Key developments for Tuesday, November 3, 2020

1 Comment on Key developments for Tuesday, November 3, 2020

There are over 47.8 million global cases.  The world has gained 3.6 million cases since last week, and case growth continues to increase. There have been over 1.2 million deaths. There are over 9.6 million cases in the US. There have been over 238,000 deaths in the US. Over 1,100 have died in the US since yesterday. The US gained over 92,000 new cases in the last 24 hours. India is second in the world in number of cases (the US is leading) Brazil is still second in the world in number of deaths, with over 160,000.

Hospitals in Europe are really under strain:

Moderna plans to have a preliminary vaccine efficacy read out by the end of November and tens of millions of doses produced by the end of the year. Doses may not start to be meted out until the new year, however. They plan to scale dose production thereafter to tens of millions per month.

Gilead is approaching one billion dollars’ worth of sales of remdesivir. This would be a couple hundred thousand courses of treatment.

El Paso, TX is back on its second lockdown. Hospitals are at capacity. Mobile, refrigerated morgues are being utilized:

Nanofiber technology could make cloth masks more effective. Masks with these fibers are more breathable, which might help improve adherence to mask-wearing.

The UK has gone back into lockdown. PM Johnson fears that the situation could spiral out of control over the winter. Current case growth in the UK is exceeding even worst-case scenario projections:

The Mayo Clinic Health System is postponing elective procedures because of COVID surge and care burden. The health system needs to keep beds and clinicians available to handle the surge.

Deaths are rising precipitously in Indonesia, and graveyards are getting cramped:

Remember the hospital reporting data DHHS pulled from public view? NPR got ahold of it. It’s not great. It shows that metro areas of Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Baltimore are nearing hospital capacity because of COVID surges. One quarter of US hospitals in general are nearing ICU capacity.

Italy is having to impose more social distancing measures again:

We know unacceptably little about the actual origin of this virus. An apolitical inquiry is warranted, and the longer the world waits, the less information we’ll be able to get:

Over 61,000 children tested positive for COVID in the US last week.

Between COVID and political/social unrest I find this to be true:

The idea that masks can reduce viral “dose” is a potentially dangerous hypotheses—and it is only a hypothesis, not proven fact. Social distancing is as important as ever.

US hospitalizations are really ramping up:

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
    • Toirdhealbheach Beucail November 5, 2020

      I have found it incredibly unfortunate that from an epidemiological point of view there has been little if any interest in discovering the source of the virus, which I imagine could be useful in finding out if (much like the annual flue) what the risks are for future years.

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