Coronavirus Special Coverage

A collection of news posted throughout the week for those that want signal, not noise.

  • Previous coverage - all of our posts in this ongoing series.
  • Coronavirus status page - learn how to prepare for possible spread to your area. Scenarios, shopping lists, background info and everything else you need, all in one place.

COVID-19: key developments for Wednesday, June 17, 2020

1 Comment on COVID-19: key developments for Wednesday, June 17, 2020

There are over 8.25 million global cases.  There have been over 445,000 deaths around the globe. There are over 2.2 million cases in the US. There have been over 119,000 deaths in the US alone. The US, Brazil, and Russia continue to lead the world in cases.

Kidney injury is happening in COVID-19 infected kids, too:

If you donate blood through the Red Cross, you get a free antibody test! You will get your results through their app after a few days. You still have to be eligible to donate blood, so don’t make an appointment just to get a free test. I went and donated today. Appointments are filling up fast.

Fauci says masks were not encouraged at the onset of the pandemic because there weren’t enough to keep health care workers protected. So we were essentially lied to. How many lives could have been saved if we had been encouraged to make our own cloth masks? Why weren’t clothing companies made to manufacture fabric masks for the population under the Defense Production Act? Is anyone else as furious about this as I am?

New Zealand has imported a few new cases. Now is the test of what happens when you get your cases down to zero, but new ones trickle in. Containment and tracing have to start all over again. I’m confident NZ will avoid another outbreak:

Dexamethasone cuts the risk of death for COVID-19 patients by about 12% for patients with cytokine storm. It’s also inexpensive and widely available. Two caveats: (1) this is based on the press release about the study, but the study and its data have not been released yet, and (2) if taken too early steroids can depress the immune system and increase a patient’s viral load. This is definitely promising but we need to wait for the data and folks should not self-medicate with steroids as they could place themselves at increased risk by doing so.

Restaurants are still not complying with pandemic health guidelines:

It’s not looking too good for Beijing. Cases are rising and they are locking down. Schools will be closed as well:

Hospitalization continue to rise in Texas in worrying trend:

Pakistan is considering entering another lockdown. The WHO recommended a two-week on, two-week off approach in order to spare Pakistan’s economy. Are adaptive lockdowns a reasonable alternative to stricter ones? Weekend lockdowns have helped Punjab, for example. Pakistan is not testing comprehensively enough to know for sure what works and what doesn’t.

Minnesota is meeting 3/5 of its dial-back goals for reopening. They’re doing well on diagnostic testing and have a lower than 5% seroprevalence. The case-doubling rate has slowed. The next goals to meet are robust contact tracing and a lower hospitalization rate.

The 7-day moving average of both new cases and deaths is rising in the US:

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Arnold | cosmicpixle

Stephanie Arnold is an advanced practice psychiatric nurse and a doctoral candidate in UA Tuscaloosa’s DNP program. Stephanie moonlights from time to time at UCLA teaching mental health nursing. She also likes making cold-process soap.

  • 1 Comment
    • Hardened June 17, 2020

      > Is anyone else as furious about this as I am?

      Yes!  Public trust in health authorities is crucial during pandemics (so the health authorities have told us) and they destroyed it right out of the gate!

      6 |