Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Plasma From Recovered Patients May Help Modestly With Recovery, But Results Are Far From Certain
A small study of patients who were severely ill from the coronavirus hints that treatment with antibodies from recovered patients may modestly help recovery and survival, scientists reported on Friday. The study, although far from conclusive, is said to be the largest of subjects recovering from Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Thirty-nine hospitalized patients were given intravenous infusions of antibodies from patients who had recovered from the condition. (Kolata, 5/22)
Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention making the rounds this week on the internet are clarifying what we know about the transmission of the coronavirus. The virus does not spread easily via contaminated surfaces, according to the C.D.C. For those who were worried about wiping down grocery bags or disinfecting mailed packages, the news headlines highlighting this guidance in recent days might have brought some relief. But this information is not new: The C.D.C. has been using similar language for months. (Fortin, 5/22)
The parents and two brothers of Silvia Deyanira Melendez, 24, are all in therapy after losing their daughter and sister to COVID-19 on March 28. "I don’t have the words to say how beautiful and nice to the family she was," her father, Marcos Melendez, said Friday. She weighed more than 300 pounds with a body mass index of 60, double the BMI considered obese. This most likely contributed heavily to her Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and a heart condition that required open heart surgery two years ago. (O'Donnell, 5/23)
If you've been reading coronavirus news coverage, you've likely stumbled across a reference to a term called "R0." ... Pronounced "R-naught," the reproductive number is an indicator of how contagious a disease is, or how easily it spreads from person to person in a community. The number is important because government leaders are using R0 as a proxy for determining whether their respective COVID-19 outbreaks are growing, shrinking and or holding steady. (Schumaker, 5/26)
