Feature Channels: Public Health

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What is so special about systemic risks? Risks are systemic when a society’s essential systems, such as telecommunications, infrastructure or health systems are threatened.

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There are two major drivers of perceived risks. The first one is dreadfulness. Seeing images of coffins in Italy, Spain and the U.S., overwhelmed hospital wards, people we know and famous people with severe health issues all send messages of dreadfulness This increases the perceived risks. The second major driver is fear of the unknown. This is an emerging disease, there is no treatment and no vaccine, and very little is known about what happens to people who survive if they are infected again.

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During the last month, I have heard several comments along the lines of, “I went to the grocery store to buy chicken and there wasn’t any.

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Rutgers’ RUCDR Infinite Biologics received an amended emergency use authorization from the FDA late Thursday for the first SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus test that will allow people to collect their own saliva at home and send to a lab for results. The decision follows the FDA’s recent emergency approval to RUCDR Infinite Biologics for the first saliva-based test, which involves health care workers collecting saliva from individuals at testing sites.

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A FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researcher has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to examine waste-management system-related challenges in the pandemic environment across several states.

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Global health scholars have issued a clarion call about the needless loss of life expected because of a foreseeable prospect of “slow and inadequate access to supplies” to control COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. They say what is unfolding now is similar to when lifesaving diagnostics and treatments came to the region long after they were available elsewhere.

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The University of Kansas Cancer Center is helping fight the pandemic in numerous ways.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third month, businesses in the United States are marketing unlicensed and unproven stem-cell-based "therapies" and exosome products that claim to prevent or treat the disease. In Cell Stem Cell on May 5, bioethicist Leigh Turner describes how these companies are "seizing the pandemic as an opportunity to profit from hope and desperation."

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Penn researchers say they know what's going on at the cellular level when patients experience a flare

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Alex Perkins and Kyle Bibby are looking at short-term forecasts of potential infection and are monitoring spread of the coronavirus in wastewater.

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The Endocrine Society joined a coalition of leading bone health organizations to release guidance for healthcare professionals treating patients with osteoporosis in the era of COVID-19.

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With so many COVID-19 models being developed, how do policymakers know which ones to use? A new process to harness multiple disease models for outbreak management has been developed by an international team of researchers including the University of Warwick.

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To keep patients and health-care providers safe from COVID-19, while providing urgent treatment to stroke patients, extra precautions must be taken, according to new guidelines published in the journal Stroke.

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New modeling of coronavirus behavior suggests that an intervention strategy based on shield immunity could reduce the risk of allowing the higher levels of human interaction needed to support expanded economic activity.

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Rutgers Expert discusses why strokes are increasingly occurring in younger COVID-19 patients and the precautionary measures that can help save their lives.

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When a hurricane is dangerous enough to prompt evacuations, thousands of people find themselves fleeing at once. Emergency planning officials want to know the best ways to safely and quickly evacuate their residents. That’s often meant focusing on a single objective, like moving people out of danger in the fastest way possible. But researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and Florida State University’s Department of Psychology have developed models that account for multiple considerations in a crisis, including the physical and mental demands on evacuees, especially vulnerable populations.

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Distillery-developed hand sanitizer is leaving a New Mexico warehouse as quickly as it disappeared from grocery stores after Sandia National Laboratories helped confirm the product meets all federal requirements for distribution.

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Remdesivir might shorten duration of symptoms in severely ill patients

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A biomedical engineer is leading new research that could soon deliver coronavirus test results much faster and at much lower cost.

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Current knowledge about the role of aerosols in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 warrants urgent attention. Current guidance and public health information has slowly shifted focus towards aerosols as a transmission pathway - predominantly associated with breathing and talking by asymptomatic individuals. Providing guidelines for sufficient inhalation protection will be important in curbing the spread of COVID-19.

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WASHINGTON, DC (May 7, 2020) –A novel workforce tool created by researchers at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) estimates that the nation will need a total of 184,000 COVID-19 contact tracers in order to help society safely reopen and limit the size of future waves of the virus. The tool will help state and local health departments determine the number of staff needed to effectively identify and trace people who have been in contact with new cases of COVID-19 and slow the spread of the virus.

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Announcement of University Hospitals "UH Healthy Restart Playbook" -- a comprehensive toolkit to help businesses emerge from the COVID-19 crisis.

