I got a nice acrylic shield from Esty from a plastic manufacturer for like $140. It’s a large size and got it in like 5 days. Really nicely done… If you need info… Pm me.
Covid-19 might affect hearing too, a small study shows 
Some coronavirus survivors have been experiencing hearing problems that lasted until long after they had been released from hospital, a small study has revealed.
Audiologists at the University of Manchester surveyed 121 adults who had been hospitalized with Covid-19 eight weeks after they were released.
When asked about changes to their hearing, 16 people reported their hearing was worse. Eight reported deterioration in hearing and another eight reported tinnitus – hearing noises that are not caused by an outside source.
The researchers said the results, published in a letter to the International Journal of Audiology, add more anecdotal evidence to our understanding of the long-term effects of coronavirus on health.
Kevin Munro, professor of audiology and the Hearing Health Theme Lead at the Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, said scientists already knew that other viruses such as measles, mumps and meningitis can cause hearing loss and that coronaviruses can damage the nerves that carry information to and from the brain.
“It is possible, in theory, that Covid-19 could cause problems with parts of the auditory system including the middle ear or cochlea," he said.
Here is a page showing various seroprevalence results:
NYC 4/25-5/6 was the highest at 23.2%, but no other seroprevalence study found more than 5.8% with COVID-19 antibodies.
I like what Dr Scott Gottlieb had to say. Among others, he said we are finding good place to deal with the virus without needing to lockdown totally, take precautions and avoid extreme behavior.
I read that same interview and do not come out of it with nearly the same optimistic view. In fact, I felt the opposite. Over a thousand Americans are dying every day, and nothing Gottlieb said makes me believe he thinks that is going to decline any time soon.
He says that if a state gets the infection level down to where Connecticut is now, and keeps bars, restaurants and certain other indoor venues closed, and has good mask adherence, “Is that combination of masks with some targeted mitigation enough to keep the virus out? We certainly hope so.” It’s going to be a while before many states are where Connecticut is now, though.
He’s optimistic we’ll have a less bad flu season than we would have had. I guess that’s something, but…
Question What are the cardiovascular effects in unselected patients with recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)?
Findings In this cohort study including 100 patients recently recovered from COVID-19 identified from a COVID-19 test center, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging revealed cardiac involvement in 78 patients (78%) and ongoing myocardial inflammation in 60 patients (60%), which was independent of preexisting conditions, severity and overall course of the acute illness, and the time from the original diagnosis.
Meaning These findings indicate the need for ongoing investigation of the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19.
Unfortunately, the US isn’t doing well on both the testing and tracing front. 
Testing and contact tracing key for reopening schools, two new studies suggest
From CNN’s Jacqueline Howard
As nations around the world grapple with how to safely reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic — or whether to reopen at all — two new studies highlight strategies that could be key in bringing children back to the classroom: scaled-up testing for cases, effective tracing of the contacts of those who test positive, and isolation of those who test positive or have symptoms.
Researchers in Britain found that schools could reopen safely so long as enough contact tracing is in place. Contact tracing strategies involve enough testing to find cases, isolating those people, then tracking down and quarantining their contacts. And a team in Australia found that even though schools remained open in New South Wales between late January and early April, children and teachers did not contribute significantly to the spread of Covid-19 — because good contact tracing and control strategies were in place.
Both studies, published in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health on Monday, aim to help inform global discussions around reopening schools.
The researchers at University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine ran a variety of scenarios to see just how much contact tracing would need to be done for schools to reopen safely.
“Our modelling suggests that with a highly effective test and trace strategy in place across the UK, it is possible for schools to reopen safely in September. However, without sufficient coverage of a test-trace-isolate strategy, the UK risks a serious second epidemic peak either in December or February,” UCL’s Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths, who led the UK study, said in a news release.
Her team’s study suggests that, depending on the scenario, between 59% and 87% of symptomatic people in the community would need to get tested at some point during their infection, their contacts would need to be traced and those with illness would need to be isolated in order to prevent an epidemic rebound.
“It’s important to note that our model looked at the effects of school reopening alongside the loosening of the restrictions across society, as school reopening is likely to go hand in hand with more adults returning to work and other relaxed measures across society,” Griffiths added. “Therefore, our results are reflective of a broader loosening of lockdown, rather than the effects of transmission within schools exclusively, suggesting an effective test–trace–isolate offers a feasible alternative to intermittent lockdown and school closures to control the spread of COVID-19.”
