Category Archives: Covid-19

IMMOKALEE

Testing people for the coronavirus is more important than ever as the state continues to reopen, so on Sunday in Immokalee, people can get tested without a doctors note.

Immokalee is among the hot spots for COVID-19 in Florida, with more than 400 confirmed cases in just the last month.

This is going to be a very, very hot spot here if we dont do something about it. Theres plenty of deaths already, we dont want the number to rise more, said Dr. Antonio Gonzalez, a family doctor in Immokalee.

I dont know if a letter to the governors office and or the emergency management services in Tallahassee would assist this or not, but I would love to see more testing as soon as possible, said Collier County Commissioner Bill McDaniel.

McDaniel said those words last week, and the state will be testing more people on Sunday.

The walk-up test site is at 419 N. First St., and is open from noon to 6 p.m.

Doctors Without Borders will also be doing tests at more targeted sites during the week.

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COVID-19 tests available Sunday in Immokalee - Wink News

Misinformation about the origins of Covid-19 is far more likely to be spread by pro-Trump, QAnon or Republican bots on Twitter than any other source, according to a study commissioned by the Australia Institutes Centre for Responsible Technology.

In late March, when the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold in the US and across much of the rest of the world, two researchers at Queensland University of Technology, Timothy Graham and Axel Bruns, analysed 2.6m tweets related to coronavirus, and 25.5m retweets of those tweets, over the course of 10 days.

They filtered out legitimate accounts from those accounts most likely to be bots, which can be identified when they retweet identical coronavirus-related content within one second of each other.

Through this methodology, the researchers found 5,752 accounts retweeted coronavirus-related material in a coordinated way 6,559 times.

The researchers identified 10 prominent bot-like networks that were attempting to push political agendas, separate from those bot networks pushing commercial sites by hitching on to trending topics like coronavirus.

The researchers found a coordinated effort to promote the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was a bioweapon engineered by China.

The researchers identified a co-retweet network of 2,903 accounts with 4,125 links between them.

Within this network, the researchers found 28 to 30 clusters of accounts which identified themselves as pro-Trump, Republican or associated themselves with the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory.

There were 882 original tweets over the 10-day period pushing the bioweapon conspiracy theory, which were retweeted 18,498 times, and liked 31,783 times, with an estimated 5m impressions on Twitter.

The researchers said the effect of the bot networks was the amplification of the misinformation.

Whether the coordinated inauthentic behaviours we have observed for the bioweapon conspiracy are orchestrated by the hard core of participants in these groups themselves, or are designed by external operators to target and exploit the worldviews of such groups, the net effect is often the same: the themes and topics promoted by coordinated inauthentic activity are taken up by the wider fringe community, and thereby gain amplification and authenticity, the researchers said in the report.

The mis- and disinformation contained in the initial messages is no longer distributed solely by bots and other accounts that may be identified as acting in coordinated and inauthentic ways, but also and to a potentially greater extent by ordinary, authentic human users.

From there disinformation can easily garner broader public attention when media, or people with large numbers of followers on social media, engage with the conspiracy theory, even if to refute it, they said.

Official denials and corrections can perversely be exploited by the conspiracy theorists to claim that authorities are covering up the real truth, they said.

In Australia, for example, the effects of this vicious circle are now being observed in the sharp rise in concerns about 5G technology at least in part as a result of the circulation of the conspiracy theories about links between Covid-19 and 5G.

The report authors recommend that platform operators get better at detecting and mitigating bot activity on their platforms, and mainstream media should be encouraged to reduce clickbait conspiracy theory coverage that has the potential to introduce new audiences to the misinformation .

Such sites may frame the conspiracy theories as outlandish or laughable, but often present them without significant correction or fact-checking; as a result, such coverage puts substantial new audiences in contact with problematic content that they would not otherwise have encountered.

Tabloid media can therefore represent an important pathway for conspiracy theories to enter more mainstream public debate.

The US president, Donald Trump, signed an executive order last week seeking to make social media sites liable for what their users post on the platform in retaliation for Twitter factchecking a tweet he posted containing a false assertion about mail voter fraud.

Peter Lewis, director of the Centre for Responsible Technology, said it was a good start for Twitter to factcheck Trump, but more needed to be done on bot networks to stop the spread of misinformation.

Social media companies need to take greater responsibility for disinformation on their sites, particularly where coordinated and automated retweeting is promoting dangerous disinformation, he said.

While Twitter is starting to call out some of President Trumps more egregious tweets, social media companies have a long way to go to stem the flow of divisive and dangerous disinformation on their platforms.

The report authors noted that while the research had focused on Twitter, the bot-like activity is not limited to Twitter, and has been something other platforms like Facebook had been grappling with.

Facebook for its part has been factchecking select coronavirus claims, and banning some, including connecting 5G to the spread of coronavirus. But the companys chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said Facebook should not factcheck in a similar way to Twitter, saying it shouldnt be the arbiter of truth.

