A coronavirus vaccine won't be ready for distribution in 12 to 18 months, as White House officials have assured the public, ousted federal vaccine scientist Rick Bright told Congress on Thursday.
"A lot of optimism is swirling around a 12-to-18-month time frame if everything goes perfectly. We've never seen everything go perfectly,"Bright told members of the Househealth subcommittee. "I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule, and I think it's going to take longer than that to do so."
White House advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and other U.S. health officials have repeatedly said a vaccine could be ready in 12 to 18 months, but Bright said "it doesn't mean for an FDA-approved vaccine."
He said there might be data available to attest to a vaccine candidate's safety by then, but whether the vaccine is effective is a separate question. President Donald Trump has gone further and said that he believes a vaccine will be ready by the end of the year.
Brightfiledawhistleblowercomplaintafterhewas removed last monthas director of theBiomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services, a key player in coordinating a federal vaccine plan and overall pandemic preparedness.
Bright also said he was worried that safety issues could get overlooked in the rush to develop a vaccine. Trump has touted his plan to accelerate development of a vaccine, calling it "Operation Warp Speed." Heis expected to name a former pharmaceutical executiveto lead the effort.
"My concern is if we rush too quickly and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine, so it's still going to take some time," Bright said.
Even if the U.S. manages to find a safe and effective vaccine, the supply chain of equipment such as needles and syringes is likely to present "significant issues" to the rapid distribution of doses, Bright said. He added that there is still no federal plan for how doses of a potential vaccine would be distributed, which could present another obstacle.
Bright's comments come after Fauci warned senators on Tuesday, "There's no guarantee that the vaccine is actually going to be effective."
"You can have everything you think that's in place and you don't induce the kind of immune response that turns out to be protective and durably protective," Fauci said of a vaccine Tuesday. "So one of the big unknowns is, will it be effective? Given the way the body responds to viruses of this type, I'm cautiously optimistic that we will with one of the candidates get an efficacy signal."
The economy does not necessarily need to be shut down until a vaccine is rolled out, Bright said, but any easing of restrictions and reopening of businesses should be led by scientists. He added that an effective treatment, rather than a cure or a vaccine, could be developed more quickly and offer protection against Covid-19.
Biotech company Modernais currently leading the U.S. effort to develop a potential vaccine, which is being fast-tracked by the National Institutes of Health, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. More than 100 vaccines are in development globally as of April 30,according to the World Health Organization, with at least eight vaccine candidates already in human trials.
Last week,Moderna said the Food and Drug Administration has approved the company's vaccine candidate for phase two trials with 600 participants. The company said it is finalizing plans for a late-stage trial as early as this summer.
The vaccine being tested uses synthetic messenger RNA to inoculate against the virus. Such treatments help the body build immunity against a virus and can potentially be developed and manufactured more quickly than traditional vaccines.
May 15, 2020 / ByErika Edwards
The race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is on, as scientists work as quickly as they can to find a way to prevent the disease that has sickened more 4.4 million people and killed more than 300,000 worldwide.
On Friday, Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said the agency isplanning to begin large-scale testingof several of the most promising vaccine candidates this summer. Despite such efforts, and despite statements from President Donald Trump this week, a vaccine most likely wont be ready by the end of the year.
However, progress has been made: Scientists at the University of Oxford posted the results of a small study conducted in rhesus macaques monkeys to the preprint serverbioRxiv. The study found that the experimental vaccinesuccessfully blocked the coronavirus in the monkeys, which are considered to be good proxies for how drugs could work in people because the monkeys share a majority of their genes with humans. Clinical trials with the Oxford vaccine are ongoing in humans.
For more on vaccine progress, NBC News spoke with Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinics Vaccine Research Group. His teams coronavirus vaccine is in the early, preclinical stages of development.
The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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Even as Covid 19 deaths in the US continue to grow, now surpassing 85,000, many states have begun loosening lockdown restrictions.
Regardless of the wisdom of such moves, its clear that theres a desire to return to something resembling normalcy across the country, as in Wisconsin, where locals returned to packed bars this week.
