CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS – 12/15/2020

12/15/2020

HELLO

From Judge Sims:

December 14, 2020 – Weekly report for the past 7 days: 42 new cases, 9 fatalities, and 52 recoveries. Probable cases for the past 7 days are: 102 new cases and 149 recoveries. The case numbers don’t seem to be overwhelming, but it indicates a steady spread throughout our county. I’m saddened by any fatality, but 9 is overwhelming. Please continue to pray for and support those in our community that have lost family & friends.

Testing at the Convention Center totaled 239 on Thursday and 249 on Friday.

Total Positive Cases – 1,315

Total Fatalities – 55

Total Recoveries – 1,217

Total Active Cases – 43

Probable Cases – 768

Probable Recoveries – 653

Probable Actives – 115

PRESS RELEASE

FDA Authorizes First Direct-to-Consumer COVID-19 Test System The US Food and Drug Administration authorized LabCorp’s Pixel COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kit for use by any individual 18 years and older without a prescription. This product, which is authorized as the first COVID-19 direct-to-consumer (non-prescription) test system, allows an individual to self-collect a nasal swab sample at home and then send that sample for testing to LabCorp. Positive or invalid test results are then delivered to the user by phone call from a health care provider. Negative test results are delivered via email or online portal. This home sample collection kit can be purchased online or in a store without a prescription. (FDA, 12/11/2020)

Baricitinib plus Remdesivir for Hospitalized Adults with Covid-19

Baricitinib Plus Remdesivir for Hospitalized Adults with Covid-19 (NEJM) We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating baricitinib plus remdesivir in hospitalized adults with Covid-19. Baricitinib plus remdesivir was superior to remdesivir alone in reducing recovery time and accelerating improvement in clinical status among patients with Covid-19, notably among those receiving high-flow oxygen or noninvasive ventilation.

(J. Harris: Slight but apparently real beneficial effects noted.)

AN OPINION PIECE WITH SOME NICE DISCUSSIONS AND NUMBERS AND SOME THINGS WITH WHICH YOU WILL NOT AGREE:

This Is the Test of Our Lifetimes More Americans have died from Covid-19 than perished in four years of combat in World War II.

In October 1918, in a much smaller population, more than 6,000 Americans died of the Spanish flu on average each day for the entire month.

If American states were treated as countries, the places with the highest per capita coronavirus death rates would be: Slovenia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Bulgaria, Iowa, Bosnia, Hungary, Croatia, Illinois, North Macedonia, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, San Marino.

I think we’re going to go up for weeks,” warns Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Cases are cresting in the upper Midwest, but that’s just from massively high rates, and the post-Thanksgiving bump is just beginning to play out.”

“Most European countries are doing their best with government messaging, restrictions on hospitality and indoor house visits, testing, tracing, soft-touch border restrictions and face coverings, whereas the U.S. looks like a free-for-all,” said Devi Sridhar, an American who is a professor of global health at University of Edinburgh. She noted that European countries have also put in place structures — universal health care, sick pay, free testing — that make it easier to address a crisis like this.