‘Discovered Very Early’: Son Of Texas Pastor Confirms Father’s Positive Test

KEYE: Pastor For Texas Megachurch Has Tested Positive For COVID-19, Family Confirms 
John Hagee, Founder and Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church has reportedly been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Hagee's son, Matt made the announcement Sunday morning during a livestreamed service on Facebook, saying doctors informed them Friday of the diagnosis. “Pastor Hagee has been diligent throughout this entire COVID pandemic to monitor his health. And this past Friday, he was informed by his doctors that he did test positive for COVID,” Matt Hagee said. "It was one, discovered very early and two, his medical team has him under watchful care and three, he's feeling well enough to be frustrated by anyone in a white coat with a stethoscope." (Sharma, 10/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Patriots’ Star Cam Newton Tests Positive For Covid-19 As NFL’s Virus Crisis Widens
The National Football League’s coronavirus problems widened on Saturday, as one of the game’s biggest stars—New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton—tested positive for Covid-19, an outbreak on the Tennessee Titans grew and a member of the Kansas City Chiefs received a positive test. The Patriots’ game scheduled for Sunday against the Chiefs, a marquee matchup featuring the reigning Super Bowl champions, will be postponed until Monday or Tuesday, the NFL said. It wasn’t immediately clear who tested positive with the Chiefs. (Beaton, 10/3)

Fox News: Coronavirus Test Caused Brain Fluid Leak In Woman With Rare Health Condition: Report
A COVID-19 test reportedly led to a life-threatening infection for a woman with a rare, undiagnosed health condition. The woman, in her 40s, received a nasal swab test that was said to have punctured her brain lining, causing fluid to leak from her nose and putting her in danger of an infection that could have been deadly, Jarret Walsh, an otolaryngologist, reported in the medical journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, according to AFP.  (Settembre, 10/2)

CNN: This Survivor May Have Had Covid-19 Twice 
Covid-19 first struck Jordan Josey around St. Patrick's Day, right as social distancing guidelines were rolling out across the country. The 29-year-old lawyer from Macon, Georgia, was sick through Easter, before eventually clearing the coronavirus, developing antibodies and gradually building up his stamina again by early May. He donated convalescent plasma on May 18 and received a letter two weeks later confirming that he was positive for coronavirus antibodies. A swab test around that time came back negative for the virus itself. (Prior, 10/5)

NBC News: A Texas Family Lost Four Members To Covid-19. Now They Want To Save Others From Heartbreak.
The coronavirus had already killed Nieves Salas Solis' mother and brother when he called his daughter from a hospital bed with a chilling message: "I'm next." Nieves, 62, who grew up in Dallas and in recent years lived in a Mexican border town doing community outreach, had a high fever and shortness of breath. It was mid-August, and he had managed to drive himself to a hospital in Harlingen, Texas, where doctors confirmed that he had Covid-19. But their efforts to clear his lungs were not working, said his daughter, Ana Alonso. (Chuck, 10/4)

Kaiser Health News: Wear A Mask. If Only It Were That Simple. 
Nils Hase, a retiree who lives in Tarpon Springs, Florida, is wearing a mask and loading his Home Depot haul into his car on a recent weekday afternoon. In the store, because Home Depot insists customers and staff across the country wear masks, most faces were covered. But out here in the parking lot, in a state with a serious infection rate but no mask mandate, plenty of those masks hang down around people’s chins. “It bothers me. They are being defiant,” Hase said. “And most of the people I see that walk in without a mask are just looking for a fight. They are asking you to ‘Just ask me. Just give me a reason to yell at you.’ I just stay away from them and keep on with my own life.” (McAuliff, Ochoa, Fortier and Farmer, 10/2)

Kaiser Health News: 5 Things To Know About A COVID Vaccine: It Won’t Be A ‘Magic Wand’ 
President Donald Trump makes no secret he would like a COVID-19 vaccine to be available before the election. But it’s doubtful that will happen and, even after a vaccine wins FDA approval, there would be a long wait before it’s time to declare victory over the virus. Dozens of vaccine candidates are in various testing stages around the world, with 11 in the last stage of preapproval clinical trials — including four in the U.S. One or more may prove safe and effective and enter the market in the coming months. What then? (Appleby, 10/5)

In news about the flu —

The New York Times: How To Identify The Different Symptoms Of The Flu And Covid-19 
As influenza season approaches, some Americans, and especially parents, are worried that, if they or their children should become ill, it may not be easy to know which disease they have — the flu or Covid-19. They are correct. Most symptoms of the two diseases are so similar that, short of a test — or two or three tests — it won’t be possible to know for sure. But there are some clues. (And it is possible to have both infections at the same time; some patients in China this year were found to have both.) (McNeil Jr., 10/3)

NPR: Is It COVID-19, Allergies, The Flu Or A Cold? How To Stay Healthy This Fall 
You might have hoped the coronavirus pandemic would cancel what we doctors usually think of as "sick season," but as cool weather signals the annual arrival of autumn allergies, colds and flu in the U.S., sick season is still right on schedule. In my clinic, that means a flurry of visits and calls from patients worried about their runny noses, coughs and sore throats. Before the emergence of COVID-19, it was already tough for patients to know how seriously to take those common symptoms. Allergies and colds are mostly just a nuisance, but a severe case of the flu can kill. (Kendrick, 10/4)

Scientific American: Why Some People Are Still Getting Sick--But Not With COVID 
On September 18 Orianna Carvalho woke up at 3 A.M. with a sore throat and the sniffles. At first, she thought her symptoms were caused by allergies. But as the minutes ticked by, she began to worry they were caused by COVID-19. The following morning, Carvalho got tested at the University of Rhode Island, where she is a first-year doctoral student. Over the next few hours she developed a fever, and the catastrophizing began in earnest. When Carvalho finally learned that the cause of her misery was not COVID but the common cold, she was relieved but also surprised. “I have been so careful—wearing a mask every time I go somewhere, keeping at least six feet away from other people, using hand sanitizer and washing my hands,” she says. “I don’t know how I got sick.” (Broadfoot, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Catastrophic Effect Of 1918 Flu May Have Been Aided By Peculiar Influx Of Cold Air Into Europe During WWI
In 1918, as World War I crawled to its finish, the world faced down another sinister enemy with the spread of H1N1 influenza. During the influenza pandemic, about one-third of the world was infected and at least 50 million died. But why was the pandemic so deadly? Research finds clues in climate. In a paper published last month in the journal GeoHealth, scientists analyzed the effects of an extreme weather anomaly they said set the stage for increased casualties during World War I and the spread and intensity of the flu afterward. (Blakemore, 10/3)