CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS – 9/2/2020

September 2, 2020

From MNM: On Monday there were 5 new Covid

FROM MNM: Harrison County Judge Chad Sims reported six new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday….He noted that of the county’s cumulative total of 806 positive cases, 35 have been fatalities, 741 have been recoveries and 30 are considered active cases.

TESTING RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES SOCIETY OF AMERICA

MORE FROM JOHNS HOPKINS:
1.FDA Broadens Emergency Use Authorization for Veklury (Remdesivir) to Include All Hospitalized Patients for Treatment of COVID-19 (FDA) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration broadened the scope of the existing emergency use authorization (EUA) for the drug Veklury (remdesivir) to include treatment of all hospitalized adult and pediatric patients with suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, irrespective of their severity of disease. Based on the Agency’s ongoing review of the EUA, including its review of the totality of scientific information now available, the FDA has determined that it is reasonable to believe Veklury may be effective for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in all hospitalized adult and pediatric patients. The Agency’s review has also concluded that the known and potential benefits of Veklury outweigh the known and potential risks for these uses.

2.Infectious Diseases Specialists to FDA: Don’t Cut Corners in COVID-19 Vaccine Approval (IDSA) The Infectious Diseases Society of America and its HIV Medicine Association are urging the Food and Drug Administration to ensure rigorous safety and efficacy data support the approval of a COVID-19 vaccine before its widespread use by the public. In an Aug. 26 letter to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, M.D., and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks, M.D., PhD, the groups strongly recommend that full licensure of a vaccine is preferable to an Emergency Use Authorization, particularly in light of public distrust of vaccines. If an EUA is the route to market for a vaccine, however, IDSA and HIVMA stress that supporting data must first be scrutinized by internal and independent experts. At a minimum, the groups urge, a Phase 3 trial should be completed before FDA approval.

3. New Trump Pandemic Adviser Pushes Controversial ‘Herd Immunity’ Strategy, Worrying Public Health Officials (Washington Post) One of President Trump’s top medical advisers is urging the White House to embrace a controversial “herd immunity” strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing the coronavirus to spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The approach’s chief proponent is Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist from Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution, who joined the White House earlier this month as a pandemic adviser. He has advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used to respond to the virus outbreak, according to these officials, which relies on lifting restrictions so the healthy can build up immunity to the disease rather than limiting social and business interactions to prevent the virus from spreading.

4. Studies Highlight Dynamic Impact of COVID-19 on Antibiotic Use (CIDRAP) Since the novel coronavirus pandemic began, limited data from small studies in several countries have indicated high rates of antibiotic prescribing in COVID-19 patients and low rates of bacterial co-infections, raising concerns about unnecessary antibiotic use and the pandemic’s potential impact on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In the study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers looked at data on more than 1,700 hospitalized COVID-19 patients treated at 38 Michigan hospitals from Mar 13 to Jun 18 and found that more than half received early antibiotic therapy, with antibiotic use as high as 84% in some hospitals. But only a small fraction of those patients had bacterial co-infections.
https://apnews.com/ad394137fb0068ee4e8ac5ca703094b5 Click to copy RELATED TOPICS Virus Outbreak Africa International News South Africa Lifestyle COVID-19 takes loved ones, then the rituals to mourn them

How a Bus Ride Turned Into a Coronavirus Superspreader Event
(from JAMA originally)
The Most American COVID-19 Failure Yet
“Less than 1 percent of sick people fail to respond to contact tracers in Iceland, Ævar Pálmi Pálmason, who leads the country’s tracing effort, told me. In New Zealand, 86 percent of people contacted by tracers respond within 48 hours. “The U.S. contact-tracing effort has been a dismal failure compared with many of its peer countries,” says Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global-health law at Georgetown University.
“It’s literally too late to do contact tracing in Texas,” … That month, Texas had 15,000 new cases on some days….How are you going to go back and find all those old contacts? You can’t really trace if everyone and their cousin has it.”