Lunchtime pandemic reading.
Standard disclaimer: this is a roundup of informative pieces I've read that interest me on the severity of the crisis and how to manage it. I am not a qualified medical expert in ANY sense; at best I am reasonably well-read laity. ALWAYS prioritize advice from qualified healthcare experts over some person on Facebook.
This is also available as an email newsletter at https://lunchtimepandemic.substack.com if you prefer the update in your inbox.
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Unemployment's official numbers for the US are 14.7% for April. "A more encompassing measure that includes those not looking for work as well as those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons also hit an all-time high of 22.8%. That reading may be a more accurate picture of the current jobs situation as millions of workers are being paid to stay home and thus not willing or able to look for new jobs. Its previous worst level was 17.2% in April 2010. The unprecedented jump in joblessness came largely due to part-time layoffs. Those who said they lost their jobs temporarily surged tenfold to 18.1 million, while those reporting permanent losses more than tripled, from 544,000 to 2 million."
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/08/jobs-report-april-2020.html
The silver lining, such as it is, is that the job losses came from part-time layoffs, meaning that the layoffs are cited as temporary. As the economy slowly restarts, expect to see some of those jobs begin to come back.
As stated in yesterday's newsletter, be sure you're working in your personal network to connect people to opportunities. Hiring IS still happening.
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More returns on data about hydroxychloroquine, this time from NIH via NEJM. "Clinical guidance at our medical center has been updated to remove the suggestion that patients with Covid-19 be treated with hydroxychloroquine. In our analysis involving a large sample of consecutive patients who had been hospitalized with Covid-19, hydroxychloroquine use was not associated with a significantly higher or lower risk of intubation or death (hazard ratio, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.82 to 1.32). The study results should not be taken to rule out either benefit or harm of hydroxychloroquine treatment, given the observational design and the 95% confidence interval, but the results do not support the use of hydroxychloroquine at present, outside randomized clinical trials testing its efficacy."
Source: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2012410
At this point, we've now got clinical evidence that hydroxychloroquine is not supported in the treatment of COVID-19.
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A new study from the Lancet emphasizes that people should not fear going to healthcare facilities for treatment of any serious healthcare issue. "Taken together, these data suggest that the rate of asymptomatic infection among HCWs more likely reflects general community transmission than in-hospital exposure. Prospective patients should be reassured that as the overall epidemic wave recedes, asymptomatic infection among HCWs is low and unlikely to be a major source of transmission. These data reinforce the importance of epidemic multi-timepoint surveillance of HCWs. The data also suggest that a testing strategy should link population-representative epidemiological surveillance to predict prevalence, with adaptive testing for symptomatic individuals at times of low prevalence, and rapidly expanding to include the asymptomatic HCWs during possible new infection waves."
Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31100-4/fulltext
As long as a robust testing plan is in place, and standard precautions are taken (masks and gloves for patients, medical PPE for providers), then medical care isn't any more dangerous than community transmission (i.e. from someone else at the grocery store, for example) and people who have serious medical needs should NOT avoid seeking care. Make sure you communicate this to your loved ones - staying away from necessary medical care is a bad idea.
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Another study in the Lancet confirms that vertical transmission (mother to unborn child) of COVID19 does not seem to be the case. "The studies published thus far have not shown vertical transmission and the mode of transmission in our case is most likely to be horizontal. Histological and microbiological analysis of the placenta is currently in process; however, maternal breastmilk tested negative, presumably excluding breastfeeding as the route of transmission."
Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30140-1/fulltext
This confirms previous studies showing that to the extent infants get infected, it's from standard forms of transmission like an infected person in their airspace, as opposed to contracting the disease directly from the mother's bodily fluids or placental barrier.
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A reminder of the simple daily habits we should all be taking.
1. Wash/sanitize your hands every time you are in or out of your home for any reason. Consider also spraying the bottoms of your shoes with a general disinfectant (alcohol/bleach/peroxide) when you return home.
2. Wear gloves and a mask when out of your home.
3. Stay home as much as possible.
4. Get your personal finances in order now. Cut all unnecessary costs.
5. Donate any PPE you can. https://getusppe.org/give/
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Common misinformation debunked!
There is no genomic evidence at all that COVID-19 arrived before 2020 in the United States and therefore no hidden herd immunity:
Source:
There is no evidence SARS-CoV-2 was engineered, nor that it escaped a lab somewhere.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/01/29/experts-debunk-fringe-theory-linking-chinas-coronavirus-weapons-research/
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd/
There is no evidence a flu shot increases your COVID-19 risk.
Source: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/no-evidence-that-flu-shot-increases-risk-of-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR1BsCnM8EzQkjPCOeyJO00xeOkzBPTlNSNdewV_0WBtDUbRBRizNrgljxg