Category Archives: Uncategorized

Two divergent articles on herd immunity happen to publish this week, but they could not be more different. One is from the Wall Street Journal and it includes a video that really does a good job of explaining herd immunity and how it can be achieved. It includes narration from a couple of different individuals including anContinue reading “Two new articles on herd immunity to COVID-19.”

One of the most disturbing problems in COVID-19 medicine care has been that a few young people have become extremely ill with this infection. While these cases are rare, they unnerve physicians because the patients have not had the chronic Illnesses that predispose most people to serious COVID-19 infections. Many of us have thought thatContinue reading “Cellular immune problems are why young people can die from COVID-19”

In response to yesterday’s post, I received a few comments concerned that the drop in new coronavirus cases in Arizona was due to decreased numbers of COVID-19 tests being performed. State test reporting has been a problem, with many states having been inconsistent in how they are reporting their numbers. I have written before thatContinue reading “More data on COVID-19 in Arizona, Texas and Florida, with comments on several other states.”

Today the trends are undeniable; infections are falling in three of the most severely affected states. It may be that people are social distancing, wearing masks, staying home due to fear, or simply that closing bars has had a significant impact. If this holds to the earlier scenario in NYC, Detroit, and other cities, theseContinue reading “COVID-19 infections are definitively falling in Florida, Texas and Arizona.”

My blog from two days ago that first identified the COVID-19 pandemic is moderating in several hard hit southern states has finally been acknowledged by a media source. Axios published the following lead today. While Axios usually is not the most positive source for pandemic news, it is interesting that none of the major mediaContinue reading “Acknowledgement that the COVID-19 pandemic slowing in southern hotspots”

Will the any of the vaccines under development for COVID-19 work to protect the population given a timeline of the next 12 months? This is a crucial question. I have thought quite a bit about handicapping the chances of success for many of the COVID-19 vaccines in development (but probably not all 250!). The stakes forContinue reading “Will the any of the vaccines under development for COVID-19 work?”

With all the press about outbreaks in several southern states it has been hard to focus on the exact status of COVID-19 in these places. Several sources are suggesting that the outbreaks are beginning to wane. For the third day in a row COVID-19 infections and deaths have decreased in the United States. In aContinue reading “Follow up on COVID-19 outbreaks in the southern United States”

Today the journal Lancet published two studies of new vaccines for COVID-19. The studies were interesting in that both involved adenovirus virus systems to induce immunity. One study provided the data on a chimpanzee adenovirus COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1) from Oxford University and the AstraZeneca Corporation. The other involved a human adenovirus 5 system (Ad5) from CanSino Corporation in China.Continue reading “Two new COVID-19 vaccine trials in the Lancet”

Yesterday I offered a somewhat lighthearted attempt to get people to wear masks anytime they are in a public place. Today, I thought I’d give the scientific arguments and an urgent plea to do this simple task. Wearing a mask is the most effective way to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It is a respiratoryContinue reading “Universal Masking!”

Very good news today as the New England Journal of Medicine published a confirmatory clinical trial showing the benefit of using the steroid medicine dexamethasone to treat COVID-19 patients. The Recovery Collaborative Group conducted the research as a controlled, but open label trial comparing a number of different medications to treat COVID-19. The study was largeContinue reading “It’s confirmed: Dexamethasone does prevent deaths in COVID-19 patients, but only if they have significant lung disease.”