How the pandemic is changing shopping

‘Across the country, stores are reopening to a changed reality. Retailers that have spent years trying to get customers to linger, in hopes they’ll buy more than they need, are reimagining their stores for a grab-and-go future filled with deliberate purchases. Gone, they say, are the days of trying on makeup or playing with toys in the aisles. The focus now is on making shopping faster, easier and safer to accommodate long-term shifts in consumer expectations and habits.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 21, 2020)

Experiment shows human speech generates droplets that linger in the air for more than 8 minutes

‘Ordinary speech can emit small respiratory droplets that linger in the air for at least eight minutes and potentially much longer, according to a study published Wednesday that could help explain why infections of the coronavirus so often cluster in nursing homes, households, conferences, cruise ships and other confined spaces with limited air circulation.

‘The report, from researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the University of Pennsylvania, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal. It is based on an experiment that used laser light to study the number of small respiratory droplets emitted through human speech.’

Read here (The Washington Post, May 14, 2020)

Damage to the kidneys, heart, brain — even ‘covid toes’ — prompts reassessment of the disease and how to treat it

‘...many scientists have come to believe that much of the disease’s devastation comes from two intertwined causes. The first is the harm the virus wreaks on blood vessels, leading to clots that can range from microscopic to sizable. Patients have suffered strokes and pulmonary emboli as clots break loose and travel to the brain and lungs. A study in the Lancet, a British medical journal, showed this may be because the virus directly targets the endothelial cells that line blood vessels. The second is an exaggerated response from the body’s own immune system, a storm of killer “cytokines” that attack the body’s own cells along with the virus as it seeks to defend the body from an invader.

‘Research and therapies are focused on these phenomena. Blood thinners are being more widely used in some hospitals. A review of records for 2,733 patients, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, indicates they may help the most seriously ill.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 10, 2020)

Guides to the other side: The problem-solvers working to get us through the pandemic

‘They are immigrants and the children of immigrants, public servants, people on their second careers. They are planners and problem-solvers. What they lack in swagger they make up for in empathy, skill and statistical rigor. Their greatest power is their ability to learn from the mistakes of the past. They are the right people in the right place at the right moment, like physician-researcher Andre Kalil, a veteran of past epidemics trying to find a cure for this pandemic, and Anar Yukhayev, a New York obstetrician-gynecologist who was severely ill with covid-19 when he enrolled in a clinical trial for an untested treatment. “If there was any chance it could potentially help someone,” Yukhayev said, “it was the least I could do.”

‘They don’t offer easy answers or miracle cures; they know there is no resurrecting the lives they once had. Still, they’re giving what they can to a moment that demands it. When it is most difficult to imagine the world getting better, they’ve summoned the creativity — and the courage — to invent the world anew.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 7, 2020)

Six flaws in the arguments for reopening

Leana S. Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, debunks the six reasons offered by the US government to open up the economy. She says: “Most states are reopening to some degree this week, even as public-health experts warn that it’s too soon.”

Read here (Washington Post, May 6, 2020)

We can beat the virus only by protecting human rights

‘Perhaps the ultimate threat is from governments that assume excessively broad “emergency” powers. International human rights law recognizes that certain rights — such as our right to travel or congregate during an infectious-disease outbreak — must give way in time of crisis, so long as restrictions are lawful, necessary and proportionate. Yet leaders around the world are using the pandemic to strengthen their rule, dismantle checks and balances, and escape accountability at the expense of our rights. All of these behaviors run counter to effective health-care policy and can easily backfire.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 6, 2020)

As some countries ease up, others are reimposing lockdowns amid a resurgence of coronavirus infections

As many parts of the world, including the United States, explore ways to ease restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus, countries that had already opened up are closing down again after renewed spikes in infections. [Lebanon, South Korea, China, Iran, Germany]

Such a resurgence of cases had been widely predicted by experts, but these increasing numbers come as a sobering reminder of the challenges ahead as countries chafing under the social and economic burdens of keeping their citizens indoors weigh the pros and cons of allowing people to move around again.

Read here (Washington Post, May 5, 2020)

Historic financial decline hits doctors, dentists and hospitals — despite covid-19 — threatening overall economy

‘Most elective surgeries nationwide were postponed beginning in mid-March. Dentists offices were closed. Physicians stopped seeing all but the sickest patients in their offices. Stay-at-home orders didn’t just prevent people from dining in restaurants — they led people to avoid medical services, too, amid concerns about the disease the virus causes, covid-19. More than 200 hospitals, including Children’s National Hospital in Washington, have furloughed workers, according to a tally by Becker’s Hospital Review.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 4, 2020)

FDA steps up scrutiny of coronavirus antibody tests to ensure accuracy

‘The action was the latest about-face in the administration’s coronavirus response as it seeks to fix a flawed testing response that has been criticized as either too restrictive or too lenient. Earlier this year, the FDA agency was hammered for moving too slowly in allowing academic medical centers and others to develop diagnostic tests for the virus that might have made them more widely available. Then, critics say, it swung too far in the other direction in allowing the antibody tests to go unvetted.

