Category: Covid-19

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Pa. National Guard to help Beaver County nursing home with covid-19 outbreak - TribLIVE

The COVID-19 pandemic began as a global health crisis. As it spread rapidly across nations, country after country responded with a lockdown, triggering a global economic crisis. Certain geopolitical trendlines were already discernible but the COVID-19 shock therapy has brought these into sharper focus, defining the contours of the emerging global (dis)order.

Also read | A sneeze, a global cold and testing times for China

The first trend which became clear in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis is the rise of Asia. Economic historians pointed to its inevitability, recalling that till the 18th century, Asia accounted for half the global GDP. The Industrial Revolution accompanied by European naval expansion and colonialism contributed to the rise of the West, and now the balance is being restored. The 2008 financial crisis showed the resilience of the Asian economies, and even today, economic forecasts indicate that out of the G-20 countries, only China and India are likely to register economic growth during 2020.

Asian countries have also demonstrated greater agility in tackling the pandemic compared to the United States and Europe. This is not limited to China but a number of other Asian states have shown greater responsiveness and more effective state capacity. Consequently, Asian economies will recover faster than those in the West.

The second trend is the retreat of the U.S. after a century of being in the forefront of shaping the global order. From the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations after World War I or the creation of the United Nations and Bretton Woods institutions after World War II, to leadership of the western world during the Cold War, moulding global responses to threats posed by terrorism or proliferation or climate change, the U.S. played a decisive role.

U.S. hubris and arrogance also generated resentment, more evident in recent years. Interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have become quagmires that have sapped domestic political will and resources. This is the fatigue that (former) U.S. President Barack Obama sensed when he talked of leading from behind. President Donald Trump changed it to America first and during the current crisis, the U.S.s efforts at cornering supplies of scarce medical equipment and medicines and acquiring biotech companies engaged in research and development in allied states, show that this may mean America alone. Moreover, even as countries were losing trust in the U.S.s leadership, its bungled response at home to the pandemic indicates that countries are also losing trust in the U.S.s competence. The U.S. still remains the largest economy and the largest military power but has lost the will and ability to lead. This mood is unlikely to change, whatever the outcome of the election later this year.

Also read | An Asian engine driven by India and China

A third trend is the European Unions continuing preoccupation with internal challenges generated by its expansion of membership to include East European states, impact of the financial crisis among the Eurozone members, and ongoing Brexit negotiations. Threat perceptions vary between old Europe and new Europe making it increasingly difficult to reach agreement on political matters e:g relations with Russia and China. The trans-Atlantic divide is aggravating an intra-European rift. Rising populism has given greater voice to Euro-sceptics and permitted some EU members to espouse the virtues of illiberal democracy.

Adding to this is the North-South divide within the Eurozone. Strains showed up when austerity measures were imposed on Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal a decade ago by the European Central Bank, persuaded by the fiscally conservative Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. Recently, ECB chief Christine Lagardes press statement in end-March that ECB is not here to close spreads undermined any solidarity that the Italians felt as they battled with the pandemic and growing borrowing costs.

Further damage was done when Italy was denied medical equipment by its EU neighbours who introduced export controls, which led to China airlifting medical teams and critical supplies. Schengen visa or free-border movement has already become a victim to the pandemic. The EU will need considerable soul searching to rediscover the limits of free movement of goods, services, capital and people, the underlying theme of the European experiment of shared sovereignty.

A fourth trend, related to the first, is the emergence of a stronger and more assertive China. While Chinas growing economic role has been visible since it joined the World Trade Organization at the turn of the century, its more assertive posture has taken shape under President Xi Jinpings leadership with the call that a rejuvenated China is now ready to assume global responsibilities. Chinese assertiveness has raised concerns, first in its neighbourhood, and now in the U.S. that feels betrayed because it assisted Chinas rise in the hope that an economically integrated China would become politically more open. In recent years, the U.S.-China relationship moved from cooperation to competition; and now with trade and technology wars, it is moving steadily to confrontation. The pandemic has seen increasing rhetoric on both sides and with the election season in the U.S., confrontation will only increase. A partial economic de-coupling had begun and will gather greater momentum.

