The New York Times – “The public health debate on masks is settled, said Joseph G. Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard. When you wear a mask, “You protect yourself, you protect others, you prevent yourself from touching your face,” he said. And you signal that wearing a mask is the right… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Medicine
The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies
The New York Times – “A group of Stanford University economists estimates that there have been at least 30,000 coronavirus infections and 700 deaths as a result of 18 campaign rallies President Trump held between June and September…” Bernheim, B. Douglas and buchmann, Nina and Freitas-Groff, Zach and Otero, Sebastián, The Effects of Large Group… Continue Reading
COVID-19 masks FAQ: How can cloth stop a tiny virus? What’s the best fabric? Do they protect the wearer?
The Conversation: “Face masks reduce the spread of viruses passed on from respiratory secretions. While cloth masks are imperfect, widespread use of an imperfect mask has the potential to make a big difference in transmission of the virus. We started reading the research on cloth masks and face coverings at the start of the pandemic,… Continue Reading
Modeling COVID-19 scenarios for the United States
Reiner, R.C., Barber, R.M., Collins, J.K. et al. Modeling COVID-19 scenarios for the United States. Nat Med (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1132-9 [full-text] “We use COVID-19 case and mortality data from 1 February 2020 to 21 September 2020 and a deterministic SEIR (susceptible, exposed, infectious and recovered) compartmental framework to model possible trajectories of severe acute respiratory syndrome… Continue Reading
Wikipedia and W.H.O. Join to Combat Covid Misinformation
The New York Times – The health agency will license much of its material to the online encyclopedia, allowing the information to be reposted widely into almost 200 languages. “As part of efforts to stop the spread of false information about the coronavirus pandemic, Wikipedia and the World Health Organization announced a collaboration on Thursday:… Continue Reading
State of the Facts 2020: 37% of Americans say it’s harder to find facts since the pandemic began
AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (October, 2020). “State of the Facts 2020: COVID-19.” Topline Results Report “Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are still paying close attention, but few have trusted sources for factual information. Over half of Americans are paying close attention to information related to the virus these days. But 43%… Continue Reading
Mouthwashes, oral rinses might be useful for reducing the viral load n the mouth after infection
Penn State. “Mouthwashes, oral rinses may inactivate human coronaviruses, study finds.” ScienceDaily, 19 October 2020. “Certain oral antiseptics and mouthwashes may have the ability to inactivate human coronaviruses, according to a new study. The results indicate that some of these products might be useful for reducing the viral load, or amount of virus, in the… Continue Reading
Until a coronavirus vaccine is ready, pneumonia vaccines may reduce deaths from COVID-19
Via LLRX – Until a coronavirus vaccine is ready, pneumonia vaccines may reduce deaths from COVID-19 – Prof. Robert Root-Bernstein is an immunologist and physiologist interested in the effects of combined infections on immunity vaccines. Two vaccines – pneumococcal vaccine and the Hib vaccine – protect against bacterial pneumonias. These bacteria complicate both influenza and… Continue Reading
Eight Persistent COVID-19 Myths and Why People Believe Them
Scientific American – From a human-made virus to vaccine conspiracy theories, we rounded up the most insidious false claims about the pandemic. Because the pathogen first emerged in Wuhan, China, President Donald Trump and others have claimed, without evidence, that it started in a lab there, and some conspiracy theorists believe it was engineered as… Continue Reading
What A Summer Of COVID-19 Taught Scientists About Indoor vs. Outdoor Transmission
FiveThirtyEight: “Here we are, almost eight months into this pandemic, and it’s like you can’t even invite more than 150 people to sit next to each other unmasked in your rose garden without it turning into a major superspreader event. The White House outbreak is now linked to at least 40 cases, including some that… Continue Reading
Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak Across the World
Bloomberg – “The world is bracing for a new wave of Covid-19 infections, as the coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 40.0 million people and killed more than 1,110,000 globally since late January. Efforts many countries took to stamp out the pneumonia-like illness led to entire nations enforcing lockdowns, widespread halts of international travel, mass… Continue Reading
U.S. Virus Cases Climb Toward a Third Peak
The New York Times – “The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly… Continue Reading
