Category: Corona Virus

BRUSSELS If it werent the age of social distancing, people would stop them on the street to take selfies. Instead, they get adoring messages on social media. Others appear on television daily.

The new celebrities emerging across Europe as the coronavirus burns a deadly path through the continent are not actors or singers or politicians. Instead, they are epidemiologists and virologists who have become household names after spending most of their lives in virtual anonymity.

While nurses and doctors treat patients on the front lines, epidemiologists and virologists who have spent careers in lecture halls and laboratories have become the most trusted sources of information in an era of deep uncertainty, diverging policy and raging disinformation.

After a long period of popular backlash against experts and expertise, which underpinned a sweep of political change and set off culture wars in much of the developed world, societies besieged by coronavirus isolation and desperate for facts are turning to these experts for answers, making them national heroes.

During a crisis, heroes come to the forefront because many of our basic human needs are threatened, including our need for certainty, meaning and purpose, self-esteem, and sense of belonging with others, said Elaine Kinsella, a psychology professor at the University of Limerick in Ireland who has researched the role of heroes in society.

Heroes help to fulfill, at least in part, some of these basic human needs, she added.

The scientist-heroes emerging from the coronavirus crisis rarely have the obvious charisma of political leaders, but they show deep expertise and, sometimes, compassion.

In Italy, a nation ravaged by the virus more than any other in the world so far, Dr. Massimo Galli, the director the infectious diseases department at Luigi Sacco University Hospital in Milan, swapped his lab coat for a suit and accepted he would be overexposed in the media in order to set things straight, he told one talk show.

So the avuncular, bespectacled professor quickly became a familiar face on Italian current-affairs TV shows, delivering no-nonsense updates about the unfamiliar foe.

He called social distancing the mother of all battles.

He fretted about the risks that lurk in Italys multigenerational families, a tough message even as he believes home contagions became the No. 1 cause for the spread of the virus in the country.

Between broadcasts, he crept back into his laboratory to help his colleagues with research.

In Greece, which has so far been spared a major outbreak, everyone tunes in when Prof. Sotirios Tsiodras, a slender-framed, gray-haired man, addresses the nation every day at 6 p.m.

His delivery is flat, and he relies heavily on his notes as he updates the country on the latest figures of those confirmed sick, hospitalized or deceased. Occasionally, he offers practical advice, like a solution of four teaspoons of bleach per liter of water can be sprayed on surfaces for disinfection. And he rushes to dispel misinformation: Officials dont know the impact of ibuprofen on those sick from the virus.

The head of the Greek governments medical response to the coronavirus and a churchgoing father of seven with a long career studying infectious diseases at Harvard, M.I.T. and elsewhere, Professor Tsiodras is not one for embellishment.

By being frank, he has rallied the country behind some of the most proactively restrictive measures in Europe, which seem to be working as Greece counts just 68 deaths since the start of the outbreak. By contrast, Belgium, which has a similar population, just over 10 million, has recorded 1,283 deaths.

Professor Tsiodras combines key features that make him appealing to the anxious public, says Theo Anagnostopoulos, the founder of SciCo, a science communications consultancy: He comes across as an ordinary person but with proven expertise, and is empathetic.

Hes one of us, Mr. Anagnostopoulos said. Hes humble, modest and caring, but hes also undeniably a top expert.

Dr. Christian Drosten has emerged as the voice of scientific reason in Germany, where the impact of the virus has been deeply felt despite a relatively low death rate. Long respected for the depth of his knowledge and willingness to share it with peers, he never sought the limelight. Colleagues have described him as an unlikely hero.

For weeks, however, Dr. Drosten, chief virologist at the Charit university research hospital in Berlin, has become one of the most sought-after guests on television talk shows and the star of a daily podcast that started in February. In it, he delivers fact-based assessments of the risks Germany faces based on the science behind SARS viruses, which he has studied for years.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her health minister, Jens Spahn, have also asked Dr. Drosten to consult on the political response to the crisis, although, as he was quick to point out to the German weekly Die Zeit, Im not a politician, Im a scientist.

Im happy to explain what I know, he said. Scientific findings must be communicated to everyone transparently, so that we all can get an idea of the situation. But Im also honest about what I dont know.

In some countries, certain scientists have been both lionized and vilified. In the United States, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a respected immunologist who is the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been catapulted to celebrity status.

But Dr. Fauci, the Trump administrations fiercest advocate of social distancing rules, has also drawn the vitriol of members of the far right, who falsely accuse him of trying to undermine President Trump. The Department of Health and Human Services granted a request by the Justice Department for extra agents to guard him after he received threats.