Also read | The spectre of a post-COVID-19 world

Mr. Xi has engaged in an unprecedented centralisation of power, and with the removal of the two-term limit, has made it clear that he will continue beyond 2022. His signature Belt and Road Initiative seeks to connect China to the Eurasia and Africa through both maritime and land routes by investing trillions of dollars in infrastructure building as a kind of pre-emptive move against any U.S. attempts at containment. Even if Mr. Xis leadership comes under questioning, it may soften some aggressive policy edges but the confrontational rivalry with U.S. will remain.

Global problems demand global responses. With COVID-19, international and multilateral bodies are nowhere on the scene. The World Health Organisation (WHO) was the natural candidate to lead global efforts against the health crisis but it has become a victim of politics. Its early endorsement of the Chinese efforts has put it on the defensive as the U.S. blames the outbreak on a Chinese biotech lab and accuses Beijing of suppressing vital information that contributed to the spread. The UN Security Council (UNSC), the G-7 and the G-20 (latter was structured to co-ordinate a global response to the 2008 financial crisis) are paralysed at when the world faces the worst recession since 1929.

The reality is that these institutions were always subjected to big power politics. During the Cold War, U.S.-Soviet rivalry blocked the UNSC on many sensitive issues and now with major power rivalry returning, finds itself paralysed again. Agencies such as WHO have lost autonomy over decades as their regular budgets shrank, forcing them to increasingly rely on voluntary contributions sourced largely from western countries and foundations. U.S. leadership strengthened the Bretton Woods institutions in recent decades (The World Bank spends 250% of WHOs budget on global health) because the U.S.s voting power gives it a blocking veto. The absence of a multilateral response today highlights the long-felt need for reform of these bodies but this cannot happen without collective global leadership.

The final trend relates to energy politics. Growing interest in renewables and green technologies on account of climate change concerns, and the U.S. emerging as a major energy producer were fundamentally altering the energy markets. Now, a looming economic recession and depressed oil prices will exacerbate internal tensions in West Asian countries which are solely dependent on oil revenues. Long-standing rivalries in the region have often led to local conflicts but can now create political instability in countries where regime structures are fragile.

A vaccine for the novel coronavirus, possibly by end-2020, will help deal with the global health crisis but these unfolding trends have now been aggravated by the more pernicious panic virus. Rising nationalism and protectionist responses will prolong the economic recession into a depression, sharpening inequalities and polarisations. Greater unpredictability and more turbulent times lie ahead.

Rakesh Sood is a former diplomat and currently Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation

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The trends shaping the post-COVID-19 world - The Hindu

Experts talk about the benefits of owning a pet during COVID-19 pandemic  KRCRTV.COM

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Experts talk about the benefits of owning a pet during COVID-19 pandemic - KRCRTV.COM

More than 60 days after Fairfax County had its first case of COVID-19, the county has, by far, the most cases, hospitalizations and deaths than any other in Virginia and now the county's emergency information department is giving three reasons why.

More than 60 days after Fairfax County announced its first case of COVID-19, the county has, by far, the most infections, hospitalizations and deaths than any county in Virginia and now the countys emergency information department is giving three reasons why.

The county, the largest in population in the state at an estimated 1.1 million people, said Thursday its pandemic curve is still in the exponential growth phase. As of Wednesday night, Fairfax County has 5,045 cases, 832 hospitalized and 211 deaths from COVID-19 each of those numbers is more than twice the total of the next highest county.

Fairfax County outlined the causes:

Fairfax County said it has taken proactive measures to slow the spread of the virus in high-risk places like nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

The county said even as Virginia and other states begin to ease restrictions, residents should stay vigilant with mitigation actions and think of these measures as a marathon, rather than a sprint.

More coronavirus coverage

Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | District of Columbia

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3 reasons COVID-19 is on the rise in Fairfax County - WTOP

Roy Horn kisses a tiger cub at his Las Vegas home with Siegfried Fischbacher in 2008. Horn, who survived a tiger mauling in 2003, died on Friday of complications related to COVID-19. Louie Traub/AP hide caption

Roy Horn kisses a tiger cub at his Las Vegas home with Siegfried Fischbacher in 2008. Horn, who survived a tiger mauling in 2003, died on Friday of complications related to COVID-19.

Magician and animal trainer Roy Horn, of the legendary Las Vegas duo Siegfied and Roy, died Friday from complications related to COVID-19. Horn tested positive last week. He was 75.

"The world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend," Siegfried Fischbacher said of his partner in a statement.

