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Category: Health

Twitter deletes Trump’s coronavirus death toll retweet, citing misinformation

Posted on
The Washington Post

“Comorbidities” reported by the CDC include heart disease, obesity, diabetes and hypertension — conditions that can make a person more vulnerable to the virus. Each would be listed on a person’s death certificate, along with covid-19. Death certificates may also list sepsis, respiratory arrest, kidney failure or other conditions as the immediate cause of death, but those are caused by the infection. The virus remains the reason that they died, said Nasia Safdar, an infectious-disease professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Two pandemics, same story: The potentially dangerous overuse of antibiotics and ‘the road to medical hell’

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: The idea of using azithromycin for COVID-19 was based on preliminary French research suggesting a benefit that later was found to be flawed, said Ann Misch, an assistant professor of infectious disease at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Separately, laboratory research showed hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin reduced viral replication of cells infected by the virus, though not azithromycin alone. But, she said, “there’s a huge chasm between an effect in cell culture and in humans.”

She said there is no evidence azithromycin is effective against COVID-19.

“If people are using azithromycin, I am sorry to hear that,” she said.

Tommy Thompson, Tavern League, restaurant leaders appeal to campus businesses to take precautions

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The heads of the University of Wisconsin System, the Tavern League of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association sent an open letter to restaurant and bar owners Monday asking they take precautions to prevent COVID-19 spread as students start to return to campuses across the state.

UW System Interim President Tommy Thompson asked businesses to “help to encourage responsible behavior of our students,” alongside on-campus efforts to bring back a portion of some 170,000 students across 13 UW campuses.

Madison Hospitals, Public Health Concerned About Possible ‘Twindemic’

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Flu is circulating in the Southern Hemisphere and even with limited travel, there are cases on the seasonal flu in Wisconsin already, Conway said during a press conference at the Alliant Energy Center along with health officials from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UnitiyPoint Health-Meriter, SSM Health and Public Health Madison & Dane County.

How a single superspreading event sent coronavirus across Massachusetts and the world – The Washington Post

Posted on
Washington Post

The findings match what has been observed on a smaller scale in other studies, said Dave O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Superspreading events, which provide the virus with huge numbers of hosts in a small amount of time, are driving the global outbreak. Delays in returning test results make it much more difficult to mitigate their effects; by the time those infected in such events know they’re sick, they have probably infected many more people

Diagnosis timeline drags for Black autistic children

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Spectrum News

Other factors linked to low IQ could also contribute to the disparity, including lead poisoning and quality of nursery schools, says Maureen Durkin, professor of public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the research. Some families have reported difficulty getting therapists to visit their homes if they live in a neighborhood perceived as “dangerous,” she says.

UW welcomes first incoming class of medical students during pandemic

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WISC-TV 3

The traditional white coat ceremony, usually a graduation-like celebration following the first week of classes, was virtual this year. On Friday, the ceremony was streamed on the school’s Facebook page to welcome this year’s incoming class of 176 students – the first to start their training during the pandemic.

Incoming UW School of Medicine students start journey virtually

Posted on
NBC-15

On Friday afternoon, the UW School of Medicine and Public Health welcomed students for their White Coat Ceremony virtually, as this class will be the first to start their journey during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, typically held with friends and family in-person, signifies students’ entry into the profession.

As Covid-19 cases in prisons climb, data on race remain largely obscured

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STAT News

John Eason, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist who studies the effect of prisons on rural communities, argued that “it doesn’t matter who it is” that’s getting worse-hit by Covid-19 behind bars, given how many Black individuals are incarcerated. “If we don’t find a way to decarcerate, Black people are going to lose.”

What if We Worried Less About the Accuracy of Coronavirus Tests?

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The New York Times

But such tests face regulatory hurdles before they can be produced widely. Other rapid tests that are available now may need to be refined further before they can be “operationalized,” or used effectively in an actual setting, like a school, according to Dave O’Connor. He and colleagues in the AIDS Vaccine Reseach Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have been piloting what is called a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) test, which can be done on saliva, as part of the N.I.H. Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative. They’re running their project out of a minivan. “The first day we tested five or six people,” he told me. “Today we ran 80.”

