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Category: Health

Doctors are better at treating Covid-19 patients now than they were in March

Doctors are better at treating Covid-19 patients now than they were in March

The Verge reports: In early March, most doctors in the United States had never seen a person sick with COVID-19. Four months later, nearly every emergency room and intensive care physician in the country is intimately familiar with the disease. In that time, they’ve learned a lot about how best to treat patients. But in some cases, they’re still taking the same approach they did in the spring. “There’s so much that’s different, and so much that’s the same,” says…

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Retractions and controversies over coronavirus research show that the process of science is working as it should

Retractions and controversies over coronavirus research show that the process of science is working as it should

A high-profile paper on the risks of hyrdoxychloroquine was recently and rightfully retracted. AP Photo/John Locher, By Mark R. O’Brian, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York Several high-profile papers on COVID-19 research have come under fire from people in the scientific community in recent weeks. Two articles addressing the safety of certain drugs when taken by COVID-19 patients were retracted, and researchers are calling for the retraction of a third paper that evaluated behaviors that mitigate coronavirus…

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Trump Tulsa rally ‘likely’ source of virus surge, local health official says

Trump Tulsa rally ‘likely’ source of virus surge, local health official says

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa that drew thousands of people in late June, along with large protests that accompanied it, “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday. Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday. Although the health department’s policy is to not publicly identify individual settings where people may…

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Churches were eager to reopen. Now they’re a major source of new coronavirus cases

Churches were eager to reopen. Now they’re a major source of new coronavirus cases

The New York Times reports: Weeks after President Trump demanded that America’s shuttered houses of worship be allowed to reopen, new outbreaks of the coronavirus are surging through churches across the country where services have resumed. The virus has infiltrated Sunday sermons, meetings of ministers and Christian youth camps in Colorado and Missouri. It has struck churches that reopened cautiously with face masks and social distancing in the pews, as well as some that defied lockdowns and refused to heed…

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Mexico border towns try to protect themselves from infected Americans crossing amid Covid-19 fears

Mexico border towns try to protect themselves from infected Americans crossing amid Covid-19 fears

The Guardian reports: As he campaigned for the presidency, Donald Trump promised to build a “big beautiful wall” along the US-Mexico border, claiming it would keep migrants out of the country and stop everything from drugs to disease. But with Covid-19 cases surging on both sides of the frontier, towns in northern Mexico are pleading to restrict cross-border movement – this time to stop tourists and travellers bringing in coronavirus from the US. Over the weekend, townspeople in Sonoyta on…

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Sweden has suffered ‘a self-inflicted wound.’ The choice between lives and paychecks is a false one

Sweden has suffered ‘a self-inflicted wound.’ The choice between lives and paychecks is a false one

The New York Times reports: Ever since the coronavirus emerged in Europe, Sweden has captured international attention by conducting an unorthodox, open-air experiment. It has allowed the world to examine what happens in a pandemic when a government allows life to carry on largely unhindered. This is what has happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed lockdowns, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better. “They literally gained nothing,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a…

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The pandemic experts are at risk of burning out

The pandemic experts are at risk of burning out

Ed Yong writes: Saskia Popescu’s phone buzzes throughout the night, waking her up. It had already buzzed 99 times before I interviewed her at 9:15 a.m. ET last Monday. It buzzed three times during the first 15 minutes of our call. Whenever a COVID-19 case is confirmed at her hospital system, Popescu gets an email, and her phone buzzes. She cannot silence it. An epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, Popescu works to prepare hospitals for outbreaks of emerging diseases….

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Do many Americans understand how badly the U.S. is dealing with the pandemic?

Do many Americans understand how badly the U.S. is dealing with the pandemic?