"Roy was a fighter his whole life including during these final days. I give my heartfelt appreciation to the team of doctors, nurses and staff at Mountain View Hospital who worked heroically against this insidious virus that ultimately took Roy's life."

Roy Horn was born in Germany in 1944. He and Siegfried began their act in Las Vegas in 1967. In 1989 they began a 14-year run at the Mirage Resort performing illusions with exotic animals, making tigers, lions, even elephants vanish and reappear.

In October of 2003, Roy Horn was performing with a 400-pound white tiger named Mantecore when the great cat grabbed him by the throat before a stunned audience and dragged him offstage. Horn suffered a stroke and paralysis.

The US Department of Agriculture investigated the incident and produced a 233-page report. But it did not determine why the tiger acted as it did. As USDA spokesman Jim Rogers told NPR's Steve Inskeep in 2005, "We do try to understand why animals in this situation may turn on a trainer... There have been cases in the past where it was something as simple as somebody turning their back on an animal or changing a costume without allowing the animal to become familiar with it. In this instance, I don't believe there was a reason that we determined for the animal turning on Mr. Horn."

Horn survived and partially recovered, returning to the stage with the same cat for one performance in 2010. He has insisted the tiger was reacting to the stroke and acting to save him and not the other way around. A statement from the duo's publicist says Roy referred to Mantecore as "my lifesaver."

Said Siegfried Fischbacher on Friday: "Roy's whole life was about defying the odds."

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Roy Horn Of Siegfried and Roy Dies of COVID-19 At Age 75 - NPR

The serious inflammatory syndrome sending some children and teens to the hospital remains extremely uncommon, doctors say. But if your child spikes a high, persistent fever, and has severe abdominal pain with vomiting that doesn't make them feel better, call your doctor as a precaution. Sally Anscombe/Getty Images hide caption

The serious inflammatory syndrome sending some children and teens to the hospital remains extremely uncommon, doctors say. But if your child spikes a high, persistent fever, and has severe abdominal pain with vomiting that doesn't make them feel better, call your doctor as a precaution.

Updated May 8 at 11:54 a.m. ET

Sixty-four children and teens in New York State are suspected of having a mysterious inflammatory syndrome that is believed to be linked to COVID-19, the New York Department of Health said in an alert issued Wednesday. A growing number of similar cases including at least one death have been reported in other parts of the U.S. and Europe, though the phenomenon is still not well-understood.

Pediatricians say parents should not panic; the condition remains extremely rare. But researchers also are taking a close look at this emerging syndrome, and say parents should be on the lookout for symptoms in their kids that might warrant a quick call to the doctor a persistent high fever over several days and significant abdominal pains with repeated vomiting, after which the child does not feel better.

"If [the child is] looking particularly ill, you should definitely call the doctor," says Dr. Sean O'Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and member of the infectious disease committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The new condition associated with COVID-19 is called Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome. Symptoms include persistent fever, extreme inflammation and evidence of one or more organs that are not functioning properly, says cardiologist Jane Newburger, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Kawasaki Program at Boston Children's Hospital.

"It's still very rare, but there's been a wave of cases. Physicians and scientists are working hard to understanding the mechanisms at play, and why only some children are so severely affected," Newburger says.

Some symptoms can resemble features of Kawasaki Disease Shock Syndrome. Kawasaki disease is an acute illness in children involving fever with symptoms including rash; conjunctivitis; redness in the lips, tongue and mucous membranes of the mouth and throat; swollen hands and/or feet; and sometimes an enlarged group of lymph nodes on one side of the neck, says Newburger. Some children with the condition develop enlargement of the coronary arteries and aneurysms in those blood vessels.

A small percentage of Kawasaki cases go on to develop symptoms of shock, which can include a steep drop in systolic blood pressure and difficulty with sufficient blood supply to the body's organs. Kawasaki disease and KDSS more often affect young children, although they can sometimes affect teens, Newburger says.

Some cases of the new inflammatory syndrome have features that overlap with KD or with KDSS including rash, conjunctivitis, and swollen hands or feet. The new inflammatory syndrome can affect not only young children but also older children and teens.

But patients with the new syndrome have lab results that look very different, in particular, "cardiac inflammation to a greater degree than we typically see in Kawasaki shock syndrome," which is usually very rare, O'Leary says. In New York City and London, which have seen large numbers of COVID-19 cases, "those types of patients are being seen with greater frequency."