The Australian researchers found that although 27 children or staff at 25 schools and daycares had attended while infectious with Covid-19, only 18 other people later became infected.
Through contact tracing, 1,448 close contacts were identified and called. They were told to get tested if they showed any symptoms. Overall, 633 did get tested. But just 18 of them tested positive — an attack rate of 1.2%.
It’s possible some cases were missed, the researchers said, but they said others can use their studies as they decide whether and how to reopen schools.
Mandating face coverings in public slows Covid-19 case growth rate, research shows
From CNN’s Naomi Thomas
Communities that mandated the use of face masks in public saw an ongoing decline in the spread of coronavirus, but it takes a little time, researchers reported Monday.
Once mask mandates had been in place for about three weeks, the daily growth rate slowed by about 2% on average, researchers reported in the journal Health Affairs.
Their estimates suggest that these percentage decreases could add up. They calculate that between 230,000 and 450,000 Covid-19 cases could have been averted by May 22 by mask mandates.
“One of the most contentious issues being debated worldwide in the response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the value of wearing masks or face coverings in public setting,” wrote the researchers from the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Iowa College of Public Health.
“The study provides evidence that states in the US mandating use of face masks in public had a greater decline in daily Covid-19 growth rates after issuing these mandates compared to states that did not issue mandates,” they added.
“These effects are observed conditional on other existing social distancing measures and are independent of the CDC recommendation to wear facial covers issued on April 3,” they added.
The slowing of the growth rate started within five days. The growth rate slowed by just under 1% after five days of a face covering mandate, they found. After 21 days, growth rates slowed by 2% a day.
Between April 8 and May 15, governors of 15 states and the mayor of Washington, DC, had signed orders that mandate all individuals who are able to medically tolerate face masks do so in public settings. The researchers compared what happened in these states to the spread in states that did not mandate mask use.
These estimates represent nearly 16% to 19% of the total effect of other measures, such as school closures and bans on large gatherings, the researchers found.
It is important to clarify, they say, that “the suggested benefits from mandating face mask use are not substitutes for other social distancing measures and how communities are complying with them.” In communities where masks are required, people may be more likely to follow other recommended measures such as social distancing and hand hygiene.
Indian institute to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials of coronavirus vaccine
From Esha Mitra and Hira Humayun
An Indian institute on Monday received approval from the country’s governmental authority on drugs to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials of a vaccine developed by Oxford University in the UK.
Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune, has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials of the Astra Zeneca Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University, in an attempt to hasten the development of a Covid-19 vaccine in the country, the press information bureau of India said in a release Monday.
The trials will be conducted in August in India, Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of SII, told CNN. The institute intends to get a license for distribution in November to make it available to the world if trials are successful.
SII also has two vaccines it has developed which are currently in the animal trial phases and hopes to get licenses for manufacturing and distribution for them in the third quarter of 2021, Poonawalla said.
“No single company including Serum Institute will be able to produce everything the world needs,” Poonawalla said, adding that pharmaceutical companies will have to share intellectual property to meet the demand for vaccines quicker.
Only 2.5% of Italians have Covid-19 antibodies, government study shows
From CNN’s Livia Borghese in Rome and Mia Alberti in Lisbon
Authorities in Italy have found that only 2.5% of Italians, or 1,482,000 people, have Covid-19 antibodies despite it being one of the countries hardest hit by coronavirus in Europe.
According to the results of a national survey released on Monday, the northern region of Lombardy, the worse-hit by the pandemic, reported the highest number of people with antibodies, 7.5%, while the two main Italian islands, Sicily and Sardinia, had the lowest number of 0.3 % of the population.
“The different results of the survey in the country’s territory are very relevant. This means that the tough and rigorous measure adopted by the central and regionals governments, and the correct behavior of the Italian people avoided a more massive spread of the virus,” Minister of Health Roberto Speranza said during a news conference on Monday.
According to the survey, almost a third of those who tested positive for antibodies were asymptomatic and the most frequent source of infection, in 41.7 % of the cases, is from a relative living in the same house.
The current number of people with antibodies is six times higher than that registered during the pandemic, said Linda Laura Sabbadini, director of the National Institute for Statistics (Istat).
