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Category: Health

Chronic Covid can be worse than the initial disease

Chronic Covid can be worse than the initial disease

The Wall Street Journal reports: Nearly a year into the global coronavirus pandemic, scientists, doctors and patients are beginning to unlock a puzzling phenomenon: For many patients, including young ones who never required hospitalization, Covid-19 has a devastating second act. Many are dealing with symptoms weeks or months after they were expected to recover, often with puzzling new complications that can affect the entire body—severe fatigue, cognitive issues and memory lapses, digestive problems, erratic heart rates, headaches, dizziness, fluctuating blood…

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Fauci warns of Covid-19 surge, offers blunt assessment of Trump’s response

Fauci warns of Covid-19 surge, offers blunt assessment of Trump’s response

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s repeated assertions the United States is “rounding the turn” on the novel coronavirus have increasingly alarmed the government’s top health experts, who say the country is heading into a long and potentially deadly winter with an unprepared government unwilling to make tough choices. “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s leading infectious-disease expert, said in a wide-ranging interview late Friday. “All the stars…

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MAGA: Trump’s America sets world record for coronavirus cases in 24 hours

MAGA: Trump’s America sets world record for coronavirus cases in 24 hours

The Guardian reports: The US has set a world record for coronavirus cases in 24 hours, according to one count with just over 100,000 new infections recorded. The daily caseload of 100,233 – as counted by Reuters – surpassed 97,894 cases reported by India on a single day in September. The news came three days before the presidential election, and as Donald Trump continued to stage large-scale events at which Covid mitigation measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing are…

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Trump has gone from downplaying the pandemic to outright Covid denial

Trump has gone from downplaying the pandemic to outright Covid denial

James Hamblin writes: The human brain makes decisions in two basic modes. One is analytic, which involves carefully weighing costs and benefits and choosing the best option. The other mode is intuitive: doing what feels right. Both have their merits. Intuitive thinking allows us to make split-second decisions. It helps guide our romantic lives and our lunchtime sandwich choices. But it is not the mode that should inform a strategic response to a pandemic. Even casual observers of President Donald…

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White House sidestepped FDA to distribute hydroxychloroquine to pharmacies, documents show

White House sidestepped FDA to distribute hydroxychloroquine to pharmacies, documents show

The Washington Post reports: The phone call in March from President Trump’s adviser carried an urgent message. For days Trump had touted the off-label use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure for covid-19, despite a lack of scientific evidence it worked and amid mounting concerns about the dangers to patients with underlying medical conditions. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro wanted to make sure the administration’s top vaccine expert would be on board with a White House plan…

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Trump’s coronavirus response looks heroic to many white men

Trump’s coronavirus response looks heroic to many white men

Olga Khazan writes: Kurtis, a young accountant in McKinney, Texas, likes the thing that many people hate about Donald Trump: that the president has left the pandemic response almost entirely up to local officials. “He left it up to each state to make their own decision on how they wanted to proceed,” Kurtis told me recently. Most experts think the absence of a national strategy for tackling the coronavirus has been a disaster. But Kurtis argues that North Dakota, for…

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The pandemic is in uncharted territory

The pandemic is in uncharted territory

The Atlantic reports: The United States set a new record for reported cases this week, breaking 500,000 for the first time in the pandemic as the third surge continued to build across nearly every state in the country. Today, the country recorded 88,452 new cases of COVID-19, its highest single-day total since the pandemic began. Over the past two weeks, 25 states have set a new record for cases in the past two weeks, including 17 states with record highs…

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As over 1,000 Americans die from Covid-19 daily, Donald Trump Jr. claims ‘the number is almost nothing’

As over 1,000 Americans die from Covid-19 daily, Donald Trump Jr. claims ‘the number is almost nothing’

The Washington Post reports: Donald Trump Jr. declared on Thursday night that coronavirus deaths had dropped to “almost nothing,” questioning the seriousness of the pandemic on a record-breaking day for new cases in which more than 1,000 Americans died of the virus. Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump Jr. pointed to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that he suggested show a declining coronavirus death rate. “I went through the CDC data, because I kept…

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Trump trivializes the pandemic and ignores the dead