Some patients "come in very, very sick," with low blood pressure and high fever, O'Leary says. Some children have had coronary artery aneurysms, though most have not, he adds.

Other patients exhibit symptoms more similar to toxic shock syndrome, with abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, and high levels of inflammation in the body, including the heart, O'Leary says. Most cases are treated in the intensive care unit, he says. Treatment includes intravenous immunoglobulin, which can "calm the immune system," says Newburger, as well as steroids and cytokine blockers.

The evidence so far from Europe, where reports of the syndrome first emerged, suggests most children will recover with proper supportive care, says O'Leary, though one adolescent, a 14-year-old boy in London, has died, according to a report published Wednesday in The Lancet.

Most children with the syndrome, O'Leary and Newburger note, have either tested positive for a current infection with the coronavirus, or for antibodies to the virus, which would suggest they were infected earlier and recovered.

And, according to case reports, some of the kids with the inflammatory syndrome who tested negative on coronavirus tests had been exposed at some point to someone known to have COVID-19. The inflammatory syndrome can appear days to weeks after COVID-19 illness, doctors say, suggesting the syndrome arises out of the immune system's response to the virus.

"One theory is that as one begins to make antibodies to SARS-COV-2, the antibody itself may be provoking an immune response," says Newburger. "This is only happening in susceptible individuals whose immune systems are built in a particular way. It doesn't happen in everybody. It's still a really uncommon event in children."

In late April, the U.K.'s National Health Service issued an alert to pediatricians about the syndrome. Reports have also surfaced in France, Spain and Italy, and probably number in the dozens globally, Newburger and O'Leary say, though doctors still don't have hard numbers. Newburger says there needs to be a registry where doctors can report cases "so we can begin to generate some statistics."

"Doctors across countries are talking to each other, but we need for there to be some structure and some science so that everybody can interpret," she says.

Dr. Deepika Thacker, a cardiologist with Nemours Children's Health System, in Wilmington, Del., says she's seen three cases in children that fit the profile for the new syndrome. The first case was back in mid-April.

"When we first saw that kid, we didn't know what it was," she says. But a couple of days later, a pediatrician friend from the U.K. sent her a WhatsApp message about the emerging syndrome. "In retrospect, that's what it was," Thacker says now.

"He responded beautifully to treatment, so he was already out of the hospital by the time I got bad reports from Europe," she says. Since then, doctors have gone back to that first patient and tested the boy for antibodies to the coronavirus; they're still awaiting the results.

Earlier this week, the New York City Health Department issued an alert saying 15 children ranging in age from 2 to 15 had been hospitalized with the syndrome. Dr. Purvi Parikh, a pediatric immunologist at NYU Langone Health, says she's seen three patients with the syndrome in the past week, all of whom are doing well with treatment.

"They all present in varying ways," says Parikh, who is also a spokesperson for Physicians for Patient Protection. "But the common theme was fever and rash. One had very, very swollen lymph nodes and lymph glands. And then, aside from that, they had markers of inflammation elevated in their blood."

"Up until now, we were mostly seeing these markers of inflammation in adults that were presenting with COVID-19," Parikh says. "But now we're also seeing a similar syndrome in children."

A spokesperson for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta says infectious disease specialists there are evaluating several cases of children who have exhibited Kawasaki-like symptoms and inflammation to determine if those patients may also have had COVID-19 and to investigate if any association between the two conditions might exist.

Newburger says that she's been contacted about cases in New Jersey and Philadelphia, as well.

While the syndrome's precise connection to the coronavirus isn't yet clear, O'Leary says the fact that the children in most of these cases are testing positive for exposure to the virus, one way or another, provides one point of evidence. The sheer number of cases small in absolute terms, but still "much higher than we would expect normally for things like severe Kawasaki or toxic shock syndrome" provides another, he says.

And then there's the fact that most reports of the syndrome have come out of the U.K. and New York City, places that have been hit with large numbers of COVID-19 cases.

"It's pure speculation at this point," he says, "but the U.K. cluster kind of went up about a month after their COVID-19 infections went up, which would suggest that it is some kind of an immune phenomenon."

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Mystery Inflammatory Syndrome In Kids And Teens Likely Linked To COVID-19 - NPR

A 5-year-old boy in New York has become the first child in the United States to die from a condition called pediatric multisymptom inflammatory syndrome that is believed to be linked to COVID-19.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a briefing Friday that the state department of health is investigating several related cases in children.

