About the public’s health
Watch: Viral Japanese Video Shows How Quickly COVID-19 Can Spread At A Buffet: Fascinating!
The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission:”…loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second. In a closed, stagnant air environment, they disappear from the window of view with time constants in the range of 8 to 14 min, which corresponds to droplet nuclei of ca. 4 μm diameter, or 12- to 21-μm droplets prior to dehydration. These observations confirm that there is a substantial probability that normal speaking causes airborne virus transmission in confined environments.”
Inside the NIH’s controversial decision to stop its big remdesivir study: “The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has described to STAT in new detail how it made its fateful decision: to start giving remdesivir to patients who had been assigned to receive a placebo in the study, essentially limiting researchers’ ability to collect more data about whether the drug saves lives — something the study, called ACTT-1, suggests but does not prove. In the trial, 8% of the participants given remdesivir died, compared with 11.6% of the placebo group, a difference that was not statistically significant.”
Waste in covid-19 research: A deluge of poor quality research is sabotaging an effective evidence based response: On the same theme as the above article, this BMJ editorial reviews the problems with current research activities.
How Virginia Juked Its COVID-19 Data: “A lack of federal guidelines has created huge variation in how states are reporting their COVID-19 data and in what kind of data they provide to the public.
These gaps can be used for political advantage. In at least one state, Virginia, senior officials are blending the results of two different types of coronavirus test in order to report a more favorable result to the public. This harms the integrity of the data they use to make decisions, reassure residents, and justify reopening their economies.”
Sugar‐Sweetened Beverage[SSB] Intake and Cardiovascular Disease [CVD] Risk in the California Teachers Study: “Consuming ≥1 serving per day of SSB was associated with CVD, revascularization, and stroke. SSB intake might be a modifiable dietary target to reduce risk of CVD among women.” Some drinks are worse than others: Compared to those who did not consume SSBs, those who drank fruit drinks with sugar added had a 42% greater likelihood of experiencing CVD while soda drinkers had a 23% greater likelihood. The article provides some possible mechanisms for this higher risk.
SARS-CoV-2 causes other, non-respiratory, illnesses: Here are a three examples:
1. An outbreak of severe Kawasaki-like disease at the Italian epicentre of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic: an observational cohort study
2. Acute Kidney Injury in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19
3.Infection of bat and human intestinal organoids by SARS-CoV-2
About health insurance
AHIP wants payers to offer a grace period for any surgeries canceled or postponed due to COVID-19: Pre-authorization for nonemergency surgeries are often good for a limited time. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed many elective procedures, the insurance trade organization is calling on payers to to extend the time periods.
Coronavirus drives health insurers back to Obamacare: Many newly uninsured people are healthy, but lost coverage because they lost their jobs. This situation has created an opportunity for insurers to re-enter the health exchanges. For example: “United Healthcare, the nation’s biggest insurer, on Tuesday said it’s re-entering Maryland’s Obamacare market and planning other expansions after abandoning 34 states’ ACA exchanges since 2016.”