Physical And Mental Complications Can Linger For Patients Who Recover From Coronavirus

The Washington Post: The Dark Side Of Ventilators: Those Hooked Up For Long Periods Face Difficult Recoveries
For people desperately ill with covid-19, getting hooked up to a mechanical ventilator can mean the difference between life and death. But despite officials’ frantic efforts to secure more of the machines, they are not a magic bullet. Many attached to the scarce machines will not make it out of the hospital. Data from China, Italy and the U.S. suggest that about half of those with covid-19 who receive ventilator support will die. (Johnson and Cha, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: After COVID-19: Doctors Ponder Best Advice As Patients Recover From Coronavirus
When David Vega fell ill with the novel coronavirus in mid-March, fever, chills and nausea left the 27-year-old Indiana medical student curled up in bed for days. After a test confirmed he had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, his doctor advised Vega to isolate himself at home for an additional week. The week passed, and Vega improved. His doctor cleared him to get back to his regular routines without additional testing after he had gone three days without symptoms. (Heredia Rodriguez, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: Antibodies From Coronavirus Survivors May Help Current Patients
For 10 patients severely ill with the new coronavirus, a single dose of antibodies drawn from the blood of people who had recovered from COVID-19 appeared to save lives, shorten the duration of symptoms, improve oxygen levels and speed up viral clearance, newly published research reports. The preliminary findings emerged from a “pilot study” published Monday in the journal PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Conducted at three hospitals in China, it promised only to suggest the benefits of harvesting immune antibodies from recovered people (also called convalescent plasma) and administering it to people battling a severe case of COVID-19. (Healy, 4/6)

ABC News: Calls To US Helpline Jump 891%, As White House Is Warned Of Mental Health Crisis 
The national hotline providing emergency help to people suffering from emotional distress has received nearly nine times more calls than it did this time last year, with tens of thousands of Americans reaching out for assistance amid the coronavirus crisis, according to U.S. officials. Federal officials on the front lines of the U.S. government’s pandemic response have privately warned members of the White House and Department of Homeland Security that many more Americans will find themselves in “dire straits” over the coming weeks, and that U.S. agencies have yet to properly prepare for the unfolding “mental health crisis.” (Levine, 4/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus In Milwaukee: Calls To 211 Helpline Double During Pandemic
As the state has ratcheted up social distancing and stay-at-home rules, 211 has seen a significant increase in calls. According to Impact Inc. President and CEO John Hyatt, the average number of calls has doubled from 500 to 1,000 a day. The call center is part of a group of other 211s that cover nine counties in southeastern Wisconsin (Washington and Ozaukee, Waukesha and Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Jefferson Dodge and Walworth) 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Shelbourne, 4/6)

The New York Times: Where Have All The Heart Attacks Gone?
The hospitals are eerily quiet, except for Covid-19. I have heard this sentiment from fellow doctors across the United States and in many other countries. We are all asking: Where are all the patients with heart attacks and stroke? They are missing from our hospitals. Yale New Haven Hospital, where I work, has almost 300 people stricken with Covid-19, and the numbers keep rising — and yet we are not yet at capacity because of a marked decline in our usual types of patients. In more normal times, we never have so many empty beds. (Krumholz, 4/6)

The New York Times: At 89, She Fears Dying Alone More Than The Coronavirus Itself
Shatzi Weisberger recognized the symptoms of a heart attack. Her chest seized up and pain shot down her left arm. Ms. Weisberger, 89, a retired nurse, did not want to die alone in her apartment. But if she went to the hospital, she was afraid that she would get the coronavirus there and die among strangers, cut off from the people she cared about. “I know I’m vulnerable because I’m almost 90,” she said. “I would not go to the hospital under any circumstances.” (Leland, 4/7)

CNN: Even With A Pandemic, Many Older Americans Are Carrying On As Usual
Last week, a 99-year-old New Jersey man who went to an engagement party was arrested in New Jersey for defying the state’s ban on gatherings. In a separate case, a 100-year-old man violated a stay-at-home order by attending a funeral… For a group that’s considered very high risk for contracting coronavirus, they’re carrying on life as usual — much to the worry of their grown children. Talk to a few of them and they’ll tell you there are several reasons why. (Valdes, 4/6)

Stat: Social Distancing Can Test If Technology Could Solve The Loneliness Epidemic
As the coronavirus spreads exponentially across the United States, widespread social distancing is thought to be our best weapon against rampant transmission. Minimizing human contact can slow the rate of spread — flattening the curve — and avoid a surge of sick patients that would strain our health care system to a point where it cannot effectively care for them… The conundrum is that these mandates — prudent and necessary as they are — are overlaid against the backdrop of an epidemic of loneliness in the U.S. (Van Groningen, 4/7)

