Which cloth masks work and how to put out America's 'dumpster fire'

Startling data on new infections among children, a simple tool to test cloth face coverings, and a surprise in many pandemic travelers' suitcases.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. In today’s update, some startling data on COVID-19 among children and a veteran health journalist provides an update on America’s “dumpster fire.” And we have more information about what kind of face coverings work best to protect against COVID-19.

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• One of the great infectious disease journalists, Helen Branswell of STATNews, has an article out explaining what America can do to get control over COVID-19 — and why the window of opportunity to reduce COVID-19’s devastating surge is closing rapidly. This is a follow-up to her July 14 piece that described the USA’s COVID-19 response as a “dumpster fire.”

• More than 97,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 across the USA in the last two weeks of July, according to a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The lowest rates of new cases among children were in New York and New Jersey. In 25 states, 10% or more of new cases were among children.

• Researchers at Duke University have devised a simple, low-cost tool to evaluate whether cloth or other face coverings are effective against COVID-19. Their paper in Science Advances describes how non-experts can set up similar tools. Using their device, the team found that bandanas and other folded cloth coverings or neck gaiters are ineffective.

• An Italian study finds hydroxychloroquine appears to be associated with reduced death. The researchers say their study accounts for confounding factors that made the recent study at Henry Ford Health System controversial, but they also say that the absence of more definitive data on the anti-malaria drug limits its usefulness.

• The Transportation Security Administration reports that loaded guns are being found at airport checkpoints at three times the pre-pandemic rate. “As hard as we are working to mitigate other risks at this time, no one should be introducing new ones,” says TSA Administrator David Pekoske.