AP -
September 8, 2020
The Lost Summer of 2020 drew to a close Monday with many big Labor Day gatherings canceled across the U.S. and health authorities pleading with people to keep their distance from others so as not to cause another coronavirus surge like the one that followed Memorial Day. … The U.S. had about 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases around Memorial Day, before backyard parties and other gatherings contributed to a summertime surge. It now has more than 6.2 million cases, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Deaths from the virus more than doubled over the summer to nearly 190,000.
NPR -
September 8, 2020
India's recorded coronavirus case total has surpassed that of Brazil, making India the second worst-affected country in the world after the United States. India overtook Brazil on Monday after registering 90,802 fresh cases — the highest single-day increase any country has recorded so far during the pandemic. India's total cases are now more than 4.2 million. … About 1,000 people are dying every day in India after testing positive for the coronavirus. … But only about one in five deaths in India is medically certified so COVID-19 deaths could be substantially under-counted.
CNN -
September 8, 2020
Australia and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere just finished their easiest flu seasons on record, and the United States and other nations in the Northern Hemisphere could have an easy time, too -- if people get flu shots, practice social distancing and wear masks. "This could be one of the best flu seasons [we've had]," Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Journal of the American Medical Association in August. "Particularly if [people] do one more thing, and that is to embrace the flu vaccine with confidence."
Yahoo! -
September 8, 2020
As the United States braces itself for a likely "second wave" of COVID-19 this fall, many experts are anticipating a spike in cases -- but some say that may not translate into an equally dramatic spike in deaths. … Six months into the pandemic, doctors now have more success treating patients with the novel coronavirus -- especially those with severe symptoms -- than they did at the beginning of the year. Adults that are older and more vulnerable to illness are staying home, as the virus is now infecting a greater number of younger people who are less likely to succumb to illness.
Vox -
September 8, 2020
There have been more than 50,000 confirmed cases on college campuses since the pandemic began, according to the New York Times, a number that has increased dramatically in recent weeks. That’s prompted a number of colleges, like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to cancel in-person classes after students had already paid tuition. And as Vox’s Terry Nguyen has reported, rising case numbers have also left many students scrambling to find housing off-campus — or transportation back home.
KTLA -
September 8, 2020
Colleges across the nation — from New Mexico to Tennessee, Michigan to New York — are turning tests of waste into a public health tool. The work comes as institutions hunt for ways to keep campuses open despite vulnerabilities like students’ close living arrangements and drive to socialize. ... The tests work by detecting genetic material from the virus, which can be recovered from the stools of about half of people with COVID-19, studies indicate. ... Sewage testing is especially valuable because it can evaluate people even if they aren’t feeling sick and can detect a few cases out of thousands of people, experts say.
CNN -
September 8, 2020
A team of experts on food contamination says it is highly unlikely that food is a source of Covid-19 transmission. The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) looked at the evidence that coronavirus might be carried on food or its packing and found very little. Their finding mirrors earlier reporting from the US FDA that there is no real risk of getting the virus that causes Covid-19 from food or food packaging. "To date, there has not been any evidence that food, food packaging or food handling is a source or important transmission route for SARS-CoV-2 resulting in Covid-19," the organization said in a statement. "There are no foods that should be considered a risk or warrant consideration as a vector for SARS-CoV-2."
STAT -
September 8, 2020
Maybe we should think of Covid-19 as a heart disease. When SARS-CoV-2 virus was added to human heart cells grown in lab dishes, the long muscle fibers that keep hearts beating were diced into short bits, alarming scientists at the San Francisco-based Gladstone Institutes, especially after they saw a similar phenomenon in heart tissue from Covid-19 patients’ autopsies. Their experiments could potentially explain why some people still feel short of breath after their Covid infections clear and add to worries that survivors may be at risk for future heart failure.
CNN -
September 8, 2020
Covid-19 can have lasting impacts on the body, but there is hope that patients can not only recover over time, but can do so more quickly with pulmonary rehabilitation, preliminary research suggests. Two early research reports to be presented Monday at the European Respiratory Society International Congress describe how severe infection with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can leave lasting lung damage and, in some cases, even psychological wounds.
HealthDay -
September 8, 2020
New research may have people with asthma breathing a little easier: Doctors found the airway disease doesn't raise the risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19. The researchers also noted that people with asthma weren't more likely than people without it to need a ventilator to help them breathe. … In the new study, the researchers reviewed 15 studies on COVID-19 infections to see how many people hospitalized had asthma. They also looked at more than 400 patients treated for COVID-19 at the University of Colorado Hospital, to see whether the rates of ventilator use were different in people with asthma.
HealthDay -
September 8, 2020
People with lupus aren't at increased risk of hospitalization from COVID-19 due to steroidal medications they take to reduce immune system activity, a new study finds. And a related study found that people with inflammatory forms of arthritis -- such as rheumatoid arthritis -- aren't more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than people without arthritis.
HealthDay -
September 8, 2020
For the new study, Meltzer's team tracked coronavirus infections among 489 patients whose vitamin D levels were measured within a year before they were tested for the new coronavirus. While the study couldn't determine cause and effect, patients with an untreated vitamin D deficiency (blood levels of less than 20 ng/mL) were nearly two times more likely to test positive for the coronavirus than patients with sufficient vitamin D levels, the researchers said.
NPR -
September 8, 2020
Among low-income households with children who qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, only about 15% have actually been getting those meals, says Lauren Bauer, a researcher at the Brookings Institution. She's been poring over the results of the U.S. Census Bureau's weekly Household Pulse Survey. Anecdotally, school nutrition directors across the country tell a similar story.
AP -
September 8, 2020
Thousands of bars forced to close after massive virus outbreaks swept across the U.S. this summer could be starting to see an end in sight as cases drop off and the political will for continuing lockdowns fades. For some states, it is a gamble worth trying, only a few months after a rush to reopen bars in May and June ended in disaster. “Our governor waved the magic wand, put us out of business and offered us nothing,” said Brightwell, whose Dallas bar typically employs around 50 people. He says his industry has been scapegoated.
ABC News -
September 8, 2020
Kate Wise, a mother of three from Austin, Texas, is recovering after her house went up in flames when she said she used an off-brand hand sanitizer before she lit a candle at her home. … According to the CDC, fire incidents related to alcohol-based hand sanitizers are very low but the National Fire Protection agency considers them a flammable liquid. … Experts recommend that someone using hand sanitizer make sure their hands are completely dry before they use anything that might ignite a flame like lighters, gas stoves and heaters.
TODAY -
September 8, 2020
The three people who died as a result of the outbreak did not attend the wedding. … About 65 people attended the Aug. 7 reception at the Big Moose Inn Cabins and Campground in Millinocket, about 70 miles north of Bangor, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said. The Maine governor's executive orders limit gatherings to 50 people indoors, 100 people outdoors and fewer if the space cannot accommodate five people per 1,000 feet.