As with all heroes drawn from the ranks of society during a crisis, some scientists are also painfully vulnerable, becoming sick themselves while carrying out their duties.

In Spain, the worst-hit country in Europe after Italy, Dr. Fernando Simn has cut an endearing scientific hero figure. The director of Spains health emergency center, he has delivered updates and insights into the crisis in a rasping voice, acting as a counselor for anxious citizens, who have peppered him with questions online, including whether people should take off their shoes before entering their homes (they need not, he advised).

Dr. Simn tested positive for the virus in late March, prompting a nationwide outpouring of sympathy and well wishes.

In Britain, Neil Ferguson, a top mathematician and epidemiologist who became known to the broader public seemingly overnight for modeling the spread of the outbreak, contracted the virus in March.

His work spurred the British government to ramp up restrictive measures to contain the illness, having initially taken a more relaxed approach that promoted the idea of helping people develop immunity by exposing a large proportion of the population to the virus.

Unaccustomed to the outsize attention to their every word and action, some of the new national darlings have found themselves on the receiving end of brutal criticism.

Professor Tsiodras was criticized by some in Greece after footage emerged showing him standing at the pulpit of a seemingly empty church, even though the Greek government had demanded that services be suspended because the Greek Orthodox Church would not voluntarily comply with its isolation and social distancing measures.

Dr. Drosten, in Germany, was criticized when he originally challenged the wisdom of closing schools and day care centers views he changed after a deluge of messages, including from colleagues who shared new data with him.

Slip-ups notwithstanding, Professor Kinsella says, these heroes provide clarity during confusing times and that includes the moral kind.

Last month, just as Mr. Trump and other leaders openly debated the wisdom of lockdowns because of their devastating economic costs, Professor Tsiodras tackled the question directly.

After giving the days update, he veered off script, looking nervously down at his clasped hands.

An acquaintance wrote to me that were making too much of a fuss over a bunch of citizens who are elderly and incapacitated by chronic illness, he said. The miracle of medical science in 2020 is the extension of a high-quality life for these people who are our mothers and our fathers, and grandmothers and grandfathers.

His voice then broke as he choked up.

We cannot exist, or have an identity, without them, he said.

Reporting was contributed by Raphael Minder from Madrid, Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome, Melissa Eddy from Berlin and Niki Kitsantonis from Athens.

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The Rising Heroes of the Coronavirus Era? Nations Top Scientists - The New York Times

(I interrupt this bleakness for a dose of uplift: In Oregon, a 103-year-old, William Lapschies, caught the coronavirus in early March but recovered in time to celebrate his 104th birthday with pizza and chocolate cake on Wednesday. Happy 104th, Mr. Lapschies!)

More bad news: Case fatality rates have been creeping up, and lethality may be greater than many had expected. Germany was hailed for a death rate of only about 0.5 percent, and South Korea was not much higher; now both have case fatality rates well above 1 percent.

In models of the virus that my colleague Stuart A. Thompson and I published, we used a death rate of 1 percent. But if the South Korean death rate by age is applied to the demography of the United States, the American case fatality rate is about 2 percent, according to Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

A great majority of the deaths in the United States will have been avoidable. South Korea and the United States had their first coronavirus cases on the same day, but Seoul did a far better job managing the response. The upshot: It has suffered only 174 coronavirus deaths, equivalent to 1,100 for a population the size of Americas.

That suggests that we may lose 90,000 Americans in this wave of infections because the United States did not manage the crisis as well as South Korea did. As of Friday night, the U.S. had already had more than 7,000 deaths.

Third, while we can bend the curve, it will bend back when we relax our social distancing.

This is more bad news, for many people seem to believe that once we get through this grim month or two, the nightmare will be over. But the virus is resilient, and health experts warn that this may be just the first wave of what may be many waves of infections until we get a vaccine sometime in 2021.

Already, Japan after initial success is seeing a surge of infections, while China and South Korea have struggled with imported infections; that seems inevitable as economies restart and travel resumes.

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Brace Yourself for Waves of Coronavirus Infections - The New York Times

Workers are seen outside a city building in Milwaukee, which set up drive-up early voting for the state's April 7 election in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Morry Gash/AP hide caption

Editor's note at 2:20 p.m. ET.: Citing public health concerns due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday afternoon issued an executive order suspending in-person voting for Tuesday's statewide election. You can follow this developing story here.

Original story:

When it became clear that Wisconsin's April 7 election wasn't going to be postponed, Dean Kaufert turned to MacGyver, the star of a popular 1980s TV show, for inspiration.

"MacGyver always improvised things to make things work," he said.

Kaufert, who is mayor of Neenah, Wis., was part of a coalition of mayors who pushed hard for the election to be postponed as coronavirus infections spread in the state.

