A: Hey great job! All the hard work we have done to cooperate on social distancing really is working! In many areas the new case counts are starting to flatten or even fall. So you might be wondering–now what? Can we all go back to normal? Short answer: several things need to fall into place Read more…
A: Proning refers to putting patients on their stomachs rather than their backs. It helps with getting oxygen to the patients’ lungs. Link to CNN Article on Proning Link to original FB post
A: All three types of infected individuals may be able to transmit coronavirus to others without realizing they themselves have been infected. ASYMPTOMATIC individuals are those that carry the active virus in their body but never develop any symptoms. PRE-SYMPTOMATIC individuals are those that have been infected with the virus but haven’t started to show Read more…
A: CDC recommends your cloth mask: -fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face -be secured with ties or ear loops -include multiple layers of fabric -allow for breathing without restriction -be able to be laundered and machine dried without damage or change to shape Most importantly, cloth masks are to be worn Read more…
Bona fide nerdy girl & Dear Pandemic contributor Malia Jones was on a panel about UW-Madison’s rapid scientific response to COVID-19, hosted by the UW-Madison Discovery Building. It will be the first in a series of COVID lectures from the Crossroads of Ideas lecture series. And this is the first time they’ve gone online! Watch Read more…
A: Bracingly, the IMF projects the deepest recession since the Great Depression — and urges countries to stay the course on social distancing to stop virus spread. This quote sums it up well: “There is no trade-off between saving lives and saving livelihoods,” the report states. Read more take-aways here. Link to original FB post
Q: Will opening up contribute to second wave of disease? A: One of our most trusted scientific sources Marc Lipsitch answers the tough questions. Link to original FB post
A: No! According to food scientist Dr. Donald Schaffer, the greater infection risk is “standing next to that person at the apple bin.” More great food safety info in this Consumer Reports article. H/T Claire Grosel and Haylle Reidy Link to original FB post
A: This is a tricky one. Scientists are currently examining blood serum of individuals who have tested positive for Covid-19 to study their immune system response. At the moment, there are more questions than answers. Here are a few highlights about immunity and an article summarizing the challenges around determining how infection with Covid-19 or Read more…
A: You are not alone. More than 20% of new mothers experience a perinatal mood and/or anxiety disorder. Increasing evidence from top journals such as the Lancet are telling us that the effects of COVID-19 isolation policies are influencing our mental health, regardless of whether we had any mental health issues prior to this crisis. Read more…
A: So much no. No, no, nopeity nope. It’s very tempting to Monday morning quarterback the decisions that cities and states have made over the past few weeks, and the recommendations from the CDC. The physical distancing measures, the school closures and the near total shut-down of the economy feel extreme, particularly given some glimmers Read more…
“Four key measures, on top of treating the ill and maintaining physical distancing, must be in place not just to slow the rise of Covid-19 cases, but also to bend the curve downward. These are: test widely, isolate the infected, trace the contacts of those infected and quarantine appropriately.” Links: The New York Times Original Read more…
A: Definitely not positive psychology! The positivity rate is simply the fraction of people who test positive for COVID-19 out of all the people who get tested. It is important because it is a rough indicator of how much of the true extent of COVID-19 infection is being detected and diagnosed. In other words, a Read more…
A: Small gatherings of any size are highly discouraged. A recent publication by the CDC outlines the sequence of infections (contact tracing) among a cluster of Covid-19 infections in Chicago following a funeral and a birthday party. One positive individual attended both events and subsequently infected *15* family and friends, not counting asymptomatic carriers and Read more…
A: A toilet plume occurs when droplets of feces or urine escape during a toilet flush into the air. COVID-19 may spread through fecal-oral transmission, which means you don’t want any part of that toilet plume. One study estimates that a single open flush can emit up to 80,000 droplets into the air. Covering the Read more…
A: Hard pass. Epidemiologist Greta Bauer explains why intentional infection is a *very* bad idea in this informative NYTimes write-up. Highlights: Even “mild” cases aren’t so mild; intentional infection is NOT an effective shortcut to herd immunity. Link to original FB post
A: By some measures, yes it is. When one of your friendly resident Nerdy Girls saw this tweet from Andy Slavitt earlier today: “The daily CV death toll has surpassed everything else,” she wondered, can this possibly be true? Well, it turns out that over the past few weeks, COVID-19 has charged up the list Read more…
A: In sum, contact tracing helps us identify people who have been in close contact with a person infected with the virus by 1) Identifying the contacts; 2) Listing the contacts and recommending self-isolation or quarantine; and 3) Following up with contacts to assess for symptoms of illness. This is critical because it helps limit Read more…
A: Sampling sewage (!) and/or a small number of randomly selected individuals Testing wastewater (aka sewage) is a validated monitoring tool for opioid misuse and antibiotic resistance, and new evidence is demonstrating its effectiveness for detecting the coronavirus. Utah and Ohio are examples of states rolling out individual-level random sampling on a small subset of Read more…
A: The latest news is good news for those worried about kids: The chances of being hospitalized and ending up in intensive care are much lower — by an order of magnitude — for children <18 years old compared to those 18-64. Here’s the core nugget of results from the study as reported by NPR: Read more…
