Ignoring Link Between Climate Change And Increasing Threat Of Pandemics Is ‘Dangerous,’ Scientists Say
The viruses that are turning into pandemics may have always lived deep in the wildnerness, but nature's built-in defense mechanisms -- like biodiversity -- kept them at bay. That's no longer the case. In other scientific news on the virus: evidence mounts that virus isn't as infectious in outside areas; Amazon throws its weight behind COVID-19 research; llamas may emerge as heroes in the fight against the virus; and more.
ProPublica:
How Climate Change Is Contributing To Skyrocketing Rates Of Infectious Disease
The scientists who study how diseases emerge in a changing environment knew this moment was coming. Climate change is making outbreaks of disease more common and more dangerous. Over the past few decades, the number of emerging infectious diseases that spread to people — especially coronaviruses and other respiratory illnesses believed to have come from bats and birds — has skyrocketed. A new emerging disease surfaces five times a year. One study estimates that more than 3,200 strains of coronaviruses already exist among bats, awaiting an opportunity to jump to people. (Lustgarten, 5/7)
The Hill:
Evidence Mounts That Outside Is Safer When It Comes To COVID-19
Health experts say people are significantly less likely to get the coronavirus while outside, a fact that could add momentum to calls to reopen beaches and parks closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being outside shouldn’t be seen as completely safe, health experts say. People should continue to avoid crowds and maintain six feet of distance from others to keep away from the virus. But experts are increasingly confident in evidence showing that the coronavirus spreads much more readily indoors than outdoors, a finding that could help guide policymakers seeking to figure out ways to end lockdowns that have shuttered much of the nation’s economy.(Sullivan, 5/6)
Stat:
Amazon Lends Its Expertise — And Its Cash — To Covid-19 Research
Shipping behemoth Amazon is increasingly throwing its weight into the pandemic response, sharing its staff’s web and research design expertise with scientists across the country and digging into its deep pockets to fund a smattering of Covid-19 studies and projects. The company is backing a wide range of efforts, from funding a clinical trial of blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to delivering at-home coronavirus tests to health workers and others in the U.K. Much of Amazon’s work is focused on people at a high risk of being exposed to the virus, such as delivery drivers, grocery store staff, and health care workers — all roles that exist within Amazon and its subsidiaries. (Brodwin, 5/7)
The New York Times:
Hoping Llamas Will Become Coronavirus Heroes
Winter is a 4-year-old chocolate-colored llama with spindly legs, ever-so-slightly askew ears and envy-inducing eyelashes. Some scientists hope she might be an important figure in the fight against the novel coronavirus. She is not a superpowered camelid. Winter was simply the lucky llama chosen by researchers in Belgium, where she lives, to participate in a series of virus studies involving both SARS and MERS. Finding that her antibodies staved off those infections, the scientists posited that those same antibodies could also neutralize the new virus that causes Covid-19. They were right, and published their results Tuesday in the journal Cell. (Kramer, 5/6)
Stat:
Giving Blood Thinners To Severely Ill Covid-19 Patients Is Gaining Ground
Treating Covid-19 patients with medicines to prevent blood clots might help reduce deaths in patients on ventilators, based on new observational data. A team from Mount Sinai Health System in New York on Wednesday reported better results for hospitalized Covid-19 patients who received anticoagulant drugs compared to patients who didn’t. The data are preliminary and require confirmation in larger studies with a more robust design, the authors say about their study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, but their findings add weight to medical guidelines. (Cooney, 5/6)
CNN:
Syndrome Kawasaki: Dozens More Children Hospitalized In New York With Rare Symptoms That Could Be Linked To Coronavirus
A growing number of children are showing up at New York hospitals with troubling new symptoms that state health officials believe could be linked to coronavirus. In an advisory to health care providers, state officials said 64 children in New York have been hospitalized with a condition doctors described as "pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome." (Karimi, 5/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Unproven Coronavirus Cures Flood U.S. Regulators
Gordon Pedersen wore a white lab coat and stethoscope and billed himself as a doctor in online videos he made to promote his own brand of drinks and gels containing silver particles, which he claimed could destroy the new coronavirus. Authorities in his home state of Utah, however, say he has no medical degree or license, and his products—concoctions they describe as water, baking soda and silver extracted from wire and sold for $299.95 a gallon—were a sham. On April 27, federal prosecutors charged him with fraud. (Alpert, 5/7)