The mayors said it was going to be impossible for their local clerks to safely and effectively administer the election amid the pandemic.

But their pleas went nowhere. Federal lawsuits looking to delay the election failed and the Republican-controlled state legislature refused to make any changes to the election date or existing election laws.

An improvised divider aims to protect voters and poll workers from the coronavirus. Courtesy of Dean Kaufert hide caption

"Everyone was telling me, 'Dean, it's not going to happen. The election is going to move forward,' " Kaufert said. "I said, 'If that's the case, then we're going to do whatever we can to help protect the safety and health of our workers and my citizens.' "

Hence MacGyver. Kaufert asked a city maintenance worker to build Plexiglas barriers to put between poll workers and voters. Kaufert was inspired by screens he saw in his city's finance department, which had just been renovated.

"I sketched something out on paper and gave it to my maintenance guy and within six hours he had a prototype for me," he said.

By the next week, 26 clear shields were situated in front of poll workers helping people cast early ballots in the city of 25,000.

Voters check in using touchscreen electronic poll books. To reduce the risk of touching a potentially contaminated surface, Kaufert did some Googling and figured out how to make reusable writing utensils out of Q-tips and aluminum foil.

Then Kaufert tracked down the owners of an empty department store.

A former department store in Neenah, Wis., has been temporarily converted into a polling place to comply with social distancing guidelines. Courtesy of Dean Kaufert hide caption

A former department store in Neenah, Wis., has been temporarily converted into a polling place to comply with social distancing guidelines.

"And we're now holding the election in this 90,000-square-foot building with ample space, so everyone can follow the [social distancing] guidelines recommended by the CDC," he said.

Kaufert is particularly happy that the store has automatic doors, so no one will have to touch handles on the way in or out, and that the building has been vacant for several months, so there's no risk of it being contaminated with the virus by previous tenants.

Despite all of these efforts and relative success, Kaufert said he's still "mad as hell" that the election is happening as scheduled.

Many people in Wisconsin agree.

A shortage of 7,000 poll workers statewide

Thousands of poll workers in Wisconsin have been put in the unenviable position of deciding whether to do their job on Election Day or stay safe at home.

Daina Zemliauskas was scheduled to be a chief inspector at her polling place in Madison and said she was brought to tears by the decision.

"I feel guilty. I wanted to hold out," Zemliauskas said. "But, of course, the risk was just too great."

She spent three excruciating hours writing a resignation email to her city clerk. Zemliauskas said the response she got back was "terse," but she understands clerks are under incredible stress right now.

"I thought, why should I put myself, my family and my community at risk?" she said. "You know, this is just outrageous. It's madness."

Like the majority of Wisconsin poll workers, Zemliauskas is older than 60, putting her at higher risk of severe symptoms if she contracts COVID-19.

Last week, Wisconsin's elections agency used a state airplane to fly emergency supplies like isopropyl alcohol wipes, hand sanitizer and more than a million disposable pens to clerks across the state, in an attempt to shore up health and sanitation measures at polling places.

But Zemliauskas' fears and those of many others weren't assuaged by that effort.

According to the state elections agency, clerks are now dealing with a shortage of about 7,000 poll workers across the state.

As of last week, Neil Albrecht, the head of elections in Milwaukee, said he was operating with only 400 of his usual 1,400 election workers.

He said he doesn't blame his would-be staff for backing out.

"I come from a place of election worker and public safety first and foremost, and then of course access to voting, but at the end of the day we shouldn't be putting our election workers or the public at risk," he said.

Wisconsin's largest city normally has 180 polling places on Election Day, but Albrecht said on Tuesday it will be down to five for the entire city.

Advocacy groups warn of voter disenfranchisement

For weeks, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has been urging people to vote by mail.

But by law, requesting a mail-in ballot in Wisconsin involves using a smartphone to upload a copy of a valid ID for voting, or having the technology to make a physical copy of the ID to send in the mail.

Many say these options are impossible for some voters, particularly senior citizens and low-income people.

"We've been taking literally hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls per day from voters concerned about how they are going to vote," Albrecht said.

Mary Ellen Spiegelberg of West Allis called her local clerk several times attempting to request a mail-in ballot, but was having trouble with the technical requirements.

"I'm still using a Tracfone flip phone," Spiegelberg said. "I'm in the process of looking for a smartphone of one type or another, but I don't have that yet."

She said she's voted in "nearly every election for more than 70 years" and is determined to find a way to cast a ballot, even if it means risking public exposure on Election Day. She's looking into sewing face masks for herself and her husband.