What is used to treat covid-19? Not even doctors are sure.

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The Washington Post

For most of April, Marylu Seidel felt like she was starring in a science fiction movie. Her husband of 34 years, Jeff, was sedated in an intensive care unit more than an hour’s drive away in Madison, Wis., and her only window into his world was a daily phone call with his nurses. His doctors, first at a local community hospital and then at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, tried everything to help Jeff defeat the novel coronavirus — a ventilator, an antibiotic, an antimalarial drug, blood thinners, a blood plasma transfusion.

Will the rapid saliva COVID-19 test approved by the FDA eventually allow all college athletes to compete in 2020-21?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: University of Wisconsin researchers have been testing volunteers this summer with a saliva test.

UW athletic director Barry Alvarez, speaking to reporters during a Zoom session last week, acknowledged the current inability to secure rapid test results played a role in the Big Ten’s decision to shut down fall sports in 2020.

What experts say about how to interpret COVID-19 data like positive cases, deaths and hospitalizations — and what to avoid

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: But raw numbers don’t always tell the whole story, said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For example, a rise in cases can also be due to a rise in testing.

“If you think about something too simplistically, you can fall into the trap of believing something that is partially or maybe not even true at all,” Sethi said.

UW-Madison researchers working on a faster, simpler COVID-19 test that uses spit, not swabs

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In a shaded parking lot on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, so-called spit concierges guide volunteers though giving a saliva sample. On the other side of the parking lot is a pared-down biology lab where scientists test the spit-filled plastic vials for the virus that causes COVID-19.

They’ll have the results within one or two hours.

Wisconsin colleges’ fall plans hinge on testing thousands of students for COVID-19. Will it be enough to keep campuses open?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Colleges and universities across Wisconsin have developed a patchwork of plans to prepare for what at its core is an unknown: How to reopen campuses safely during a pandemic.

Quoted: Testing students every week or two will provide a gauge of whether the virus is taking hold on campuses. Many physicians stress this so-called surveillance testing is the only way to identify students and staff who are infected but don’t have symptoms.

“I don’t see how one can not do it,” said Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease physician at UW Health.

What Were Sports Like During The 1918 Spanish Flu Outbreak? Medical History Professor Dr. Susan Lederer Explains

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WHBC

There was no Massillon/McKinley game in 1918. The game was cancelled because of the Spanish Flu pandemic. How did the pandemic affect pro sports at the time? Dr. Susan Lederer, Professor of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison joined Jon to provide some insight.

Coronavirus has upended school plans. It will also worsen racial and economic inequalities, experts warn

Posted on
CNBC

With coronavirus cases still high around the country, half of U.S. elementary and high school students will attend school only virtually this fall, according to a study by Burbio, which aggregates school and community information nationwide.

That will have grave implications for minority and disadvantaged students, said Madeline Hafner, executive director of the Minority Student Achievement Network Consortium at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

The past five or six months have “really brought to light these racial disparities that have persisted for generations,” she said.

“With great uncertainty about the new school year, wealthier, predominantly White parents are using their resources to secure educational options for their individual children,” Erica Turner, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in her “Equity in Pandemic Schooling” action guide.

Wisconsin’s COVID-19 death toll passes 1,000. Here’s a look at who is dying, and how the rate compares to other leading causes of death.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Despite avoiding the worst-case scenarios predicted when the pandemic first hit, the number of deaths is still troubling, said University of Wisconsin-Madison epidemiologist Patrick Remington.

“It’s been hard to get the general public and even some policymakers to realize how serious a disease this is,” Remington said. “These are absolutely preventable deaths.”

How to Properly Dispose of Paper Face Masks

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Martha Stewart Magazine

Noted: While it may seem wise to separate your disposable face mask from your other garbage, Nasia Safdar, M.D., Ph.D., and professor of infectious disease at the University of Wisconsin, notes that it actually isn’t required. “The virus does not survive for prolonged periods outside the body,” she says. “Persons handling garbage must wear gloves when handling any trash, and that will protect against this [virus], as well.”

