Here are the stories of coronavirus that Medscape editors around the world think you need to know today.
# 3 Cause of Death
More than 170,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University data, making it the third leading cause of death in the country, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden, MD, told CNN.
“COVID is now the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S. – ahead of accidents, injuries, lung disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and many, many other causes,” Frieden said.
In 2017, the most recent year for which public data is available, nearly 170,000 Americans died from accidents and unintentional injuries, 160,000 died from chronic lower respiratory disease, 146,000 died from stroke and cerebrovascular disease, 121,000 died from Alzheimer’s disease, 83,000 died from diabetes, and 55,000 died from influenza and pneumonia. The top two causes of death were heart disease, with nearly 650,000 dead, and cancer, which killed nearly 600,000.
Mutation spread
A particular strain of SARS-CoV-2 has reached Southeast Asia. Scientists have found the strain, called D614G, in the Philippines, in recent outbreaks in China, and in a Malaysian cluster of 45 cases that came from someone who had traveled to India and who did not return in quarantine rules.
The D614G variant is the most common word worldwide, according to a research report published in the World Health Organization (WHO) in June. So far, the WHO has said that there is no evidence that the mutation has made the virus more infectious than that it leads to more serious illness. Scientists are investigating these questions, but the answers are not yet clear.
Evidence for thyroid effects
Rates of thyrotoxicosis are significantly higher among patients who are critically ill with COVID-19 than among patients who are critically ill but do not have COVID-19, suggesting an atypical form of thyroiditis associated with the new coronavirus infection, according to new research.
The study did not find that thyroid disorders increase the risk of developing COVID-19.
“This study involves at least six others who have reported a clinical presentation similar to subacute thyroiditis in critically ill patients with COVID-19,” said one expert who was not involved in the study.
HCQ and COVID-19: A magazine is stung, and snapped back
Two scientists have submitted an article entitled “SARS-CoV-2 was unexpectedly more lethal than push-scooters: could hydroxychloroquine be the unique solution?” to the Asian Journal of Medicine and Health, which she and others suspect of a predatory publication, as a sting to see if the magazine would take her money and publish the article she wrote as a joke.
Their purpose: to highlight a related article that the magazine had previously published entitled “Azithromycin and Hydroxychloroquine Accelerate Recovery of Outpatients With Mild / Moderate COVID-19,” whose authors included several hydroxychloroquine partisans, including a member of the French parliament.
It worked, Watch Back reports. “The aim was indeed to draw attention to predatory journals and also to the scientists who use these methods to make the general public believe that their studies are serious because they are published,” said one of the authors.
Las Vegas is “Gambling with Life”
Casinos in Las Vegas, which reopened on June 4, are a likely hotbed for the spread of COVID-19, ProPublica reports. An analysis of mobile phone data, conducted for the news organization, demonstrated how visitors to Las Vegas in one period of 4 days in mid-July returned the country to every state in the lower 48 except Maine.
Contact tracking is hard enough, but it is next to impossible for tourists to return to homes across the country if the local health agencies that detect contacts do not communicate with each other. If a cluster outbreak like a superspreading event occurred among visitors to a casino, it is likely that contact person will catch it, said one expert.
Casinos also combine multiple factors which make them locations with high risks for the spread of COVID-19: They are inside, are often full, and are often full of people who are envious of taking risks.
In memoiriam
As frontline healthcare professionals care for patients with COVID-19, they commit to cumbersome, dehydrating work and also put themselves at risk for infection. Thousands all over the world have died.
Medscape has published a to-do list to remember them. We will continue to update this list as, sadly, necessary. Please help us ensure that this list is complete by submitting names with an age, occupation or specialty, and location via this form.
If you want to share other experiences, stories or concerns related to the pandemic, join the conversation here.
Ellie Kincaid is the associate managing editor of Medscape. She has previously written about health care for Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and Nature Medicine. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ellie_kincaid.
Follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Do you have a tip for us? Contact us.
.