"I still want to vote, and so does my husband," Spiegelberg said. "We are accustomed to voting in every election and this is an important one."

In Milwaukee, the Rev. Greg Lewis is also concerned that many of his neighbors won't be able to vote.

"It's already difficult trying to get people in my neighborhood to come out and vote because we don't think our vote really counts," said Lewis, who's president of Souls to the Polls, a group that works to mobilize black voters in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee's black community has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. There have been several deaths. And Lewis himself has been diagnosed with the virus.

When the choice is between navigating the absentee ballot process or risking going to the polls in person, voting is going to be "practically impossible" for many in his community, he said.

"And that is so, so incredibly heartbreaking," Lewis said.

Legislative leaders refuse election changes

"We live in a republic, and we live in one that has to have elections," says state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (center). Scott Bauer/AP hide caption

"We live in a republic, and we live in one that has to have elections," says state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (center).

Wisconsin's election date is written into state law and only the Republican-controlled state legislature can postpone it.

For weeks, state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and other Wisconsin GOP leaders have opposed making any changes to the election. They argue that it's too late to make it all-mail-in voting, because there isn't enough time to educate voters about the change.

They also point out that Wisconsin's spring election is not just a presidential primary; it's also a general election for hundreds of local offices, like mayor, county executive and county board. The winners of many of those races are scheduled to take office in April.

Vos says risking vacancies in local government positions isn't possible, especially during a pandemic.

"We live in a republic, and we live in one that has to have elections," he told reporters two weeks ago.

Vos and state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald rebuffed the governor's call on Friday for a special session of the legislature over the weekend to act on proposals to shift the election to entirely by mail, and to delay deadlines for clerks' receipt and counting of ballots until May.

The governor had been pushing for an all-mail election for a while, but Friday was the first time he said it should be delayed until May.

The legislative leaders accused Evers of caving "under political pressures from national liberal special interest groups."

Vos says he plans to work at a polling place in his district on Election Day.

"I'm looking forward to the pride that I'm going to feel knowing that there were hopefully a million Wisconsinites who did the right thing and cast their ballot, whether by mail or in person, because democracy has to continue," he said.

A federal judge ruled last week that Wisconsin voters will have until April 13 to get their mail-in ballots to their local clerk, which means results won't be known until next week. But that's the least of most people's worries right now.

Originally posted here:

Voting Confusion Reigns In Wisconsin - NPR

A supermarket cashier in Buenos Aires, Argentina,waits for costumers behind a makeshift plastic curtain as a precaution against the spread of thecoronavirus that causes COVID-19.

By Robert F. ServiceApr. 2, 2020 , 6:45 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has given a boost to an unsettling idea: that the novel coronavirus can spread through the airnot just via the large droplets emitted in a cough or sneeze. Though current studies arent conclusive, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing, Harvey Fineberg, who heads a standing committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, wrotein a 1 April letterto Kelvin Droegemeier, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Thus far, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies have insisted the primary route of transmission for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is through the larger respiratory droplets, up to 1 millimeter across, that people expel when they cough and sneeze. Gravity grounds these droplets within 1 or 2 meters, although they deposit thevirus on surfaces, from which people can pick it up and infect themselves by touching their mouth, nose, or eyes. But if the coronavirus can be suspended in the ultrafine mist that we produce when we exhale, protection becomes more difficult, strengthening the argument that all people should wear masks in public to reduce unwitting transmission of the virus from asymptomatic carriers.

The debate began when researchers reported earlier this year in The New England Journal of Medicine that SARS-CoV-2 can float in aerosol dropletsbelow 5 microns acrossfor up to 3 hours, and remain infectious. In their review, Fineberg and his NAS colleagues pointed to other studies, including a recent one by Joshua Santarpia and colleagues at the University of Nebraska Medical Center that found widespread evidence of viral RNA in isolation rooms of patients being treated for COVID-19. Viral RNA turned up on hard to reach surfaces, as well as in air samplers more than 2 meters from the patients. The presence of the RNA indicates virus can spread via aerosols, Santarpia and his colleagues concluded, although they did not find infectious viral particles.

Another preprint cited by the NAS panel raised concerns that personal protective equipment (PPE) could itself be a source of airborne contamination. In that work, researchers led by Yuan Liu at Wuhan University in China found the novel coronavirus can be resuspended in the air when health care workers remove their PPE, clean the floors, and move through infected areas. Taken together, the presence of viral RNA in air droplets and aerosols indicates the possibility of viral transmissions via these routes, the NAS panel concludes.

[Im] relieved to see aerosolization is accepted, Kimberly Prather, an aerosol chemist at the University of California, San Diego, wrote in an email to ScienceInsider. This added airborne pathway helps explain why it is spreading so fast.