This would be really painful news and would open an entirely different chapter, Cuomo said.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

"This is an extremely rare and previously unknown presentation of COVID-19 in children," the Mount Sinai Health System said in a statement. "We extend our deepest condolences to the family in the wake of this tragedy."

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.

Nationwide, nearly 100 children have been diagnosed with the newly identified syndrome. At least eight states California, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington as well as Washington, D.C., have reported cases.

Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome can mirror symptoms of other inflammatory illnesses, such as Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

New York health officials urged parents to seek immediate care if a child has:

Most concerning is that children can develop problems with heart function. The heart doesn't pump as efficiently as it should. The problem appears to be the result of a child's immune system going into overdrive after a COVID-19 infection.

Many, but not all, children with the condition have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. At a news conference with Westchester County, New York, officials on Friday, doctors said some children don't develop symptoms until a month after exposure to the virus.

A 14-year-old boy in the U.K. has also died from the inflammatory syndrome. His and other such cases in Europe were detailed in a report published this week in The Lancet.

Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.

Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and "TODAY."

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5-year-old is first child death from COVID-19-related inflammatory syndrome reported in U.S - NBCNews.com

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread, public health and economic well-being are increasingly in conflict. Governments are prioritizing public health, but the current solutionsocial isolationis costly as commerce remains shut down. Restarting economies could rekindle the pandemic and cause even worse human suffering. Innovation can help societies escape the untenable choice between public and economic health. The world needs effective vaccines, therapies, or other solutions. But how do we achieve these solutions, and achieve them quickly?

Innovation policy can accelerate advances, with high returns. In the United States, COVID-19 has reduced gross domestic product (GDP) by 30%. What if additional investment in research and development (R&D) could bring forward an effective vaccine by just 1 day? If this investment costs less than the daily loss in GDP ($18 billion in the United States alone), it would pay for itself. Even large incremental funding to support R&D will be miniscule in scale compared to the $2.8 trillion the U.S. government is spending to compensate for the economic shutdown.

What principles should guide government innovation policy to battle COVID-19? It is critical to support many independent avenues of research. Outcomes from R&D investments are uncertain. Many avenues will be dead ends, so many different pathseach corresponding to an independent effortshould be pursued. Consider funding 10,000 such efforts. Even if each had only a 0.1% chance of producing an advance in prevention, treatment, or infection control, the probability of at least five such advances would be 97%. By contrast, if efforts crowd into only a few prospects, the odds of collective failure can become overwhelming.

This innovative push must draw widely on talent. Research talent is plentiful, but many laboratories and teams are now shuttered and dispersed by the pandemic. Private investment gravitates toward marketable solutions, but key insights are likely to come from asking why questions (for example, basic research into the pathophysiology of the disease) and not simply from shovel ready drug development projects. Moreover, good ideas often come from unexpected corners. Useful solutions may be discovered outside biomedicine, including through engineering disciplines and information technology.

What would a bold innovation policy agenda look like? In the United States, funding for R&D must be fortified, as recently called for by the Task Force on American Innovation and 17 other organizations. Also, a principal investigator already receiving public funding should be able to receive immediate support to work on COVID-19 with minimal application burden and decisions within 1 week. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has taken some first steps with emergency procedures to supplement existing grants, but these efforts need to draw on additional labs and talent, and to accelerate review. The marginal investment through the NIH, at $3 billion, appears modest in size, equating to the U.S. GDP loss in just 4 hours. Globally, researchers with relevant expertise are essential workers; they should have access to their labs and additional resources to engage in the COVID-19 battle.

Government support for private sector R&D should be delivered at great speed. A Pandemic R&D Program could deploy loans that are forgivable later, based on actual investment in COVID-19related innovations, thus ensuring that financial constraints do not slow down solutions. More support could come through supplementing the R&D tax credit system, which already exists in the United States and other countries.

In June 1940, the U.S. government created the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), composed of eminent scientists and innovators in the public and private sectors, with the mandate to achieve innovations related to the war effort. This leadership structure drove the rapid development of numerous technologies, including weapons systems but also antimalarial drugs and penicillin manufacturing. A COVID-19 Defense Research Committee could similarly be empowered to coordinate and fund solutions to the pandemic. This group would track R&D efforts, create a public clearinghouse documenting the avenues pursued, fund innovations and the scaling of successful advances, and streamline bureaucracy. The new vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed, moves in this direction. But we also need efforts beyond vaccines.