How many of those revelers there, and in other states like Texas with lax policies, may contract the virus remains to be seen, but a recent viral video from Japan gives an idea of how easily the infection might spread.
The video experiment, conducted by the public broadcaster NHK in conjunction with disease specialists, uses blacklight and a fluorescent substance to simulate how quickly germs can be spread across a variety of surfaces in environments such as restaurant buffets and cruise ships.
To begin with, one guest of 10 at a restaurant buffet is shown with the substance on his hands meant as a stand-in for the coronavirus. Over the course of a typical dining period, the rest of the guests behave in predictable fashion, selecting utensils from serving stations, enjoying their food, checking their phones and so on.
At the end of the experiment the backlight is turned on and the substance is revealed to be smeared everywhere: plates, foodstuff, utensils and even all over some of the guests faces.
A second experiment in the same environment showed the benefits of improved hygiene techniques. The infected person and the other diners washed their hands before and throughout the meal, and utensils and other implements were cleaned and replaced more frequently.
What the video demonstrated, is that it will spread to surfaces and to people very efficiently, John Nicholls, a clinical professor in pathology at Hong Kong University, told CNN. I think it really highlights the need of what people have been saying about hand hygiene to stop the spread of disease.
As coronavirus spreads, people are getting more cautious and creative with their social interactions. USA TODAY
Anall-out global race to develop a safe vaccineagainstcoronavirus is underway. The stakes couldn't be higher: an effective vaccine or treatment against the virus that causes COVID-19 is necessary to fully restart economies and resume civic life.
As the pace accelerates, USA TODAY is rounding up some of the week's most notable vaccine developments.
Here's what we know about Oxford University's most promising vaccine candidate, which many consider to be ahead in the race, international funding for a Maryland vaccine possibility and how people opposed to vaccines could keep COVID-19 circulating.
A single dose of a vaccine being developed by Oxford University in England caused six rhesus macaque monkeys to develop antibodies to coronaviruswithin 28 days.
The vaccine, called ChAdOx1, alsoappears to have prevented pneumonia and lung inflammatory disease when the animals were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The Oxford vaccine is based on a vaccine platform researchers at the universitys Jenner Institute adapted for SARS-CoV-2.
White House hopes for COVID-19 vaccine for all Americans by January(Photo: ap)
The tests on the macaques were conducted at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana.
The infected monkeys were compared with three control monkeys that did not receive the vaccine. Two out of three control monkeys developed pneumonia after being exposed to the virus.
The findings were in a preprint paper posted Thursday on the preprint server bioRxiv. Preprints are studies that have not undergone the normal peer-review process required for publication in medical or scientific journals. However, during the coronavirus emergency many researchers are releasing their results as soon as they are available.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar talked about a timeline for a COVID-19 vaccine. USA TODAY
Despite the Oxford news, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledgesits possible a vaccine for COVID-19 may never come.
The statement came as the United Kingdoms government published a detailed 50-page three-stage COVID-19 recovery plan that launched on Wednesday with a partial relaxation ofthe nations lockdown restrictions.
Johnson said the only feasible long-term solution was in a vaccine or a treatment, but while the nation hoped for a breakthrough, hope is not a plan.
A mass vaccine or treatment may be more than a year away. Indeed, in a worst-case scenario, we may never find a vaccine. So our plan must countenance a situation where we are in this, together, for the long haul, even while doing all we can to avoid that outcome, he said.
Vaccines: Trump announces 'Operation Warp Speed,' says UScould have coronavirus vaccine by January
Maryland-based vaccine company Novavax will receive up to $388 million from the International Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) to continue development and manufacturing of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax'COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The company said the possible vaccine has shown success in animal models. It hopes to begin Phase 1 human clinical trials in May in Australia.
CEPI, based in Norway, is a partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organizations. It was launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics and to insure access to those vaccines in low- and middle-income countries. It has so far begun nine partnerships to develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.