It also adds to the case for masks. The NAS panel cited work reported in a preprint by Nancy Leung of the University of Hong Kong and colleagues. They collected respiratory droplets and aerosols from patients with respiratory illnesses caused by viruses; some of the patients wore surgical facemasks. The masks reduced the detection of coronavirus RNA in both respiratory droplets and aerosols, but only in respiratory droplets among influenza sufferers. Our results provide mechanistic evidence that surgical facemasks could prevent transmission of human coronavirus and influenza virus infections if worn by symptomatic individuals, the researchers conclude.

Not all experts agree that aerosols are a likely route of transmission. A 27 March scientific brief from the World Health Organization (WHO) states that aerosol transmission may be possible in specific circumstances and settings that generate aerosols, such as when severely ill patients are intubated with a breathing tube. However, the WHO experts say, an analysis of more than 75,000 coronavirus cases in China revealed no cases of airborne transmission. As for studies such as Santarpias, they note that the detection of RNA in environmental samples based on PCR-based assays is not indicative of viable virus that could be transmissible.

Nevertheless, CDC is apparently getting ready to change its stance on the subject. According to multiple news reports the agency is poised to recommend that all people in the United States wear cloth facemasks in public to reduce the spread of the virus.

Read this article:

You may be able to spread coronavirus just by breathing, new report finds - Science Magazine

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Coronavirus News and Latest Updates

The deans also made a more ambitious request: that the court consider letting graduates working under licensed lawyers seek admission to the bar without sitting for the bar examination.

Three weeks after the virus was first detected in New York Citys jails, including Rikers Island, four in 10 inmates were being held in quarantine as the number of cases continued to rise.

The latest quarantine figures were released late Wednesday by the citys Board of Correction, which monitors the citys jails.

Correction officials said separately that as of Thursday morning, 223 staff members, 231 inmates and 38 health care workers assigned to the jails had tested positive for the virus.

Inmates were now being screened for symptoms before being arraigned, board officials said.

Officials have moved to release about 900 detainees from the jails in the past two weeks to stem the viruss spread. But inmates and correction staff members have said that conditions at the jails were still unsanitary.

Inmates have found inventive ways to protect themselves, using diluted shampoo as a disinfectant and alcohol pads from a jail barber to sanitize phones.

Jail workers have complained about not having access to protective gear like masks and gloves, and about what they said was a failure to notify them when they had come into contact with a someone who had been infected.

Reporting was contributed by Kevin Armstrong, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Maria Cramer, Luis Ferr-Sadurn, Alan Feuer, Michael Gold, Corey Kilgannon, Adam Liptak, Jesse McKinley, Andy Newman, Jan Ransom, Brian M. Rosenthal, Andrea Salcedo, Michael Schwirtz, Eliza Shapiro, Matt Stevens, James Wagner and Michael Wilson.

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N.Y.C. Death Toll Tops 1,500 as Cuomo Warns on Ventilators - The New York Times

Would you do us a favor? Would you be willing to describe how the coronavirus is affecting your mental health? Is the combination of isolation and existential stress making you feel more depressed and anxious? Or is the family togetherness and the pause from normal life giving you a greater sense of belonging and equilibrium? How would you describe your psychological state? What are you doing to cope? If youre a mental health worker, what are you seeing out there?

If youre willing to share, please fill out the form at the end of this column. The Times may publish some responses online and Ill write another column reporting on what you say.

I ask for a couple of reasons. This is a moment that calls for deeper conversations and emotional accompaniment. Were all going through something together. Well be more resilient if we can see others experiencing it in the same way.

Also, its hard to get an accurate read on the nations psychological state right now. On the one hand, this has become a wonderful moment of national solidarity. Millions are responding with acts of generosity, finding ways to bring food to elders, hosting virtual cocktail parties. People are checking in with each other. You hear of these 50-person family reunion Zoom calls.

Our national identity is being remade in real time. What had once seemed a bitter and divided society now seems more like a nation of people finding creative ways to show up for one another.

But its also likely that something much darker is going on, especially among the less fortunate. A study by Samantha Brooks of Kings College London finds that quarantine produces a range of bad mental health outcomes, including trauma, confusion and anger.

Theres an invisible current of dread running through the world. It messes with your attention span. I dont know about you, but Im mentally exhausted by 5 p.m. every day, and I think part of the cause is the unconscious stress flowing through us.

Many people are alone, consuming media all day. Others are trapped in homes with abusers and dysfunction. Alcohol and drug use is rising. In France, reported cases of domestic violence are up by about a third.

