Studies Show Face Shields Don’t Stop COVID, But Copper Surfaces Do

New York Post: Plastic Face Shields Ineffective At Stopping COVID-19: Study
Plastic face shields are all but useless when it comes to defeating the spread of the coronavirus, according to a new Japanese study. The clear coverings were tested in a simulation by Fugaku, the world’s fastest supercomputer, which found that nearly 100 percent of airborne droplets less than 5 micrometers in size escaped through the shields, the Guardian reported Tuesday. One micrometer is the equivalent of one-millionth of a meter. (Eustachewich, 9/22)

Stat: Could Copper Surfaces Help Prevent Infections In Hospitals?
Keeping patients from getting sick during an inpatient stay has long been a problem for hospitals — and it’s an issue that has grown all the more pressing during a pandemic. Even before the rise of Covid-19, hospitals have increasingly struggled to get health-care associated infections in check. There are 2 million such infections — and 90,000 related deaths — in U.S. hospitals every year. As hospitals across the country hunt for ways to reduce the spread of pathogens to patients, a growing chorus of researchers is arguing that a simple swap might help: replace stainless steel surfaces with copper. (Zaleski, 9/24)

Also —

CIDRAP: Routine Blood Test Predicts COVID-19 Mortality Risk, Study Finds
A study today in JAMA shows that a routine blood test predicts increased risk of COVID-19 death in hospitalized patients. The study points to elevated red blood cell (RBC) distribution width (RDW), a measure of RBC volume variation and a standard part of a routine complete blood count test, as a tool to identify patients at higher risk of COVID-19 complications. Senior author John M. Higgins, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), said in an MGH news release, "We wanted to help find ways to identify high-risk COVID patients as early and as easily as possible—who is likely to become severely ill and may benefit from aggressive interventions, and which hospitalized patients are likely to get worse most quickly." (9/23)

CIDRAP: Asymptomatic COVID In Healthcare Workers Points To Risk Of Silent Spread
A study released this week shows a 40% asymptomatic rate among healthcare workers (HCW) testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the time of screening—meaning they had no symptoms compatible with a COVID-19 diagnosis—raising concerns about silent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare settings. A systematic review of 97 studies presented online at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Conference on Coronavirus Diseases and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that 10% of HCW were positive via polymerase chain reaction testing and 7% by antibody tests. Nurses accounted for the most infections (48% of those infected), followed by physicians (25%) and other healthcare workers (23%). Five percent of healthcare workers with COVID-19 went on to develop severe clinical complications, and 0.5% subsequently died. (9/23)

Politico: What STDs Can Tell Us About How To Fight Covid 
As Covid-19 has rampaged across the United States, government officials have struggled with the basic steps needed to contain the pandemic. Should everyone get tested, or just people with symptoms? Should public health officials require Americans to wear masks or not? What’s the best way to track the infection, particularly in marginalized communities? For one set of public health experts, the heated debates over testing, wearing masks and contact tracing were eerily familiar — as odd as it might seem, these are similar to arguments that officials and academics working to eradicate sexually transmitted diseases have been having for decades as they’ve worked to bring down the rates of infections like HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. (Miranda Ollstein, 9/23)

CIDRAP: Death In COVID Cancer Patients Tied To Age, Pre-Existing Conditions
A study of 435 German hospital patients presented online at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Diseases found that cancer patients showed significantly worse outcomes and higher mortality rates than others with COVID-19, and these appear to be the result of age and pre-existing conditions rather than the cancer itself. Researchers at Jena University Hospital in Germany studied a subset of 435 cancer patients from a sample of 3,071 COVID-19 patients enrolled in the multicenter Lean European Open Survey on SARS-CoV-2-Infected Patients (LEOSS) registry. The LEOSS registry, established by the German Society of Infectious Diseases (DGI), is an open-access database of clinical COVID-19 information.  (9/23)

In other science and research news —

CNN: Sex Boosts Long-Term Survival Hopes For Heart Attack Victims
People who have had heart attacks can boost their chances of long-term survival by returning to normal levels of sexual activity, a new study shows. Many people stop having sex after a heart attack in the belief that it could trigger another episode, but research published Wednesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology says sex is good for survival rates. (Guy, 9/23)

Fox News: Tobacco Use To Blame For 20% Of Heart Disease Deaths, WHO Says
Each year there are about 1.9 million avoidable deaths from tobacco-induced heart disease, per a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). The figure translates to around one-fifth of all deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD) globally, which occurs when plaque builds within coronary arteries, reduces blood flow to the heart and can result in a heart attack. (Rivas, 9/23)