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Covid-19 misinformation: pro-Trump and QAnon Twitter bots found to be worst culprits - The Guardian

Georgias Governor has let us down regarding the pandemic. He has tried to emulate the President and has had the same poor results. Governor Kemp obviously idolizes President Trump, previously saying: I was really taken by the Presidents coronavirus press briefing yesterday (3-31-20).

Thats an interesting Kemp statement, given the Presidents total lack of leadership in February and March regarding the Covid-19 outbreak. Due largely to Trump and administration incompetence, we have had an out of control spread of the virus in America, making us similar to disorganized Italy versus responsible Singapore, which has comparatively held the virus at bay.

Per a recent Columbia University study, Trumps delay caused an additional 36,000 unnecessary deaths (https://www.npr.org/2020/05/21/859991296/u-s-could-have-saved-thousands-of-lives-if-lockdown-started-earlier-study-finds). We now have more deaths and cases than any other nation, even though we are only 4% of the worlds population.

Anyone can review what other more aware states have done to identify and treat those infected, easily proving that Georgia has also been a laggard. But, like Trump, Kemp just makes it up as he goes along.

For example, the Governors statement at his 4-1-20 press briefing that after complaints from health authorities, cities and counties he was at long last finally issuing a shelter in place order. Kemp stated his action was directly due to finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs; and that this finding had not become known until the last 24 hours.

This factually incorrect statement came after him indicating that the virus had already spread to 139 Georgia counties. At that time, COVID-19 had already killed 139 Georgians and infected 4,638. However, the number was rising daily, and is now at 42,846 cases and 1,827 deaths as of Memorial Day.

Governor, Im not an epidemiologist. But as a healthcare person, I knew that coronavirus spread without symptoms two months before you.

On 1-26-20, the BBC reported that Chinese Health minister Ma Xiaowei indicted that infected people without symptoms were spreading the virus in China. At that time, BBCs health correspondent correctly stated that stopping such symptomless spreaders will make the job of the Chinese authorities much harder.

Further, on 3-5-20, the respected New England Journal of Medicine issued an article entitled: Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany. At the time Dr Anthony Fauci said: Theres no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring.

On 4-1, Kemp also rather clumsily and inarticulately stated that: we had a stronger order as anybody in the country. Again, as is true with much of what his mentor Trump has said about the virus over the last few months, Kemp was factually incorrect. With Kemps completely voluntary suggestions on distancing, we were not only not stronger than other states, we were much weaker than most.

For example, why wasnt Kemps mandatory shelter in place order issued a month before? Were his advisors that incompetent? Or, much more likely, did Kemp resist due to pressure from special interests, business groups and his contributors? Is that why Georgia has the 11th most Covid-19 deaths among the 50 states?

Governor, contagious viruses are not something new. The world has successfully dealt with SARS and MERS viruses in the past decades. Earlier in January, the WHO (World Health Organization) sent out a press release about the coronavirus spreading in China and Thailand. Shortly after, the World Health Organization issued an emergency declaration and met with China to arrange for a team of international experts to immediately visit China to learn more.

Given Trumps many disparaging remarks about the UN, WHO and other international bodies, its strange that America chose not to ask the Chinese to let us go in directly to help them discover more about the virus early on. Its even stranger that no one in the NSA, CDC or the federal bureaucracy in general was able to get this President to even acknowledge the seriousness of the pandemic before mid-March when the sinking stock market awakened him.

Unfortunately for Georgians, Kemp has successfully imitated his mentor by conveniently making things up about the spread of the virus. Ive given up on Trump, and with Kemp rescinding the shelter in place order before we could get a firm handle on COVID-19 via tasting and contact racing, hes no better.

****

Jack Bernard, a retired SVP with a national corporation, was the first Director of Health Planning for Georgia. He was Chair of the Jasper County Commission and Republican Party. He Chaired the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia's Tax Committee. He is currently the Fayette County Vice-Chair of the Board of Health.

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Kemp-past time to get woke to the COVID-19 threat - Newnan Times-Herald

Temperatures in some California cities this week broke decades-old records. The heatwave that cooked Las Vegas over the past few days brought temperatures over 100F. And in Phoenix, highs this weekend are expected to approach or exceed 110F.

This year is on track to be one of the hottest on record, and public health officials worry that in cities across the US, summer heatwaves will collide with the coronavirus pandemic, with deadly consequences for poor, minority and older populations.

Even before the pandemic hit, heat was killing more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. People who live in cities are especially vulnerable to heatwaves because of a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect cities with populations of 1 million or more can be up to 5F hotter than surrounding areas due to high population density, a lack of greenery and shade, and because materials like steel, concrete and asphalt tend to absorb more heat.