Tyler Norris of the Well Being Trust points to a curve behind the Covid-19 curve. Every one-percentage-point increase in unemployment leads eventually to a 3.5 percent increase in opioid addiction, so the pandemics economic effects alone will exacerbate our drug and mental health problems down the road.

Psychological health in times of crisis is like a wrestling match. The situation throws stressors at you. The question is whether your coping mechanisms are strong enough to overcome them.

The pandemic spreads an existential feeling of unsafety, which registers in the neurons around your heart, lungs and viscera. It alters your nervous system, changing the way you see and perceive threat.

Its very hard to grasp whats going on so deep inside. All trauma is preverbal, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk writes in his book The Body Keeps the Score. Rational brain is basically impotent to talk the emotional brain out of its own reality.

The best way to combat this visceral sense of fear and disassociation is by having what Bonnie Badenoch, the author of The Heart of Trauma, calls disconfirming experiences. These are experiences of deep reciprocal attunement with others that make you feel viscerally safe.

These moments of attunement and co-regulation register in the same autonomic nervous system and overcome the fear and helplessness.

Creating these experiences takes effort. Being together is not the same as being connected, Columbia professor Martha Welch told me. She recommends that people engage in deep intentional and vulnerable conversations, in which they pause for as long as 90 seconds after something important has been said, just to let it sink in. You have to have the feelings conversation, she says.

She and the other experts I spoke with endorse anything rhythmic. Anything that will create an experience of attunement: singing, dancing, yoga, deep eye contact, daily rituals and games.

I asked the experts whether they thought it was possible to have this sort of deep, visceral attunement over the internet. They thought it was, as long you can see the other persons face and hear vocal tone. The internet is a huge variable in this pandemic, Dr. van der Kolk told me. We have a profound new way to comfort one another.

Anna Freuds famous research found that during World War II the children left in London to endure the bombings suffered less trauma than the children who were sent away from their families to the country for their safety. She determined that the physical injury is often not the harshest part of trauma; its the breakdown of relationships during and after.

Sharing your emotional state with the world is not for everybody, and people who feel fragile should take care. But if you feel like filling out the form below, you may give others somebody to relate to. You might help turn a fractious country into a resilient community.

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Mental Health in the Age of the Coronavirus - The New York Times

Our furry feline friends appear to be susceptible to catching Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. Even worse, the cats in the study were able to infect each other, although they showed no signs of illness.

Ferrets were also able to "catch" the virus, although it didn't appear to harm them. Dogs, on the other hand, were not susceptible, according to the study. The virus showed up in the feces of five dogs, but no infectious virus was found. Pigs, chickens and ducks were also not very hospitable places for the virus.

But there's no need for cat or ferret lovers to panic, experts say. There's no evidence their pets could get very sick or die from the novel coronavirus.

"Yes, people should embrace their pets. These researchers squirted the virus down the cats nose in high concentration, which is pretty artificial," said Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

No realistic exposure

The lab experiment used a scenario that is completely unrealistic, experts say. First, researchers forced extremely high doses of virus up the nostrils of five 8-month-old domesticated cats.

Cats in our homes or even in the wild would never be exposed to that level of virus.

"That's a whole lot more than an average human would get," said infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

"So this is an artificial circumstance and we don't know that it happens in nature at all," Schaffner added.

Two of the five cats were euthanized six days later. Researchers found virus particles in their upper respiratory systems.

The remaining three infected cats were put into a cage adjacent to three non-infected cats. One of those three cats later tested positive for the virus, while the other two did not. Still, the researchers felt that showed the virus could be transmitted via respiratory drops.

Or did it? None of the infected cats exhibited signs of illness. And even if they did pass the virus to each other, that doesn't mean they would be able to pass it on to humans.

That's what happened nearly two decades ago with a sister coronavirus called SARS-CoV, which causes the deadly pneumonia-like respiratory disease called SARS.

Ferrets affected too

The study found ferrets were also "efficient" replicators of the virus -- meaning that the virus can easily grow and reproduce in their long, slinky bodies.

"SARS-CoV-2 can replicate in the upper respiratory tract of ferrets for up to eight days, without causing severe disease or death," the study said. The study did not look at a longer time frame.

That's good news for researchers looking for a way to test any future vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, also called the novel coronavirus.

"It's necessary to have an animal model to do initial tests of vaccines and understand how viruses cause disease. So, this will be useful to the field," Williams said.

"Ferrets are classical animals in which to study influenza -- it's been done for decades," Schaffner said. "If scientists were looking for an animal model, they would reach for the ferrets first."

What this means

Will your cat or ferret come down with coronavirus? Highly unlikely, experts say, pointing to the fact that we would certainly have heard of many cases in pets by now, considering the significant spread of the virus in the US and Europe.

