These moms work as doctors and scientists. But they've also taken on another job: Fighting Covid-19 misinformation online

‘While experts throughout the U.S. are trying to tackle misinformation and persuade Americans to get their shots when they become eligible, these doctor-scientist moms believe they are uniquely positioned to make the case. Not only do they have the expertise to answer medical questions and clear up misperceptions, but they can relate to the people they encounter on social media as fellow parents who also want what’s best for their families and communities. They film video Q&As and explain how the safety standards were met in the development of currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines. They interview one another to reach a wider audience through Instagram and YouTube. They warn each other about strategies that trolls may use to drag them into arguments.’

Read here (Time magazine, Mar 24, 2021)

Domestic violence is a pandemic within the Covid-19 pandemic

‘Growing evidence shows the pandemic has made intimate partner violence more common—and often more severe. “COVID doesn’t make an abuser,” says Jacky Mulveen, project manager of Women’s Empowerment and Recovery Educators (WE:ARE), an advocacy and support group in Birmingham, England. “But COVID exacerbates it. It gives them more tools, more chances to control you. The abuser says, ‘You can’t go out; you’re not going anywhere,’ and the government also is saying, ‘You have to stay in.'”

‘Surveys around the world have shown domestic abuse spiking since January of 2020—jumping markedly year over year compared to the same period in 2019. According to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine and the United Nations group U.N. Women, when the pandemic began, incidents of domestic violence increased 300% in Hubei, China; 25% in Argentina, 30% in Cyprus, 33% in Singapore and 50% in Brazil.’ 

Read here (Time, Feb 3, 2021)

Here's what Joe Biden can do about the Covid-19 pandemic starting on his first day as US president

‘If the pandemic unfolded in stages so too must it be contained that way. During the campaign, Biden promised swift action on such steps as testing, vaccine manufacture and distribution, and preventive measures like mask mandates. That, he’s said, will be followed by other steps like improving surveillance of emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, extending unemployment benefits to people whose jobs were lost as a result of quarantining and lockdowns, extending the moratorium on evictions, and ensuring that people who contract COVID-19 and survive don’t face discrimination in insurance benefits. It would, the candidate promised, be nothing short of a stepwise, war-like mobilization...

‘If there’s a certainty in exactly how the Biden plan will unfold over the next 24 or 12 or even three months, it’s that there’s no certainty at all. Viruses are at once both mindless and clever—infecting and eluding, spreading and shape-shifting. It takes a set of policies that are equally adaptable, equally nimble to defeat them. The new president’s plan is an ambitious first step. A lot of sure-footed steps remain before the pandemic is defeated.’

Read here (Time magazine, Jan 20, 2021)

We can't afford to wait for Covid-19 vaccines to be rolled out. Here’s what we can do to curb the virus now (The US situation)

• First, we need to get every American a high-filtration mask
• Second, schools and workplaces need to be made safer
• Third, we must protect our essential workers
• Fourth, we need to urgently build a functioning nationwide “test, trace, isolate, support” (TTIS) system
• Fifth, the US needs a “circuit breaker” to break the chains of transmission

Read here (Time magazine, Jan 13, 2021)

Too many Americans still mistrust the Covid-19 vaccines. Here's why

‘According to a December survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center, nearly 40% of Americans say they will definitely not or probably not get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them. Gallup polls put the number at 37%. That’s bad news not just for the vaccine refusers themselves but for the public as a whole. Experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had previously concluded that achieving herd immunity—the point at which a population is sufficiently vaccinated that a spreading virus can’t find enough new hosts—would require anywhere from 60% to 70% of Americans to take the vaccines. But lately, he and others have been inching that number upward, now estimating that herd immunity could require as much as 85% vaccine coverage...

‘But most people in the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy camp are more rational, more measured—informed enough not to believe the crazy talk, but worried enough not to want to be at the head of the line for a new vaccine. “For first responders and for older people with underlying conditions it’s a godsend,” says Padgett. “But I do believe this was rushed. I’m reasonably healthy. Six months to a year just to get more data on it is what I’d need to be vaccinated.”

Read here (Time, Jan 5, 2021)

It’s hard to enforce pandemic health rules on Halloween. Just look at what happened in 1918

‘Just as the state of the pandemic varied, so too did the precautions that cities took for Halloween. Newspaper articles in the digital archive of the Influenza Encyclopedia, produced by the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, provide a glimpse at the range of Halloween safety protocols in major cities nationwide.

‘One thing they make clear: it’s already hard enough to enforce safety protocols on a day like Halloween, but that challenge gets even more intense during a pandemic.’