‘The result, they complained, was a flood of products of dubious quality that confused hospitals, doctors and consumers — “a wild, wild West” environment, said Scott Becker, chief executive officer of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local public laboratories.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 4, 2020)

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing America into a mental health crisis

‘Three months into the coronavirus pandemic, America is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation and fear generating widespread psychological trauma. Federal agencies and experts warn that a historic wave of mental health problems is approaching: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. Just as the initial coronavirus outbreak caught hospitals unprepared, the country’s mental health system — vastly underfunded, fragmented and difficult to access before the pandemic — is even less prepared to handle this coming surge.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 4, 2020)

US officials crafting retaliatory actions against China over coronavirus as President Trump fumes

‘Senior US officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning. The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy.’

Read here (Washington Post, May 1, 2020)

Government researchers changed metric to measure coronavirus drug remdesivir during clinical trial

‘Government clinical trial investigators changed the primary metric for measuring the success of Gilead’s experimental drug remdesivir as a coronavirus treatment two weeks before Anthony S. Fauci’s announcement that the drug would be the new “standard of care.”

‘Instead of counting how many people taking the drug were kept alive on ventilators or died, among other measures, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said it would judge the drug primarily on a different outcome: how long it took surviving patients to recover.’

Read here (The Washington Post, May 1, 2020)

We need smart solutions to mitigate the coronavirus’s impact. Here are 30

‘The coronavirus crisis has upended American life, and fresh ideas are needed for dealing with the problems it’s creating. Here is a collection of smart solutions. We are expanding this list as we receive more ideas.’

Read here (The Washington Post, April 30, 2020)

Dogs are being trained to sniff out coronavirus cases

‘As some states move to reopen after weeks of shutdowns, infectious disease experts say the prevention of future coronavirus outbreaks will require scaling up testing and identifying asymptomatic carriers. Eight Labrador retrievers — and their powerful noses — have been enlisted to help.

‘The dogs are the first trainees in a University of Pennsylvania research project to determine whether canines can detect an odor associated with the virus that causes the disease covid-19. If so, they might eventually be used in a sort of “canine surveillance” corps, the university said — offering a noninvasive, four-legged method to screen people in airports, businesses or hospitals.’

Read here (Washington Post, April 29, 2020)

Nurses are trying to save us from the virus, and from ourselves

‘We’re in this together, but some of us are more in this than others. People keep saying that nurses are on the front lines, but they are actually behind enemy lines, surrounded on all sides. They are trying to save us, and save us from ourselves. Nurses are protesting protesters, standing in their scrubs and masks to glare at “freedom-loving” citizens who spew insults as they rally for the economy to reopen. Nurses are taking to social media to convey the extremity of their situations: They talk about war zones, about titrating a dozen IV drips while troubleshooting fluky ventilators, all without reliable stockpiles of supplies.’

Read here (The Washington Post, April 28, 2020)

US deaths soared in early weeks of pandemic, far exceeding number attributed to covid-19

‘In the early weeks of the coronavirus epidemic, the United States recorded an estimated 15,400 excess deaths, nearly two times as many as were publicly attributed to covid-19 at the time, according to an analysis of federal data conducted for The Washington Post by a research team led by the Yale School of Public Health.

‘The excess deaths are not necessarily attributable directly to covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They could include people who died because of the epidemic but not from the disease, such as those who were afraid to seek medical treatment for unrelated illnesses, as well as some number of deaths that are part of the ordinary variation in the death rate. The count is also affected by increases or decreases in other categories of deaths, such as suicides, homicides and motor vehicle accidents.’

Read here (Washington Post April 27, 2020)

Sunlight does kill the coronavirus. But not in the way Trump suggested

‘Half the virus may be killed in as little as two minutes if it’s on a surface exposed to sunlight and high humidity at room temperature. That's according to lab studies conducted the Department of Homeland Security and detailed at a White House coronavirus briefing last week. Under drier, shady conditions, the virus’s half-life is far greater — around 18 hours.’

Read here (Washington Post, April 27, 2020)

Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying of strokes

‘Reports of strokes in the young and middle-aged — not just at Mount Sinai, but also in many other hospitals in communities hit hard by the novel coronavirus — are the latest twist in our evolving understanding of the disease it causes. The numbers of those affected are small but nonetheless remarkable because they challenge how doctors understand the virus.’

Read here (Washington Post, April 26,2020)

Trump fans protests against Democrat governors

‘Groups rallied in at least six states this week, and protests are planned in four more in coming days. On Friday, President Trump encouraged protesters in Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia who this week violated stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines to march against Democratic governors.

‘LIBERATE MICHIGAN!’ Trump tweeted. ‘LIBERATE MINNESOTA,’ he continued. ‘LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!’

Read here (Washington Post, April 17, 2020)