Analyses have also found that cities poorest neighborhoods tend to be hotter, and that many low-income families have been struggling to cope for years. In some neighborhoods of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, up to a third or more of households lack air conditioning. Due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, many more are unable to pay to run their ACs. And even as cities begin reopening after lockdown, many of the malls, public libraries and recreation centers where overheated Americans traditionally went to cool down remain risky, especially for older people and others with a heightened risk of dying from Covid-19.

Throughout the country, public health officials told the Guardian they were scrambling to find ways to protect the most vulnerable from the dual threats of heat and coronavirus. This summer is definitely not going to be like any other summer, said Deanne Criswell, the commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. Were not going to have the same level of facilities open that New Yorkers typically go to all the time to stay cool. Its a big concern.

New York is in the process of installing 74,000 air conditioners in the homes of low-income seniors, according to Criswell. The city is also seeking to help more people pay for electricity this summer, as the unemployment crisis leaves thousands of New Yorkers without the means to make rent and utilities. Other cities across the US have asked utility companies not to shut off service this summer, even if customers cant pay bills, so that they have access to water, cooling and refrigeration through the hottest days.

Every summer we worry about the heat when it ramps up especially in April and May before people have a chance to acclimatize, said Carolyn Levering, the emergency management administrator for Las Vegas.I think it just gives us extra concern this year because of the pandemic.

In Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, officials are keeping some cooling centers designated public buildings where residents come for cold water and a respite from the heat open, at a reduced capacity so people can maintain social distancing while seeking relief from the heat. At five cooling centers in LA, anyone who enters has their temperature checked and is required to wear a mask and remain 6ft away from other people. In Nevadas Clark county, which includes Las Vegas, four cooling centers stayed open during the most recent heatwave.

But none of these solutions are broad enough to catch everyone at risk of dying from heatstroke, advocates say. Hell no, it isnt enough, said Jonathan Parfrey, the executive director of the LA-based non-profit Climate Resolve. This is just a staggering problem.

In South LA, where 64% of residents fall below the poverty line, more than 40% of households lack air conditioning, according to a study published this month by researchers at the University of Southern California who analyzed data from the electrical meters of nearly 180,500 households. Poverty was a better predictor of whether or not people had AC than even how hot or cool it was in a neighborhood, said Kelly Sanders, one of studys authors.

The vast majority of these heat-related deaths in cities occur inside homes that arent air-conditioned, said New Yorks Criswell.

That aint going to be me this year, said Collette McCoy-Douglas, 67, a retired nurse who lives in a public housing facility for seniors in Chicago. McCoy-Douglas said her building turned on the central air conditioning a day early, after residents complained during the heatwave over Memorial Day weekend. But the system, which only cools each apartments living room, felt warm when I touched it, she said. Her thermostat read 100F.So Ive poured ice on my head twice today it messed up my hair, but it helped, she laughed.

A spokesperson for Chicago Housing Authority said it was not aware of any air conditioning issues at senior housing facilities.

Although McCoy-Douglas considered looking for someplace cool she could go, she decided against it. Ive got an autoimmune disease, I have asthma, I have stents, she said. Im more skeptical against the coronavirus. Unable to cool down, she eventually picked up a neighbor, an older woman with cerebral palsy, and they drove around for a bit in McCoy-Douglass air-conditioned car. Chicagos infamous 1995 heatwave, which killed more than 700 people, was on the minds of both women.

You know, in my apartment, we have people with mental illness and disabilities. They cant even leave the building, said McCoy-Douglas, who also knew of two neighbors who had died of Covid-19. It just breaks my heart. Its just inhuman.

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'A summer unlike any other': heatwaves and Covid-19 are a deadly combination - The Guardian

Scientists claim to have found more clues about how the new coronavirus could have spread from bats through pangolins and into humans, as India reported its worst single-day rise in new cases, and the number of Covid-19 infections worldwide neared 6 million.

Writing in the journal Covid-19 Science Advances, researchers said an examination of the closest relative of the virus found that it was circulating in bats but lacked the protein needed to bind to human cells. They said this ability could have been acquired from a virus found in pangolins a scaly mammal that is one of the most illegally trafficked animals in the world.

DrElena Giorgi, of Los Alamos national laboratory, one of the studys lead authors, said people had already looked at the pangolin link but scientists were still divided about their role in the evolution of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

In our study, we demonstrated that indeed Sars-Cov-2 has a rich evolutionary history that included a reshuffling of genetic material between bat and pangolin coronavirus before it acquired its ability to jump to humans, she said, adding that close proximity of animals of different species in a wet market setting may increase the potential for cross-species spillover infections.

The study stilldoesnt confirm the pangolin as the animal that passed the virus to humans, but it adds weight to previous studies that have suggested it may have been involved.

However, Prof Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney, in Australia, said more work on the subject was needed. There is a clear evolutionary gap between Sars-Cov-2 and its closest relatives found to date in bats and pangolins, he said. The only way this gap will be filled is through more wildlife sampling.