More on the survey: The survey, carried out in collaboration with the Italian Red Cross, between May 25 and July 15, tested blood samples from 64,660 people from 2,000 villages and cities across Italy, split by sex, occupation and age groups. The survey did not include people living in health care facilities.
In May, the government had said the survey would include 150,000 people, but "the health emergency made the survey procedure more complicated,” but still “an incredibly useful source of data,” Sabbadini explained during a press conference.
Eli Lilly moves into late-stage trial of its antibody therapy for Covid-19
From CNN Health’s Jen Christensen
Eli Lilly and Company said Monday it is moving into a Phase 3 clinical trial of its antibody treatment for Covid-19.
The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant said that it plans to recruit 2,400 residents and staff at long-term care facilities for its trial.
Nursing home residents and staff are particularly vulnerable to severe forms of Covid-19. As of July 30, there have been nearly 63,000 deaths in long term care facilities, accounting for at least 44% of total deaths in 43 states, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That percentage is very likely an undercount.
In June, Lilly became the first company in the US to start testing an antibody therapy in humans. LY-CoV555, as it’s called, was created by Lilly in cooperation with AbCellera, from an antibody first identified in a blood sample taken from one of the first US patients to recover from Covid-19.
With this trial, the company will work with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Covid-19 Prevention Network to administer the therapy to residents and staff at several long-term care facilities that have had a recently diagnosed case of Covid-19.
The hope is that this antibody therapy will provide protection, and possibly ease symptoms for those who do get infected.
What are antibodies? Antibodies are proteins the immune system makes naturally to provide the body protection from a virus or toxin. Unlike with a vaccine – which stimulates the body to make these protective antibodies over a couple of weeks – a therapy like this delivers a lab-made antibody that provides protection instantly.
The protection doesn’t last as long as a vaccine would, but if it works, it could be given as a protective treatment every few months.
More about the trial: This trial will determine if a single dose reduces the rate of infection through four weeks. It will also determine if it can reduce complications from Covid-19 for eight weeks.
To help with the trial, Lilly has created custom-made mobile research units to assist long term care facilities conduct these studies. These units will be sent to long-term care facilities throughout the country and will bring a lab, clinical trial supplies and specialized staff on-site, creating an on location infusion clinic.
Lilly has two other ongoing trials in the US with LY-CoV555. The company has finished dosing hospitalized patients in a Phase 1 study, but it continues to follow up with those patients. A Phase 2 study involving people who have been recently diagnosed with Covid-19 is ongoing.
The company says the treatment so far has been “well tolerated” by patients, and there have been no drug-related severe adverse events. How well these therapies work is still to be determined.
90-minute coronavirus tests to be rolled out in UK
From CNN’s Sharon Braithwaite in London
The British government has procured “millions” of two separate coronavirus tests that will be able to detect the virus in 90 minutes, the UK department of health said Monday.
Both tests will be able to detect Covid-19 and other winter viruses such as flu and respiratory syncytial virus in 90 minutes and will not require a clinical setting, the department said in a statement.
The tests will be rolled out in hospitals, care homes and labs across the UK next week.
“We’re using the most innovative technologies available to tackle coronavirus. Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement.
The department of health has said that the tests “will hugely increase testing capacity ahead of winter, delivering fast results that will help to break chains of transmission quickly.”
One test will analyse DNA in nose swabs, and the other will process swab and saliva samples to detect the presence of Covid-19 in 60 to 90 minutes.
Critically ill COVID-19 patients make quick recovery with treatment RLF-100
TEL AVIV — Critically ill COVID-19 patients recovered rapidly from respiratory failure after three days of treatment with RLF-100, a therapy granted fast-track designation in the United States, two drug companies said Sunday.
Geneva-based Relief Therapeutics Holdings AG RFLB.S has a patent for RLF-100, or aviptadil, a synthetic form of a natural peptide that protects the lung. US-Israeli NeuroRx Inc. partnered with Relief to develop the drug in the United States.
In June the US Food and Drug Administration granted fast-track designation to RLF-100 for treatment of respiratory distress in COVID-19.
While a Phase 2/3 clinical trial with 70 patients is ongoing, RLF-100 is being administered on an emergency basis to some patients who are too ill to be admitted to the trial.
The first report of rapid recovery under emergency use was posted by doctors from Houston Methodist Hospital, the companies said in a joint statement.