Read here (Time, Oct 28, 2020) 

US Covid-19 cases are skyrocketing, but deaths are flat—so far. These 5 charts explain why

 ‘In just the last two weeks, the global daily tally for new COVID-19 cases has jumped more than 30%, according to TIME’s coronavirus tracker, which compiles data from Johns Hopkins University. The steep upward trend is driven by viral waves in Europe and the United States that started in August and mid-September, respectively. On Oct. 23, the daily case count in the U.S. reached a new record high, suggesting that this wave will be worse than the one that swept the country over the summer.

‘But despite this rapid uptick in cases, the daily death count in the U.S. is not yet rising at the same rate, and remains at lower levels than in April. At face value, a lower case-to-fatality rate suggests that fewer people who test positive for the virus are dying from it. But the virus hasn’t necessarily become less lethal; it isn’t mutating quickly enough for that to be the case.

‘What’s happening now is not a result of how the virus treats humans, but rather how humans are treating the virus—that is, how we test for it, how we avoid it and how we combat it. The following five charts explain how human-driven factors are, at least for the moment, keeping deaths from spiking as high as they did early in the pandemic, even as cases rise dramatically...’

Read here (Time, Oct 26, 2020)

Covid-19 is transmitted through aerosols. We have enough evidence, now it is time to act

‘We should continue doing what has already been recommended: wash hands, keep six feet apart, and so on. But that is not enough. A new, consistent and logical set of recommendations must emerge to reduce aerosol transmission. I propose the following: Avoid Crowding, Indoors, low Ventilation, Close proximity, long Duration, Unmasked, Talking/singing/Yelling (“A CIViC DUTY”). These are the important factors in mathematical models of aerosol transmission, and can also be simply understood as factors that impact how much “smoke” we would inhale.’

Read here (Time Magazine, August 25, 2020)

The Chinese scientist who sequenced the first Covid-19 genome speaks out about the controversies surrounding his work

‘Over the past few years, Professor Zhang Yongzhen has made it his business to sequence thousands of previously unknown viruses. But he knew straight away that this one was particularly nasty. It was about 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 that a metal box arrived at the drab, beige buildings that house the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. Inside was a test tube packed in dry ice that contained swabs from a patient suffering from a peculiar pneumonia sweeping China’s central city of Wuhan. But little did Zhang know that that box would also unleash a vicious squall of blame and geopolitical acrimony worthy of Pandora herself. Now, he is seeking to set the record straight.’

Read here (Time Magazine, August 24, 2020) 

What to know about Covid-19 tests, from PCR to antigen to antibody

‘People often talk about COVID-19 testing like it means only one thing. But in reality, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far granted emergency-use authorization to more than 200 different tests meant to detect a current or past infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Most recently, the agency made headlines for approving the first such test that uses saliva samples, the aptly named SalivaDirect test out of the Yale School of Public Health.

‘These COVID-19 tests fall into three main categories: PCR, antigen and antibody. Dr. Aneesh Mehta, chief of infectious diseases services at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., broke down the differences between them—and what to keep in mind if you decide to get tested.’

Read here (Time Magazine, August 20, 2020)

Tech companies are transforming people’s bedrooms into ‘virtual hospitals.’ Will it last Post-Covid?

‘Telehealth advocates say now is the time to act. A range of virtual offerings could be revolutionary for patients who are seriously sick, need long-term care, or live in rural areas, where hospital closings have left millions of Americans without easy access to treatment. “The environment in a hospital, although it’s very conducive to high intensity care, is not that conducive to being able to engage in normal activities of daily living that might be actually important for recovery,” says Dr. Michael Apkon, president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center...

‘Telehealth can also play an important role in helping patients before they reach the point of needing hospital care. When non-urgent procedures were canceled during the early months of the pandemic, many Americans turned to virtual visits to keep up with routine treatment and ask for guidance from health care providers before venturing into offices.’

Read here (Time, August 10, 2020) 

Europe is near the brink of a second wave of Covid-19. Will its new containment strategy work?

‘While new daily cases are still several times lower than they were during Europe’s peak in March and April, one thing we know about COVID-19 is that it can spread exponentially if allowed to get out of control. Now, all eyes are on Europe to see if it can prevent that from happening.’ This story examines the following:

• Where are cases rising?
• What’s causing the increase?
• Is anything different compared to the first wave?
• Has tourism caused cases to increase?
• What other factors are to blame?
• How are leaders around Europe responding to the increase in cases?
• What lessons can the rest of the world learn?

