Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Robots can play a major role in COVID-19 battle

Robots can significantly help in the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that is spreading across the globe. As the number of cases tops one million, and the death toll reaching 53,000, scientists race to develop a drug or vaccine for the infectious disease. Now, robots are playing a major role in this fight, improving the health and safety of individuals and patients.

2 Apr 2020

UK lockdown is slowing down coronavirus spread, study says

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has rippled across the globe and affected about 180 countries and territories. The number of infections skyrocketed, prompting many countries and territories to impose lockdowns in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.

2 Apr 2020

How to legally and ethically respond to COVID-19 pandemic

Few novel or emerging infectious diseases have posed such vital ethical challenges so quickly and dramatically as the novel coronavirus.

2 Apr 2020

Bayreuth expert presents reliable coronavirus analyses through data assimilation

Thanks to methods used in fluid mechanics, the course of a pandemic and the effectiveness of government containment measures can be assessed promptly and accurately, and forecasts can be derived.

2 Apr 2020

Who should be taking antimalarial drugs as treatment against COVID-19?

Researchers provide a guideline regarding who should be actually taking antimalarial drugs as prophylaxis to prevent getting COVID-19. They say health professionals who are being exposed to COVID-19 positive patients and those who test positive but are asymptomatic should be taking drugs such as Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine. They explain that these populations remain most in need, and because of limited supply, these individuals need to be prioritized.

2 Apr 2020

Researchers receive NSF RAPID grant to study how anxiety affects spread of COVID-19 information

Princeton researchers have been awarded a National Science Foundation RAPID grant to study how anxiety about COVID-19 influences how we learn and share information about the pandemic.

2 Apr 2020

New app provides an overview of COVID-19 spread across the globe

There is nothing quite like a quarantine to make one itch to do something useful. Three PhD students from the Department of Mathematical Sciences have done just that.

2 Apr 2020

Trump touted Abbott’s quick COVID-19 test. HHS document shows only 5,500 are on way for entire U.S.

A coronavirus test made by Abbott Laboratories and introduced with considerable fanfare by President Donald Trump in a Rose Garden news conference this week is giving state and local health officials very little added capacity to perform speedy tests needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

2 Apr 2020

Lessons learned from the Italian COVID‐19 outbreak

As Italy grapples with the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, a new study has shed light on the country’s fight against the deadly disease. Italy is one of the hardest-hit countries of the global health crisis, infecting more than 115,000 people and killing nearly 14,000.

2 Apr 2020

Drugs considered for COVID-19 can increase risk for dangerous arrhythmias

As some consider treating coronavirus patients with a combination of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, cardiologists are advising caution because both medications can increase the risk for dangerous abnormal heart rhythms.

2 Apr 2020

A checklist to guide Emergency Department team's COVID-19 surge response

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to many health care systems across the globe.

2 Apr 2020

TCF Bank announces $100,000 match incentive program for COVID-19 response

TCF Bank, in its efforts to provide crucial support to Minnesota's frontline health care workers and accelerate innovations directed at tackling the COVID-19 health crisis, has announced a $100,000 match incentive program in collaboration with University of Minnesota Emergency Fund for Covid-19 response.

2 Apr 2020

Public health interventions will drive economic recovery from COVID-19

A major new study titled “Pandemics Depress the Economy, Public Health Interventions Do Not: Evidence from the 1918 Flu,” by MIT economist Emil Verner and others, and published as a working paper in the Social Science Research Network, puts the role of public health measures and financial welfare during public health crises into perspective.

2 Apr 2020

MIT launches new technique to mass manufacture disposable face shields

The shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) available to healthcare professionals has become increasingly problematic as Covid-19 cases continue to surge.

2 Apr 2020

Promising vaccine patch candidate for COVID-19

In a breath of fresh air, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine reported that they had developed a potential new vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is causing the current COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccine has been tested in mice. When administered through a small patch only the size of a fingertip, the vaccine was found to generate protective neutralizing antibodies against the virus, in adequate quantities.

2 Apr 2020

Designing face shields to protect healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented need to provide personal protective equipment for hospital staff.

2 Apr 2020

AI to predict risk of an individual patient's need for ventilator

As coronavirus patients are hospitalized, it is difficult for doctors to predict which of them will require intensive care and a respirator. Many different factors come into play, some yet to be fully understood by doctors.

2 Apr 2020

IMDEA Networks researcher launches study to estimate the actual incidence of pandemic

Antonio Fernández Anta, Research Professor at IMDEA Networks, has launched a study to estimate the actual incidence of the pandemic in eleven countries.

2 Apr 2020

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: All coronavirus all the time

The medical and economic needs laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic are forcing some immediate changes to the U.S. health system. Congress, in its latest relief bill, provided $100 billion in funding for the hospital industry alone.

2 Apr 2020

Web portal provides information on how to decontaminate used N95 masks

As health workers and first responders in the United States try to stem a pandemic without adequate protective gear, health officials are forced to consider a stopgap - decontaminating and reusing N95 masks to shield those whose jobs expose them to the virus that causes COVID-19.

2 Apr 2020