HealthDay -
October 27, 2020
For the study, the researchers compared the rate of COVID-19 cases between the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) and Massachusetts residents from March 17 to May 6. The CHA started requiring masks on March 26. The universal masking was done during a time of rising infections in both the health care system and the community. After the policy was instituted, infections among health care workers sharply decreased, while community infections continued to rise until their peak on April 20. Before the mask mandate, infection rates increased almost identically in the health care system and the state's population, the study found.
HealthDay -
October 27, 2020
Researchers who studied 372 patients admitted to four intensive care units (ICUs) in the UK found that even those who had less severe kidney disease to start, as well as patients whose kidney disease was caused by the coronavirus, had higher rates of death than those with no kidney disease. … The patients in the study had an average age of 60, with 72% of them men and 76% from racial minority groups. About 58% of these ICU patients had kidney impairment. The researchers found that 21% of those in the ICU with no kidney disease died, compared to nearly half of those with kidney disease. The most vulnerable were patients with kidney transplants, 86% of whom died.
Bloomberg -
October 27, 2020
U.S. senators departed the Capitol for a pre-election break Monday, making the logistics for passing a fiscal stimulus package by next Tuesday practically impossible, even as the coronavirus continues to infect tens of thousands of Americans daily and inflict economic damage.
Reuters -
October 27, 2020
More than 54 million people in the US could struggle to afford food during the pandemic, with the biggest increases in food insecurity in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to Feeding America, a network of 60,000 U.S. food shelters. More people who harvest food, work in food processing and even own their own farms now need food assistance, according to dozens of food bank workers nationwide.
NPR -
October 27, 2020
As hundreds of thousands of women dropped out of the workforce in September, Latinas led the way, leaving at nearly three times the rate of white women and more than four times the rate of African Americans. That could have lasting consequences for both household budgets and the broader U.S. economy.
FORTUNE -
October 27, 2020
When the quarantine ended, Collins didn’t want to go back to work. Co-workers, he said, told him that recommended safety measures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing hadn’t been implemented. When he told human resources that he feared becoming infected and endangering his mother and his 8-year-old nephew who live with him, he said, he got an ultimatum: Return to work or resign.
NBC News -
October 27, 2020
From early September to Oct. 17, despite the CDC eviction ban, almost 10,000 eviction actions have been filed in 23 counties in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas by large corporate landlords like the one that owns Velez's house, court documents show. … During the week of Oct. 12, for example, almost 2,000 proceedings were recorded in the five states, almost twice the number from the previous week.
AP -
October 27, 2020
U.S. government officials are putting an early end to a study testing an Eli Lilly antibody drug for people hospitalized with COVID-19 because it doesn’t seem to be helping them. Independent monitors had paused enrollment in the study two weeks ago because of a possible safety issue. But on Monday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which sponsors the study, said a closer look did not verify a safety problem but found a low chance that the drug would prove helpful for hospitalized patients. It is a setback for one of the most promising treatment approaches for COVID-19.
PEOPLE -
October 27, 2020
The survey of 2,000 American parents with children up to age 3 looked at what that means for respondents and the other changes to come with these last seven months. Parents surveyed are more likely to stress the importance of hygiene (53 percent), and they’re more likely to highlight the need for doing chores and keeping the house clean (47 percent). Commissioned by Gerber and conducted by OnePoll … Seventy-four percent of respondents said having a young child has given them more of a routine during the pandemic than they otherwise would have had.
Reuters -
October 26, 2020
The United States reported 79,852 new infections on Saturday, close to the previous day's record of 84,244 new cases. Hospitalizations are also rising and have hit a two-month high and deaths are trending upwards, according to a Reuters tally. So far in October, 29 states have set records for increases in new cases, including five considered key in the Nov. 3 presidential election: Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Cases in the Midwest set a new record on Saturday and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in that region hit an all-time high for the ninth day in a row.
STAT -
October 26, 2020
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 entail vast numbers of deaths, and that widespread mask-wearing in public could save tens of thousands of lives.
CNBC -
October 26, 2020
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Sunday that the U.S. will not get control of the coronavirus pandemic as the country reports a record high in new daily Covid-19 cases. “We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows said during an interview on CNN. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations.” Pressed on why the U.S. can’t make efforts to control the pandemic, Meadows said: “Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.”
ABC News -
October 26, 2020
Five individuals in Vice President Mike Pence's orbit have tested positive for the coronavirus, including his chief of staff Marc Short and political aide Marty Obst. … Sunday morning, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that in addition to an outside political ally of Pence's, four of his staffers have tested positive. One senior-level source stressed that the three staffers have been quarantining since the middle of this past week.
Reuters -
October 26, 2020
U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Sunday it would be clear whether a COVID-19 vaccine was safe and effective by early December, but that more widespread vaccination would not be likely until later in 2021. “We will know whether a vaccine is safe and effective by the end of November, the beginning of December,” Fauci told the BBC. “When you talk about vaccinating a substantial proportion of the population, so that you can have a significant impact on the dynamics of the outbreak, that very likely will not be until the second or third quarter of the year.”
TODAY -
October 26, 2020
Half of patients recovering from COVID-19 reported difficulty sleeping as one of the lingering symptoms in a survey of more than 1,500 people in the Survivor Corp Facebook group (a resource for COVID-19 survivors with over 100,000 members). About 16% reported sleeping more than normal. Members of the group are sometimes called “long-haulers” because they discuss long-term effects of the disease.
CNN -
October 26, 2020
As a dark winter approaches with "twindemics" of Covid-19 and the flu, an effort by the Trump administration to increase the number of children receiving flu shots is not working, according to a CNN investigation. In August, the administration issued a declaration authorizing pharmacists nationwide to give flu shots to children ages 3 and older, which most states have not allowed. … But calls to more than 175 pharmacies, and discussions with large pharmacy chains, show that the policy landed with a thud. The vast majority of the pharmacies have not taken advantage of the Trump administration's declaration and still refuse to vaccinate children that young.