Latest healthcare news
Minks and COVID-19, Will we all be Wearing Fur this Winter?
Professor Justin Stebbing looks at this issue in his daily update report and discusses the fact that COVID-19 was detected in nearly 200 mink farms in Denmark. The strain which the minks had showed decreased sensitivity to COVID-19 antibodies. He...
Mass Testing for SARS-CoV-2, Is this the way forward?
Boris Johnson indicated in his prime ministerial news conference on Saturday that within a very few days, there was going to be a mass testing of the whole population. This is clearly a major undertaking but let's look and see whether it is being done in any other...
COVID-19 and the Effect on Young People
This editorial in The Lancet published November 5 looks at this vexing issue. The editorial suggests that the UK Government's consideration of young people in its COVID-19 response has been inadequate and some eight months into the pandemic it argues that it is...
Facemasks: Myths and Facts
Does wearing a facemask cause a decline in oxygen saturation in adults over 65? An article published by Chan, Lee and Hirsch in the Journal of the American Medical Association, October 30, 2020 looked at this vaccine question. Participants self-measured peripheral...
Can you Catch COVID-19 from Touching Surfaces?
An interesting preprint on Medrxiv looked at this vexing question. Harvey and others look at the longitudinal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on high touch surfaces in a community setting. They conducted longitudinal swab sampling of high touch non-porous...
COVID-19 and the American Presidential Campaign
An interesting preprint published by Miron and others in Medrxiv retrospectively examined COVID-19 incidence in 20 countries that held mass gathering rallies in the USA in August to September 2020. They were compared to the rest of the United States’ counties. ...
Rapid Testing for SARS-CoV-2 – Is this the Way to Reduce the R Number and Infection?
A preprint in Medrxiv by a Dutch group looked at five commercially available rapid antigen essays on samples from 1754 people who had already tested positive for the coronavirus with a standard PCR test, which is sensitive, but slow. The two most sensitive...
SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Why is there a Notable Difference in Mortality Rates Between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres?
An interesting correspondence by Hernandez published October 22, 2020 in The Lancet looks at the answers to this perplexing question. One of the most striking facts about the COVID-19 pandemic is the notable difference in approach, attitude, control measures,...
The R Number, What does it Mean for COVID-19 Pandemic Control?
An interesting comment by Chris T Bauch in The Lancet Infectious Diseases published October 22, 2020 looked at this point. The basic reproduction number (R0) is the average number of infections produced by a single infectious person in a population with no...
COVID-19 and Suicide
An interesting article by Moutier in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry October 16, 2020 discusses this topic. Moutier suggests that suicide was a leading cause of death with devastating emotional and societal costs prior to the COVID-19...
