Tag: Pandemics

People gave up on flu pandemic measures a century ago when they tired of them – and paid a price

Featured Article

J. Alexander Navarro, University of Michigan (from The Conversation) Picture the United States struggling to deal with a deadly pandemic. State and local officials enact a slate of social-distancing measures, gathering bans, closure orders and mask mandates in an effort to stem the tide of cases and deaths. The public responds with widespread compliance mixed with more than a hint of grumbling, pushback and even…

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Into the future with COVID: stress, depression, endemic/pandemic … will there ever be “normal” again?

Intersections

Will we ever return to the world of 2019? A time before COVID-19 dominated the education, work, mental and physical health–the very existence of billions of people. Globally, millions have died, hundreds of millions have tested positive, and those estimated numbers are surely all undercounts (Johns Hopkins University, Coronavirus Resource Center). The coronavirus is still with us and will continue to be into the future….

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Long COVID: what it is, impacts, and treatments

Quick bibliographies

“Long COVID refers to a variety of symptoms affecting different organs reported by people following Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection” (Taquet, 2021). “The symptoms of Long Covid include fatigue, dyspnea, cardiac abnormalities, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbances, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, muscle pain, concentration problems, and headache” (Crook, 2021). Long Covid can be terribly debilitating and have profound effects on the people it impacts. See…

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Essential workers: economic and health vulnerability

News

We live in a very unequal society in the United States. Many have pointed this out for years and the COVID-19 pandemic has starkly illustrated this inequality. The poor, the sick, the old, the young, those who are “different”, those with little political power, and on and on … these people have borne the brunt for decades. These people have seen little benefit from economic…

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Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19 and is spread person-to-person through close contact. This review investigated the effects of physical distance, face masks, and eye protection on virus transmission in health-care and non-health-care settings. The review covered “172 observational studies in health-care and non-health-care settings across 16 countries and six continents; 44 comparative studies were included in a meta-analysis, including 25 697 patients…

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The use of face masks/face shields to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases–are they effective?

Quick bibliographies

How effective is wearing face masks and/or face shields in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases? Recommendations in the United States, at least, have varied often depending upon who issued them–politicians or medical professionals. Quick bibliography: What does the research say about the effectiveness of wearing face masks and/or face shields to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases? *Bhaskar ME, Arun S….

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How far do COVID-19 particles travel from people who are infected?

News

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…

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What can we learn from history about the pace and path of a pandemic?

News

What 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…

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What is the impact of COVID-19 on children’s health?

News

What 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…

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The effects of stress brought on by pandemic diseases

Quick bibliographies

Pandemic 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…

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