The Count

Region	Cases	Deaths
World	13,082,759	572,553
US	3,416,082	137,803

Counter-Intelligence: COVID-19 is not 99% harmless Reducing the pandemic to two numbers conveys the subliminal message that the only really bad outcome is death. It opens the door for the President to suggest that 99% of cases are "totally harmless". That's a bit like assessing the severity of the weather by counting tornadoes.

Research News

The major genetic risk factor for COVID-19 originated from Neanderthals. Note also that blood type does NOT appear to be associated with elevated risk Data on 3,199 hospitalized patients from the COVID 19 Host Genetics Initiative demonstrated that the risk of COVID-19 increases with the presence of a single gene on chromosome 3 inherited from Neanderthals. It is notable that this gene is more common in India, Europe and the Americas and less common in Africa and Southeast Asia. The study finds no evidence of an elevated risk with the gene on chromosome 9, associated with ABO blood type.

Two papers suggest that the specific D614G spike mutation enhances infectivity of SARS-CoV-2.> > Researchers at Mt Sinai and NYU found that COVID-19 patients with the D614G genotype had higher viral load and great case fatality. The variant was more resistant to proteolytic cleavage. A team at Chongquin Medical University found that, although both the D614G variant and the G614G variant were susceptible to serum from convalescent patients, the D614G variant was actually more susceptible to this treatment modality.

Initial viral load of SARS-CoV-2 predicts disease severity* A Chinese study of 195 COVID-19 patients found that viral load on admission rose steadily across 4 categories of disease severity.

Loss of sense of smell and taste has low testing rate and high positive test rate Only a third of patients presenting to Emergency Departments in New York City with anosmia or dysgeusia were tested for SARS-CoV-2, but 72% of those tests were positive.Of those who tested positive, 37% had no other symptoms for COVID-19. Patients presenting with loss of taste or smell should be uniformly tested for SARS-CoV-2.

Community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the US was well established and widespread by February 2020 A model developed by a multi-institutional team suggests that air travel played a key role in the timing and extent of COVID-19 and that the virus may have been present in the US as early as December of 2019.

Mainstream and social media contained minimal Public Health messaging in early stages of the pandemic An analysis of messages and posts from early March found a limited presence of accurate public health messages. All media outlets should be actively collaborating with the public health community to put out vital public health information.

Restaurant Closures have brought out the rats A study conducted in Tokyo and Japan found that populations that depend on food discarded by restaurants have lost a key source of food during the pandemic forcing them out to forage for food elsewhere.

The empty middle seat cuts the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection during airplane travel in half. A model of viral transmission on a hypothetical commercial airline flight from New York to Dallas aboard a 737 size airplane estimates 1/4,300 risk on a full US flight, which drops to 1/7,700 risk if the middle seats are left empty. Note that these risks would rise for a longer flight and for current, higher disease rates (The model was based on COVID-19 prevalence on 6/30). They would also change for the style of plane. They did not consider location dependent risk (i.e, aisle vs window or front vs rear of the plane.

Patients with weak antibody response are more likely to be readmitted for COVID-19 A detailed study of antibody levels in a group of 15 Chinese patients readmitted for COVID-19 after repeated negative tests and hospital discharge had significantly weaker initial antibody response, a lower ratio of IgM/IgG, and longer initial hospital stay as compared to patients not readmitted.

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*peer reviewed.