Denmark appears to have beaten Covid-19 — for now. Here’s how it did it.

‘As part of Denmark’s largest behavioral covid-19 research project (the HOPE project), we surveyed more than 400,000 individuals in Denmark and seven other countries. Our findings suggest that citizens’ high and stable trust in their health authorities has been a crucial factor in Denmark’s success. This trust, shown in the figure below, encouraged high vaccination rates and the successful implementation of key policies such as mass testing and coronavirus passports.’

Read here (Washington Post, Sept 20, 2021)

Will the pandemic make us nicer people? Probably not. But it might change us in other ways

‘Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been awash in feel-good stories about celebrating essential workers, uplifting local businesses, appreciating what we have — all shining a light on our better angels. A year ago, Kelly Ripa told The Washington Post, “I think we’re all going to be better off for this” because “we’re all being satisfied with less.”

‘But, if experts in history and science are any guide, this altruism is probably not going to last. We are more likely to put this behind us as soon as possible, dive back into life with abandon and push boundaries. If anything, we will probably be less concerned with what other people think. Carpe diem, baby.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 1, 2021)

Europe’s growing mask ask: Ditch the cloth ones for medical-grade coverings

‘Faced with new, more contagious, strains of the coronavirus and a winter surge in cases, European nations have begun to tighten mask regulations in the hope that they can slow the spread of the virus. Germany on Tuesday night made it mandatory for people riding on public transport or in supermarkets to wear medical style masks: either N95s, the Chinese or European equivalent KN95 or FFP2s, or a surgical mask.

‘It follows a stricter regulation from the German state of Bavaria this week that required N95 equivalents in stores and on public transport. Austria will introduce the same measures from Monday.’

Read here (Washington Post, Jan 20, 2021)

Vaccines were a chance to redeem failures in the US coronavirus response. What went wrong?

‘The delayed and disjointed vaccine rollout is the product of poor coordination between the federal government and the 50 states and additional jurisdictions tasked with carrying out the most ambitious immunization campaign in history, likened by officials to the effort to turn back the Nazis in 1944.

‘With these problems thwarting the rollout, it is clear the United States has not learned from its fractured pandemic response and risks repeating some of the same errors.

“My peers in infectious-disease medicine and public health are all looking around saying, ‘How are you all handling these issues? What happens when we get airdropped vaccines? Who gets it first? How do we do it equitably?’ ” said David Aronoff, director of the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.’

Read here (Washington Post, Jan 12, 2021)

Man named William Shakespeare, one of the first to get Pfizer vaccine, sets off pun cascade

‘To be or not to be vaccinated, that is the question. After an 81-year-old named William Shakespeare became the second person in the West to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in Britain outside clinical trials Tuesday, social media erupted with joy, puns and many quotes from the great British playwright. “They really are prioritising the elderly: this guy is 456,” wrote one user, while the term “Two Gentlemen of Corona,” a play on “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” swiftly became a top trend in Britain. Others quipped that the first batch of inoculations, part of the first mass coronavirus immunization campaign in the West, marked the “Taming of the Flu.”

Read here (Washington Post, Dec 9, 2020)

As first Pfizer vaccine doses arrive in UK, officials tell doctors and nurses they won’t get priority

‘Priority will go to people over 80 years old and to nursing home caregivers, and even for those groups, demand could quickly outstrip supply in the early months, public health officials cautioned. The 800,000 doses Britain expects to get this month “could be the only batch we receive for some time,” warned Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers.’

Read here (Washington Post, Dec 4, 2020)

What you need to know about the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines

‘All three drugmakers have moved at record speed, and the first shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines could be given in the coming weeks. This article answers a list of questions that ordinary people need to know before they commit to the vaccinations.’

Read here (Washington Post, Nov 30, 2020)

China and Russia are using coronavirus vaccines to expand their influence. The US is on the sidelines

“Global health and pharmaceutical interventions are getting sucked into balance-of-power politics,” said David Fidler, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “For the U.S., this creates geopolitical nightmares, because we are not in the game.” Beijing and Moscow are marshaling the vast powers of their states to develop vaccines for domestic and international use, accompanied by grand claims of scientific and manufacturing prowess. There are critical questions about safety and efficacy — or even how much each country can produce. But, for the moment, those questions are overshadowed in a seller’s market.

Read here (Washington Post, Nov 24, 2020)

Coronavirus vaccines face trust gap in Black and Latino communities, study finds

‘If offered a coronavirus vaccine free of charge, fewer than half of Black people and 66 percent of Latino people said they would definitely or probably take it, according to a survey-based study that underscores the challenge of getting vaccines to communities hit hard by the pandemic... Perhaps its most sobering findings: 14 percent of Black people trust that a vaccine will be safe, and 18 percent trust that it will be effective in shielding them from the coronavirus. Among Latinos, 34 percent trust its safety, and 40 percent trust its effectiveness.’

Read here (Washington Post, Nov 23, 2020)

Stop wiping down groceries and focus on bigger risks, say experts on coronavirus transmission

“To the best of my knowledge, in real life, scientists like me — an epidemiologist and a physician — and virologists basically don’t worry too much about these things,” said David Morens, a senior adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony S. Fauci... 

‘But public confusion about the coronavirus and surfaces is understandable, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “Scientists really haven't really done a very good job of explaining how you get evidence for different types of transmission or different transmission routes.” Finally, she said, it’s important to remember that “viruses have to have a host and they can’t replicate without one. So … the main place that’s going to be the source of virus in anybody’s household is going to be the people in it and not the surfaces or the physical environment.” “Even if there’s virus kicking around on certain things,” she said, “that risk can really be mitigated practically by washing your hands.”