The World Health Organizations list of vaccine candidates for COVID-19 stayed steady at eight possible products in early-stage human trials. Those include four from China, two from the United States, one from the United Kingdom and one from Europe.
The list also includes possible vaccines that are in pre-clinical evaluation, meaning theyre still being tested in the lab either in cell cultures or in animals. This week the number increased by eight, going up from 102 possible candidates on May 11 to 110 on May 15.
When the list was first published, on April 20, it contained five candidates in early human trials and 71 still in the lab.
Most Americans are eager for a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
But among the minority who distrust vaccine safety, many say they would not. A poll by Yahoo News/YouGov found that 19% of Americans said they wouldnt get immunized against SARS-CoV-2. Another 26% said they werent sure.
A poll conducted by Morning Consult found that 64% of Americans said they would get vaccinated while 14% wouldnt. The rest were undecided.
This could block efforts to lower the spread of the disease in the country, especially if a second wave comes in the fall.
Infections rates alone are nowhere near high enough to bring about herd immunity,where enough people in the population are immune that the virus can no longer spread freely.
In France, an estimated 4.4% of the population is believed to have beeninfected with the disease as of May 11, according to a paper in the journal Science. A national infection rate for COVID-19 in the United States has not yet been determined.
The scientists' models estimate that 65% of the population would need to be immune to establish herd immunity and stop the spread of the disease.
The researchers' concluded, "Population immunity appears insufficient to avoid a second wave if all control measures are released at the end of the lockdown."
To submit adevelopment for the weekly roundup, orshare other vaccine news, please email Elizabeth Weise at eweise@usatoday.com
More on the coronavirus from USA TODAY
To find a vaccine, can we ethically infect people with a disease with no cure?
Editorial: Let's say a vaccine proves safe and effective. Then what?
Fact check: China doesn't own patent for coronavirus treatment remdesivir
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/05/16/coronavirus-vaccine-updates-oxford-covid-19-vaccine-protects-monkeys/5202831002/
However, scientists from World Health Organisation are now saying that pinning our hopes on a vaccine alone won't solve the crisis at large, adding that it could take anywhere between 4-5 years to actually contain the virus at large.
The predictions were made by a WHO expert, Soumya Vishwanathan, who in an interview said that it could take a long while before we are reading to bid goodbye to the virus.
"I would say in a four to the five-year timeframe we could be looking at controlling this."
She also added that even while vaccines and treatment plans are being explored, there are lots of things to be considered, including production, the safety of the trials, any side-effects, pricing or transportation.
The statement comes after WHO chief, Mike Ryan said that the chances seem high that coronavirus might "never really go away" and we learn to adapt to the virus in the long run.
Context
Countries around the world are working to contain the spread and impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus). Evidence from outbreaks similar to COVID-19 indicates that women and girls can be affected in particular ways, and in some areas, face more negative impacts than men. In fact, there is a risk that gender gaps could widen during and after the pandemic and thatgains in womens and girls accumulation of human capital, economic empowerment and voice and agency, built over the past decades, could be reversed. The World Bank Group is working to ensure that projects responding to COVID-19 consider the pandemic's different impacts on men and women.
Gender Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic:This note summarizes different ways that COVID-19 and the accompanying economic crisis may affect gender equality outcomes and provides recommendations for action.
Guidance for Health COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Response Projects:This note was created by the World Banks Gender Group to provide guidance for World Bank teams on how client countries can respond to the different needs of men and women, with respect to health projects.
Childcare in the COVID-19 Era: A Guide for Employers: This IFC note outlines ways in which employers can support the care and family needs of their employees during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Supporting Women Throughout the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Emergency Response and Economic Recovery:This brief highlights evidence from the Africa gender innovation lab that can help protect the lives and livelihoods of women and girls.
Last Updated:Apr 20, 2020
Remote Learning, EdTech & COVID-19
How the World Bank supports countries on remote learning in the immediate to short term and will help restore learning after the pandemic is over. CLICK HERE.
