What airborne COVID-19 means
Why face coverings and social distance matter more than ever; experts prescribe ways to fix the USA's COVID-19 response; and, our data "catastrophe."
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Top stories for Thursday, July 30, 2020.
Six months ago today, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a “global health emergency.” It still is.
A commentary by a Virginia Tech scientist explains how the possibility of airborne spread of COVID-19 should alter precautions taken, such as improving ventilation, especially of small rooms. The bottom line, says Prof. Linsey Marr, is that face coverings and social distancing are more important than ever.
Recipe for a reset: Experts at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have published a 10-point plan to get the USA’s COVID-19 response onto the right track. Step 1 may be the biggest obstacle: “State, local, and federal officials should speak in unison in support of these core public health approaches to controlling this disease.”
Emergency responders, physicians and others rely on accurate data in order to know where COVID-19 infections are occurring, what factors influence or deter its spread, and how to keep people safe. Unfortunately, the USA’s COVID-19 data is an “information catastrophe,” according to an article by Maryn McKenna, who is one of the most knowledgeable journalists when it comes to dangerous pathogens and other such things.
The public trusts hospitals, doctors and nurses a lot more now than before COVID-19, according to a new Harris Poll and reported by Axios.
The White House released a video of the CEO of LabCorp promising free, nationwide COVID-19 antibody tests so that more people who have recovered from COVID-19 can donate convalescent plasma, a promising, experimental treatment.
And just for fun:
“Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle are looking down from Heaven at me and saying, ‘Are you kidding?’” was Dr. Anthony Fauci’s response to news that a Topps baseball card showing the nation’s top infectious disease scientist throwing out the first pitch of this year’s Major League Baseball season set a record for the best-selling limited-edition baseball card in the company’s history.
