As the U.S. coronavirus case count neared 5 million on Thursday, a new model predicted that nearly 300,000 Americans could die of COVID-19 by December if more people don’t wear masks or practice better social distancing. Researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) on Thursday issued a forecast of 295,011 deaths from coronavirus by Dec. 1. However, if 95 percent of people were to wear a face mask in public, some 66,000 lives could be saved, they added. “We’re seeing a rollercoaster in the United States,” institute director Christopher Murray said in a statement. “It appears that people are wearing masks and socially distancing more frequently as infections increase, then after a while as infections drop, people let their guard down and stop taking these measures to protect themselves and others which, of course, leads to more infections. And the potentially deadly cycle starts over again.” His team’s model also identifies which states will need to re-impose mask mandates between now and the winter to slow the spread of transmission. In other pandemic news, the U.S. State Department on Thursday lifted its 5-month-old blanket warning against international travel for Americans. Instead, the department will now issue travel recommendations by country. Why the change? “Health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others” influenced its decision,…  read on >

As coronavirus cases continue to surge across America, scientists on Wednesday called for widespread adoption of simpler, less accurate tests, as long as they’re given often and quickly. “Even if you miss somebody on Day 1,” Omai Garner, director of clinical microbiology in the UCLA Health System, told The New York Times. “If you test them repeatedly, the argument is, you’ll catch them the next time around.” The strategy hinges on having an enormous supply of testing kits. But many experts believe more rapid, frequent testing would spot people who need immediate medical care while also identifying those most likely to spread COVID-19, the Times reported. Of the dozens of coronavirus tests that have been granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, most rely on complex laboratory procedures, such as PCR, the Times reported. Only a few tests are quick and simple enough to be run in a doctor’s office or urgent care clinic, without the need for lab equipment. And these tests are still relatively scarce nationwide, though government officials say they plan to ramp up production of such tests by the fall, the newspaper said. “If you had asked me this a couple months ago, I would have said we just need to be doing the PCR tests,” Susan Butler-Wu, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Southern California,…  read on >

People getting their COVID-19 information from social media are more likely to receive misinformation, Canadian researchers report. But those who trust traditional media are less likely to have misperceptions. And they’re more likely to stick to public health recommendations such as social distancing, the research team found. For the study, researchers looked at millions of tweets, thousands of news stories and a survey of Canadians. “Platforms like Twitter and Facebook are increasingly becoming the primary sources of news and misinformation for Canadians and people around the world,” said researcher Aengus Bridgman, from McGill University in Montreal. “In the context of a crisis like COVID-19, however, there is good reason to be concerned about the role that the consumption of social media is playing in boosting misperceptions,” Bridgman said in a university news release. False information about COVID-19 is more readily found on social media like Twitter than on traditional news outlets, Bridgman and colleagues found. And they spotted big differences in behaviors and attitudes among people who get their news from social media instead of traditional news. These differences remained even after accounting for factors like scientific literacy and socioeconomic differences. Those who use social media regularly are less likely to keep social distancing and to see COVID-19 as a threat, but for those who get their information from regular news media it’s the opposite,…  read on >

If you’re younger than 65 years old and obese, COVID-19 poses a special danger to you. A new study reports that the more obese you are, the more likely you are to either die from infection with the new coronavirus or require lifesaving mechanical ventilation to survive. Morbidly obese COVID-19 patients are 60% more likely to die or require intubation, compared with people of normal weight, researchers found. Patients who were mildly obese were 10% more likely to die or need a breathing machine, while those who were moderately obese were 30% more likely, according to the study. “Increasing obesity was associated with an increased risk of lung failure or death in COVID-19,” said lead researcher Dr. Michaela Anderson, a pulmonologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. But obesity only posed a risk for people under 65, researchers added. Anderson said that’s probably because older folks are sicker, more frail, and more likely to develop respiratory failure with COVID-19 due to health problems unrelated to their weight. She and her colleagues reviewed medical records for nearly 2,500 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in March and April at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. They looked at body mass index (BMI), which is based on height and weight. Obesity begins at a BMI of 30; morbid obesity is 40 or over. “At the beginning…  read on >

As the daily U.S. coronavirus death toll averaged more than 1,000 for the ninth straight day on Tuesday, governors from seven states banded together to shorten turnaround time for COVID-19 test results. Three Republican governors and three Democratic governors signed an interstate testing agreement on Tuesday, The New York Times reported. Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia will work with the Rockefeller Foundation and two U.S. manufacturers of rapid tests to buy 3 million tests, the newspaper said. A seventh state, North Carolina, later joined the pact, CNN reported. The bipartisan plan illustrates just how bad testing delays are across the country. The United States is testing about 755,000 people a day, up from about 640,000 per day a month ago, the Times reported. But with testing chemicals and other equipment in short supply, and a surge in coronavirus cases nationwide, many Americans are still having to wait many days for results, the Post reported. Most people who are tested do not receive results within the 24 to 48 hours recommended by public health experts to slow the virus’s spread and quickly conduct contact tracing, according to a new survey by researchers from Harvard University, Northeastern University, Northwestern University and Rutgers University, the Times reported. People who had been tested for the virus in July reported an average wait time of about four days,…  read on >

Older Americans are feeling stressed by COVID-19 and prolonged social isolation, but they’re also showing their resiliency, a new study finds. Most of these adults have turned to a range of tools to stay in touch, researchers report. “Many of the social venues that help older adults stay engaged are effectively cut off now with social distancing. While the internet can help with some connections, it is hard to replace human contact,” said researcher Kerstin Emerson, a clinical associate professor of gerontology at the University of Georgia’s Institute of Gerontology. “And for some, these remote connections aren’t possible due to no reliable internet.” For the study, Emerson surveyed more than 800 adults aged 60 and older between March 30 and April 12, when they had been in lockdown for 17 days. “Part of the reason I did that was because I wanted to see if there was a difference by age groups, among the ‘younger old’ and ‘older old,’ who may have different work responsibilities and living situations,” she said in a university news release. Emerson found that about 40% of 60- to 70-year-olds felt moderately or very stressed and out of control of their lives. Among this group, more drinking and eating was seen. Also, some exercised more and some less than usual. Those aged 71 and older seemed to cope with stress better…  read on >

Midwestern states are starting to see surges in coronavirus cases, just as Southern and Western states are scrambling to contain their own outbreaks of COVID-19. Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma are among those witnessing the largest percentage surge of infections over the past week, the Washington Post reported. At the same time, the number of new cases in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama still outpaced all other states. Experts also see worrying trends in major East Coast and Midwest cities, the Post reported, and they anticipate major outbreaks in college towns when classes resume in August. Still, President Trump continued his push to fully reopen schools on Monday. “Ideally, we want to open those schools. We want to open them,” Trump said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, on Monday agreed with that sentiment, telling CNN that schools and college campuses across the country should be able to reopen, but officials need to make safety a priority. The default position with kindergartens, grade schools and high schools should be to reopen them, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN. On college campuses, Fauci said plans should include testing people before they arrive on campus, when they arrive and quarantining them for 14 days. “If done properly, it would not be…  read on >