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Before the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic, the world was already dealing with a learning crisis, as evidenced by highnumbers of Learning Poverty. With the spread of the coronavirus, the education system is facing a new crisis, as more than 160 countries (as of March 24) mandate some form of school closures impacting at least 1.5 billion children and youth. Extended school closuresmay cause not only loss of learning in the short term, but also further loss in human capital and diminished economic opportunities over the long term.
As seen from previous health emergencies, most recently the Ebola outbreaks, the impact on education is likely to be most devastating in countries with already low learning outcomes, high dropout rates, and low resilience to shocks. While school closures seem to present a logical solution to enforcing social distancing within communities, prolonged closures tend to have a disproportionately negative impact on the most vulnerable students. They have fewer opportunities for learning at home, and their time out of school may present economic burdens for parents who may face challenges finding prolonged childcare, or even adequate food in the absence of school meals.
An empty classroom in India.
In addition to closing schools, countries are exploring options for remote learning and use of other educational resources to mitigate loss of learning. This involves capitalizing on work already started, and addressing ever-present challenges like degrees of accessibility within communities to ensure equity in access.
The World Banks education team is working to support countries as they manage and cope with the crisis today and is advising on remote learning at scale in the immediate to short term as well as supporting operations to facilitate learning after the pandemic is over. The Bank is also providing ongoing support to systemic education reform to ensure that when children do return to school, schools can provide the necessary environments to ensure children learn.
RELATED BLOGS
Last Updated:May 13, 2020
Large-scale, national efforts to utilize technology in support of remote learning, distance education and online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are emerging and evolving quickly.
This page attempts to curate useful resources and publish related documents collected and prepared by the World Bank's edtech team in support of national dialogues with policymakers around the world. Other institutions are welcome to redistribute any of what appears below.Updates are frequently posted on this page.
BRIEFING NOTES AND RESOURCE LISTS
Guidance Note: Remote Learning & COVID-19 (pdf, last draft 7 April 2020)A short 3-page guidance noteoffers principles to maximize countries effectiveness in designing and executing remote learning.
Rapid response reference note: Remote Learning and COVID-19 (pdf, last draft 20 March 2020)A 12-page rapid response reference note prepared to help brief policymakers on some general rules of thumb of potential relevance when very quickly exploring and rolling out the use of remote learning, distance education and online learning at scale.
Remote Learning, Distance Education and Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Resource List (pdf, last draft 10 April)The selection of resources and platforms that you will find here has been curated to facilitate the rapid identification of helpful technological solutions that could be used to support remote learning. The resource list is regularly curated and organized by the World Bank's Edtech team.
Rapid Response Guidance Note: Educational Television & COVID-19 (pdf, last draft 17 April)Five things to do, and five thigns to consider, when rolling out educational TV programmes while schools are closed as a result of COVID-19.
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EDTECH & COVID-19 RESOURCES FROM PARTNER INSTITUTIONS
Many partner organizations are rapidly trying to curate and make available related infomation, as well as share guidance and documentation that they themselves are generating, including the EdTech Hub,UNESCO,mEducation Alliance,Learning Keeps Going (U.S. consortium), INEE(Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies),Commonwealth of Learning, and many others.
EDTECH HUB RESOURCES
The EdTech Hub, a joint initiative of Dfid, the World Bank and the Gates Foundation, is developing and sharing many reports and knowledge resources related to the use of edtech during the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
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From the World Bank document library: Educational radio
While not designed for a COVID-19 operaitng context, a number of countries are finding that much of the contnt in the following two documents, produced with EDC, is 'evergreen', and thus applicable today:
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Relevant past posts from the World Bank EduTech Blog archive
While written prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, many posts from the Bank's EduTech blog explore topics and implementation models of potential relevance. Here are a few of them:
Education & Technology in an Age of Pandemics (revisited)The use of educational technologies at scale in response to disease outbreaks pre-dates the current COVID-19 pandemic; recent past experiences occurred as a result of outbreaks related to SARS, H1N1 and Ebola as well.
Zero-rating educational content on the InternetIn some countries, learners can access educational web sites and use educational apps at no cost because the resources are 'zero rated', i.e. data charges don't apply when accessing them.
