considerations

Cardiac Arrest Tracked Stages of Lockdown – MedPageToday

The recent uptick in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) could be a consequence of heart attack patients avoiding hospitals during COVID-19, one Denver group suggested. There were significantly more OHCAs in the first 2 weeks of the local shelter-in-place order compared with the period before COVID or the early COVID period between the declaration of emergency and the statewide shelter-in-place order (46 vs 26 and 27 per week, respectively, P=0.001 and P=0.004).

Covid-19 Can Cause Heart Damage—Even If You Are Asymptomatic – Forbes

A lot has been written about “long haulers”—patients who have tested positive for SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, who continue to experience ongoing symptoms such as fatigue, muscle aches, palpitations and difficulty breathing for months after their initial diagnosis.

New-Onset Type 1 Diabetes in Children During COVID-19: Multicenter Regional Findings in the U.K. – MedPageToday

Data on new-onset type 1 diabetes during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic, particularly in children, is limited. A recent U.S. multicenter study reported outcomes in sixty-four adults and children with type 1 diabetes, and confirmed or suspected COVID-19. However, only six patients presented with new-onset type 1 diabetes (1).