Thomas Chatterton Williams writes: As Donald Trump’s America continues to shatter records for daily infections, France, like most other developed nations and even some undeveloped ones, seems to have beat back the virus. The numbers are not ambiguous. From a peak of 7,581 new cases across the country on March 31, and with a death toll now just below 30,000—at one point the world’s fourth highest—there were just 526 new cases on June 13, the day we masked ourselves and…

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Spain’s coronavirus antibodies study adds evidence against herd immunity

Spain’s coronavirus antibodies study adds evidence against herd immunity

CNN reports: Spain’s large-scale study on the coronavirus indicates just 5% of its population has developed antibodies, strengthening evidence that a so-called herd immunity to Covid-19 is “unachievable,” the medical journal the Lancet reported on Monday. The findings show that 95% of Spain’s population remains susceptible to the virus. Herd immunity is achieved when enough of a population has become infected with a virus or bacteria — or vaccinated against it — to stop its circulation. The European Center for…

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All across America, Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus

All across America, Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus

The New York Times reports: Teresa and Marvin Bradley can’t say for sure how they got the coronavirus. Maybe Ms. Bradley, a Michigan nurse, brought it from her hospital. Maybe it came from a visiting relative. Maybe it was something else entirely. What is certain — according to new federal data that provides the most comprehensive look to date on nearly 1.5 million coronavirus patients in America — is that the Bradleys are not outliers. Racial disparities in who contracts…

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How Hong Kong beat coronavirus and avoided lockdown

How Hong Kong beat coronavirus and avoided lockdown

CNBC reports: When Apple closed its retail stores around the globe amid the coronavirus pandemic, a handful of outlets were exempt, including its six locations in Hong Kong. In fact, much of Hong Kong has felt relatively normal this year compared with its peers, which enacted strict lockdown measures. Since its first confirmed case of Covid-19 on Jan. 22, Hong Kong went through phased closures of government offices, schools, gyms and bars. But other services were relatively unaffected, including dine-in…

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Mounting evidence the coronavirus is airborne, 239 experts say

Mounting evidence the coronavirus is airborne, 239 experts say

The New York Times reports: The coronavirus is finding new victims worldwide, in bars and restaurants, offices, markets and casinos, giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby. If airborne transmission is a significant factor in the pandemic, especially in crowded spaces with poor ventilation, the consequences for containment will be significant. Masks may be needed indoors, even in socially-distant…

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Going to the beach during the pandemic may not be as reckless as it’s portrayed

Going to the beach during the pandemic may not be as reckless as it’s portrayed

Zeynep Tufekci writes: We’ve entered another risky, uncertain phase of America’s pandemic summer. COVID-19 cases are surging across most states, and once again, intensive-care units are filling up. Eighteen states have either paused or rolled back their plans to reopen, and even Republican governors who previously resisted public-health guidelines about masks are now asking people to mask up. So why on Earth do so many articles about this crisis feature pictures of people frolicking on wide-open beaches? Why is an…

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DNA linked to severe Covid-19 was inherited from Neanderthals, study finds

DNA linked to severe Covid-19 was inherited from Neanderthals, study finds

The New York Times reports: A stretch of DNA linked to Covid-19 was passed down from Neanderthals 60,000 years ago, according to a new study. Scientists don’t yet know why this particular segment increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus. But the new findings, which were posted online on Friday and have not yet been published in a scientific journal, show how some clues to modern health stem from ancient history. “This interbreeding effect that happened 60,000 years…

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Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic has turned America into a pariah

Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic has turned America into a pariah

Anne Applebaum writes: [E]veryone can look at everyone else’s country, read its media and social media, see how its institutions are coping with the crisis. We can’t leave our houses, but we can meet in cyberspace, where we can keep talking. While we are there, we can see how other countries are dealing with the pandemic. Some are doing well, especially those that have decent bureaucrats, respect for science, and high levels of trust: South Korea and Taiwan, Germany and…

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No one wants to go back to lockdown. Is there a middle ground for containing Covid-19?

No one wants to go back to lockdown. Is there a middle ground for containing Covid-19?

STAT reports: First came the freezes. Governors last month started to “press pause” on the next phases of their reopenings as Covid-19 cases picked back up. Now, in certain hot spots, they are starting to roll back some of the allowances they’d granted: no more elective medical procedures in some Texas counties. Bars, only reopened for a short time, are shuttered again in parts of California. And on Monday, Arizona’s governor ordered a new wave of gym, bar, and movie…

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