Universal Service Funds & connecting schools to the Internet around the worldMany countries are tapping so-called 'universal service funds' to quickly pay for expanding connectivity to learners at home. Here's some related background on the use of such funds in education.
The promise and the challenges of virtual schoolsAs a result of the coronavirus, many schools have quickly become 'virtual'. Much is known about what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to 'virtual schooling'.
Complexities in utilizing free digital learning resourcesMany countries are trying to quickly provide access to digital learning content from multiple sources. Some of these are free 'open educational resources', others are provided by publishers, private companies and non-profit groups, while in yet other cases governments are quickly digitizing existing content and putting it online. This posts looks at a three-step process for doing this.
Digital teaching and learning resources: An EduTech readerA consolidated collection of posts of potential relevance to decisionmakers quickly considering the use of online learning content.
The Matthew Effect in Educational TechnologyWhile the use of educational technologies are often touted for their ability to close the 'digital divide' and to 'open up geater possiblilties for all learners', in practice the opposite often occurs. Unless care is taken, edtech brings with it often profound challenges related to equity.
Bad practices in mobile learningBelieving that, in the short term, the best technologies are usually the ones people already have, know how to use, and can afford, many countries are astutely trying to make available learning and learning support materials for use on mobile phones. When doing so, there are a number of things that should be avoided.
Interactive Radio Instruction : A Successful Permanent Pilot Project?Especially where students don't have other technologies at home, educational radio can be an effective means of reaching leaners at scale when schools are closed. While originally designed to support low capacity or untrained teachers in the classroom, so-called interactive radio instruction can also be helpful when teaching at home is coordinated by parents or other caregivers.
10 principles to consider when introducing ICTs into remote, low-income educational environmentsWhen planning for the use of educational technologies to reach learners in some of the most challenging circumstances, it can be useful to formulate a set of principles to guide related decisions. Here are a few for consideration.
Last Updated:Apr 27, 2020
At Development Impact weve been trying to wrap our heads around what Covid-19 means for researchers conducting evaluations in the field. As such, we thought it would be useful to do a series of posts on different dimensions. Todays post focuses on the immediate response in terms of what the virus might mean for both interventions and ongoing surveys. Later posts will focus on changing your research design and survey methods (we will revisit the efficacy of phone surveys).
First of all, there is a fair amount of thoughtful guidance out there. Annie Duflo lays out IPAs response in this blog, and Iqbal Dhaliwal provides J-PALs heartfelt approach here.
Both of us manage teams that are doing a fair number of field based evaluations and we thought it would be worth laying out a couple of thoughts. Well start with the more general ones.
Now your project isnt going to be the same. Were going to tackle this in two pieces - data collection and the intervention/research question.
In terms of data collection, one obvious move would be to switch to a slimmed down phone survey. J-PAL has a blog post on resources. Its important to keep in mind that this is a significantly imperfect substitute for most projects. However, as field operations are halted, phone surveys may be crucial in documenting intermediary outcomes along the causal chain (see more on monitoring below). And we will be revisiting the pros and cons in a forthcoming post. In the meantime, from the archives, there are a number of posts from DI that might be helpful:
Another option would be to delay data collection altogether. You are likely to be in better shape if you were about to go for a baseline. This post gives us some thoughts on the pros and cons of investing in baselines.
And, if you are doing lab-in-the-field work, Busara has this nice compilation of ideas and options.
As the pandemic prevents from organizing group meetings and most countries have instituted work from home, this poses additional challengeswe will blog and propose ideas in the coming weeks on that.
Your intervention is likely to change. The key thing will be to keep up with whats going on and adapt (as much as possible) the research to the changes. If implementation is continuing (e.g., because this is a fundamental part of a safety net or vital infrastructure) then be prepared for the implementation modalities to shift. Some implementation is just going to be flat out delayed. Some thoughts:
Anyhow, we will be posting more as things evolve and people (including us) get more of a sense of how things are changing. Stay safe out there!
