(HealthDay News) — As U.S. coronavirus cases topped 1.3 million and the death toll was set to pass 80,000 on Monday, three of the nation’s top health officials have started to quarantine themselves after being exposed to two White House aides who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The officials include Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, the Washington Post reported. Fauci said Sunday that he was told his exposure risk was low, and that he plans to wear a mask at all times in public but will not completely isolate himself because he needs to attend certain meetings at the White House and work at the National Institutes of Health, the Post reported. He will be tested every time he goes to the White House. All three officials are members of the White House coronavirus task force. So far, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have tested negative for COVID-19, the White House said. Meanwhile, troubling news emerged from New York City: Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that 38 children in the city had contracted a new, serious inflammatory syndrome that seems to be linked to COVID-19 infection. Three of those patients,…  read on >

As pandemic-related restrictions ease and people return to parks and other outdoor spaces, remember to protect yourself against another threat — ticks. “With our latest mild winter, ticks have been active in much of the region on warmer days all winter long,” said Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, an entomologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who said it’s too soon to predict population trends for 2020. She added that it is clear, however, that ticks are expanding their geographic range and moving into colder regions. That’s why it’s important to know how to recognize them, take preventive steps and do a tick check each time you venture out. “Although ticks aren’t everywhere, they can be anywhere so be aware of your surroundings,” Gangloff-Kaufmann said in a news release. Though no notable change in distribution or density has been reported in the past year, there is one exception, according to Laura Harrington, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases at Cornell. Harrington said the Asian long-horned tick is expanding its range and has moved into New York state. “So far, it hasn’t been found infected with human pathogens, but it does transmit a hemorrhagic viral disease in Asia,” Harrington said. The bacterial infection that causes Lyme disease is the most important tick-borne illness in the United States,…  read on >

COVID-19 has directly claimed tens of thousands of U.S. lives, but conditions stemming from the novel coronavirus — rampant unemployment, isolation and an uncertain future — could lead to 75,000 deaths from drug or alcohol abuse and suicide, new research suggests. Deaths from these causes are known as “deaths of despair.” And the COVID-19 pandemic may be accelerating conditions that lead to such deaths. “Deaths of despair are tied to multiple factors, like unemployment, fear and dread, and isolation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were already an unprecedented number of deaths of despair. We wanted to estimate how this pandemic would change that number moving forward,” said one of the study’s authors, Benjamin Miller. He’s chief strategy officer for the Well Being Trust in Oakland, Calif. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Well Being Trust reported that more lives had been lost to deaths of despair in 2017 than ever before. “The primary response at the time was to look at the opioid epidemic, but that didn’t even come close to cracking all of the issues of mental health related to deaths of despair,” Miller explained. Many things can contribute to deaths of despair, including loneliness, isolation, a lack of belonging, limited access to affordable health care, systemic racism, trauma and financial concerns, like a lack of housing and food, according to the Well…  read on >

With U.S. coronavirus cases topping 1.2 million and the death toll climbing to more than 75,000 on Friday, the federal government’s monthly jobs report showed a staggering 14.7 percent of Americans are now unemployed. A total of 20.5 million jobs were lost during the April lockdown, and not since the Great Depression has the unemployment rate been so high, the New York Times reported. That was not the only bad economic news delivered this week: On Thursday, the weekly jobless claims report showed that another 3.2 million jobless claims were filed last week. That brought the total unemployed since the nation’s economy was first curtailed by social distancing measures in mid-March to an historic 33 million. Meanwhile, a personal valet of President Donald Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, raising concern about of potential spread of the virus in the White House, the Washington Post reported. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have since tested negative, the White House said Thursday. While reopening parts of the U.S. economy will undoubtedly start to help some Americans get their jobs back, an internal report from the Trump administration predicted that reopening will come at a cost: 200,000 new coronavirus cases and 3,000 deaths every day by the end of May. Troubling predictions are coming from more than one source this week: A forecasting model from University of…  read on >

Daily use of inhaler medication by Americans with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed data on controller inhaler use by nearly 7,600 patients who use Propeller Health, which uses electronic medication monitors to track inhaler use and alerts patients about missed doses. Between the first seven days of January 2020 and the last seven days of March, mean daily controller inhaler use rose 14.5%. During the last week of March, more than 53% of patients had 75% or greater daily controller medication adherence, up 14.9% from the first seven days of January, according to the study published May 4 in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. “We are encouraged by the increase in patient adherence to their medications for asthma and COPD, which is critical to avoiding symptoms and keeping patients out of the hospital during this pandemic,” said first author Leanne Kaye, a senior research manager at Propeller Health at the time of the study. Increases in daily controller medication adherence increases were seen in all age groups, with older patients overall showing higher adherence at the start of the study period. There were no significant statistical differences in improved medication use between asthma and COPD patients. “This research further supports that digital health tools can improve adherence…  read on >

The COVID-19 pandemic has done untold economic damage in the United States, with businesses shuttering and people self-isolating at home to try to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. You might think hospitals and health care systems would be immune to this wave of financial ruin, since there’s no industry more crucial to America’s fight against the pandemic. You’d be wrong. The health care industry experienced an estimated $500 billion reduction in revenue during the first quarter of 2020, said Dr. David Shulkin, a former secretary of Veterans Affairs and former president and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. “There’s no doubt our hospitals, health systems, health care providers in general have taken a significant financial hit during this crisis,” Shulkin said during a HealthDay Live Stream interview. “In general, the average hospital has seen about a 40% to 45% decrease in operating revenue during this period of time.” In response, hospitals and health care companies have announced a wave of layoffs and cutbacks: Mayo Clinic said it will cut $1.6 billion in employee pay after suffering a $3 billion revenue loss, including furloughs or shorter hours for about 30,000 staff members. Quest Diagnostics is furloughing nearly one in every 10 employees, more than 4,000 people, following a decline in testing that’s not related to the coronavirus. These cuts…  read on >

Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that the White House coronavirus task force will likely disband within a month, even as the number of coronavirus cases climbed passed 1.2 million and the death toll passed 71,000. The slow shutdown will happen because of “the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country,” Pence said during a task force media briefing at the White House on Tuesday. While touring a mask factory in Arizona the same day, President Donald Trump acknowledged that reopening the country will mean more American lives are lost, but “we can’t keep our country closed. We have to open our country.” “I’m not saying anything is perfect,” Trump added, the Washington Post reported. “And, yes, will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon.” Trump’s statement came a day after an internal report from his administration predicted that reopening will come at a cost: 200,000 new coronavirus cases and 3,000 deaths every day by the end of May. Those projections, based on data collected by various government agencies, far exceed current levels of 30,000 new cases and 1,750 deaths a day, The New York Times reported. Troubling predictions came from more than one source on Monday: A forecasting model from University of Washington…  read on >