Read here (Time, August 7, 2020)

Here's what the science actually says about kids and Covid-19

‘As school districts across the United States decide whether to welcome kids back into the classroom for in-person education this fall, administrators find themselves weighing a complex set of variables. There’s the risk of children, teachers and staffers getting sick or spreading the disease, on the one hand. But on the other, there’s evidence that being out of school can degrade children’s long-term learning prospects and mental health; make it harder for many to get the food they need; and make it difficult for parents to work—especially mothers, who are often expected to handle a disproportionate amount of childcare duties. Millions of students, meanwhile, lack access to high-speed broadband internet and other technological resources required to get the most out of remote learning, making it an inadequate substitute for many.’

Read here (Time Magazine, July 29, 2020)

Inside the global quest to trace the origins of Covid-19 — and predict where it will go next

‘It has been 100 years since an infectious disease pushed the entire world’s population into hiding to the extent that COVID-19 has. And the primary approaches we take to combatting emerging microbes today are likewise centuries old: quarantine, hygiene and social distancing. We may never learn exactly where SARS-CoV-2 came from, and it’s clearly too late to prevent it from becoming a global tragedy. But extraordinary advances in scientific knowledge have given us new tools, like genetic sequencing, for a more comprehensive understanding of this virus than anyone could have imagined even a decade or two ago. These are already providing clues about how emerging viruses like SARS-CoV-2 operate and, most important, how they can be thwarted with more effective drugs and vaccines.’

Read here (Time Magazine, July 23, 2020)

CDC head estimates US coronavirus cases might be 10 times higher than data show

‘In a press briefing on June 25, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that the current official count of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. may actually be a drastic underestimate.

‘Redfield said the new, much-higher estimate, is based on growing data from antibody testing, which picks up the presence of immune cells that react to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. People will test positive for antibodies to the virus if they have been infected—whether or not they ever got sick or even developed symptoms.’

Read here (Time Magazine, June 25, 2020)

Antibody tests don't mean a ton right now. But that could change soon

‘In the study published in medRxiv, a preprint server for posting studies before they are peer-reviewed, a team at the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute of the New York Blood Center and Rockefeller University analyzed 370 plasma samples donated from people who recovered from COVID-19 and found some surprising results...

‘Overall, around 88% of the people generated varying levels of antibodies to the virus. But only about 10% of them had high levels that were able to neutralize the lab-based version of the COVID-19 virus—and, on the other side of the spectrum, 17% had almost no antibody response to their infection.’

Read here (Time Magazine, June 16, 2020)

50% asymptomatic carriers. They have lung tissue damage typical of Covid-19 too

‘Another concern, says Topol, is that the virus may be damaging the bodies of asymptomatic in other, silent ways. Among the 331 passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who tested positive but did not have symptoms, 76 people had CT scans of their lungs and nearly half showed signs of lung tissue damage typical of coronavirus infection. “People who are getting infection without symptoms are actually doing a lot of damage to their bodies and they don’t know it,” says Topol. Another small study in South Korea that studied 10 asymptomatic people from a group of 139 COVID-19 patients supports these findings.’

Read here (Time Magazine, June 5, 2020)

Trump said he would terminate the US relationship with the WHO. Here's what that means

‘The impacts wouldn’t be felt just abroad. Were the U.S. to leave the WHO, scientists and public health officials in the states would suddenly find themselves cut off from some of the most important global health communication channels. You don’t need to look too far into the past to see how this might play out: In the early days of COVID-19, “not all of the data from China was public. It was shared among the WHO member states initially before it was put out in public bulletins,” says Amanda Glassman, executive vice president of the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank, That information, in theory, should have enabled U.S. health infrastructure to rapidly spring into action, and take steps to mitigate the worst viral outcomes. It didn’t of course, but that failure can hardly be pinned on the WHO.’

Read here (Time Magazine, June 4, 2020)

The coronavirus killed the handshake and the hug. What Will replace them?

‘If you feel that personal connections are harder to form when talking to someone six feet away or through a screen on Zoom, you’re not alone. “You’re having to verbalize a lot more things that you would normally express with touch,” Suvilehto says. Hugging someone who needs comforting or placing a hand on their shoulder often feels easier and more natural than finding the right words. Being forced to voice these feelings might turn us into better communicators. “But the other option is that people will just stop communicating about emotions,” Suvilehto says.’

Read here (Time Magazine, May 27, 2020)

Unusual symptoms of coronavirus: What we know so far

‘While most people are familiar with the hallmark symptoms of COVID-19 by now—cough, fever, muscle aches, headaches and difficulty breathing—a new crop of medical conditions are emerging from the more than 4 million confirmed cases of the disease around the world.

‘These include skin rashes, diarrhea, kidney abnormalities and potentially life-threatening blood clots. It’s not unusual for viruses to directly infect and affect different tissues and organs in the body, but it is a bit unusual for a primarily respiratory virus like SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for COVID-19, to have such a wide-ranging reach in the body.’

Read here (Time Magazine, May 19, 2020)