The false promise of herd immunity for COVID-19
In May, the Brazilian city of Manaus was devastated by a large outbreak of COVID-19. Hospitals were overwhelmed and the city was digging new grave sites in the surrounding forest. But by August, something had shifted.
Fast detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA via the integration of plasmonic thermocycling and fluorescence detection in a portable device
We used nucleic acid targets recommended by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Fig. 1a)36: N1 and N2 genes (for severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus detection) and the human RPP30 gene (for human sample confirmation). Figure 1b shows the nanoPCR schematic for 17-min COVID-19 diagnostics (see Supplementary Video 1 for the whole workflow). The assay starts with extracting total RNAs from suspected patient samples (for example, nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs or sputum). Extracted RNA samples are then mounted inside a nanoPCR device, and the remaining assay steps are carried out automatically: (1) thermoplasmonic RT–PCR (11 min); (2) magnetic fluorescence switch (MFS) to remove MPNs from samples using an external magnetic field (3 min); and (3) fluorescence signal detection directly from tubes (<20 s). Overall, the nanoPCR offers practical advantages for on-site molecular diagnostics.
CDC expands definition of “close contacts,” after study suggests COVID-19 can be passed in brief interactions
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday expanded how it defines a “close contact” of someone with Covid-19 as it released new evidence showing the coronavirus can be passed during relatively brief interactions. Previously, the CDC described a close contact as someone who spent 15 minutes or more within six feet of someone who was infectious. Now, the agency says it’s someone who spent a cumulative 15 minutes or more within six feet of someone who was infectious over 24 hours, even if the time isn’t consecutive, according to an agency spokesperson. Close contacts are those who are tracked down during contact tracing and are recommended to quarantine. advertisement The announcement from the CDC comes as scientists described in a new study how a correctional officer in Vermont appears to have contracted the coronavirus during “multiple brief encounters” with six incarcerated people who had Covid-19.
Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV)
Lancet Inf Dis Article: Here. Mobile Version: Here. Data sources: Full list. Downloadable database: GitHub, Feature Layer. Lead by JHU CSSE. Technical Support: Esri Living Atlas team and JHU APL.
Will a vaccine stop Covid?
If there’s a finish line in sight for the grim marathon that has been Covid-19, it’s a vaccine. It will be – we all hope – the thing that signals a return to some sort of normality, eventually. And there have been some promising headlines recently: notably, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has started production, with the UK deputy chief medical officer saying a rollout could start before Christmas, while Pfizer says that it hopes to file for FDA emergency use approval for its own vaccine within the next few weeks. I don’t want to downplay these developments.
Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection
Abstract Understanding immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 is critical for improving diagnostics and vaccines, and for assessing the likely future course of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed multiple compartments of circulating immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 in 254 samples from 188 COVID-19 cases, including 43 samples at ≥ 6 months post-infection.
Risk of infection: Air purifiers remove 90% of aerosols in school classrooms
The most dangerous route to an infection with SARS-CoV-2 is via the air: For example, when infected persons sneeze or cough, they catapult relatively large droplets which, however, sink to the ground within a radius of two meters. Important are also aerosols, much smaller droplets, which we emit when speaking or breathing. Studies show that infectious SARS-CoV-2 pathogens can still be detected in such aerosols over three hours after emission and several meters away from an infected person.
What Fans of ‘Herd Immunity’ Don’t Tell You
Some states listened to the advice and have done well, just as many schools listened and have reopened without seeing a surge. But the Trump administration and too many governors never got behind these measures, reopened too many states too soon, and still haven’t straightened out testing. Worse, the White House has all but embraced herd immunity and has also poisoned the public with misinformation, making it all but impossible to get national, near-universal compliance with public health advice for the foreseeable future. As a result, the United States is not in a good place, and achieving near containment of the virus — as South Korea (441 deaths), Australia (904 deaths), Japan (1,657 deaths) and several other countries have done — is impossible. We can, however, still aim for results akin to those of Canada, where there were 23 deaths on Friday, and Germany, which suffered 24 deaths on Friday. John M.
DEFINE_ME
Summary Background The long-term health consequences of COVID-19 remain largely unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the long-term health consequences of patients with COVID-19 who have been discharged from hospital and investigate the associated risk factors, in particular disease severity.
Michigan Provides Employers and Employees COVID-19 Protections - Ogletree Deakins
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently signed into law four bills that encourage employers to resume business in compliance with all COVID-19 safeguards required under the various federal, state, and local statutes, rules, regulations, executive orders, and agency orders. The new laws provide a significant reward for an employer’s compliance: insulation from COVID-19–related liability—including tort claims and claims under the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1974 (MIOSHA)—as long as the employer was implementing all safeguards legally required at the time of the incident giving rise to the claim. This protection extends beyond the employer-employee relationship. However, the protection does not alter any employer liability under the Michigan Workers’ Disability Compensation Act of 1969. The new laws are effective immediately and are made retroactive to March 1, 2020.
A Dose of Optimism, as the Pandemic Rages On
By then, Dr. Slaoui has estimated, the factories under contract will have produced enough vaccine for 30 to 40 million people, and then another 80 to 90 million people every month after that. Assuming nothing goes wrong, he said, there will be enough doses for all 330 million Americans to be vaccinated by next June.
How does coronavirus kill? Clinicians trace a ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes
Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center. On rounds in a 20-bed intensive care unit one recent day, physician Joshua Denson assessed two patients with seizures, many with respiratory failure and others whose kidneys were on a dangerous downhill slide. Days earlier, his rounds had been interrupted as his team tried, and failed, to resuscitate a young woman whose heart had stopped. All shared one thing, says Denson, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Tulane University School of Medicine. “They are all COVID positive.” As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 surges past 2.2 million globally and deaths surpass 150,000, clinicians and pathologists are struggling to understand the damage wrought by the coronavirus as it tears through the body.
Michigan Supreme Court's Decision Against COVID-19 Executive Orders Still No Treat for Business
The Michigan Supreme Court, in a divided opinion, recently invalidated Michigan’s Emergency Powers of Governor Act of 1945, MCL 10.31 et seq. This was the statute under which Governor Whitmer issued a number of COVID-19 executive orders. Those orders, therefore, will now be void by the end of October.
The anti-lockdown scientists’ cause would be more persuasive if it weren’t so half-baked
A ski resort once crowned “the best small town in America” may seem an unlikely venue for three scientists to issue an edict about the global response to a pandemic. But Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is the home of the libertarian thinktank the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), which this month hosted a meeting to discuss “the global emergency created by the unprecedented use of state compulsion”. The result was “the Great Barrington declaration”, which prompted headlines about the disintegrating scientific consensus that managing Covid-19 requires society-wide changes to behaviour.