Read here (Washington Post via MSN, Oct 23, 2020)

Young and healthy? You may have to wait until 2022 for a Covid-19 vaccine, experts warn

‘Young and healthy people should be prepared to wait their turn for immunization, experts warned this week. The World Health Organization’s chief scientist suggested that the delay could last well over a year for some among the young and healthy. “People tend to think, ah, on the first of January or the first of April, I’m going to get a vaccine and then things will be back to normal,” Soumya Swaminathan said in an online WHO question-and-answer session on Wednesday. “It’s not going to work like that."

Read here (Washington Post, Oct 16, 2020)

Covid-19 death rates are lower worldwide, but no one is sure whether that’s a blip or a trend

‘The mortality rate of the coronavirus has been a moving target since the outbreak began. Early reports out of China put it as high as 7 percent. But that was based mostly on hospitalized patients, and by the time the wave hit the United States, epidemiologists believed it was closer to 2 to 3 percent. Now, factoring in asymptomatic infections, as well as mild cases that might not be part of official tallies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the mortality rate at 0.65 percent.

‘Public health officials cite multiple reasons for the lower death rates: They note a shift in the demographics of who is being stricken with the virus, with younger people making up the bulk of new infections. More widespread testing is capturing a more diverse range of people and illness, and improved treatment strategies that include antivirals and steroids are saving more lives. But some researchers speculate there may be more to the story...’

This story is behind a paywall.

Read here (Washington Post, Oct 9, 2020)

Evidence grows that children may play a larger role in transmission than previously believed

Are children the coronavirus’s secret weapon? Because they experience few symptoms of covid-19, children were largely ignored and untested during the early weeks of the pandemic. “But they may have been acting as silent spreaders all along,” our health desk wrote.

A study in the Journal of Pediatrics found high levels of the virus in children's airways, even when they had mild or no symptoms. Previous studies have reached similar conclusions, and researchers are trying to figure out how worried we should be about the children. "Some people thought that children might be protected,” one of the study's authors told The Washington Post. “This is incorrect. They may be as susceptible as adults — but just not visible.”

Read here (Washington Post, August 20, 2020)

Coronavirus autopsies: A story of 38 brains, 87 lungs and 42 hearts

‘Given widespread reports about neurological symptoms related to the coronavirus, Fowkes [an associate professor of pathology who is part of a team at Mount Sinai Health that has performed autopsies on 67 covid-19 patients] said, she expected to find virus or inflammation — or both — in the brain. But there was very little. When it comes to the heart, many physicians warned for months about a cardiac complication they suspected was myocarditis, an inflammation or hardening of the heart muscle walls — but autopsy investigators were stunned that they could find no evidence of the condition.

‘Another unexpected finding, pathologists said, is that oxygen deprivation of the brain and the formation of blood clots may start early in the disease process. That could have major implications for how people with covid-19 are treated at home, even if they never need to be hospitalized.’

Read here (Washington Post, July 2, 2020)

Volunteers sign up to put their lives on the line for a coronavirus vaccine

‘Lehua Gray, a 32-year-old product manager in Austin, wants to risk her life for a coronavirus vaccine. A cloud of potentially deadly microbes would be spritzed up her nose — if she’s allowed to a participate in what’s called a human challenge trial.

‘It’s built on a deceptively simple premise: Researchers inject healthy volunteers with an experimental vaccine and then expose them to a pathogen. If the vaccine prevents volunteers from getting sick, the study can accelerate development of a promising formula.’

Read here (Washington Post, June 15, 2020)

Race, ethnicity data to be required with coronavirus tests starting August 1

‘Data on who is being tested “are rarely being reported to CDC in usable format,” Giroir said during a conference call with journalists. “It is critical for us to ensure that there is equitable access to testing, especially for underserved minorities. And without the data we are now requiring, there is simply no way to determine that.”

Read here (Washington Post, June 5, 2020)

Experts dispute reports that coronavirus is becoming less lethal

‘Has the novel coronavirus in Italy changed in some significant way? That was the suggestion of a top doctor in northern Italy who reports that patients to his hospital have been showing up with lower levels of the virus in their upper respiratory tracts compared with those two months ago.

‘The comments, which received widespread attention following a Reuters report, prompted vigorous pushback from Michael Ryan, a top official with the World Health Organization, who said Monday during an online news conference that “we need to be exceptionally careful not to create a sense that all of a sudden the virus by its own volition has now decided to be less pathogenic. That is not the case at all.”

Read here (Washington Post, June 2, 2020)

Gripped by disease, unemployment and outrage at the police, America plunges into crisis

‘America’s persistent political dysfunction and racial inequality were laid bare this week, as the coronavirus death toll hit a tragic new milestone and as the country was served yet another reminder of how black people are killed by law enforcement in disproportionately high numbers. Together, the events present a grim tableau of a nation in crisis — one seared by violence against its citizens, plagued by a deadly disease that remains uncontained and rattled by a devastating blow to its economy.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 30, 2020)

Coronavirus may never go away, even with a vaccine

‘It is a daunting proposition — a coronavirus-tinged world without a foreseeable end. But experts in epidemiology, disaster planning and vaccine development say embracing that reality is crucial to the next phase of America’s pandemic response. The long-term nature of covid-19, they say, should serve as a call to arms for the public, a road map for the trillions of dollars Congress is spending and a fixed navigational point for the nation’s current, chaotic state-by-state patchwork strategy.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 28, 2020)

A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression, Census Bureau finds amid coronavirus pandemic

‘When asked questions normally used to screen patients for mental health problems, 24 percent showed clinically significant symptoms of major depressive disorder and 30 percent showed symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. The findings suggest a huge jump from before the pandemic. For example, on one question about depressed mood, the percentage reporting such symptoms was double that found in a 2014 national survey.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 26, 2020)