COVID-19

Loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second. In a closed, stagnant air environment, they disappear from the window of view with time constants in the range of 8 to 14 min, which corresponds to droplet nuclei of ca. 4 μm diameter, or 12- to 21-μm droplets prior to dehydration.

In-depth analysis of rsik factors for COVID-related deaths based on medical records of more than 17 million people in England. Authors find that persons from ethnic minorities have a higher risk of dying from COVID-19, independent of comorbidities

Sars-Cov2 was detected in nasal swab specimens of cats cohoused with a cat infected with Sars-Cov2

Description of 10 cases of Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome ("Kawasaki-like disease) in the Bergamo Province resembling the cases reported in UK on May 8. Patients were older, shock and cardiac involvement more common and laboratory findings differed from classic Kawasaki disease.

This letter reports the incidental detection of COVID-19 pneumonia in several asymptomatic patients who underwent imaging for non-COVID-19 related reasons and reminds radiology departments to continue checking all chest CTs for COVID-19 pneumonia even after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CT scans of the neck or abdomen revealed characteristic findings of COVID-19 pneumonia on partially included lung segments in 63% (76/199) of COVID-19 patients with non-respiratory symptoms patients.

This US report on 48 pediatric ICU admissions finds that 80% of patients had co-morbidities, medically complex neurodevelopmental/genetic diseases with long-term dependence of technological support being most common (40%).

A major concern of trainees in redeployement to practice medicine on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic are potential knowledge gaps. This article from Medical Educations Adaptation series reports on the creation and first experiences with the medicine basecamp, a 10 week online curriculum on Internal Medicine from McMaster University, designed specifically for the unique needs of redeployed trainees during this pandemic.

Given the infectiousness of SARSCoV-2 and the high proportion of transmissions from presymptomatic individuals, controlling the epidemic by manual contact tracing is infeasible.

Given the discussion of earlier articles that people with underlying comorbidities may have been overrepresented in symptomatic hospitalized cases and the fact that prevalence of comorbidity increases with age, this review looks for the empirical evidence on the association between comorbidities and severe or critical care outcomes of COVID-19, after accounting for age.