Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Coronavirus News (185)

Florida dad, 42, is fighting for life after his son ignored his parents' advice and went out with friends without a mask and infected his whole family with COVID-19
The Week America Lost Control of the Pandemic Sixteen states have reported record caseloads since Sunday. ........... What should concern all Americans is that, as more and more states see their outbreaks intensify, the country will lose its ability to understand what is happening. ..........  some of the country’s major testing providers are backlogged and overwhelmed, and are no longer able to turn around test results as quickly as is epidemiologically useful .........  Governor Gavin Newsom of California enacted some of the strictest pandemic rules outside the Northeast, but Los Angeles is seething with cases right now. Many of the states now facing outbreaks did not struggle much with the virus in March or April—except for Louisiana, which saw a major outbreak in March and is seeing cases spike again now. What seems to unite many of the most affected states is that they reopened indoor dining, bars, and gyms. What will distinguish them is how they react now. ...........   The South is burning with infection at the same time other regions are trying to reopen. This feat—opening one region while suppressing the pandemic in another—has never been done before, and there is no guarantee that it can be done. Many public-health leaders signaled this week that they do not think it is possible. ...........  “This is really the beginning,” Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the CDC, told Congress this week. “I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that Hey, it’s summer. Everything’s going to be fine. We’re over this—and we are not even beginning to be over this. There are a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so.” ............  the U.S. could soon see 100,000 new cases a day. If that prediction comes true, then what befell the Northeast could look like mere preamble. ......... The U.S., by one estimate, avoided more than 4 million infections. We are now losing that work, watching weeks of pandemic suppression vanish in days. It took the country acting in concert to subdue the virus in the spring. We may need to do the same, again, to avoid the worst now.

 

Over half of coronavirus patients in Spain have developed neurological problems, studies show New research indicates that Covid-19 is causing a wide range of disorders in the nervous system and may be directly attacking the brain ..........   The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus attacks the respiratory system, but there is growing evidence that it also affects the nervous system. .............  some research indicates that the virus is directly attacking the brain. ........  the most common symptoms experienced by coronavirus patients were myalgia, headaches and dizziness .......  Another 20% of patients (they are not exclusive groups) developed neuropsychiatric problems such as insomnia, anxiety and psychosis. ..........  In a dozen cases, the patient went into a coma. What’s more, neurological complications were the main cause of death in 4% of coronavirus victims ..........  90% of cases simultaneously experienced changes to, or the loss of, the sense of smell and taste ........  the coronavirus can enter the brain. ........  “The brain is characterized for being isolated from the bustle of the world. If there is a pathogen in the rest of the body, the blood-brain barrier stops it from entering,” explains Segura. This defense system allows oxygen-filled blood to reach the capillaries and even the neurons, but filters out toxins, bacteria and viruses that travel in the bloodstream. “The rupture of this barrier is an effect that we have not seen before,” he adds. For Segura, finding the endothelial cells (the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels) in the samples of analyzed brain tissue could indicate that the coronavirus has overcome the blood-brain barrier, and that the neurological problems have not been caused by weakness from the immune system’s response to Covid-19. According to Segura, the world is facing “a respiratory virus that is also neurotoxic.” 

A health worker wheels a coronavirus patient into a hospital in Barcelona at the peak of the pandemic.

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