2 New Studies Give Insight Into Covid’s Path Of Destruction In The Body
One study, published in Nature, offers details into the cytokine storms that overwhelm some covid patients. Another study, published in the journal BMJ, suggests that being infected with covid raises your risk of developing serious blood clots.
CNN:
Covid-19 Infections Can Set Off Massive Inflammation In The Body
From the early days of the pandemic, doctors noticed that in severe cases of Covid-19 -- the ones that landed people in the hospital on ventilators with shredded lungs -- most of the internal wreckage wasn't being directly inflicted by the virus itself but by a blizzard of immune reactions triggered by the body to fight the infection. Researchers knew that these so-called cytokine storms were damaging, but they didn't know why the SARS-CoV-2 virus seemed to be so good at setting them off. A new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature is helping to explain how these immune overreactions happen to Covid-19 patients. (Goodman, 4/6)
ABC News:
COVID-19 Infection Increases Risk Of Serious Blood Clots 3 To 6 Months Later: Study
Being infected with COVID-19 raises the risk of developing serious blood clots, a new study suggests. An international team of researchers from Sweden, the United Kingdom and Finland compared more than 1 million people in Sweden with a confirmed case of the virus between February 2020 and May 2021 to 4 million control patients who tested negative. (Kekatos, 4/6)
In other pandemic research —
CIDRAP:
C-Sections, Inductions Dropped During First Months Of COVID-19
Fewer in-person prenatal visits during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a 6.5% drop in premature caesarian sections (C-sections) and inductions, according to a new study in Pediatrics. The research was conducted by a team at Georgia Tech's School of Economics. This is the first major study to examine pandemic-era birth data at scale, the authors say, and it raises questions about how and if some medical interventions may unnecessarily result in preterm deliveries. (4/6)
CIDRAP:
COVID-19 Sped Up Adoption Of New Clinical Guidelines
A survey of 52 US hospitals—mostly academic medical centers—shows the COVID-19 pandemic drastically sped up the rate at which clinicians adopted new clinical treatment guidelines, shortening the duration from years to months. The study was published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (4/5)
Fox News:
COVID-19 Home Tests Have More Shelf-Life Than You Think: Report
Don’t throw away your home COVID-19 tests just because it says it’s expired, according to a recent New York Times report. Even though the test kits use similar technology to detect pieces of the viral proteins called antigens, their expiration dates may differ because of how they are regulated – not because of inherent differences in the tests themselves, said Dr. Michael Mina, an expert in home-test technology and chief science officer for eMed, a healthcare company that provides home test kits. (Sudhakar, 4/6)
The New York Times:
Do Home Covid Tests Expire?
Depending on which home test you buy, or receive for free from the government, you might see a range of expiration windows. One test might expire in six months, another in nine months, 11 months or even 15 months. The tests all use similar technology to detect antigens (pieces of viral proteins) from a swab sample — so why do the expiration dates stamped on the boxes vary so widely? The answer has to do with the quirks of the regulatory process rather than any meaningful differences in the stability of the various tests, said Dr. Michael Mina, a well-known expert in home-test technology and chief science officer for eMed, a company that helps rapid test users get treatment from home. (Parker-Pope, 4/5)
