The Count

Research News

A newly approved test kit from Abbot may allow for essential widespread testing and an innovative testing scheme would group samples to conserve resources. Descriptions of early experience in Seattle demonstrates the devastating effect on the elderly and those with diabetes and other chronic diseases. Epidemiological studies suggest the disease in China was more widespread initially than reported data would imply and a study of outbreaks around the world gives evidence that warmer summer temperatures will slow spread.

• The FDA approves rapid test for Covid-19 virus which provides results in 15 minutes. Abbot Labs plans to produce 50,000 tests this week.
• Researchers at Stanford, Google, and Oracle proposed an innovative testing scheme that conserves testing resources by testing groups of samples and only testing individuals if the group test is positive. Given the low frequency of positive tests that could be a way to conduct essential widespread population testing while conserving test kits.
• Early ICU hospitalizations in Seattle had extremely high rates of diabetes (58%) and kidney disease (21%). Half died in hospital and 7 of 24 remain hospitalized. The focus of the original outbreak was a skilled nursing facility, where 101 patients, 50 staff, and 16 visitors developed confirmed infections. Deaths occurred in 34 patients, 0 staff and one visitor.
• Data from China suggest that the first cases detected were primarily in older patients and did not fully reflect the cases present in the population, because younger cases were not initially reported.
• A Spanish researcherhas analyzed the impact of average outdoor temperature on the rate of increase in cases and found that the exponent for the equation describing the growth in the number of cases had a peak around 10 degrees Celsius with less spread at lower and higher temperatures. This suggests the disease will abate somewhat as temperatures rise with the approach of summer..
• An uncontrolled trial of five ICU patients showed some improvement after they were treated with serum from recovered patients, but the fact that there were no controls and the patients were all under 65 means no conclusions can be drawn about the efficacy of this procedure.
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• Research in the Time of Covid19: A Cautionary Tale Papers are being released, dissected, and discussed by thousands of readers before they are even peer-reviewed. By the time they are actually published, perhaps a week later, they are old news in the research community. The result of this is a flood of conflicting findings based on a trickle of incomplete data that unleashes debates with major implications.
• To Mask or Not to Mask The news media, with its love of contests, seems to have cast the question of wearing masks as a scientific battle for the truth. As is often the case in the science of risk, the answer is more nuanced and won't fit on a bumper sticker.

Covid19- Ground Zero

Ahead of the Curve

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