It’s the middle of June and COVID-19 is still here. In fact, the data indicates it’s just getting started. We’re seeing the largest daily spikes of new cases since scientists began tracking the disease back in December of 2019. At the rate we’re going, experts figure about one in every five people could end up contracting a “serious” case of the disease. Credit: Worldometers That’s the bad news. But, as you can see above, there’s some good news. The number of cases have gone up with the number of tests performed, but the number of deaths is trending downward. This means, in most places, medical professionals are doing a better job identifying and treating the most severe cases. Now for the best news: there’s a new “breakthrough” treatment that’s experimentally shown to improve outcomes in the worst COVID-19 cases. It’s not a vaccine or cure, but preliminary research shows that dexamethasone, a steroid, experimentally reduces the risk of dying from serious cases of the disease by one-third. There’s still more research to be done before the inexpensive, widely-available drug is given the all-clear, but current research indicates doctors should start using it to treat the worst cases immediately. Interestingly, dexamethasone was used in previous coronavirus treatment trials in conjunction with hydroxychloroquine. The latter drug, a malaria treatment, has since been determined ineffective at reducing mortality rates in patients with COVID-19. The ever-increasing number of daily cases is cause for concern, especially without a vaccine on the horizon. But dexamethasone is a potential game-changer for COVID-19 outcomes. And that’s cause for celebration. Not only could the treatment save hundreds of thousands of lives, but studying its efficacy could lead to a cure or at least better upstream treatments. If we can’t beat the coronavirus, hopefully we can at least take it down a few notches.
Tweet thread of the week
Source: Institute for policy studies Eric Yuan (Zoom): up $2.58 billion — Tom Inglesby (@T_Inglesby) June 15, 2020 Perhaps the most famous example of this is when people try to tell Tom Morello, the lead guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, to stick to music.
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) June 6, 2020 It’s the ultimate dunk. Some blowhard comes at an expert out of left field and, without being a jerk about it, the expert gets to put them in their place. It’s even more fun when the person being dunked on is a celebrity: Credit: Reddit Unfortunately, it takes a perfect storm for one of these to occur in the wild. That’s why I spend an embarassing amount of time on Reddit’s r/DoYouKnowWhoIAm board. In the meantime, here’s a few links to help you manage the misinformation as the disease hits its peak: The Center for Disease Control’s myth-busting section on COVID-19 After Recovering from COVID-19, are you immune? John Hopkins Univeristy COVID-19 myth vs fact Tristan