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The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics offers tips for planning, preparing and storing healthful meals while under quarantine during the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

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Repurposing existing medicines focused on known drug targets is likely to offer a more rapid hope of tackling COVID-19 than developing and manufacturing a vaccine, argue an international team of scientists in the British Journal of Pharmacology today.

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The team’s VitalMask, made of 3D-printed resin, places sensors near the wearer’s earlobes, nose and mouth to monitor body temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen levels and respiratory rate. “These vital signs are transferred in real time to a mobile or desktop app,” said Kristin Ong ’21. “Not only does the mask help busy medical personnel prioritize patients, it also offers a washable, reusable alternative to standard disposable masks.”

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The latest data modeling projections by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health scientists estimate that, nationally, new COVID-19 cases and deaths will rebound in late May, as states ease stay-at-home orders and social contacts increase. By June 1, one projection scenario gives median estimates of 43,353 cases per day and 1,841 deaths per day in the United States. A second scenario with a greater progressive loosening of restrictions projects median estimates of 63,330 cases per day and 2,443 deaths per day by June 1.

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Evelo Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:EVLO), Rutgers University, and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital today announced the submission of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for an Evelo-sponsored Phase 2 clinical study evaluating the safety and efficacy of EDP1815 for the treatment of hospitalized patients with newly diagnosed COVID-19. The study will be led by Reynold A. Panettieri, Jr., M.D., Vice Chancellor for Translational Medicine and Science at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and Professor of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

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University of Utah electrical and computer engineering professor Massood Tabib-Azar is developing a portable, reusable sensor for COVID-19 that works with a cellphone. It can detect the presence of the virus in about a minute and just requires a drop of saliva.

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Environmental biologists at the University of Stirling have warned that the potential spread of COVID-19 via sewage "must not be neglected" in the battle to protect human health.

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To restart surgeries cancelled because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Canada needs to adopt single-entry models (SEMs) with team-based care, argues a commentary https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/early/2020/05/06/cmaj.200791.full.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

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Research could change standard of care protocols to prevent clotting associated with coronavirus

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UCLA Health initiative to unite Los Angeles with four key goals: raise the collective civic spirit, encourage responsible behaviors like maintaining good health, acknowledge the hardships that COVID-19 has presented and show gratitude to local MVPs and heroes.

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A new report offers insights that can help clinicians distinguish between patients with COVID-19 infections and those with other conditions that may mimic COVID-19 symptoms.

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The David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and University of Utah Health announce the start of Utah HERO (Health & Economic Recovery Outreach), a massive undertaking that will begin with the testing of 10,000 Utahns across four counties. The data gathered will inform decision-makers in the state as they work to help keep residents safe and get people back to work.

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A study of over 4 million children and adolescents in the U.S. enrolled in Medicaid found that those who rely on urgent care centers for more than a third of their outpatient health care needs had fewer visits to primary care providers. This may result in missed opportunities for preventative services, such as vaccinations, and identification and management of chronic conditions, such as obesity or asthma. Findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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This research, published in Nature, shows how different populations of people share most of the genetic susceptibilities to developing type 2 diabetes but do have some different genetic variations that can make them more or less susceptible to developing the condition.

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A multi-institution team, including a Cornell researcher, has received a National Science Foundation grant to design an open-source, 3D-printable medical mask inspired by the nasal structures of animals.

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When Marlon Bustamante, RN, meets a COVID-19 patient in Cedars-Sinai's Emergency Department, he doesn't know how long their illness will last or what path it may take. In this downloadable video diary, he and ICU Nurse, Melissa Rue, RN, share their perspectives on what it's like being on the front lines and powering through the COVID-19 pandemic.

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New clinical trial opened at Jefferson for novel COVID-19 treatment in 10 days.

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Despite PPE use, reports show that many health care workers contracted COVID-19. A novel training technique reinforces the importance of using proper procedures to put on and take off PPE when caring for patients during the pandemic. Researchers vividly demonstrate how aerosol-generating procedures can lead to exposure of the contagion with improper PPE use. The most common error made by the health care workers was contaminating the face or forearms during PPE removal.

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Researchers at Beaumont Health have begun enrolling patients in a new clinical study aimed at treating COVID-19 patients with two common drugs.

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UCLA Fielding School of Public Health research investigates COVID-19 case rates and pandemic protection: A metric for decisions to implement, continue, or relax measures.

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A research project led by IUPUI aims to assist teachers and other school personnel who experience "secondary traumas" from working with vulnerable populations, especially in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.