Category: Infectious Disease
Adjusting tactics quickly cut EMS providers’ COVID-19 risk
These efforts greatly reduced the risk of exposure among EMS providers, reducing the providers’ chance of infection and the number of days they had to be quarantined, and conserving their personal protective equipment (PPE)
Secret safety panels to pick COVID vaccine winners
Data and safety monitoring boards (DSMBs) are supposed to make sure the medicine is safe and it works and they can halt a clinical trial or fast-track it.
Battle Rages Inside Hospitals Over How COVID Strikes and Kills
At issue is the degree to which the virus is spread in tiny aerosol particles lingering in the air ― or by larger droplets from, say, a sneeze or cough.
Students’ Mass Migration Back to College Gets a Failing Grade
Who thought it would be a good idea to move thousands of teenagers and young adults across the country to college campuses during a pandemic?
What a smoky bar can teach us about the ‘6-foot rule’
Cigarette smoke comprises particles that are similar in size to the smaller respiratory droplets expelled by humans, the ones that linger longest in the air.
Wanted: Poll Workers Able to Brave the Pandemic
A 2018 survey by US Election Assistance Commission found that 70% reported that it was “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to get enough poll workers.
NIH ‘Very Concerned’ About Serious Side Effect in Coronavirus Vaccine Trial
A great deal of uncertainty remains about what happened to the unnamed patient, to the frustration of those avidly following the progress of vaccine testing.
Meatpacking Industry Drafted an Executive Order to Keep Plants Open
Hundreds of emails offer a rare look at the meat industry’s influence and access to the highest levels of government.
Why flu vaccine is more important during COVID-19
We can’t predict exactly what will happen when the flu arrives while COVID-19 still here; That makes it even more important to get a flu shot.
Hospitals, Nursing Homes Fail to Separate COVID Patients, Putting Others at Risk
Dozens of nursing homes and hospitals ignored official guidelines to separate COVID patients, as a result staff became infected and some died.
4 Mask Myths That Put You at Risk
Get to the truth of the matter with these scientifically-backed facts from an infection prevention specialist.
COVID-19 activity declining in Washington state with the help of face coverings and distancing
The state is seeing decreases in both eastern and western Washington since the start of August. Whitman County, where cases are up, is a notable exception.
Immune response to coronavirus weaker in men and elderly, UW study finds
Our bodies appear to mount a vigorous immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but that response is weaker in men and people over 60;
First confirmed cases of West Nile Virus reported in Washington
The Yakima County resident, a man in his 50’s, was hospitalized due to the infection. The Benton County resident, a man in his 60’s, was not hospitalized.
Anti-COVID-19 measures helping to tamp down other respiratory infections
While it is hard to quantify the exact effects of the COVID-19 mitigation efforts, reductions are almost certainly due to the COVID-19 control efforts.