Stay-at-home measures working in fight against Covid: study

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⇒ Issue #95 (In numerology, 95 expresses its own innate sense of personal freedom while promoting the idea that all should have the right to do so)
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 08/14: 123,184*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 08/14: 9,063*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 08/14: 20,945,986*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 08/14: 760,022*

August 14, 2020 — Good morning. It's Chronicle assistant editor Dhiren Mahiban coming to you with the weekend edition of the Daily CurveFlattener.

We here at the Chronicle have been observing stay-at-home measures and working out of our home offices for the better part of five months now. That's alright. You don't need to thank us for our vigilance. This is thanks enough: a new study conducted at Brown University in Providence, R.I. shows those stay-at-home measures have helped slow the spread of Covid-19.



In a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (Aug. 1, 2020), researchers calculated the pandemic's doubling time on a national level in the U.S. and for individual states. Prior to the effects of the lockdowns becoming apparent, from March 4 to April 4, the national pandemic doubling time was 2.68 days. The doubling time increased to an average of 15 days between April 5 and April 30 after the stay-at-home measures were implemented.

The authors of the study noted that while the doubling time in all states increased, the rate of increase varied. The 45 states with stay-at-home orders in place added about 12.27 days to their doubling time, on average, indicating a slowing of the disease.

Five states without stay-at-home measures—Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota—added only about six days to their doubling time.

"We hope that these findings contribute to a growing body of evidence aimed at studying the full course of Covid-19 in America," said Joe Silva, a Ph.D. student at Brown's School of Public Health and a co-author on the study, in a press release. "This study does not imply stay-at-home orders were the sole factor that drove the observed increase in epidemic doubling time, but the data may be representative of the impact of multiple public health measures."

COVID CHRONICLE 08/14/2020

• A preliminary analysis of an ongoing study at Houston Methodist Hospital suggests convalescent plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid-19 patients is safe and effective. Researchers found patients treated early in their illness with donated plasma that has the highest concentration of anti- Covid-19 antibodies are more likely to survive and recover compared to similar patients who were not treated with convalescent plasma. The results of the ongoing study were published in The American Journal of Pathology (Aug. 10, 2020).
• Researchers at the University of Southern California have discovered the likely order in which Covid-19 symptoms appear: fever, cough, muscle pain, and then nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health (Aug. 13, 2020), the authors suggest knowing the order of Covid-19 symptoms may help patients seek care promptly or decide sooner whether they need to self-isolate.
• A national survey conducted in the U.S. by Orlando Health (Aug. 11, 2020) found that while the majority of parents (84%) believe vaccines are the best way to protect their children from infectious diseases, two-thirds are nervous to take their kids to their pediatrician's office due to Covid-19. The survey also revealed that skepticism about vaccines is a major issue with 38 per cent of parents responding that they don't believe their child needs all the vaccines recommended by their pediatrician.

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAYFor an upcoming issue of The Chronicle of Skin & Allergy, I am speaking with dermatologists about advancements in hidradenitis suppurativa and sun protection over the past 25 years.


RIGHT NOW I'M LISTENING TO...
Episode 83 of the Gangrey podcast with Alex Belth. Belth is the curator of The Stacks Reader and the editor of Esquire Classic.

THIS WEEKEND WE'RE WATCHING...
The Netflix docuseries Sunderland 'Till I Die which documents events around the English football club Sunderland A.F.C.

TONIGHT WE'RE EATING... 

We're going to quickly whip up this easy summer zucchini pasta for dinner tonight.


AND HOW ARE YOU DOING?

Please make use of the comments section at the Daily CurveFlattener, to let us know what you're up to today. Or feel free to check in via LinkedIn, email, or your choice of connector. By all means, pass this newsletter along to your colleagues.

That wraps up another work-from-home week. Stay in touch, and have a safe weekend. My colleague Jeremy Visser will back on Tuesday with the next edition of the Daily CurveFlattener.

Be sure to check out the second edition of Chronicle's new e-newsletter, "Skin Spectrum Weekly." It's a weekly report out every Monday featuring clinical news and expert medical commentary on scientific and cultural subjects related to Skin of Color and Ethnodermatology. Have a look at http://skinspectrum.online and sign up for your free subscription.