CNN: How Did Coronavirus Break Out? Theories Abound As Researchers Race To Solve Genetic Detective Story 
Coronavirus ravaging the world has provided fertile ground for all manner of theories — from the fantastic, to the dubious to the believable… Scientists have banded together across international borders to condemn the nationalist-tinged conspiracy theories. And yet, they are divided on what was once widely thought the most likely culprit: a so-called wet market in Wuhan, where wild animals are kept in cages and sold as pets or food. (Kuznia and Griffin, 4/6)

The New York Times: How Coronavirus Attacks The Body
It doesn’t take long for mild coronavirus symptoms to turn serious. These virtual reality images show how the virus can invade the lungs and kill. (Kessel and Byrd, 4/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: After Coronavirus, A Surge In Foster Care Placements Will Come
Sad to say but COVID-19 isn’t leaving any of us or our institutions untouched, and so today, I want to share with you the impact the virus is having on the foster care system. With schools shuttered and mandated reporters like teachers, day care workers, coaches, and Scout leaders no longer able to monitor children’s well-being, it’s anyone’s guess how children are faring. But if history is any indication, child welfare workers say that any drop in referrals is a good indicator of what’s to come. (Staples, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Cancer Patients Face Treatment Delays And Uncertainty As Coronavirus Cripples Hospitals
The federal government has encouraged health centers to delay nonessential surgeries while weighing the severity of patients’ conditions and the availability of personal protective equipment, beds and staffing at hospitals. People with cancer are among those at high risk of complications if infected with the new coronavirus. It’s estimated 1.8 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. this year. More than 600,000 people are receiving chemotherapy. (Stone, 4/7)

Politico: Coronavirus Clampdown: The Virus Casts A Shroud Over American Civic Life
States and cities across the country are cutting off access to open records and canceling in-person meetings, starving the public — not to mention lobbyists and other influence-brokers — of information as the coronavirus outbreak reaches into all corners of civic life. The public access shutdown comes just as local officials make unprecedented decisions about health care and how to disburse billions of dollars in federal aid. And it could undermine years of hard-won victories on access to information, some transparency advocates say, with now-temporary restrictions enduring even after this crisis has receded. (White, 4/7)

Kaiser Health News: Dispatch From A Country Doctor: Seeing Patients Differently In The Time Of Coronavirus
Patients would often stop by River Bend Family Medicine just to gab with staff at the front desk or bring baked goods to Dr. Matt Hahn. “I’m a simple country doctor,” said Hahn, who has practiced in Hancock, Maryland, for 20 years ― the past decade at his River Bend office. “Our waiting room is like a social network in and of itself.” Hahn is also a candidate for West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District though he has backed away from campaigning because of the coronavirus threat. (Appleby, 4/7)

WBUR: For Non-English Speakers, Difficult Language Barriers Become Dire Amid Outbreak 
Petrona worked as a housekeeper until the state ordered the closure of all non-essential businesses to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now the single mother of two young children with only a few dollars in savings and unable to qualify for unemployment because of her legal status, her main source of information is what she sees on her phone. (Rios, 4/7)

The Associated Press: Lives Lost: A Mismatched Pair’s Love Story Ends With Virus
He was a by-the-book, buttoned-up conservative whose opinions could be quick and blunt. She was a free-thinking, authority-snubbing liberal who would draw stories out in meandering conversation. In the pain of broken marriages, Edward Porco and Joan Powers found new life in each other, however mismatched they might seem. And as the coronavirus pandemic consumed the world, they both fell victim to it. (Sedensky, 4/7)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Studies Focus On Whether Sentinel Surveillance, School Closings Work
Public health officials can use rapid sentinel surveillance to measure the spread of COVID-19 in their communities and guide appropriate strategies to limit it, according to a study published late last week in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Also, a study published the same day in The Lancet Public Health suggests that healthcare worker absenteeism due to school closures during a pandemic could lead to more deaths than they prevent. (Van Beusekom, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: History In The Moment: Museums Begin Chronicling Coronavirus Pandemic
New York City could be facing its most challenging week to date during the coronavirus pandemic. But for Louise Mirrer, president and chief executive officer of the New-York Historical Society, there is no point in waiting until the worst passes before thinking about documenting the moment in time. Ms. Mirrer is leading her team of roughly 360 employees to gather what they can that tells the story of the novel coronavirus’ spread and how it put the city at a standstill. Items the society is seeking range from signs in shop windows to do-it-yourself face masks. (Passy, 4/6)