Hong Kong has been quarantining animals belonging to people diagnosed with Covid-19 and have found only two cases of positive results in dogs. The dogs showed no signs of illness during the quarantine.

"Out of an abundance of caution," the AVMA suggests anyone ill with COVID-19 symptoms limit contact at this time, "until more information is known about the virus."

"Have another member of your household take care of walking, feeding, and playing with your pet," the AVMA states. "If you have a service animal or you must care for your pet, then wear a facemask; don't share food, kiss, or hug them; and wash your hands before and after any contact with them."

Continued here:

Cats, dogs, ferrets and coronavirus: What's to worry about? - CNN

While more affluent parts of Nashville have had testing sites for weeks, this drive-through testing site at Meharry Medical College, in a historically African American neighborhood, experienced weeks of delays because staff couldn't acquire the needed testing supplies and gear like masks and gloves. It finally opened March 30. Ken Morris/Meharry Medical College hide caption

While more affluent parts of Nashville have had testing sites for weeks, this drive-through testing site at Meharry Medical College, in a historically African American neighborhood, experienced weeks of delays because staff couldn't acquire the needed testing supplies and gear like masks and gloves. It finally opened March 30.

The new coronavirus doesn't discriminate. But physicians in public health and on the front lines say that in the response to the pandemic, they can already see the emergence of familiar patterns of racial and economic bias.

In one analysis, it appears doctors may be less likely to refer African Americans for testing when they show up for care with signs of infection.

The bio-tech data firm Rubix Life Sciences, based in Boston, reviewed recent billing information in several states, and found that an African American with symptoms like cough and fever was less likely to be given one of the scarce coronavirus tests.

Delays in diagnosis and treatment can be harmful, especially for racial or ethnic minority groups that have higher rates of certain diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Those chronic illnesses can lead to more severe cases of COVID-19.

On the campus of Meharry Medical College a historically black institution in Nashville drive-through testing tents sat empty for weeks, because the school couldn't acquire the necessary testing equipment and protective gear like gloves and masks.

"There's no doubt that some institutions have the resources and clout to maybe get these materials faster and easier," says Dr. James Hildreth, president of Meharry and an infectious disease specialist.

His medical school is located in the heart of Nashville, where there were no screening centers until this week.

Most of the testing in the region took place at walk-in clinics managed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and those are primarily located in historically white areas like Belle Meade and Brentwood, Tennessee.

Hildreth says he's observed no overt bias on the part of health care workers, and doesn't suspect any.

But he says the distribution of testing sites shows a disparity in access to medical care that has long persisted.

'I pray I'm wrong'

But if anyone should be prioritized, Hildreth says it's minority communities, where people already have more risk factors like diabetes and lung disease.

"We cannot afford to not have the resources to be distributed where they need to be," he says. "Otherwise, the virus will do great harm in some communities and less in others."

In Memphis, a heat map shows where coronavirus testing is taking place. It reveals that most screening is happening in the predominantly white and well-off suburbs, not the majority black, lower-income neighborhoods.

Rev. Earle Fisher has been warning his African American congregation that the response to the pandemic may fall along the city's usual divides.

"I pray I'm wrong," Fisher says. "I think we're about to witness an inequitable distribution of the medical resources too."

Around the nation, concentrated pockets are popping up. In Milwaukee, African Americans made up all of the city's first eight fatalities.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers says he wants to know why black communities seem to be hit so hard. "It's a crisis within a crisis," Evers said in a video statement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also on the ground on the north side of Milwaukee, as well as several other hot spots, looking into the outbreak in black neighborhoods. Nationwide, it's difficult to know how minority populations are faring because the CDC isn't reporting any data on race.

A few states are releasing more demographic data, but it's incomplete. Virginia is reporting race, yet the state's report is missing that information for two-thirds of confirmed cases.

Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association has been pushing health officials to start monitoring race and income in the response to COVID-19.

"We want people to collect the data in an organized, professional, scientific manner and show who's getting it and who's not getting it," Benjamin says. "Recognize that we very well may see these health inequities."

The subjectivity of symptoms

Until he's convinced otherwise, Benjamin says he assumes the usual disparities are at play.

"Experience has taught all of us that if you're poor, if you're of color, you're going to get services second," he says.

The subjectivity of coronavirus symptoms is what worries Dr. Ebony Hilton the most.

"The person comes in, they're complaining of chest pain, they're complaining of shortness of breath, they have a cough, I can't quantify that," she says.

Hilton is an anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia Medical Center who has been raising concerns.

She sees problems across the board, from the way social media is being used as a primary way of educating the public to how quickly drive-through testing has expanded. The first requires internet connection. The second, a car.

