The death toll keeps climbing
Disease forecasters from the Univ. of Washington give us a strong dose of reality: Despite improvements recently, the number of deaths from Covid1-19 is likely to double by the end of the year.
Disease experts at the University of Washington now forecast that the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States will more than double by the end of 2020 to over 400,000. If universal mask mandates were enacted, the number of deaths would be reduced to around 290,000. As of today, 189,400 people have died from confirmed COVID-19 in the USA, according to Johns Hopkins.
New York state has now recorded 30 straight days of 1% or fewer positive COVID-19 tests, while testing has also increased.
The Sturgis, SD motorcycle rally may be the largest “super spreader” event during COVID-19 so far, according to former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. His comment was based on an analysis that estimates that places where the largest number of Sturgis attendees reside “experienced a 7.0 to 12.5 percent increase in COVID-19 cases” compared to similar counties without Sturgis attendees.
NPR Science Reporter Joe Palca put together a good explainer on how vaccine safety and effectiveness is evaluated.
Anxiety and other factors related to COVID-19 are driving insomnia. New research aims to quantify and understand the relationship between COVID-19, the economic and other consequences and lack of sleep, reports the Washington Post. One sign of trouble: sleeping pill prescriptions jumped 15% between February and March, according to Express Scripts.