August 28, 2020
| James Harris | Aug 28, 2020, 12:27 PM (21 hours ago) |  | |
| to Ron |
FROM MNM: Harrison County Judge Chad Sims on Thursday announced 13 new recoveries and just a single new case of the novel coronavirus in his county.
There have been 789 positive cases in county residents and 734 of those residents are considered recovered. The county has had 35 COVID-19 deaths. Active cases in the county were at 20. On Thursday, there were nine new cases and only one reported in Harrison County.
FROM HOPKINS:
1. MOTORCYCLE RALLY The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally drew hundreds of thousands of bikers from across the US to a small town in South Dakota for a 10-day festival. Health officials have identified at least 103 cases of COVID-19 across at least 8 states that are believed to be connected with the rally, and that number is expected to grow in the coming weeks. Held August 7-16, the rally drew approximately 460,000 vehicles to the small town of Sturgis, which has a population of 7,000—71 times smaller than its occupancy during the rally. Multiple reports indicate that social distancing and other protective measures, including mask use, were not widely enforced or practiced by the attendees. South Dakota health officials are conducting contact tracing operations to the extent possible, and they have already identified several exposures at the rally, including cases detected among bartenders, tattoo artists, and rally attendees.Given the size of the event, contact tracing is a difficult task, and health officials have asked attendees to monitor their symptoms for 14 days. According to cell phone geo-location data, more than 61% of US counties have been visited by someone who attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which illustrates the potential for widespread geographic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 resulting from the event. Like other large events or gatherings, it could be several weeks before any indication of increased transmission becomes evident. And because the participants dispersed across a wide geographic area (as opposed to remaining concentrated locally), it may be very difficult to identify associated clusters or outbreaks among the broader US epidemic. (J. Harris: Last night’s RNC mostly unmasked, unspaced spectacle likely will present eager trackers many new cases to follow and marvel over).
2. The Coronavirus May Shut Down the Immune System’s Vital Classrooms (Science) At the top of the long list of uncertainties about COVID-19 is whether people who recover will develop durable immune responses to the coronavirus that causes it. A research team that has autopsied people who died from COVID-19 has now discovered they lack so-called germinal centers, classrooms in the spleen and lymph nodes in which immune cells learn to mount a long-lasting antibody response to a pathogen. Although the finding may not apply to people who have mild or asymptomatic coronavirus infections, it may help explain COVID-19 progression in the sickest cases and provide important insights to vaccine developers.(J. Harris: The article in Sciernce is short and important but somewhat hard to understand. I t also implies that some of the finding recently will make vaccines effective vaccines easier to develop).
FROM JAMA:
1. Effect of Remdesivir vs Standard Care on Clinical Status at 11 Days in Patients With Moderate COVID-19(J. Harris: A recent study comparing 5 days vs 10 days of Remdesivir to 11 days of standard care without the antibiotic showed little or now benefit of the medication in MODERATE COVID- 19)
Tracking Coronavirus Cases at U.S. Colleges and Universities
Having more money doesn’t make you happier. I have 50 million
dollars but I’m just as happy as when I had 48 million.
~ Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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