Many governments have recommended social distancing guidelines of 6 feet (about 2 meters). A study using surface and air samples obtained in February and early March 2020 “from an intensive care unit (ICU) and a general COVID-19 ward [GW] at Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China” came to a different conclusion–a maximum transmission distance of about 13 feet. “The main transmission routes for SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19] are…
See moreWhat can we learn from the past about what we are facing and may face with COVID-19? An increasingly good comparison is the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic (see — 100 years later, we are even more vulnerable to an influenza pandemic). Based on that comparison, we could see a scenario like this — “As America enters this utterly unfamiliar territory, some experts have turned to history…
See moreWhat is the impact of COVID-19 on children? Can children get the disease? If they do, how severe are the symptoms? What does research tell us so far? OBJECTIVES: To identify the epidemiological characteristics and transmission patterns of pediatric patients with COVID-19 in China. METHODS: Nationwide case series of 2143 pediatric patients with COVID-19 reported to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention from…
See morePandemic diseases–such as COVID-19–can be extremely stressful. The uncertainty of transmission, the intense desire to protect family and friends (and yourself), the unknown of the impact of catching the disease itself, the inexorable spread, the panic and outright misinformation that can be spread by social media, the drumbeat of the news, empty store shelves … the disappearance of the normal. What impacts can this stress…
See moreA pandemic is defined as a disease epidemic occurring over a widespread geographic area. Whether technically a pandemic or not, the world has experienced many large outbreaks of disease–examples include the Black Death (bubonic plague) which affected Asia and Europe and peaked in the mid 1300’s to the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918-1919 which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people to more recent…
See moreWhat are Coronaviruses? What does a Coronavirus infection mean for humans? Have we seen them before? Will we keep seeing them in the future? What is the outlook for the current outbreak? Read this; get trustworthy information — Paules, C.I., Marston, H.D., Fauci, A.S. (2020). Coronavirus Infections—More Than Just the Common Cold. JAMA, published online January 23, 2020. Questions? Please let me know (engelk@grinnell.edu).
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