Losing Buddy: First Dog In US To Test Positive For Coronavirus Dies

CNN: First Dog To Test Positive For Covid-19 In The US, Buddy The German Shepherd, Has Died 
Buddy, a 7-year-old German shepherd from Staten Island, New York, was the first dog to test positive for the coronavirus in the United States. He died on July 11 after a three-month illness, according to National Geographic. It's unclear whether Buddy died from complications of the coronavirus, which he most likely caught from his owner, Robert Mahoney, who tested positive this spring, or whether he died from lymphoma. (Lin Erdman, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: Prison Housed COVID-Infected Inmate With Uninfected, He Says 
Midway through explaining how an inmate who’d tested positive for COVID-19 had been placed in his unit at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, Gary Croom paused. “Here,” he told a reporter. “I’m going to give him the phone. ”Saddled with guilt, worried he might touch off a resurgence of the disease that swept through the prison on the eastern edge of Riverside County a month ago, Alejandro Cantu took the phone. (Ormseth, 7/30)

CIDRAP: Physical Distancing In COVID-19 Pandemic Varies Strongly By Income, Research Finds
A modeling study published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has revealed another burden for low-income communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic: less ability to limit virus exposure by staying home and physical distancing. Researchers at the University of California at Davis who analyzed mobile device location data from January to April of this year found that, in a complete reversal, wealthy communities went from being the most mobile before the coronavirus pandemic to the least, while residents of poorer neighborhoods went from least mobile to most mobile. (7/30)

CNN: San Diego Gym That Defied A Shutdown Order Linked To A Coronavirus Outbreak 
A San Diego gym that was shut down after operating in defiance of a county health order to close last week is now linked to an outbreak of coronavirus. It isn't clear how many cases have been linked to "The Gym" in California, but county health officials say an outbreak is considered three or more cases from different households stemming from a specific location. "The Gym" did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment. (Holcombe and Selva, 7/31)

CNN: Why Some People Who Haven't Had Covid-19 Might Already Have Some Immunity 
The immune systems of some people who have not been exposed to the novel coronavirus could have some familiarity with the pathogen -- possibly helping to reduce the severity of illness if that person does get Covid-19, a new study suggests. The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that among a sample of 68 healthy adults in Germany who had not been exposed to the coronavirus, 35% had T cells in their blood that were reactive to the virus. (Howard, 7/30)

CIDRAP: Study Shows Higher COVID-19 Exposure Rates In Pregnant Black, Hispanic Women
Pregnant black and Hispanic women at two Philadelphia hospitals were five times more likely than their white and Asian peers to have been exposed to COVID-19, according to a study published yesterday in Science Immunology. Overall, 80 of 1,293 pregnant women (6.2%) who went into labor from Apr 4 to Jun 3 tested positive for coronavirus antibodies. But 9.7% of black women (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.3% to 12.5%) and 10.4% of Hispanic women (95% CI, 5.7% to 17.1%) tested positive, versus only 2.0% of white women (95% CI, 0.9% to 3.8%) and 0.9% of Asian women (95% CI, 0.0% to 5.1%). (7/30)

Also —

Stateline: Patients Fled Primary Care During COVID
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on all levels of medicine, not least of which are primary care doctors, arguably the front line in trying to keep Americans healthy and out of hospitals. While many practices, primary care and otherwise, have seen business pick up significantly since the lows of March and April, few have come close to full recovery, which is perilous for practices that operate with low margins in the best of times. The crisis has pushed many primary care practitioners, especially those in small, unaffiliated practices like Swegler’s, to the brink, threatening them with insolvency. (Ollove, 7/31)

Kaiser Health News: Avoiding Care During The Pandemic Could Mean Life Or Death
These days, Los Angeles acting teacher Deryn Warren balances her pain with her fear. She’s a bladder cancer patient who broke her wrist in November. She still needs physical therapy for her wrist, and she’s months late for a cancer follow-up. But Warren won’t go near a hospital, even though she says her wrist hurts every day. “If I go back to the hospital, I’ll get COVID. Hospitals are full of COVID people,” says Warren, a former film director and author of the book “How to Make Your Audience Fall in Love With You.” (Glionna, 7/31)