The findings came as Donald Trump announced that the United States was severing its ties with the World Health Organization because it had failed to reform.

In a speech at the White House devoted mainly to attacking China for its alleged shortcomings in tackling the initial outbreak of coronavirus, Trump said: We will be today terminating our relationship with theWorld Health Organizationand redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.

The US is the biggest funder of the WHO, paying about $450m (365m) in membership dues and voluntary contributions for specific programmes.

Trumps declaration was condemned in the US and around the world, with Australianexperts joining counterparts in the UK and elsewhere in voicing their support for the WHO. Prof Peter Doherty, a Nobel laureate and patron of the Doherty Institute, which is part of global efforts to find a Covid-19 vaccine, said the WHO had the full support of the scientific community.

Deaths in the US have climbed to more than 102,000, with 1,747,000 infections. It is by far the biggest total in the world. On Friday it emerged that one person who attended the controversial pool parties in the Ozarks last weekend had tested positive for the virus.

In Brazil, there was another large rise in deaths. More than 27,000 people have died from the disease and the country has the worlds second highest number of cases, at 465,000.

There were also big surges in reported deaths in Russia, which identifiedmore coronavirus cases in a day than at any time since early April;2,819 more people tested positive on Friday.

Iran also recorded itsbiggest daily increase in deaths 232 in 24 hours bringing the total to 4,374. President Hassan Rouhani nevertheless said mosques were to resume daily prayers throughout the country, despite some areas reporting continuing high levels of infections. He added that physical distancing and other health protocols would be observed in mosques. He did not say when they were due to reopen.

India, meanwhile, reported a record daily jump of 7,964 new infections. With the latest tally, India has now reported 173,763 coronavirus cases and 4,971 deaths, making it the ninth most-affected country, according to Reuters. While the fatality rates in India have been lower than in worse-hit countries, experts fear the peak has not been reached. The latest numbers would appear to confirm that prediction.

Egypt registered 1,289 new cases and 34 deaths, the health ministry said, marking another record of daily increases on both counts despite stricter curfew rules.

Other developments across the world include:

A leading UK government adviser has warned that it is too early to lift lockdown restrictions as planned next month because the number of new infections is still too high. John Edmunds, a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he wanted the level of new cases to be driven down further before larger gatherings are allowed as the government has said it wants to do. Tory MPs are still being bombarded by constituents with calls for Boris Johnsons top adviser to quit after he appeared to breach lockdown rules.

Restrictions continue to be lifted to some degree across Europe, with thousands flocking to open-air cinemas to see films together for the first time in weeks.

In Australia, where states are expected to move to relax the rules to allow gatherings of more people from Monday, anti-vaccine protesters gathered in several cities to claim that they believed Covid-19 was a scam.

Also in Australia, scientists are examining the sewage waste in a town in Queensland where a 30-year-old man died this week from the virus. Nathan Turner is the youngest victim in the country so far and the case has baffled experts because he had not left the remote town of Blackwater.

The global death toll passed 365,000, according to data compiled byJohns Hopkins University, with the number of cases just short of 6 million. The true number of infections is likely to be much higher, however, given the vast number of unrecorded and asymptomatic cases.

See more here:

Global report: new clues about role of pangolins in Covid-19 as US severs ties with WHO - The Guardian

When Noopur Rajes husband fell critically ill with Covid-19 in mid-March, she did not suspect that she too was infected with the virus.

Raje, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, had been caring for her sick husband for a week before driving him to an emergency centre with a persistently high fever. But after she herself had a diagnostic PCR test which looks for traces of the Sars-CoV-2 virus DNA in saliva she was astounded to find that the result was positive.

My husband ended up very sick, she says. He was in intensive care for a day, and in hospital for 10 days. But while I was also infected, I had no symptoms at all. I have no idea why we responded so differently.

It took two months for Rajes husband to recover. Repeated tests, done every five days, showed that Raje remained infected for the same length of time, all while remaining completely asymptomatic. In some ways it is unsurprising that the virus persisted in her body for so long, given that it appears her body did not even mount a detectable immune response against the infection.

When they both took an antibody test earlier this month, Rajes husband showed a high level of antibodies to the virus, while Raje appeared to have no response at all, something she found hard to comprehend.

Its mind-blowing, she says. Some people are able to be colonised with the virus and not be symptomatic, while others end up with pretty severe illness. I think its something to do with differences in immune regulation, but we still havent figured out exactly how this is happening.

Epidemiological studies are now revealing that the number of individuals who carry and can pass on the infection, yet remain completely asymptomatic, is larger than originally thought. Scientists believe these people have contributed to the spread of the virus in care homes, and they are central in the debate regarding face mask policies, as health officials attempt to avoid new waves of infections while societies reopen.

