COVID19 Top Stories for July 14, 2020
Wear a mask. Meet outside. Give space. Get used to it.
One of the most experienced journalists on infectious diseases, Helen Branswell of STATNews, has an excellent article about how the United States can address the current “dumpster fire” that is COVID-19. One area for improvement is communications, with one expert suggesting simpler, action-oriented messages like “Wear a mask. Meet outside. Give space.” There’s much more in this outstanding article. (STATNews is one of the best sources for medical news in general.)
Other stories worth reading:
This interview in Scientific American with family physician and epidemiologist Camara Phyllis Jones explains why Black Americans and other minorities are bearing a disproportionate share of COVID-19's consequences. As Dr. Jones, who is a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, notes, the disparities are because of racism, not race. There is a difference.
Vaccine company Moderna announced it would begin a Phase 3 trial of its first-ever vaccine product in 30,000 human subjects later this month. The candidate vaccine will be administered in two doses, 29 days apart. There are at least 340 other Phase 3 studies for coronavirus treatments or vaccines, according to a search on ClinicalTrials.gov. A Canadian company has now moved its vaccine candidate to human study.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published additional details of the case of two Missouri hair stylists who kept working even though they had COVID-19. Health investigators did complete contact tracing and concluded that the two stylists exposed 139 people to potential COVID-19 infection and that none got the disease, which they attribute to the proper and consistent use of face coverings and other infection-control procedures.
The CDC published guidelines for event planners, saying that social distancing and face coverings should be mandatory. Also, event planners should consider postponing events if guests potentially would be traveling to or from high-infection rate areas, since that would increase risk that the virus would travel with them and stay behind in another city. The CDC also added information for businesses on how to handle employee and customer safety and what to do if someone tests positive.
Hospitals in Texas outside of Houston and Dallas now say they are running low on supplies as they are seeing a surge of new COVID-19 cases, too.
Typical example of surge in areas with strong opposition to COVID-19 mitigation measures: COVID-19 data from Orange County, Calif., shows a fairly typical, dramatic increase in coronavirus cases after Memorial Day, when restrictions were relaxed. The county had many protesters campaigning against health measures, and the county’s health director who instituted a mask order and other mitigation steps was ousted in early June. Hat-tip to the Orange County Register for impressive data visualizations.