We realize that this pandemic is a rapidly changing situation. This blog post contains research discussions, and should not be taken as reflecting any official view of the World Bank. Please seehttps://www.worldbank.org/en/who-we-are/news/coronavirus-covid19to learn about how the World Bank is helping countries to respond.
Jennifer English was sick, scared and confused. For two weeks, the Oregon City, Oregon, single mother had had no sense of taste, a fever that reached 102.5 degrees and an uncomfortable tightness in her chest.
English, 46, who helps manage a restaurant and bar, suspected she had the coronavirus and worried her health might worsen, leaving her incapable of caring for her son. But in phone calls and virtual doctor appointments, physicians downplayed her concerns.
When she then started experiencing dizziness so overpowering that it caused her to collapse on her bathroom floor in mid-April, English went to an emergency room and demanded a test for COVID-19. An ER physician gave her the test, but told her she had likely had a panic attack even though English has no history of anxiety and sent her home.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Two days later, her coronavirus test came back positive, and English was relieved to finally have a diagnosis. But she did not get better, and doctors' suggestions to rest and take a prescription cough medicine did not help.
So she joined a Facebook coronavirus support group on a friend's suggestion, and felt instantly validated: People from all over the world were describing fevers that lasted for weeks, fatigue that wouldn't go away and a roller coaster of emotions as they coped with the unknowns of the novel illness, just as she was.
"That was huge, because I felt so alone at the time, and nobody was helping me," English, whose fever lingered for 31 days, said.
COVID-19 is as mystifying as it is isolating. Those who get it are often separated from their loved ones and seeking answers that the medical community does not yet have. As a result, millions of coronavirus survivors and family members of patients are turning to a different source for information and support: one another.
"These are people who are at the scariest, most frightening moment of their lives, and they're alone," said Diana Berrent of Port Washington, New York, a photographer who founded Survivor Corps, the Facebook group that English joined, while Berrent had the coronavirus herself.
Her group now has more than 45,000 members.
"We have your back," Berrent said. "We understand."
Survivor Corps is among the biggest of such Facebook groups, but it is far from the only one: More than 4.5 million people have joined 4,000 U.S.-based COVID-19 support groups, according to Facebook.
While medical professionals generally warn against relying on health information found online, in this case, some doctors have been open to crowd-sourced ideas especially as symptoms of the coronavirus persist for some patients.
Dr. Ashley Stoecker, a family medicine doctor with the Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group, joined a Facebook group, Long Haul COVID Fighters, at the suggestion of one of her patients who had been struggling with symptoms for weeks.
She posted a survey in the group to gather data about symptoms, duration of illness, and whether patients had tested positive or negative for COVID-19.
"Seeing my patients suffering for as long as they are and feeling like I dont have anything to do for them is really difficult."
The goal has been to "learn from the people experiencing these things on a day-to-day basis to see if there are things that can help us put together a picture in a puzzle that we don't have answers for at this point," Stoecker said.
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"We are basically just treating the symptoms, because we don't have clear studies that have shown what can be helpful," she said. "Seeing my patients suffering for as long as they are and feeling like I dont have anything to do for them is really difficult."
Like other social media platforms, Facebook has historically struggled to contain the spread of health misinformation and says it has taken an aggressive approach to moderating coronavirus content.
In April, the social networking giant put misinformation warning labels on about 50 million pieces of COVID-19-related content. The company is also directing any users who have liked or commented on coronavirus misinformation that it has flagged to a website that debunks coronavirus myths from the World Health Organization.
But dangerous misinformation is not the only problem patients can run into when heeding suggestions online, especially with the coronavirus, experts say.
Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
In addition to the symptoms caused by COVID-19, the disease can complicate underlying, chronic medical conditions. Primary care doctors are trained to account for both, and treat appropriately something Facebook commenters who "decide to become Dr. Google" cannot, Dr. Jacqueline Fincher, president of the American College of Physicians, said.
"If you're diabetic or hypertensive or have congestive heart failure, going through a major illness like this can certainly impact those," she said. "Maybe your blood sugar is out of whack, and that's why there's more fatigue."