UW: High school athletes suffering without sports during the pandemic

Posted on
NBC-15

This spring when the pandemic began, UW began looking into the correlation between canceling sports and mental health in student-athletes. Researchers surveyed 3,000 student-athletes from around Wisconsin and found that , 65% recorded symptoms of anxiety, with 40% being mild and about 13% severe, while around 12% were moderate.

Why do some people refuse to wear face masks? Here’s what mental health professionals say.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Christopher Coe, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he describes himself as being fairly tolerant of risk, with one caveat. That he has a sense of control and predictability about that risk.

With an invisible virus, he said the risk is a lot harder to gauge, especially when he knows there are also a lot of people who are not behaving in the right way.

“I am not afraid of pathogens per se. I do research with infectious agents,” Coe said. “But when I do, I wear the appropriate protective personal equipment. I handle the specimens in biosafety cabinets. I sanitize contaminated surfaces, etc. That is, the risk is tempered by a logical series of steps to lessen and control.”

Opioid overdoses up in Wisconsin; first COVID-19 reinfection?

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Wisconsin Watch

Add this to the litany of bad news about the coronavirus pandemic: Opioid overdoses are up, likely because of stress. And La Crosse County may have seen the nation’s first verified reinfection of a person who previously was diagnosed with COVID-19. On the positive side, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are testing a COVID-19 saliva test that could provide results in just a few hours, allowing schools and workplaces to reopen.

The Covid Drug Wars That Pitted Doctor vs. Doctor

Posted on
The New York Times

But during the early months of the pandemic, the disagreements — what one critical-care doctor called, on his well-read blog, the profession’s “intellectual food fight” — provided another layer of painful stress to some doctors already near their limits. “It became like Republicans and Democrats,” said Pierre Kory, a critical-care doctor who faced that tension himself at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. “The two sides can’t talk to each other.”

Hand sanitizer poison calls grow along with FDA toxic list

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Fast Company

“We’re being much more vigilant about sanitization and as a result, there’s a lot more of these supplies for people or kids to get into inadvertently. We’ve had some very bad advice from out national leadership. There are people who are doing things that may have been said in jest that they don’t realize, because of who it’s coming from,” says Ed Elder, director of the Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Q&A: UW’s Jonathan Temte on status of a coronavirus vaccine and how it will be distributed

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The Capital Times

If anyone in Wisconsin was poised to play a part in the coronavirus pandemic, it was Jonathan Temte. A physician and associate dean with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Temte is also an expert in vaccine and immunization policy who sat on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for eight years and is currently a member of the ACIP COVID-19 Vaccine Work Group, a panel that will help inform the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determine how a COVID-19 vaccine will be deployed.

Gov. Tony Evers changes course, issues statewide mask mandate

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Wisconsin State Journal

Research on the effectiveness of wearing face masks is limited, but the idea is that wearing a mask helps reduce the transmission of the virus from the wearer to people in proximity through talking, coughing or sneezing. Dr. James Conway, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said cloth masks can achieve that quite well.

Covid-19 vaccine: High-risk populations, health-care, essential workers should have priority, experts say

Posted on
The Washington Post

One committee member, Paul Hunter, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, offered this summary: “If I was looking at the data correctly, if you’re a middle-aged-to-older African American female medical assistant with diabetes and hypertension, it looks to me like you’re on top of the list to get the vaccine.”

What It Will Take to Reopen Schools Safely

Posted on
American Scientist

It will take coordinated effort from national, state, and local leadership, individual behavior change, and funding to bring the outbreak under control and to return to in-person schooling safely. Measuring exactly 6 feet in between desks will not be enough to achieve these aims; we need to think about the big picture and consider how each reopening plan stacks up against these goals.

BY SANDRA ALBRECHT, MALIA JONES, APARNA KUMAR, LINDSEY LEININGER

Doctors across Wisconsin discuss ongoing challenges of battling COVID-19

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WKOW-TV 27

“I’ve had a couple patients recently who have dealt with delayed diagnosis because how things have played out during the pandemic,” said Madison family physician Dr. Jeff Huebner. “They had health insurance but it was an example of delayed diagnosis for, in both cases, cancer because people aren’t coming in.” Huebner, who is also a clinical assistant professor at the UW-Madison School of Medicine, said doctors are especially worried about what will happen in the coming months.