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Here are the stories of coronavirus that Medscape editors around the world think you need to know today:
Comparison with influenza 1918
A comparison of excessive deaths in New York City during the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak with excessive deaths from the height of the 191 H1N1 impact in the city found that the two pandemics “in the same ballpark, “said study author Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
Faust and colleagues took mortality data for the peak months of each New York City pandemic and compared the number of deaths above what would normally be expected for that period based on previous years. The mortality rate per 100,000 people in a month was 287.17 in the 1918 impact pandemic, and 202.08 in the spring COVID-19 rise.
But because death rates have halved with medical advances, the relative increase in deaths during the COVID-19 outbreak was substantially greater than the rate in the 1918 pandemic.
Secondary transfer
The risk of secondary transmission is less than 4% overall among close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19 and varies by institution and disease severely, according to a contact tracking report in Guangzhou, China.
The risk of secondary infection for 3410 close contacts of 391 COVID-19 index cases was highest for domestic contacts, at 10%, followed by those exposed in health care settings, at 1%, and on public transport, at 0.1%.
Repurposed Drug News
Accumulating observational data suggest that metformin use in patients with type 2 diabetes may reduce the risk of COVID-19 death, but the randomized trials needed to prove this have probably not been performed, according to experts.
In one recent study that has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers found that, among more than 600 patients with diabetes and COVID-19, metformin use was associated with an almost 70% reduction in mortality after adjustment for multiple confounders .
“Metformin users, however, tend to do better in many different settings with respect to many different outcomes,” said one expert. “To me, it’s still unclear whether metformin is really a miracle cure or whether it’s just used more often among people who are healthier and who have no contraindications to its use.”
In related news, doctors from University College London suggested The Lancet Rheumatology that B-cell depletion with rituximab may benefit certain patients with severe COVID-19, targeting chronic adaptive host responses such as inflammatory lung complications persisting above acute infection. They demanded more research into the possibility.
Sick HCWs with COVID feelings pressure to work
Hospitals, clinics, and other health care facilities have put pressure on workers who contract COVID-19 to work back sooner than public health standards suggest it is safe for them, their colleagues, or their patients, Kaiser Health News reports.
Some employers have failed to provide adequately paid leave, as one in the case, so workers felt they had to return to work – even with coughs and possibly infections – instead of forgetting the benefits they needed.
The dilemma also strains health professionals’ sense of professional responsibility, knowing that they can become vectors that spread contagious diseases to the patients they are meant to cure.
Pandemic bad behavior
Rule-breaking is not a new phenomenon, but behavioral scientists say it is exacerbated in the COVID-19 pandemic by cultural, demographic and psychological factors.
Reuters rounded up some questions and answers about the science of human behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as individualism vs collectivism.
Trending clinical topic: COVID-linked depression
As the pandemic continues, the concerns about suffering effects of mental health will only increase. A focus on mood swings made in particular COVID-linked depression this top trending clinical topic this week.
The week that was not
This week in COVID-19 news, scientists tested how well various face coverings, including a neck gaiter, blocked respiratory droplets from the wearer’s mouth and nose were discovered, authorities discovered SARS-CoV-2 genetic material on frozen cock wings , and researchers described a nasal spray they say they can block viral infection. But you have not seen these headers in Medscape. Here’s why.
In memoiriam
When healthcare workers 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 before Forbes, de Wall Street Journal, en Natural medicine. She is reachable at [email protected] as on Twitter @ellie_kincaid .
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