Featured Headlines
Surveillance
Official Reporting for April 3, 2020
| WHO SITREP #73 | ECDC | Country Data | Johns Hopkins | |
| Confirmed Cases | 896,450 | 1000,249 | 1,026,974 |
| Deaths | 45,525 | 51,515 | 53,973 |
Total deaths: 4,513
Travel Related: 1,144
Close Contact: 3,245
Under Investigation: 209,755
Total Cases: 213,144
Surveillance Headlines
USA
USA: How Fast the Coronavirus Outbreak Is Growing in Hundreds of U.S. Communities – NYT
Oregon: Central Oregon Braces For Expected Surge In COVID-19 Patients – Central Oregon News
Houston, Texas: Houston hasn’t reported a surge of coronavirus cases. But its hospitals tell a different story. – NBC News
New York: N.Y. Reports Most Deaths in a Day – Bloomberg
Texas:59 San Antonio nursing home residents test positive for coronavirus – Texas Tribune
South America
Equador: Ecuadorians live with dead relatives amid coronavirus pandemic – NBC News
Brazil: Confirms First COVID-19 Case in Isolated Tribe – Telesure
Europe
Greece:Greece Records First Coronavirus Cases Among Refugees, Imposes Quarantine On Camp – NPR
Romania: Enduring eastern Europe’s biggest spike in deaths – Bloomberg
UK: Reports Deadliest Day Yet With 684 Coronavirus Deaths – Bloomberg
Asia
Singapore: Singapore to Close Schools, Most Workplaces With Rising Virus Cases – Bloomberg
Middle East
Afghanistan: With fake hand sanitizer and 12 ventilators, Afghanistan expects millions of coronavirus cases – The Intercept
Science and Tech
MIT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem steps up to the challenge of Covid-19 – MIT News Innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t easy. New companies are forced to make due with minimal resources. Decisions must be made in the face of great uncertainty. Conditions change rapidly.
F.D.A. Approves First Coronavirus Antibody Test in U.S.- NYTSuch a test may help scientists learn how widespread the infection is, and how long people remain immune after recovering.
Bad News Wrapped in Protein: Inside the Coronavirus Genome – NYTViruses must hijack living cells to replicate and spread. When the coronavirus finds a suitable cell, it injects a strand of RNA that contains the entire coronavirus genome. [If you hit a paywall at the link, try here]
How long coronavirus survives on surfaces – and what it means for handling money, food and more – World Economic ForumLike the other 200 or so respiratory viruses we know of, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the new coronavirus, infects the cells of our airways. It causes a range of signs and symptoms, or none at all. It can spread easily from person-to-person, and can be coughed into the air and onto surfaces. Viruses only replicate inside a living cell – outside the cell, they’re on a path to either infect us, or their own destruction. How long a virus survives outside a cell varies.
Vaccines
Why a coronavirus vaccine takes over a year to produce – and why that is incredibly fast- World Economic ForumAs several companies race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, the public is repeatedly reminded that the finish line is at least 12 to 18 months away. This timeline feels excruciatingly long as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the world around us. But it deserves some context. New technologies combined with international cooperation to fight infectious diseases are enabling faster responses to new disease outbreaks, shaving several years from traditional vaccine development timelines. Here are the key steps in the path to developing a vaccine against coronavirus and an outline of what they mean for time saving and for you.
Why I am volunteering to get the coronavirus vaccine – MIT Tech Review To stop the coronavirus we need a vaccine fast—and volunteers willing to receive it. Several vaccines are in development, but the first to be tested in humans is a novel type of shot developed by Moderna Therapeutics, a company whose technology has allowed what’s being called the fastest startup of a vaccine trial ever.
Antivirals/Drug Therapies
Potential covalent drugs targeting the main protease of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus – Oxford AcademicSince December 2019, the newly identified coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has caused a massive health crisis worldwide and resulted in over 70,000 COVID-19 infections so far. Clinical drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed to decrease the high fatality rate of confirmed COVID-19 patients. Traditional de novo drug discovery needs more than 10 years, so drug repurposing seems the best option currently to find potential drugs for treating COVID-19.
Unlike FDA, European regulators refuse to clear chloroquine for COVID-19 without data – Fierce Pharma Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have drawn more attention—and certainly more presidential support—than any other drug during the global quest to find an effective coronavirus therapy.
Trial drug can significantly block early stages of COVID-19 in engineered human tissues -Science DailyAn international team led by University of British Columbia researcher Dr. Josef Penninger has found a trial drug that effectively blocks the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect its hosts.
Infection Prevention
What to know about the risks of restaurant takeout and delivery — and how to minimize them – Washington PostAn estimated 75 percent of Americans are now living under stay-at-home orders because of the coronavirus, which may be one big reason why we’re typing the following phrases into Google as fast as our malnourished fingers will allow it: “Is it safe to order food delivery?” And: “Is it safe to eat takeout during covid?” And countless variations of each. People clearly want answers. Let’s get you some before you’re forced to binge-watch “Schitt’s Creek” with a cold can of baked beans.
Published Research
Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1 – NEJM
Pre-Pub (not yet peer reviewed, should not be regarded as conclusive)
Opinions & Editorials
It’s Time to Face Facts, America: Masks Work – WiredWhen you look at photos of Americans during the 1918 influenza pandemic, one feature stands out above all else: masks. Fabric, usually white gauze, covers nearly every face. Across the country, public health experts recommended universal mask wearing, and some cities ordered residents to wear them under penalty of fine or imprisonment. The Red Cross made thousands of cloth masks and distributed them for free. Newspapers published instructions for sewing masks at home. “Make any kind of a mask … and use it immediately and at all times,” the Boston commissioner of health pleaded. “Even a handkerchief held in place over the face is better than nothing.” After the 1918 pandemic, the prophylactic use of masks among the general public largely fell out of favor in America and much of the West. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has almost never advised healthy people to wear masks in public to prevent influenza or other respiratory diseases. In the past few months, with medical supplies dangerously diminished, the CDC, US surgeon general Jerome Adams, and the World Health Organization have urged people not to buy masks, paradoxically claiming that masks are both essential for the safety of health care workers and incapable of protecting the public from Covid-19. (WIRED’s editorial staff, like the CDC, suggests that healthy people not wear masks.)
Should we wear masks or not? An expert sorts through the confusion – The Conversation
As a professor at Boston University’s School of Medicine and a geriatrician at Boston Medical Center caring for the most vulnerable in this pandemic, I’ve been asked a lot of questions about COVID-19. It turns out there is good science out there that helps us know what masks we need to wear and when to wear them. That being said, some of the following advice could change as scientists learn more about why some people get a bad or even lethal case of this virus while many more get through it OK. One of the areas of greatest confusion seems to be about masks. Much of the decision about wearing masks depends on what the essential businesses that remain open are doing to ensure social distancing and therefore, our safety.