Throughout this pandemic, we have heard many heartbreaking and heartwarming stories of how we're responding and coping. Many of those have been about the elderly, accounts written by adult children describing how they miss contact with their parents, segregated from them by institutional living. But here is a first-hand account by an older couple in their mid-80s, who describe what they are thinking and living through during this staggering health crisis.
Disease
In the Digital Age, we have access to more information than at any time in human history. But that doesn't stop the spread of conspiracy theories. Here are the best (worst?) ones involving the new coronavirus and the disease COVID-19.
As the number of patients requiring ventilatory assistance to survive COVID-19 rises, and with no new ventilators in sight, a "Hail Mary" technique is starting to be used. Can a machine designed to help one patient be reconfigured to support two or more? And can it protect society at large, even just a bit, from surging hospital admissions?
Peter Fairley, an environmental journalist and contributing editor for MIT Technology Review, cited an anti-vaccine website, DeSmogBlog, in a smear directed at our organization. Simultaneously, he spread misinformation about influenza and COVID-19 and endorses advice that contradicts that of the CDC and World Health Organization.
For those of you staying at home who might be considering performing CPR, a tracheostomy, or intubating someone in the neighborhood [1], an N95 mask is a necessity; otherwise, you are diverting "war-time" supplies from the first responder and health care army.
One way in which COVID-19 is not novel is that the disease follows a set pattern: first onset, then the body’s response, followed (hopefully) by recovery. To get a better sense of how this pandemic might play out, we should consider what we know about COVID-19’s timeline.
At the current time, influenza remains the far bigger threat to global public health than COVID-19. Though COVID-19 has a higher case-fatality rate, influenza infects far more people. Of course, that could change.
Testing performs both diagnostic and treatment roles, and testing for COVID-19 is no exception. Unlike other forms of testing, knowing your COVID-19 status will not alter your disease course or modify specific therapy. But it will determine where you spend the next few weeks, either at home or the hospital.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. But these kinds of measures can't last forever. The public is willing to tolerate massive disruptions to daily life only when it believes the disruptions will end. Therefore, mitigation is a more viable option.
"Journalists" Sharon Kelly of DeSmogBlog and Lee Fang of The Intercept are spreading disinformation about ACSH and COVID-19.
Dr. David Shlaes, an infectious disease expert and ACSH advisor, is incensed over the nation's lack of preparedness for the coronavirus epidemic. A scenario like this has been discussed for three decades, yet we are still in the middle of a disaster. Here are his thoughts.
Balance is an intricate “dance” of multiple sensory inputs. But what happens when one of them stops working as well as it should? As it turns out, hearing loss has unanticipated consequences.