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Some Weekend Coronavirus Columns and Research

By May 23, 2020Commentary

It isn’t just Minnesota and other states that are seeing the brunt of the epidemic born by nursing home residents.  In the whole country of Canada, 81% of deaths occurred among those residents.  (ZH Story)  Yoohoo, oh yoohoo, hey, politicians, look over here, here is some nice shiny data that you might want to use.

Meanwhile, the lockdown is being taken well by citizens, who are committing suicide in record numbers, as explained by these physicians in California.  (ZH Story)

And the federal government health official responsible for mental health warned of suicides, drug and alcohol abuse and other issues that could last for years as a result of shutdowns and stay-at-home orders.  (HHS Story)

And what would a day be without an antibody study.  (Medrxiv Paper)   In this study, the researchers took 538 individuals and sequenced their whole repetoire of polyclonal antibodies (polyclonal meaning coming from multiple types of B cells).   They found that several of these antibodies could have activity against the COVID 19 spike protein and receptor binding domain.  There was variation in the presence of some of the antibodies by age or sex or by comorbidity. This could explain why so many people don’t get infected after exposure or have such mild illnesses.

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