You dont need to be coughing to transmit a respiratory infection: talking, singing, even blowing a vuvuzela

But the realisation that asymptomatic people can spread an infection is not completely surprising. For starters, there is the famous early 20th century case of Typhoid Mary, a cook who infected 53 people in various households in the US with typhoid fever despite displaying no symptoms herself. In fact, all bacterial, viral and parasitic infections ranging from malaria to HIV have a certain proportion of asymptomatic carriers. Research has even shown that at any one time, all of us are infected with between eight and 12 viruses, without showing any symptoms.

From the microbes perspective, this makes perfect evolutionary sense. For any virus or bacteria, making people infectious but not ill is an excellent way to spread and persist in populations, says Rein Houben, an infectious diseases researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine.

However, when Covid-19 was identified at the start of the year, many public health officials both in the UK and around the world failed to account for the threat posed by asymptomatic transmission. This is largely because they were working on models based on influenza, where some estimates suggest that only 5% of people infected are asymptomatic. As a result, the large scale diagnostic testing regimes required to pick up asymptomatic Covid-19 cases were not in place until too late.

I warned on 24 January to consider asymptomatic cases as a transmission vehicle for Covid-19, but this was ignored at the time, says Bill Keevil, professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton. Since then, many countries have reported asymptomatic cases, never showing obvious symptoms, but shedding virus.

The first identified case of asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 occurred in early January, when a traveller from Wuhan passed on the virus to five family members in different parts of the city of Anyang. After testing positive, she then remained asymptomatic for the entire 21-day follow-up period.

While scientists still dont know whether asymptomatic people are as contagious as those who display symptoms, there are still many ways in which they can pass on Covid-19. We know that you dont need to be coughing to transmit a respiratory infection like Sars-CoV-2, says Houben. Talking, singing, even blowing instruments like a vuvuzela in the past all of those have been shown to transmit respiratory viruses in some way.

Since January, the race has been on to try and identify just how many asymptomatic cases are out there, with varying findings. One study in the Italian town of Vo reported that 43% of the towns cases of Covid-19 were asymptomatic, while initial reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigation into the spread of Covid-19 on the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in March, suggest that as many as 58% of cases were asymptomatic. Some 48% of the 1,046 cases of Covid-19 on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier proved to be asymptomatic while, of the 712 people who tested positive for Covid-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 46% had no symptoms.

Almost all evidence seems to point to a proportion of asymptomatic infections of around 40%, with a wide range, says Houben. The proportion is also highly variable with age. Nearly all infected children seem to remain asymptomatic, whereas the reverse seems to hold for the elderly.

Houben points out that, because most asymptomatic people have no idea they are infected, they are unlikely to be self-isolating, and studies have shown this has contributed to the rampant spread of the virus in facilities such as homeless shelters and care homes. He says this means there is a need for regular diagnostic testing of almost all people in such closed environments, including prisons and psychiatric facilities.

When it comes to controlling Covid-19, this really shows that we cannot rely on self-isolation of symptomatic cases only, he says. Going forwards we need trace and test approaches to account for individuals who are not reporting any symptoms.

Since February, the country that has arguably had the greatest success in suppressing asymptomatic spread of Covid-19 is South Korea. Armed with a rigorous contact tracing and diagnostic testing regime, which involved dozens of drive-through testing centres across major cities enabling tests to be carried out at a rate of one every 10 minutes, they put specific policies in place to offset the threat of asymptomatic carriers from the moment the virus began to spread out of control in Daegu.

Once identified, all asymptomatic people are asked to self quarantine in their house until they test negative, with health service officials checking on them twice daily, and monitoring their symptoms, says Eunha Shim, an epidemiologist at Soongsil University in Seoul.

As Korea attempts to prevent a second wave of infections while reopening schools and allowing people to return to offices, preventing asymptomatic spread is one of their main priorities. This is being done by a mass public health campaign advocating the wearing of masks at all times outside the home. In Seoul, it is not possible to access the subway without a mask.

Many scientists are increasingly calling for this policy to be officially introduced in the UK, especially as more and more people resume commuting in the coming months. Keevil says: There is a strong case to be made for the public wearing appropriate face covers in confined areas such as stations, trains, metro carriages and buses, where it is extremely difficult to maintain the two-metre gap, considered essential to allow respiratory droplets from infected people to fall down before making contact with other people.

The argument is that face covers may not protect the wearer, but might significantly reduce transmission of virus particles to adjacent people in the closed environment. If there is any benefit to be gained, then everyone should wear a mask, which is why some countries are fining people who do not wear a mask and preventing them travelling.

Some have argued that masks may pose a risk of harm to the wearer because of their potential to become an infectious surface, but Keevil says this can be avoided through proper cleaning.

There would need to be policies such as, when arriving at work, place the mask immediately in a plastic bag and wash your hands, he says. And then, when returning home, carefully take off the mask and place it immediately in a washing machine for a 60C wash and wash your hands.

