PHE - Resources

Recommended by Tyler: "Project Patient Voice has been initiated by the Oncology Center of Excellence to give patients and health care professionals unique information on symptomatic side effects to better inform their treatment choices," said FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D. "The Project Patient Voice pilot is a significant step in advancing a patient-centered approach to oncology drug development. Where patient-reported symptom information is collected rigorously, this information should be readily available to patients." "I'm sure this will be useful - and help cancer patients better evaluate treatment options, based on other patients' experience, especially around side effects. I think this is also worth curating." Thanks! Tyler

"Abstract Detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections to date has relied heavily on RT-PCR testing. However, limited test availability, high false-negative rates, and the existence of asymptomatic or sub-clinical infections have resulted in an under-counting of the true prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we show how influenza-like illness (ILI) outpatient surveillance data can be used to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. We found a surge of non-influenza ILI above the seasonal average in March 2020 and showed that this surge correlated with COVID-19 case counts across states. If 1/3 of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the US sought care, this ILI surge would have corresponded to more than 8.7 million new SARS-CoV-2 infections across the US during the three-week period from March 8 to March 28, 2020. Combining excess ILI counts with the date of onset of community transmission in the US, we also show that the early epidemic in the US was unlikely to have been doubling slower than every 4 days. Together these results suggest a conceptual model for the COVID-19 epidemic in the US characterized by rapid spread across the US with over 80% infected patients remaining undetected. We emphasize the importance of testing these findings with seroprevalence data and discuss the broader potential to use syndromic surveillance for early detection and understanding of emerging infectious diseases."

"Now, a new study from Penn State estimates that the number of early COVID-19 cases in the U.S. may have been more than 80 times greater and doubled nearly twice as fast as originally believed."

"Many people who contract COVID-19 have only a mild illness, or sometimes no symptoms at all. But others develop respiratory failure that requires oxygen support or even a ventilator to help them recover [1]. It's clear that this happens more often in men than in women, as well as in people who are older or who have chronic health conditions. But why does respiratory failure also sometimes occur in people who are young and seemingly healthy? A new study suggests that part of the answer to this question may be found in the genes that each one of us carries [2]. While more research is needed to pinpoint the precise underlying genes and mechanisms responsible, a recent genome-wide association (GWAS) study, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds that gene variants in two regions of the human genome are associated with severe COVID-19 and correspondingly carry a greater risk of COVID-19-related death."

"After 20 years at UC San Diego, Larry Smarr will step down as the director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and retire as a distinguished professor from the Jacobs School of Engineering's Computer Science and Engineering Department at the end of this month. Dr. Ramesh Rao, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering, will serve as interim director of Calit2, in addition to his current position as the director of the Qualcomm Institute."

Coronavirus Safety Guide by Andrew Junkin, MD Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School Boston, MA First published: March 23, 2020 | Last updated: May 3, 2020 This guide is also available in Spanish

"Types of errors can include: Some typographical spelling errors may or may not require correction. For example, if mesenteric is incorrectly spelled "mesentiric," you might not go through the trouble of having it corrected because there won't be any impact on your health or medical care. Errors in the spelling of your name do require correction because this can prevent your records from being shared properly among different providers, and it can affect payment for services. If your phone number or address is incorrect or outdated, you'll want to make sure it gets corrected immediately. Failure to do so will result in the wrong information being copied into future medical records or an inability for your medical team to contact you if needed. Any inaccurate information about your symptoms, diagnosis, or treatment should be corrected. For example, if your record says that you have temporal tumor instead of a testicular tumor, this is completely different and requires correction. If the record says your appointment was at 2 pm, but you never saw the doctor until 3:30 pm, that may not have any bearing on your future health or billing information needs, and it isn't worth correcting."

Published May 20, 2020 - Perspective and advice from Mimi Guarneri. Vitamin C and D, right foods, good sleep, time in the sun, all help strengthen the soil. Her explanation of the "Pearl" metaphor resonates.

Recommended by Megan Sweeney I listened to the article. It gave me a sense of context for self-study. I also found a strong path of hope that this kind of science will grow during the disruption caused by Covid-19

Recommended by Carl Heine, Ph.D. "ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (May 4, 2020) - The Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) today launches a chatbot on WhatsApp to connect its millions of users with the translated work of more than 80 fact-checking organizations worldwide. By using the IFCN's chatbot on WhatsApp, citizens can easily check whether content about COVID-19 has already been rated as false by professional fact-checkers."

To see the Premium articles on Covid-19 research, you'll need to create an account. This is an archive of Informa connect publications. Covid-19 publications are marked premium and require creating an account to access. I created an account and have access to the contents. However, those marked "premium" still require setting up an account. The materials are professionally published and at first, glance seem extensive and credible. They are publishing in an easy to read and dynamic 'reader' format. It is very similar to what we are doing with Rise 360. There are lessons to be learned from this group. A question for PHE/Project Apollo: Do we want to require the public to 'join' our website to see 'premium content' like our upcoming e-learning courses? I feel the way Informaconnect is leveraging the Covid-19 research to build membership is a little crass. On the other hand, the contents are impressive and the sign-up process wasn't onerous.

"Eight ways in which scientists hope to provide immunity to SARS-CoV-2 ."

"If wearable devices have the ability to provide continuous sensing capabilities while accurately capturing signals, is there a role that wearable devices play in forecasting illness? What role can wearable technology play in an outbreak response at both the individual level and global level?   Join our panel with industry experts to discuss the potential for innovation in the use of wearable technologies for early detection."

"A team of scientists worked around the clock to evaluate 14 antibody tests. A few worked as advertised. Most did not."

"We are a multidisciplinary team of researchers and physicians at UCSF, UC Berkeley, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, and Innovative Genomics Institute."

"April 23, 2020"

March 7, 2020: The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. Scientists from multiple countries have published and analysed genomes of the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),1 and they overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 as have so many other emerging pathogens.11, 12 This is further supported by a letter from the presidents of the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine13 and by the scientific communities they represent. Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus. We support the call from the Director-General of WHO to promote scientific evidence and unity over misinformation and conjecture.14 We want you, the science and health professionals of China, to know that we stand with you in your fight against this virus.

"Posted on May 5th, 2020 by Dr. Francis Collins"