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Poll: 26% of Black Americans Know Someone Who Died From COVID-19

A new poll from Insider looked at how many Americans know someone who was hospitalized or died from the coronavirus.

The poll of 1,111 respondents was conducted between June 8-9 in collaboration with SurveyMonkey Audience.

According to the poll, about 16% of white respondents knew someone who had been in the hospital for coronavirus treatment. In comparison, 27% of Black respondents said they knew someone who had been hospitalized for treatment.

More Black respondents knew someone who had died from COVID-19 (26%), compared to white survey respondents (14%).

Read the full story on Insider.

Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Gets Fast-Tracked to Begin Phase 1/2a in July

Johnson & Johnson announced Wednesday that its investigational SARS-CoV-2 vaccine — known as Ad26.COV2-S, recombinant — will be fast-tracked to begin its Phase I/2a first-in-human clinical trial in the second half of July. Originally, it was scheduled to start in September.

The study will be held in the United States and Belgium, and it will be randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled. Phase 1/2a will look at safety, the body's response to the vaccination and the immune response of the vaccine. The study will include 1,045 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55, plus adults who are 65 and older.

"Based on the strength of the preclinical data we have seen so far and interactions with the regulatory authorities, we have been able to further accelerate the clinical development of our investigational SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, Ad26.COV2-S, recombinant," said Paul Stoffels, M.D., Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer of Johnson & Johnson, in a press release.

If the vaccine is found to be safe and effective, Johnson & Johnson has committed to the goal of supplying more than one billion vaccine doses globally through the course of 2021.

Read the full press release.

CDC Outlines Considerations for Youth Sports in the COVID-19 Era

As more communities reopen across the country, youth sports could start up again soon, and communities should be prepared to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released some considerations about youth team sports in the time of COVID-19.

The CDC stresses that these considerations are meant as supplements and not as replacements for any health and safety laws and rules where youth sports take place.

Some of the considerations include:

  • Thinking of the risks around youth sports activities. For example, a child could practice sports drills or conditioning workouts at home, either alone or with family members, which would have a low risk of spreading COVID-19. A team-based practice would be higher risk, and games between teammates and other teams from other areas could create an even higher risk of spreading COVID-19.
  • Cutting down on equipment sharing, and making sure to clean and disinfect shared equipment between uses to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread.
  • Wearing face coverings as much as possible, which would include coaches, youth sports staff, officials, parents and spectators.
  • Avoiding the sharing of towels, clothing or other items commonly used to wipe faces or hands between players.
  • Having practice outdoors as much as possible instead of indoors.
  • Frequent handwashing for at least 20 seconds is still important. If soap and water aren't available, hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol should be made available.

Read the full recommendations list.

Video: Experts Provide More Information on Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children

University of Utah Health released a video with more information about Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children (MIS-C), a new condition that's been associated with COVID-19 in children.

In the video above, experts from the University of Utah Health and Primary Children's Hospital provide more background on MIS-C, including symptoms, diagnosis and treatment.

See more about MIS-C.

WHO Director-General Reports Most Coronavirus Cases in One Day Since Outbreak Began

In a press conference on Wednesday, Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there have been 106,000 cases of coronavirus reported to WHO in the last 24 hours, which is the most in a single day since the outbreak began.

As Pools Ready to Open, Expert Shares Thoughts on Coronavirus Spread and Pool Water

As temperatures rise and areas start planning to open their local and community pools for the summer season, you might wonder if it's safe to head to the nearby pool with the coronavirus pandemic.

Ernest "Chip" Blatchley, a Purdue University Lee A. Rieth Professor in Environmental Engineering who studies pool water decontamination, says the water in your local pool is unlikely to spread coronavirus.

"There are no data to show how the coronavirus responds to chlorine, but we do know that chlorine effectively inactivates similar viruses," Blatchley said in a press release.

The general guidance in the United States is to keep pools properly disinfected by maintaining a free chlorine concentration between 1 and 5 milligrams per liter, he said.

"If a pool has that concentration, there would be very little infective novel coronavirus in the water," Blatchley said.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas or water play areas.

Blatchley said that for indoor pools, the greater risks to spreading coronavirus include things such as crowds, contaminated surfaces at the pool such as handrails and poor air circulation.

"On the other hand, the air in an indoor pool is liked to pose similar risks of coronavirus spread as other indoor spaces," Blatchley said. "A person's risk would not be affected by the water. The most relevant issue would be contamination of the air or surfaces in these facilities."

Read more about the topic.

Clinical Study at UCI Health Will Look at Aviptadil as Potential COVID-19 Treatment

UCI Health is launching a phase 2b/3 clinical study of Aviptadil as a potential COVID-19 treatment.

The drug has a history of being used in clinical trials for lung problems, and researchers will look into if Aviptadil can help patients who have COVID-19 and who have acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Researchers will look at up to 30 hospitalized patients at UCI Medical Center who have ARDS due to COVID-19 and who require intubation and mechanical ventilation, according to a press release on the study.

Aviptadil helps target cytokine molecules in the lungs, which COVID-19 can escalate into a dangerous cytokine storm.

University of California, Irvine (UCI), the University of Miami and Thomas Jefferson University are the three sites for the Aviptadil clinical trial, which will ultimately have 120 patients included in the trial.

"This study will focus on patients for whom mortality is alarmingly high," said Dr. Richard Lee, interim chief of UCI Health's Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine and the principal investigator for the clinical trial. "If successful, we hope that treatments such as Aviptadil may change the chances of survival for these patients."

The estimated completion for the clinical trial is later this year.

Read more about the clinical trial.

UCF Developing Special Cough Drop That Could Help Reduce COVID-19 Spread

Researchers from the University of Central Florida are looking to develop a special cough drop or lozenge that could help control the spread of COVID-19 by altering a person's saliva.

The idea is that COVID-19 transmission would go down because this specially-designed cough drop made with candy or corn starch would make saliva heavier and stickier, which would help sneeze and cough particles fall instead of float in the air, according to a press release on the project.

The team recently received a National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research Award for $200,000 for their project.

"Based on our early data, coupling a face mask with saliva mixed with corn starch will potentially have us go from six feet to two feet for social distancing," said Kareem Ahmed, an assistant professor in UCF's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and co-principal investigator, in a press release about the project.

This would be especially helpful in areas where social distancing isn't always easy, such as offices, grocery stores and public transportation.

They're using special high-speed cameras to look at the patterns and distance of sneeze and cough droplets, including those altered by candy or starch. The team's preliminary results have shown that changing the properties of saliva can lead to a significant reduction in how long a droplet stays in the air.

Read more about the study.

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