It remains to be seen whether the UK government endorses this as an official recommendation, but a recent study across Barts NHS Trust hospitals in London has illustrated how regular testing and social distancing combined with use of facial protection in this case PPE can prevent asymptomatic spread of the virus. Researchers James Moon and Charlotte Manisty said they found that the rate of asymptomatic infection among hospital staff fell from 7% to 1% between the end of March and early May.

For Raje, understanding why asymptomatic patients like her respond the way they do to the virus, will have some critical implications for all of us over the coming months, for example in determining whether vaccines turn out to be effective.

The big question I have after my experience, is whether a vaccine will really work in all people, she says. The vaccination approach is to create an immune response, which then protects you. But if asymptomatic people are not producing a normal antibody response to the virus, what does that mean? Because its these people who are the vectors and the carriers of this virus, I think we cant get away from social distancing until we have some of these answers out there.

Excerpt from:

Could nearly half of those with Covid-19 have no idea they are infected? - The Guardian

If youre sick and dont have supplies, see if a friend can pick them up for you, or if a grocery store or bodega will deliver. (Tip well!) Either way, avoid contact: Whether its a friend or a delivery person, have the bag left outside your door, and dont open the door until the delivery person is gone.

Over-the-counter drugs may not be enough. In particular, the coughing and nausea caused by Covid-19 can be severe enough to warrant prescription medication.

For my husband and me, benzonatate (for the cough) and promethazine (for the nausea) were lifesavers. Some colleagues were prescribed codeine-based cough medicine or Zofran. If you feel you might need them, ask your doctor about medications sooner rather than later. Dont wait until youre doubled over coughing or cant keep anything down.

If you dont have a primary care doctor, some urgent care clinics offer virtual appointments, and some pharmacies offer prescription delivery.

Dry air can exacerbate some symptoms such as coughing and chest tightness. If you have a humidifier, use it. If not, a hot shower works.

Several readers reported that they felt better when they lay on their stomach. A woman in Britain whose partner was sick for several weeks told me that a particular breathing exercise helped him:

You take a deep breath, hold it for 5 seconds and release. Do that 5 times, then on the 6th time on the release, cough hard. Do that cycle twice, then lie on your front and take slightly deeper breaths for 10 minutes. Try to do it a couple of times a day.

In some cases, your doctor may also prescribe an albuterol inhaler to reduce your cough and ease your breathing.

As soon as you get sick, start a detailed log. Every time you take your temperature do it several times a day, at consistent times log it. Every time you take a pill, log it. Every time you eat or drink, log it. If one symptom resolves or a new one develops, log it.

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How to Recover From Covid-19 at Home - The New York Times

New research has poured cold water on the theory that the Covid-19 outbreak in Washington state the countrys first was triggered by the very first confirmed case of the infection in the country. Instead, it suggests the person who ignited the first chain of sustained transmission in the United States probably returned to the country in mid-February, a month later.

The work adds to evidence that the United States missed opportunities to stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from taking root in this country and that those opportunities persisted for longer than has been recognized up until now.

Our finding that the virus associated with the first known transmission network in the U.S. did not enter the country until mid-February is sobering, since it demonstrates that the window of opportunity to block sustained transmission of the virus stretched all the way until that point, the authors wrote in the paper. The paper has been posted to a preprint server, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a journal.

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The research was led by Michael Worobey, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

Using available genetic sequence data, Worobey and his co-authors modeled how SARS-CoV-2 viruses would have evolved if the original case, known in the medical literature as WA1 (short for Washington state patient 1), had been the source of the states outbreak. They ran the model 1,000 times, comparing the genetic sequences of 300 randomly selected simulated cases to those retrieved from 300 actual patients. The results didnt jibe.

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In all likelihood this didnt start with WA1, Worobey told STAT in an interview. It started with some unidentified person who arrived in Washington state at some later point. And we dont know from where.

Worobey said the sequence data suggest the infection may have been brought to the country by someone returning from China, or from a nearby Asian country, or even from Asia via British Columbia, Canada.

Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, drew the initial line between the first Washington state case a man who returned to the state from Wuhan on Jan. 15 and the states first reported case in someone who had not traveled outside the country. That person, a high school student who had been tested negative for influenza, was recognized as a Covid-19 case at the end of February.

Analysis of the genetic sequences of the viruses that infected these two people looked close enough that Bedford concluded SARS-CoV-2 had been spreading undetected in the Seattle area for about six weeks.

But in a series of tweets he posted on Sunday, Bedford said he now concludes that theory was not correct.

Based on data thats emerged in the intervening months, I no longer believe that a direct WA1 introduction is a likely hypothesis for the origin of the Washington State outbreak, he tweeted.

Others agree.

Im convinced by the Worobey study, Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research, an expert on viral genomes, told STAT.

Samuel Scarpino, an assistant professor at Northeastern Universitys Network Science Institute, said Worobeys paper confirms what a lot of what we were starting to suspect from the epidemiological data, that there were some early introductions in the West Coast that did not spark sustained transmission.

Worobey and his co-authors estimated that the infection that started the Seattle area outbreak arrived in the country around Feb. 13, shortly after President Trumps ban on travel from China went into effect on Feb. 2. Thousands of Americans in the country fled back to the United States in the days after the ban was announced.

Worobey said the work isnt merely an effort to set the historical record straight. If WA1 sparked the Seattle outbreak, there was really little more that could have been done to prevent it. The patient had recognized he was probably ill and alerted his physician to the risk. Public health authorities mapped his travel and contacted his contacts, isolating him and quarantining the people hed been in contact with.

When the first case of local transmission was linked back to WA1, it appeared that the efforts to contain his infection hadnt been adequate. But in fact, they probably were, Worobey said.

Conclusions that the Seattle area was already six weeks into an epidemic by the end of February, rather than two or three, and the notion that stringent efforts to prevent spread had failed in the WA1 case, may have influenced decision-making about how to respond to the outbreak, including whether such measures were worth the effort, he and his co-authors wrote.

Scarpino said the research supports the idea that contact tracing and isolation can work. Everything is sort of lining up in the direction that if were serious about it, we can control this thing, he said. Were just not being serious about it.

Worobeys group also disputed a claim, published earlier this month, that a more transmissible lineage of SARS-CoV-2 viruses has emerged, arguing the increased geographic spread of viruses with that mutation pattern has more to do with timing than with increased infectiousness.

Viruses with these mutations spread from Hubei province to Italy and from there to New York City and began to spread locally undetected for a time. This viral lineage appears to have been amplified because of luck, not high fitness, they wrote.

Correction: The headline on an earlier version of this story misstated a key finding of the new research that the coronavirus took off in the U.S. later than previously thought.

Link:

New research rewrites history of when Covid-19 took off in the US - STAT

Memorial Day weekend at Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island, N.Y. As the pandemic continues, Harvard's Dr. Ashish Jha says, mask wearing, social distancing and robust strategies of testing and contact tracing will be even more important. Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

Memorial Day weekend at Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island, N.Y. As the pandemic continues, Harvard's Dr. Ashish Jha says, mask wearing, social distancing and robust strategies of testing and contact tracing will be even more important.

The bleak milestone the U.S. is about to hit 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 is far above the number of deaths seen from the pandemic in any other country.

So far, the impact of the coronavirus has been felt unevenly, striking certain cities and regions and particular segments of society much harder than others.

To get a sense of how that may change, and where in the course of the epidemic the U.S. is right now, NPR's Morning Edition host David Greene spoke Tuesday with Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

As you look at this number looming now, what are you reflecting on?

Well, a couple of things. First of all, it is a solemn moment to reflect on the idea that about 100,000 Americans have died mostly just in the last two months. The speed with which this has happened is really devastating. Of course, we've had very little opportunity to mourn all those losses because most of us have been shut down. And I've been thinking about where we go into the future and fall and reminding myself and others that we're early in this outbreak. We're not anywhere near done.

The U.S. ... has had more deaths than any country in the world. Do you think that the country is absorbing the significance of these numbers?

I think for a majority of Americans, this doesn't quite feel real because the deaths have been concentrated in [a] few places. Obviously, New York has been hit very hard, and some other places like Seattle, Chicago some of the big cities. And so people who don't live in those areas may not be absorbing it.

But the nature of this pandemic is that it starts and kind of accelerates in big cities, but then it moves out into the suburbs and into the rural areas. So, by the time we're done with this, I think every American will have felt it much more up close and personal. That's what I worry about that it shouldn't have to take that for people to really understand how tragic this is and how calamitous in many ways this is.

Q: We're coming out of Memorial Day weekend, and we saw many regulations relaxed in many parts of the country. As you were watching that, what are you predicting in terms of what we could see by the end of summer?

If you look at all of the models out there and most models have been relatively accurate a few of them have been too optimistic. But then, if you sort of look at the models of models the ones that really sort of combine it all and put it together and make projections the projections are that we're probably going to see 70,000 to 100,000 deaths between now and the end of the summer.

While the pace will slow down, because we are doing some amount of social distancing and testing is ramping up we're going to, unfortunately, see a lot more sickness and, unfortunately, a lot more deaths in the upcoming months.

Q: There's been talk of a seasonal aspect to this. Whatever happens over the summer, do we face even more deaths as we head later in the year?

Yes. I'm hoping that the models of the summer of an additional 70,000 to 100,000 deaths are too pessimistic. And they may be, because we may get a seasonal benefit because of the summer: People are outside more.

But the flip side of the seasonal benefit of the summer is what will almost surely be a pretty tough fall and winter with a surge of cases a wave that might be bigger than the wave we just went through. And we've got to prepare for that, because we can't be caught flat-footed the way we were this time around.

Q: What can we do to prepare? We're seeing so many states relax restrictions right now. Is it a matter of potentially putting those restrictions back in place where they need to be? Or are there other things we could be doing?

