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covid-19 watch
The Latest
Global Numbers
- 6,663,729 cases
- 391,656 deaths
- 2,890,799
recovered
Key
Developments
2 major
retractions: Top medical journals have pulled 2
widely publicized papers on potential COVID-19 treatments: the Lancet
paper had raised doubts about the safety of
chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine; the New
England Journal of Medicine paper examined blood
pressure medication as a COVID-19 treatment. STAT
US labs
will be required to include data on race,
ethnicity, and other demographic data in the results of COVID-19
tests, the Trump administration announced
Thursday after facing backlash for failing to collect such
information earlier in the pandemic. NPR
Rohingya
refugees with COVID-19 are fleeing quarantine in
Bangladesh, fearful of being relocated to an isolated island in
the Bay of Bengal. New
Straits Times
CDC
chief Robert Redfield said that police violence
protesters need to get tested for COVID-19 amid concern that
gatherings could “seeding” events, particularly those in regions
where the outbreak is not yet contained—including Minneapolis and
Washington, DC. The
Washington Post
Related
Does drug touted by Trump work on COVID-19? After data debacle,
we still don't know – Reuters
Coronavirus Rips Into Regions Previously Spared – The
New York Times
Why scientists are struggling to show how the coronavirus passed
to people – Nature
‘People are looking at me’: For many who lost jobs in the
coronavirus epidemic, hunger comes with shame – The
Washington Post
Egyptian girls 'tricked into FGM' with COVID-19 vaccine – Al
Jazeera
COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months: The disease’s
“long-haulers” have endured relentless waves of debilitating
symptoms—and disbelief from doctors and friends. – The
Atlantic
Coronavirus and the Flu: A Looming Double Threat – Scientific
American
Pandemics from history - how they inform our response now – BMJ
talk medicine
Vanessa Kerry: I treat COVID patients and work with WHO. Trump is
risking our health by cutting ties. – USA
Today (commentary)
Face coverings to be made compulsory on public transport in
England – The
Guardian
Science Alone Can’t Solve Covid-19. The Humanities Must Help. – Undark
(commentary)
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covid-19: vaccines
Gavi’s Shots for All Plan
One of the biggest questions around an eventual COVID-19 vaccine:
Will it be equitably deployed throughout the world?
Inspired by previous efforts around Ebola and pneumococcal
vaccines,
Gavi,
the Vaccine Alliance has launched a $2 billion funding
mechanism aimed at ensuring a COVID-19 vaccine reaches the most
vulnerable.
The plan—which is only the first step in a larger
effort—incentivizes drug makers to ramp up production capacity by
offering volume guarantees before candidates are licensed, which
would speed up deployment when the vaccine arrives.
World leaders are getting behind the push, more aware than ever
that global vaccine collaboration will be key to ending the
pandemic, Quartz
reports.
And with rising vaccine skepticism, communication will be key to
convincing the public that a super-expedited approval process
didn’t skimp on safety, CNN
reports.
Related:
Top U.S. scientists left out of White House selection of COVID-19
vaccine shortlist – Science
Bill Gates’ bold plan for when a Covid-19 vaccine finally arrives
– WIRED
COVID-19: Three Reasons Why It Is Unlikely that We Get Vaccinated
before 2021 – IS
Global
COVID-19 vaccine development pipeline gears up – The
Lancet
In the race for a vaccine, children may be last to be vaccinated
– ABC
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violence
Not-So-Nonlethal Weapons
Rubber
bullets. Tear gas. Flash grenades.
Used
by police since the 1880s, so-called “nonlethal” weapons have
been deployed by police to quell protesters this week. Their name
obscures how dangerous they can be,
Popular Science reports.
The
rubber bullets shot into crowds of protesters can potentially
“disable, disfigure and even kill,”
NBC reports. In Minneapolis, a photojournalist was
blinded in one eye after being hit with one.
But
not much is known about how police deploy rubber bullets‚ as they
are not required to document their use. There are also no
national standards for their use.
Guidelines
advise only aiming them at the lower body under of a “violent
individual.” But when fired at close range, they can break bones,
“explode the eyeball,” or cause traumatic brain injuries—shot
from a distance, they could easily hit the wrong target.
Related:
I
Can’t Breathe: Braving Tear Gas in a Pandemic – The
Atlantic
Rubber
bullets can seriously mess you up – Vox
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covid-19 expert reality check
Immune-Suppressing Drugs and
COVID-19
If I take
immune-suppressing medication, should I stop so I'll have a
better chance of avoiding COVID-19 infection?
Research
into COVID-19 and patients who take immunosuppressing drugs is
still scarce. However, investigations
from Italy found that patients with systemic
autoimmune diseases do not seem to have an increased risk of
becoming infected.
Needless
to say, immunosuppression impairs innate and adaptive immunity
and is a risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness. While this
holds true for the majority of patients, a subset of COVID-19
patients exhibit “hyper-inflammation"—an immune system
activation triggered by the virus. The impact of initiating
immunosuppression in these COVID-19 patients is being tested in
several ongoing clinical trials.
Patients should consult with their physician on the need to take
immune system-suppressing medication. Some circumstances, such as
organ transplantation, require long-term intake of
immunosuppressing drugs, and abrupt withdrawal poses a risk to
patients to have organ failure due to rejection. This, in turn,
would lead to hospitalization and the need to intensify
treatment—increasing not only the chance of becoming infected but
also the risk of a severe COVID-19 disease course.
Andreas Kronbichler,
MD, PhD, is a researcher at the Medical University
Innsbruck, specializing in glomerular diseases and autoimmunity.
Ed. Note: This insight
and others are available in Global Health NOW's
COVID-19 Expert Reality Check. Have a COVID-19 question?
We'll try to find an expert to tackle it. Email Dayna: dkerecm1@jhu.edu.
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your friday diversion
Got Plague? Try Powdered Toad.
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If you
thought injecting disinfectant to cure COVID-19 was the most
asinine medical suggestion of all time, imagine trying to cure
the plague with a lozenge made of powdered toad and toad vomit.
That
idea wasn't Donald Trump's. It was from Isaac Newton—yes, that
Isaac Newton—“the world’s greatest scientific mind.”
Newton’s
musings on the matter are being auctioned off this week,
hopefully not to researchers considering COVID-19 treatments.
Specifically:
“the best is a toad suspended by the legs in a chimney for three
days, which at last vomited up earth with various insects in it,
on to a dish of yellow wax, and shortly after died.”
But
to Newton’s credit, we’ve all had to kiss a few frogs before
getting it right.
The
Guardian
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Earth’s
carbon dioxide levels hit record high, despite
coronavirus-related emissions drop – The
Washington Post
Experts:
Floyd’s health issues don’t affect homicide ruling – AP
Yemeni women will die, aid workers warn, as U.N. cuts maternity
services –
Reuters
Brazil’s
Zika Epidemic Worsens – Zika
News
A
Lyme disease vaccine doesn’t exist, but a yearly antibody shot
shows promise at preventing infection –
The Conversation
Opioid
Addiction Treatment Is More Widely Available, but Only for Adults
–
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
All
this chaos might be giving you 'crisis fatigue' – WIRED
Missed
Opportunities for Prevention of Congenital Syphilis — United
States, 2018 – CDC
Telehealth
wasn't designed for non-English speakers. – The
Verge
Latent
TB infection associated with very high alcohol use among people
with HIV – Healio
'I
know they aren't healthy': the energy drink craze sweeping
Afghanistan – The
Guardian
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