Hilton says the country can't afford to overlook race, even during a swiftly moving pandemic.

"If you don't get a test, if you die, you're not going to be listed as dying from COVID," she says. "You're just going to be dead."

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Racial Bias Showing Up In Coronavirus Testing And Treatment : Shots - Health News - NPR

By: New York Times | Published: April 2, 2020 10:59:26 pm On Saturday, the FDA took the unusual step of approving those drugs to treat hospitalized patients with coronavirus on an emergency basis, even though no significant clinical trials have yet been done.

Written by Katie Thomas

An experimental stem cell therapy derived from human placentas will begin early testing in patients with the coronavirus, a New Jersey biotech company said Thursday.

The treatment, being developed by the company Celularity, has not yet been used on any patients with symptoms of COVID-19, but it has caught the attention of Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trumps personal lawyer. Giuliani recently featured an interview with the company founder on his website and said on Twitter that the product has real potential, while also criticizing the Food and Drug Administration for not moving more quickly to approve potential remedies.

There is no proven treatment for the respiratory disease, but several experimental approaches, including old malaria drugs and HIV antivirals, are being tested in patients around the world.

READ | Video from Japan shows how COVID-19 is getting transmitted through a third route

Celularity has also enthusiastically publicized the news of its early-stage trial for its treatment, known as CYNK-001. In an email Wednesday to a reporter, its public relations firm described a development as the first FDA approval for COVID-19 cell therapy. The agencys decision, however, merely gives a green light for its product to be used in a clinical trial, not widely prescribed to patients.

In recent weeks, the established scientific process of evaluating a drugs safety and effectiveness has been upended by Trump, who has repeatedly promoted the potential of two long-used malaria drugs that have shown mainly anecdotal evidence of helping patients. On Saturday, the FDA took the unusual step of approving those drugs to treat hospitalized patients with coronavirus on an emergency basis, even though no significant clinical trials have yet been done.

The early trial by Celularity which will primarily evaluate safety, as well as an initial look at efficacy will test its therapy in up to 86 patients with symptoms. They will receive infusions of the cell therapy in the hopes it will prevent them from developing the more severe form of the disease, Dr. Robert Hariri, Celularitys founder and chief executive, said in an interview Wednesday.

The objective here is preventative, Hariri said. If the timing of giving this can prevent those patients who have early disease from progressing to the more serious, life-threatening form, it could be a very, very useful tool.

The therapy involves using stem cells from the placenta known as natural killer cells that help protect a developing fetus or newborn from viruses that have infected the mother. Celularity has been testing these cells in cancer patients.

Hariri said the trial, which would not include a placebo control group, will take place at academic medical centers around the country. He said the company expected to see initial results about 30-60 days after the first patients receive their dose. If this study is successful, Hariri said, the company would move to a placebo-controlled study that would evaluate the drugs efficacy against the disease.

At least one outside expert said the approach could present safety risks. Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell researcher at the University of California, Davis, said that patients with coronavirus can develop severe reactions where their immune systems go too far in attacking cells in their lungs, causing damaging inflammation. Other cell therapies tested in China are designed to dampen the immune response. He said one risk with the natural killer cells is they could go in the other direction, exacerbating respiratory problems by massive killing of the patients respiratory cells.

Despite the scant evidence, Giuliani has become an early booster, interviewing Hariri on a podcast published on his website Saturday and praising the treatment on Twitter, saying, this therapy has real potential. In a tweet Saturday, he added, Lets hope FDA can recognize that their cumbersome process designed to keep us safer, if it is not altered dramatically in times of great need, can result in unimaginable loss of human life.

Around the same time, Twitter deleted a post by Giuliani that it said violated its rules. The tweet, from March 27, made unfounded claims about the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, one of the treatments that Trump has supported.

Hariri said that he has known Giuliani for years and that the appearance on his podcast was a friendly chat between people who know each other and who share a common interest in this particular response to this disease.

He said that he has no business relationship with Giuliani, and that Giuliani is not representing him in any way, either paid or unpaid.

I dont have anything to do with what the mayor tweets or whatnot, and I dont agree or disagree with anything, he said.

Hariri said the company would follow the established process for testing whether a drug works.

We have waited for the FDA to complete their review, which they did in a heroic and quick fashion, he said.

On Wednesday evening the same day the FDA approved his trial Hariri praised the appearance by the agencys commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, on the conservative Fox News talk show The Ingraham Angle.

We are fortunate to have Dr. Hahn at the helm, he tweeted.

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Unproven Stem Cell Therapy Gets OK for Testing in Coronavirus Patients - The Indian Express