There are two things that I would say. First of all, people can't be locked down for the rest of this pandemic. I understand that people need to get out, and being outside is a good thing. But we have to maintain a certain amount of social distancing. I think mask wearing is really important.

The only other tool we have in our toolbox is a really robust testing, tracing, isolation program. You know, if you think about how it is that South Korea and Germany have been able to do much, much better? They have had a really aggressive testing, tracing, isolation program. We know that works. It allows us to kind of have more of our lives back without the number of deaths that we've suffered. So I really think that still remains and should remain one of our priority areas.

Q: The federal government's new strategic testing plan calls on states to take a lot of the responsibility for testing. ... Do you see that as the best approach?

I think this is a real missed opportunity and very unfortunate in many ways, because while states have a critical role to play, testing capacity and testing supply chains are national and international.

We don't want 50 states competing. We want a federal strategy that helps states. And I'm worried that we're just not getting that from the federal government.

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Nearing 100000 COVID-19 Deaths, U.S. Is Still 'Early In This Outbreak' - NPR

The answer, though fanciful, illustrates just how hard it can be to understand exponential growth and doubling, two pieces of math that explain the spread of viruses like Covid-19.

Because by the time you made the 42nd fold, your stack of paper would reach the moon. It's not just a handy fact for trivia night: It shows how exponential growth can result in numbers that are nearly incomprehensible.

"Math concepts are really hard," she said. "It's not a surprise that the general public has a hard time grasping these."

And now, with a pandemic dominating global headlines, Covid-19 is putting Americans' knowledge to the test.

Classroom educators and education activists have said they're concerned by some aspects of the public response to the virus, including angry reactions to the guidelines designed by epidemiologists to keep America safe.

"If people understood how an outbreak could take off so quickly, and it does get back to this concept of exponential growth, they might be more careful about how they go about their day," Wasserman said.

Quiz time

Learning to think like a scientist

While the basics of viral spread, infection and other scientific ideas can help decode stories about Covid-19, many science educators say there's a broader perspective required when it comes to understanding what's happening in the world.

"It's impossible to teach students about everything," said Blake Touchet, who teaches biology at North Vermillion High School and Abbeville High School in Louisiana.

There's simply too much to know, he said. And the frontiers of scientific knowledge are always changing as theories get updated and revised. Instead, Touchet teaches his students to think like scientists.

"It's important that they understand how the process of science works, so that they can continue growing and learning even when they're out of school," he said.

One skill that Touchet emphasizes in his high school classes is called source evaluation, which can be applied to news articles, podcasts or even a study from a scientific journal.

"Analyzing and evaluating it to see if it has bias, or whether it's containing accurate information or whether it's reliable," he said.

In teaching students about the process of science, Touchet also emphasizes the significance of scientific consensus, which can bring clarity to contentious topics.

"There was a study that was published showing that 97% of scientists agree with anthropogenic climate change that humans are causing climate change," he said, offering an example of a clear scientific consensus.

In the news, Touchet said the situation is sometimes represented as an unresolved debate, despite the fact that most experts actually agree on the facts.

"That was a really good visualization of what we're thinking about when we're looking at scientific consensus," Touchet said. "We're not talking about people who are agreeing or disagreeing with each other. We're talking about data."

It's an idea that Touchet said is directly applicable to understanding news about Covid-19, especially when a lone scientist goes on television to tout a so-called cure with little support in the broader community.

America's education gap

Those skills of evaluating scientific ideas are more essential than ever, but Americans' grasp of science varies widely.

Where you went to school matters, too.

Students in some areas have few opportunities to engage with science outside of school, Reid said. She called these places "science deserts," and while the NCSE works in many rural areas, Reid explained that some urban students also lack access to learning opportunities.

Where science meet politics, that information gap feeds a dangerous division.

"Teacher education programs should anticipate, and equip future teachers to deal with, the politicization of science," the report found.

And while the challenges of understanding math and science are not limited to the United States, Americans' competencies in these subjects often fall far behind other developed countries.

In the most recent figures from the Programme for International Student Assessment, students from the United States ranked 37th in math among participating education systems. We did a bit better in science, coming in at 18th place.

Learning more about science at any age

Just because Americans lack some basic information about science doesn't mean they're not interested.

"The term 'anti-science' is thrown around a lot, and I don't think it captures the situation very well," Reid said.

"There are certain areas of science where there's a lot of misinformation pumped into the system, and people accept that information because it's coming from people they trust. But I don't think that makes them anti-science."

In fact, some of the same polls that revealed gaps in Americans' understanding of science spoke to their desire to learn more. A 2016 National Science Board study found that 95% of Americans were interested in new medical discoveries, and 84% were interested in scientific discoveries.

If you're one of the Americans who wants to learn more, there are plenty of free resources for brushing up on your understanding of science.

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Confused by the science behind Covid-19? You're not alone - CNN