COVID-19 presents the world with a brutal choice between economic and public health. Innovation investments are essential to avoiding that choiceyet tiny in cost compared to current economic losses and other emergency programs. Even the slight acceleration of advances will bring massive benefits.

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Beat COVID-19 through innovation - Science Magazine

The condition, which has been found in children who test positive for coronavirus, causes potentially deadly symptoms.

SEATTLE A potentially deadly new illness thought to be linked to the coronavirus is impacting children.

The condition is rare but has been seen in seven states, including Washington state.

We assumed our son had allergies because he had a little bit of itchy eyes and you know, just felt a little punky, said Theresa Lawson.

Her 13-year-old son Anthony started feeling sick a week ago with itchy eyes, a low-grade fever, dizziness, a headache and a rash.

He tested negative for the coronavirus at urgent care and told it was probably an allergic reaction.

But his symptoms went from mild to deadly in a matter of days.

He was now having problem breathing, we couldnt get any kind of oxygen reading on him. His lips had turned bright red, his eyes, all the whites of his eyes were solid red. His fingernails started to turn blue, Lawson said.

They rushed him to the emergency room, and he was then transferred to Seattle Childrens Hospital.

We met him in the cardiac ICU where we were told he was in the middle of heart failure, which came as an absolute shock to my husband and I because just a couple of days ago hes healthy and everything is fine, Lawson said.

According to Lawson, she was told by doctors that her sons organs were failing.

They ended up taking a blood test, Lawson said, That blood test came back positive for the COVID-19 antibodies, which at that moment was confirmation that he had in fact been infected at some point.

Children presenting with a symptom of shock where their heart function is poor, and their blood pressure is low, they have to receive medication to maintain their blood pressure, they need to be on a ventilator to support them, said Dr. Michael Portman.

Dr. Portman is a cardiologist at Seattle Childrens Hospital and the Director of theKawasaki Disease Clinic, a disease that doctors say is very similar to this new COVID-19 linked illness.

Both these illnesses, the COVID-related illness as well as the Kawasaki disease are some sort of inflammatory illness. And we know that Kawasaki Disease, theres some sort of environmental trigger, it might be a virus, and it causes a hyperimmune response in children, Dr. Portman said.

Lawson said her sons doctors do not believe Anthony has Kawasaki Disease.

Dr. Portman said since the illnesses are similar, they have noticed a link in treatments.

This is obviously still evolving that one of the treatments which is intravenous gamma globulin seems to help the patients with this new syndrome. This is the primary treatment for Kawasaki disease, Dr. Portman said.

Dr. Portman said this illness is still very rare but its important to look out for the signs and symptoms.

If their child has persistent fever for four or five days, they should not assume that its just the COVID or another virus and its going to go away, he explained, Fever persistence for five days, especially if it includes any of those symptoms needs to be evaluated so we can make sure that nothing more serious is going on.

Lawson shared a similar sentiment.

Weve heard a lot of other parents say, well were afraid to go to the hospital because if our kid isnt sick we worry that they might get sick, and I think that is a really dangerous game to play with your childrens lives or anyone elses lives, she said. Dont let your fear of they might it, keep you from going in. if something doesnt seem right, go in let somebody take a look at them.

Lawson said her son is starting to show signs of improvement, but that hes not out of the woods just yet.

Im happy to say that our son, although still in the ICU is in far, far better condition than he was when he came in here. We are hesitant to you know, 100% feel relief because we truly dont know yet what has caused this, Lawson said.

Lawson added, support from the community helped them persevere in one of the scariest moments of her familys life.

We have been so blessed by so many people who have heard about this through friends and family who have sent messages of support. When things were really tough for us, that got us through. So, we were just very grateful, she said.

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Teen in Seattle Children's ICU for rare illness linked to COVID-19 - KING5.com

A medical worker walks in front of Transform MD Medical Center in White Plains, N.Y., where antibody testing was being offered. Pablo Monsalve/VIEW press/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

A medical worker walks in front of Transform MD Medical Center in White Plains, N.Y., where antibody testing was being offered.

Most people infected with the novel coronavirus develop antibodies in response.

But scientists don't know whether people who have been exposed to the coronavirus will be immune for life, as is usually the case for the measles, or if the disease will return again and again, like the common cold.