It said a 54-year-old man who developed COVID-19 while being treated for rejection of a double lung transplant came off a ventilator within four days of treatment with RLF-100.
Similar results were subsequently seen in more than 15 patients treated under emergency use, the companies said.
The two companies also said independent researchers in a biocontainment laboratory in Brazil reported that aviptadil blocked replication of the SARS coronavirus in human lung cells and immune cells.
Scientists Uncover Biological Signatures of the Worst Covid-19 Cases
Studies of patients with severe cases of Covid-19 show the immune system lacks its usual coordinated response.
Scientists are beginning to untangle one of the most complex biological mysteries of the coronavirus pandemic: Why do some people get severely sick, whereas others quickly recover?
In certain patients, according to a flurry of recent studies, the virus appears to make the immune system go haywire.
Unable to marshal the right cells and molecules to fight off the invader, the bodies of the infected instead launch an entire arsenal of weapons — a misguided barrage that can wreak havoc on healthy tissues, experts said.
“We are seeing some crazy things coming up at various stages of infection,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University who led one of the new studies.
Researchers studying these unusual responses are finding patterns that distinguish patients on the path to recovery from those who fare far worse. Insights gleaned from the data might help tailor treatments to individuals, easing symptoms or perhaps even vanquishing the virus before it has a chance to push the immune system too far.
“A lot of these data are telling us that we need to be acting pretty early in this process,” said John Wherry, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who recently published a study of these telltale immune signatures. As more findings come out, researchers may be able to begin testing the idea that “we can change the trajectory of disease,” he said.
Remainder of article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/health/coronavirus-immune-system.html
It’s discoveries like that that truly give me hope for the future with Covid. Thanks for posting!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2588-y
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/07/15/science.abc8511
nature paper for above. AAAS paper.
I have been listing to the JAMA podcasts coronvirus Q&A and they are great. I just listened to a great older episode from the VA.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/pages/covid-19-interviews#top
@BunsenBurner have you had a chance to read about these tests? Wondering what your thoughts are on the accuracy. And why we dont have them yet in the US
…
Seven states have banded together to pursue rapid testing with results in 15-20 minutes. From the Boston Herald:
Massachusetts is among seven states that are entering formal talks with manufacturers with the goal of facilitating rapid point-of-care antigen tests that could more quickly detect COVID-19 outbreaks in workplaces, schools and congregate care settings.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who announced the interstate testing compact Tuesday, negotiated the agreement with the Rockefeller Foundation in his final days as chairman of the National Governors Association. Plans call for each state to purchase 500,000 tests.
“Increasing both testing capacity and access to testing is a critical part of stopping the spread of COVID-19,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement. “We are pleased to join this interstate compact and look forward to working with this bipartisan group of governors to collectively build on these shared goals.”
Earlier Tuesday, Baker told reporters that “one of the things we are working on developing is an ability to do some rapid mobile testing for schools once schools open.” The governor did not elaborate on his intentions.
The governors of Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia are also in the compact, and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced his intent to join Tuesday after the compact was initially announced with the release of a formal but nonbinding letter of intent.
The states are in talks with Becton Dickinson and Quidel, the U.S. manufacturers of the antigen tests, to purchase more than 3 million total tests, which Hogan’s office says can deliver results in 15 to 20 minutes.
In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its first emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 antigen test to Quidel Corporation. The FDA said the new category of diagnostic test could “quickly detect fragments of proteins found on or within the virus by testing samples collected from the nasal cavity using swabs.”
At the time, the agency said positive results from antigen tests were highly accurate, but cautioned that “there is a higher chance of false negatives, so negative results do not rule out infection.” The agency also said it expected to authorize more antigen tests.
According to Hogan’s office, the purchasing agreement shows manufacturers there is demand to scale up production of the tests and the cooperative will help states to buy tests and supplies in a “sustainable and cost-effective manner.”
And why we dont have them yet in the US<<<<<
I expect we do. The trouble is that PCR has been held up as the only option. Sherlock, Abbot ID now, there are no doubt others that all run the usual quick resp infection screen (like for flu). The thing is, the through time and the hardware and supply requirements are still going to be a problem. I think I read that the through time for this kind of quick machine is 13 mins per sample, that is really limiting. And you will still need skilled users.