In the Survivor Corps group, nearly 30 volunteer administrators work to make sure all posts adhere to the page's rules, Berrent said.
"You cant tell other people medical advice unless its 'you need to go to the emergency room right now.'"
"If you post a scientific theory that doesn't have a scientific source attached to it, or a YouTube video made in your kitchen, or anything that is self-published, that gets taken down," she said. "You can give your anecdotal information on your experience, but you can't tell other people medical advice unless it's 'you need to go to the emergency room right now.'"
Vicki Judd, 49, of Mohawk, New York, recently asked Survivor Corps for input not for medical advice, but for guidance on dealing with the mental health component of the coronavirus.
Judd, who works in information technology sales, had six weeks of severe coronavirus symptoms, including one week on a ventilator, and has been seeing a therapist to process the trauma of her experience. Three weeks into her recovery, she suddenly got a cough, headache and slight fever.
Terrified she could be relapsing, she polled the group on how to stay grounded. Responses came flooding in: Call the doctor to see if this could be allergies; do breathing exercises; and recognize that this could be from anxiety, given everything she has been through. Judd's doctor ended up switching her allergy medications, and the symptoms went away.
The group was comforting to Judd from the moment she joined.
"It just made me sob and sob," she said. "It was relief, excitement, sadness that somebody else knows what you're going through."
Others have found social media to sometimes be ahead of doctors' understanding of the disease.
Christy Canter, 48, of Dallas, Georgia, was hospitalized twice in one week for breathing difficulties from COVID-19, and got a rash shortly after she came home. The nurse she called said it was likely a reaction to the medication she was given in the hospital. Curious if others had gone through the same thing, Canter, a homemaker, asked the Survivor Corps group and was stunned when more than 100 people said they had and that it was also on their upper body like Canter's was and at the same point in their recovery.
"The group confirms all the things you went through or that you sensed or felt," she said. "It makes you realize, 'OK, I wasn't crazy, I'm not the only one.'"
Berrent conceived Survivor Corps as a service organization, and the group offers information on how and where to donate convalescent plasma, the antibody-rich blood product from individuals who have recovered from the disease that is being infused as an experimental therapy into patients still battling it.
Some members of Survivor Corps say they take as much comfort in reading others' stories as they do in sharing their own. Bill Cudnyj, 52, of Clifton, New Jersey, joined days after a three and a half week hospital stay during which he came so close to death, he called his wife at one point to share all his passwords with her and tell her his wishes for his burial. He is still on an oxygen machine 24/7 at home, but is actively participating in the group.
"I like commenting, sharing, talking," he said. "It gets you through things, because holding them in really doesn't help."
While these groups are overflowing with stories of triumph over the coronavirus, not all the posts are positive. Interspersed among them are tragic updates from people informing the groups that their loved one has died from the illness, often thanking members for their support.
They are heartbreaking for everyone, but for those who feared they too would die, they can also bring survivor guilt.
"The older people obviously hurt my heart, but I'll tell you, the younger people are what make me feel guilt-ridden," said Judd, the New York woman who has been seeing a trauma therapist. "It hurts me."
Canter, of Georgia, has found that the best outlet for the guilt is in helping others. She has her first appointment next week to donate convalescent plasma.
For her, it's personal: She recently found out that shortly after she was released from the hospital, the respiratory therapist who treated her died of COVID-19.
"I dont know if he got it from me or somebody else," said Canter, whose respiratory therapist died shortly after she left the hospital.
"I don't know if he got it from me or somebody else," she said. "It's just so many unanswered questions."
English, the single mother in Oregon, said the deluge of stories every day of those who are dying from the virus is overwhelming.
What has helped her the most is messaging friends she has made through social media: individuals in New York, Dubai and Italy whom she has dubbed her "virus buddies."
"The biggest thing with those three has been laughing and crying, just a release of energy and frustration and everything else," she said. "Depression is so bad with this."
She plans to keep in touch with the friends she has made as a result of her ordeal.
"I'm hoping, at some point, to go visit all of them," she said, "and go give them a big hug."
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