"This to me is one of the big unanswered questions that we have," says Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, "because it really says, 'What is the full exit strategy to this and how long are we going to be contending with it?' "

He's one of many scientists on a quest for answers. And the pieces are starting to fall into place.

Antibodies, which are proteins found in the blood as part of the body's immune response to infection, are a sign that people could be developing immunity. But antibodies are by no means a guarantee a person will be protected for life or even for a year.

Shaman has been studying four coronaviruses that cause the common cold. "They're very common and so people seem to get them quite often," Shaman says. Ninety percent of people develop antibodies to those viruses, at least in passing, but "our evidence is those antibodies are not conferring protection."

That may be simply because colds are relatively mild, so the immune system doesn't mount a full-blown response, suggests Stanley Perlman, a pediatrician who studies immunology and microbiology at the University of Iowa. "That's why people get colds over and over again," he says. "It doesn't really tickle the immune response that much."

He's studied one of the most severe coronaviruses, the one that causes SARS, and he's found that the degree of immunity depended on the severity of the disease. Sicker people remained immune for much longer, in some cases many years.

For most people exposed to the novel coronavirus, "I think in the short term you're going to get some protection," Perlman says. "It's really the time of the protection that matters."

Perlman notes that for some people the symptoms of COVID-19 are no worse than a cold, while for others they are severe. "That's why it's tricky," he says, to predict the breadth of an immune response.

And it's risky to assume that experiences with other coronaviruses are directly applicable to the new one.

"Unfortunately, we cannot really generalize what kind of immunity is needed to get protection against a virus unless we really learn more about the virus," says Akiko Iwasaki, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Yale University School of Medicine.

An immunobiologist, she is part of a rapidly expanding effort to figure this out. She and her colleagues are already studying the immune response in more than 100 patients in the medical school hospital. She's encouraged that most people who recover from the coronavirus have developed antibodies that neutralize the coronavirus in a petri dish.

"Whether that's happening inside the body we don't really know," she cautions.

Research like hers will answer that question, eventually.

But not all antibodies are protective. Iwasaki says some can actually contribute to the disease process and make the illness worse. These antibodies can contribute to inflammation and lead the body to overreact. That overreaction can even be deadly.

"Which types of antibodies protect the host versus those that enhance the disease? We really need to figure that out," she says.

The studies at Yale will follow patients for at least a year, to find out how slowly or quickly immunity might fade. "I wish there was a shortcut," Iwasaki says, "but we may not need to wait a year to understand what type of antibodies are protective."

That's because she and other immunologists are looking for patterns in the immune response that will identify people who have long-term immunity.

Researchers long ago figured out what biological features in the blood (called biomarkers) correlate with immunity to other diseases, says Kari Nadeau, a pediatrician and immunologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She expects researchers will be able to do the same for the new coronavirus.

Nadeau is working on several studies, including one that seeks to recruit 1,000 people who were previously exposed to the coronavirus. One goal is to identify people who produce especially strong, protective antibody responses. She says the antibody-producing cells from those people can potentially be turned into vaccines.

Another critical question she's zeroing in on is whether people who become immune are still capable of spreading the virus.

"Because you might be immune, you might have protected yourself against the virus," she says, "but it still might be in your body and you're giving it to others."

It would have huge public health implications if it turns out people can still spread the disease after they've recovered. Studies from China and South Korea seemed to suggest this was possible, though further studies have cast doubt on that as a significant feature of the disease.

Nadeau is also trying to figure out what can be said about the antibody blood-tests that are now starting to flood the market. There are two issues with these tests. First, a positive test may be a false-positive result, so it may be necessary to run a confirmatory test to get a credible answer. Second, it's not clear that a true positive test result really indicates a person is immune and, if so, for how long.

Companies would like to be able to use these tests to identify people who can return to work without fear of spreading the coronavirus.

"I see a lot of business people wanting to do the best for their employees, and for good reason," Nadeau says. "And we can never say you're fully protected until we get enough [information]. But right now we're working hard to get the numbers we need to be able to see what constitutes protection and what does not."

It could be a matter of life or death to get this right. Answers to these questions are likely to come with the accumulation of information from many different labs. Fortunately, scientists around the world are working simultaneously to find answers.

You can contact NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris at rharris@npr.org.

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Do Antibodies Against The Novel Coronavirus Prevent Reinfection? : Shots - Health News - NPR