COVID-19 Update: Friday, August 21

Llamas, Numbers, shifting back to the CDC, antibody testing, and female leadership.

1. According to the NIH, the answer may lie with llamas. Well, at least part of it. Researchers have isolated antibodies from a llama that they used to create antibodies that could block the virus from entering cells in a petri dish. Obviously not something that is going to roll out tomorrow but worth exploring further.

2. The US added 330k new cases this week but deaths were down, and the CFR is down to 3.09% well below the global CFR of 3.48%. There are now 504k reported cases among children ages 0-19 according to the CovKid project but deaths remain low at 109 total and 1100 in the ICU. Test positivity rate is averaging 7% nationally which is down slightly from prior weeks and total US deaths attributed to COVID were 8.1% last week.

3. According to CIDRAP, an interview in Medical News Today and the Wall Street Journal, the CDC is taking back over the collection of hospital data. You may recall that was shifted to a privately owned source. Reportedly they are making arrangements to shift it back to the CDC so stayed tuned for more on that.

4. Antibody testing is best done 3-4 weeks after infection according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Test too soon and the antibodies will not show up, test to late and they will have started to fade. Also, worth noting in the testing department, as we try to conduct more testing it increases bottlenecking from the labs as most labs are analyzing tests at maximum capacity.

5. Two new studies are reporting that countries run by women and states in the US governed by women are managing the pandemic better than those run by men. The general reason for this seems to be that women were more decisive and acted sooner than their male counterparts. You can read some of these studies at Social Science Research Network and the Journal of Applied Psychology.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Friday has finally arrived, and we have made it another week. It is time to step away and give yourself a break from the news and social media. Time to renew, refresh, rest, and distract ourselves with other things, more important things. Tonight may be a great night for a movie – preferably something funny because we could all use a laugh. So, round up some people you are safe with, pop some popcorn and then Netflix and chill. I’ll see you back on Monday.

Photo from 1918: