Editor’s Note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
Here are the stories of coronavirus that Medscape editors around the world think you need to know today:
Immune responses explained
Although reports of weak as well as short-lived anticonvulsant responses in patients with COVID-19 have raised concerns that vaccines are not protective against the virus, says Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, the pattern is exactly as expected.
“That’s not a cause for alarm,” the Yale immunobiologist said. Other parts of a patient’s immune system still remember the virus and are likely to have a robust and protective response when re-exposed.
In an interview with Medscape’s editor-in-chief Eric Topol, MD, and Stanford’s Abraham Verghese, MD, Iwasaki explains a number of aspects of the interaction between the immune system and the virus, including how interferon can work as a very early treatment as post-exposure prophylaxis. how the virus seems to confuse the immune system causing cytokine storms – which could better be called tornadoes than hurricanes – and why men may be more susceptible than women to serious illness.
She also talks about how her lab in the pandemic can continue to work with some extra procedures in place, and whether she will leave her children back to school in a few weeks.
What autopsies revealed
Many hospitals and pathologists, out of fear of infection and insufficient equipment, initially preferred to perform autopsies on those who had died of COVID-19. That logjam has been broken and reports on how the SARS-CoV-2 virus affects the body have yielded both expected and unexpected findings.
“I was amazed at how bad it was,” said Amy Rapkiewicz, MD, chair of the pathology department at NYU Langone Health’s Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, New York, Medscape Medical News . “The degree of respiratory illness was some of the worst I have ever seen,” she said. “It’s a terrible, horrible disease. Every organ in the body is pretty affected.”
More than 2,000 Health Care Workers recall
Just as the global death toll from COVID-19 climbs to flashy new heights – now more than 794,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker – so is the number of those lost to the front lines trying to help those.
Medscape has compiled a list in memoriam of fallen health care workers worldwide with information from friends, colleagues and families who have shared details about those who have died. (You can submit information using this form.)
The list includes doctors, nurses, first responders, therapists, pharmacists, medical researchers, technicians, staff and practitioners of all kinds.
As of August 18, the list, although incomplete, included more than 2,000 names, 386 from the United States. The list includes workers from 74 countries. The youngest is 21, the oldest, 99.
CDC: Influenza vaccination critical during pandemic
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asks all individuals who are without contraindications to receive the impact of the flu for the 2020-2021 flu season. Reducing the prevalence of influenza by vaccination will reduce symptoms that can be confused with COVID-19, CDC experts write, as well as reduce stress on the U.S. health care system from hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units.
Experience of hospitalists as working parents during pandemic
In the week of March 13, Heather Nye, MD, PhD, SFHM, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, received word that schools were closed due to COVID-19.
“My first thought was,‘ You’re making a joke, right? ’” She said. That was the beginning of a series of reactions that included denial and negotiation and, ultimately, some semblance of acceptance.
In a session at HM20 Virtual, hosted by the Society of Hospital Medicine, she and David J. Alfandre, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at New York University Langone, described the complex logistics and emotional and psychological stress that came out of work at a time of such great need for health care while balancing the responsibilities of home and parents.
Supporting survivors of intimate-partner violence
Concerns about domestic violence have increased during the pandemic, and health care providers may offer several avenues of support, a group of doctors for women and adolescents writes in the journal Pediatrics .
Typically, those who experience violence with intimate partners may seek refuge through their workplace, activities outside the home, or trusted family and friends, but these options are limited during the pandemic. Physicians can check on privacy during visits to telehealth, validate their patients’ concerns and share resource lists.
The week that was not
This week in COVID-19 news, scientists said they confirm a link between moisture and SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and the use of face shields seems to be eliminating infections among community health workers in India. But you have not seen these headers on Medscape. Here’s why.
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 can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ellie_kincaid.
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