Trump trivializes the pandemic and ignores the dead

The New York Times reports: As an immense new surge in coronavirus cases sweeps the country, President Trump is closing his re-election campaign by pleading with voters to ignore the evidence of a calamity unfolding before their eyes and trust his word that the disease is already disappearing as a threat to their personal health and economic well being. The president has continued to declare before large and largely maskless crowds that the virus is vanishing, even as case counts…

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Trump’s pandemic adviser promoted reduced testing, making it harder to control the spread of infections

Trump’s pandemic adviser promoted reduced testing, making it harder to control the spread of infections

CNN reports: Shortly after joining the White House as President Donald Trump’s pandemic adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas launched a quiet effort that seemed counterintuitive to some of his colleagues — encouraging officials to limit Covid-19 testing mainly to people experiencing symptoms. Atlas, a neuroradiologist, not an infectious disease expert, strongly supported a decision in August to revise federal guidelines to de-emphasize the need to test people without symptoms, according to two sources familiar with the process. He shared his view with…

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It may be time to reset expectations on when we’ll get a Covid-19 vaccine

It may be time to reset expectations on when we’ll get a Covid-19 vaccine

STAT reports: The ambitious drive to produce Covid-19 vaccine at warp speed seems to be running up against reality. We all probably need to reset our expectations about how quickly we’re going to be able to be vaccinated. Pauses in clinical trials to investigate potential safety issues, a slower-than-expected rate of infections among participants in at least one of the trials, and signals that an expert panel advising the Food and Drug Administration may not be comfortable recommending use of…

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Finally at zero new cases, Victoria, Australia, is on top of the world after unprecedented lockdown effort

Finally at zero new cases, Victoria, Australia, is on top of the world after unprecedented lockdown effort

By Stephen Duckett, Grattan Institute and Tom Crowley, Grattan Institute If the past few months have been like a long-haul flight, Victorians are now standing in the aisles waiting for the cabin door to open, a little groggy and disoriented but relieved. They have every right to be. No other place in the world has tamed a second wave this large. Few have even come close. Read more: Of all the places that have seen off a second coronavirus wave,…

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In rural America, resentment over COVID-19 shutdowns is colliding with rising case numbers

In rural America, resentment over COVID-19 shutdowns is colliding with rising case numbers

Business restrictions early in the pandemic, when rural towns had few cases, triggered a backlash that haunts them now. Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images By Lauren Hughes, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Roberto Silva, University of Colorado Denver As COVID-19 spreads through rural America, new infection numbers are rising to peaks not seen during this pandemic and pushing hospitals to their limits. Many towns are experiencing their first major outbreaks, but that doesn’t mean rural communities had previously been spared…

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An epidemiologist explains the new CDC guidance on 15 minutes of exposure and what it means for you

An epidemiologist explains the new CDC guidance on 15 minutes of exposure and what it means for you

A girl wearing a mask walks down a street in the Corona neighborhood of Queens on April 14, 2020 in New York City. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images By Ryan Malosh, University of Michigan The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance clarifying what exactly “close contact” means when it comes to transmission of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The previous guidance suggested that a close contact occurred when a person was within six feet of an…

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Universal mask use could save 130,000 U.S. lives by the end of February, new study estimates

Universal mask use could save 130,000 U.S. lives by the end of February, new study estimates

STAT reports: Back in April, President Trump picked out a single computer model of coronavirus spread as his oracle of choice. Unsurprisingly, that simulation initially had rosier estimates than other algorithms, projecting many fewer Covid-19 deaths — and its unconventional calculations and fluctuating estimates drew sharp criticism from epidemiologists. But the statisticians behind it have since changed their methods, and their new numbers, published Friday, bolster what scientists have long been saying: That doing away with social distancing measures could…

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Controlling the pandemic: Trump administration ditches plan for ‘collaboration’ with Santa Claus

Controlling the pandemic: Trump administration ditches plan for ‘collaboration’ with Santa Claus

The Wall Street Journal reports: A federal health agency halted a public-service coronavirus advertising campaign funded by $250 million in taxpayer money after it offered a special vaccine deal to an unusual set of essential workers: Santa Claus performers. As part of the plan, a top Trump administration official wanted the Santa performers to promote the benefits of a Covid-19 vaccination and, in exchange, offered them early vaccine access ahead of the general public, according to audio recordings. Those who…

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