COVID-19 News from Around the Web

Because we need order. We need to know what to do with ourselves with all this new unstructured time, even if it's mainly kids while parents work from home. We need a way to constructively fill the many, many hours we will now be with our children ... indefinitely. And if having a schedule brings you peace of mind and keeps your kids appropriately engaged, then lean in. Maybe you don't even have a choice because you know your children only thrive from routine. If you do construct a schedule, I suggest physically writing it down on paper. Or maybe on a dry erase board for easy revisions. But not just on your computer. Post it where everyone can see it. And adapt it for younger kids, perhaps adding emoji-like icons for the pre-literate. Or make copies and have the kids check things off, put stickers next to them or cross them out as they're completed for the day. There is a counter argument to this schedule reflex, though. One that embraces the sudden freedom being mandated by governments and strongly urged by health experts. There's opportunity here to rethink what our daily lives could be in the absence of after school sports and music lessons, without playdates, nor going out to restaurants and movies.

These simple tips will help you relax and put things in perspective — in between washing your hands, of course. Tips include: be informed, put things into perspective, know what’s triggering your anxiety, no blame/shame, seek help, prepare – don’t procrastinate, connect, be kind to yourself, self-care.

Most fictional claims about black immunity to the coronavirus are connected to a long history of contradictory but uniformly racist ideas. The news last week that NBA player Rudy Gobert, a Frenchman of Caribbean heritage, had tested positive for the coronavirus shattered a myth that some of the world's more conspiracy-minded had circulated online through jokes, news stories and social media posts. Black people are not, in fact, immune to the coronavirus.

Like many of my colleagues in the emergency room, I have been gathering information from Facebook and Twitter.

As governments invoke emergency powers to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and social distancing measures preclude meeting people in bars, cafes or restaurants, love - or at least lust - is still finding a way via dating apps. While some users like Marcos are meeting in person, many are romancing online because of the public health risks, often using in-app video chats.

If the measures we're taking to fight the coronavirus work, they'll look excessive later on. But the alternative is worse.

Despite internet rumors to the contrary, the new coronavirus arose from natural causes and was not concocted in a lab, according to scientists who conducted a detailed genomic examination of the virus. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 illness, shows zero evidence of being artificially engineered, reported a team who published their findings March 17 in Nature Medicine. "By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes," study co-author Kristian Andersen, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research, said in an institute news release.

West Virginia became the 50th state to report a case of the deadly novel coronavirus when Gov. Jim Justice announced the first positive test result Tuesday. Justice said the case was in the eastern panhandle of the state, but he gave no other details. The announcement comes just after the death toll from the virus in the United States passed 100, according to a CNN tally of data from state health officials. Illinois reported its first death Tuesday, becoming one of 18 states to report the death of a resident who died from the virus in the pandemic.

A new Harvard analysis shows that many parts of the United States will have far too few hospital beds if the new coronavirus continues to spread widely and if nothing is done to expand capacity. In 40 percent of markets around the country, hospitals would not be able to make enough room for all the patients who became ill with Covid-19, even if they could completely empty their beds of other patients. That statistic assumes that 40 percent of adults become infected with the virus over 12 months, a scenario described as “moderate” by the team behind the calculations.

The Society of Critical Care Medicine has projected that 960,000 coronavirus patients in the U.S. may need to be put on ventilators at one point or another during the outbreak. But the nation has only about 200,000 of the machines, by the organization’s estimate, and around half are older models that may not be ideal for the most critically ill patients. Also, many ventilators are already being used by other patients with severe, non-coronavirus ailments.

Dozens of health-care workers have fallen ill with covid-19, and more are quarantined after exposure to the virus, an expected but worrisome development as the U.S. health system girds for an anticipated surge in infections. From hotspots such as the Kirkland, Wash., nursing home where nearly four dozen staffers tested positive for the coronavirus, to outbreaks in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California and elsewhere, the virus is picking off doctors, nurses and others needed in the rapidly expanding crisis. “We all suspect it’s the tip of the iceberg,” said Liam Yore, a board member of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

In the face of the coronavirus worsening across the U.S. and reordering the daily life of millions of Americans, fewer people view the pandemic as a real threat, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. Just about 56% of Americans consider the coronavirus a "real threat," representing a drop of 10 percentage points from last month. At the same time, a growing number of Americans think the coronavirus is being "blown out of proportion." The differences between political parties are stark, with a majority of Republicans saying it is overblown and the vast majority of Democrats considering it a legitimate threat.

The virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health, CDC, UCLA and Princeton University scientists in The New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

The World Health Organization recommended Tuesday that people suffering COVID-19 symptoms avoid taking ibuprofen, after French officials warned that anti-inflammatory drugs could worsen effects of the virus. The warning by French Health Minister Olivier Veran followed a recent study in The Lancet medical journal that hypothesised that an enzyme boosted by anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen could facilitate and worsen COVID-19 infections. Asked about the study, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva the UN health agency's experts were "looking into this to give further guidance." "In the meantime, we recommend using rather paracetamol (Ed.-acetaminophen), and do not use ibuprofen as a self-medication. That's important," he said. He added that if ibuprofen had been "prescribed by the healthcare professionals, then, of course, that's up to them."

Medicare said Tuesday it will immediately expand coverage for telemedicine nationwide to help seniors with health problems stay home to avoid the coronavirus. The new option will allow millions of older people to take care of ongoing medical problems as well as new concerns, while heeding public health advice to stay home during the outbreak. For example, a patient with diabetes wouldn’t have to postpone a regular follow-up visit with the doctor to keep safe — he or she could do it via Skype. And people concerned they may have the virus could “see” their doctor or nurse practitioner virtually to find out how to get tested in person.

The American Red Cross, which supplies about 40% of the nation's blood, says donor drives across the country have been cancelled "at an alarming rate" and the organization now faces a "severe blood shortage." "In really good times we may have five days of inventory available for our hospital clients and now we're running at a day or day-and-a-half in some cases," says Chris Hrouda, president of Biomedical Services for the Red Cross. As of Tuesday, the Red Cross says about 2,700 blood drives had been canceled because of concerns about people gathering at workplaces, college campuses and schools — all places where drives typically take place. The organization estimates that's resulted in 86,000 fewer blood donations because 80% of the blood it collects comes from drives held at these locations.