(2020-03-30). Iran's Covid-19 death toll reaches 2,757 with almost 41,500 identified cases. rt.com 
There are 41,495 Covid-19 cases in Iran, the country's health officials reported in the latest update. The death toll from the pandemic has reached 2,757 in the Islamic Republic, a nation hit hard by the viral disease.
(2020-03-30). Twitter REMOVES posts by Brazil's Bolsonaro in crackdown on information that 'may increase risk' of Covid-19 spread. rt.com 
In an unprecedented move, Twitter has yanked two posts by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in which he took aim at coronavirus lockdowns as part of his controversial campaign to avoid a shutdown of the economy. | Bolsonaro has become the first ever head of state to have his tweets censored by the platform under recently-updated guidelines, requiring users to remove content that defies "global or local health authorities recommendations" aimed at halting the spread of the deadly disease that has already taken hold in the Latin American country. | I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure these two tweets from…
(2020-03-30). China: COVID-19 hospital construction worker's protest blog goes viral before being deleted. wsws.org The worker described the wage theft and repressive conditions suffered by thousands of construction employees who build hospitals in Wuhan at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
(2020-03-30). Live Stream: Health Care Town Hall: Our Lives On The Line Series Kick-off. indybay.org Live stream on Facebook…
(2020-03-30). Chinese philanthropist sends medical aid to Europe. yenisafak.com A Chinese businessman and philanthropist on Monday said his foundation will rush urgent medical aid to Europe, the new epicenter of coronavirus.In a tweet, Jack Ma, founder of China's Alibaba Group, called for unity in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 34,600 lives across the globe since last December."Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation will donate additional urgent equipment including 800 ventilators, 300,000 sets of protective gowns and 300,000 face shields to hospitals in Europe. #OneWorldOneFight," he tweeted.He previously sent medical aid to many countries in Asia and Afr…
(2020-03-30). #LETSLOVESUHO Trends Worldwide as EXO Leader's Solo Album, MV Released. sputniknews.com The leader of the popular K-pop boy band EXO has finally made his solo debut, showing his warm and tender side.
(2020-03-30). 'Now isn't the Time to Do That': US Congressman Again Slams Hillary Clinton Over Her Trump Jab. sputniknews.com On Friday, Hillary Clinton shared a recent report from The New York Times about the US now leading the world in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, tweeting that President Trump "did promise 'America First'".
(2020-03-29). US Teen Dies After Being Rejected by Clinic for No Insurance. telesurenglish.net A 17-year-old U.S. citizen with symptoms of coronavirus did not receive medical attention at an emergency clinic because he did not have health insurance, Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris said on March 25 in a video posted on YouTube. | RELATED: | "He did not have insurance, so he was not treated," Parris said, adding that medical personnel at this emergency center, whose name was not released by authorities, advised…
(2020-03-29). Turkey Becomes Latest Victim of Coronavirus as Death Toll Soars. telesurenglish.net In the past 24 hours in Turkey, 16 more people lost their lives due to COVID-19, raising the death toll to 108, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday night. | RELATED: | The total number of novel coronavirus cases rose to 7,402 in Turkey, the minister tweeted, which is a significant rise in the total number of people infected by the illness. | A total of 7,641 tests were performed on Saturd…
(2020-03-29). Zarif warns US to stop aiding war crimes. iranian.com Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message referred to the US' background of sabotage and assassinations and warned Americans to stop aiding war crimes. twitter.com/JZarif/status/1244229089772224512 "The US has gone from sabotage & assassinations to waging an economic war & #EconomicTerrorism on Iranians—to #MedicalTerror amidst #covid19iran," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday, adding: …
(2020-03-29). ONE MUST PAY: Trump promises Harry & Meghan no free ride in US. rt.com 
President Donald Trump has assured Britain's Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle that the US taxpayer won't be footing their security bill, after the absconding royals left Canada to settle in Los Angeles. | "I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom," Trump tweeted on Sunday. "It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!" | I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Megh…
(2020-03-28). NHS staff launch website to help colleagues working in 'scary' and 'heartbreaking' environments. thecanary.co Two friends have launched a free set of online resources to help NHS staff cope with the stresses of working during the coronavirus pandemic. | Trained cognitive behavioural hypnotherapists Slee Parrish and Alex James designed The website contains instructions for a set of eight techniques, accompanied by simple YouTube videos, to help staff manage feelings of fear, anxiety and stress while they are at work. | This includes breathing exercises, guided meditatio…
(2020-03-27). How austerity and anti-immigrant politics left Italy exposed to viral blitzkrieg. peoplesworld.org 
As the viral blitzkrieg rolls across one European border after another, it seems to have a particular enmity for Italy. The country's death toll has far surpassed China's, and scenes from its hospitals look like something out of Dante's imagination. Why? Italy has the fourth-largest economy in the European Union, and in terms of health …
(2020-03-27). 'Open your STUPIDLY abandoned plant': Trump lashes out at GM & Ford over ventilator delay. rt.com 
President Donald Trump has lost his patience with automakers who promised to produce ventilators to treat Covid-19 patients, threatening to invoke his emergency powers to force General Motors and Ford to live up to their pledge. | "They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, 'very quickly,'" Trump tweeted on Friday. "Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar." | He added that it's "always a mess" with GM CEO Mary Barra, and that he will invoke the Defense Production Act, a piece of wartime legislation giving the president the power to order manuf…
(2020-03-24). Economist Jeffrey Sachs: Trump "Understands Nothing, Listens to Nothing" as Pandemic Surges in U.S. democracynow.org 
As #NotDying4WallStreet trends on Twitter, President Trump defies his top scientists and soaring infection rate, saying he will ease restrictions soon to jumpstart the economy. We speak with economist Jeffrey Sachs about the stimulus package that failed to pass again Monday, as Democrats called the measure a slush fund for corporations. Sachs also led the WHO's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health from 2000 to 2001 and played a key role in conceiving and establishing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which helped distribute new medicines to fight infectious diseases.
(2020-03-16). [Correspondence] COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression. thelancet.com As of March 12, 2020, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been confirmed in 125 048 people worldwide, carrying a mortality of approximately 3 ∑7%,1 compared with a mortality rate of less than 1% from influenza. There is an urgent need for effective treatment. Current focus has been on the development of novel therapeutics, including antivirals and vaccines. Accumulating evidence suggests that a subgroup of patients with severe COVID-19 might have a cytokine storm syndrome. We recommend identification and treatment of hyperinflammation using existing, approved therapies with proven safety profiles to addre…
(2020-02-27). [Comment] COVID-19: combining antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatments. thelancet.com Both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) are characterised by an overexuberant inflammatory response and, for SARS, viral load is not correlated with the worsening of symptoms.1,2 In our previous Correspondence to The Lancet,3 we described how BenevolentAI's proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-derived knowledge graph,4 queried by a suite of algorithms, enabled identification of a target and a potential therapeutic against SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; the causative organism in COVID-19).
(2020-02-24). [Comment] COVID-19 pneumonia: what has CT taught us? thelancet.com In late December, 2019, a cluster of cases of viral pneumonia was linked to a seafood market in Wuhan (Hubei, China), and was later determined to be caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; previously known as 2019-nCoV).1 The genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 is similar to, but distinct from, those of two other coronaviruses responsible for large-scale outbreaks in the past: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV; about 79% sequence identity) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV; about 50%).
(2020-02-24). [Correspondence] Viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples. thelancet.com An outbreak caused by a novel human coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first detected in Wuhan in December 2019,1 and has since spread within China and to other countries. Real-time RT-PCR assays are recommended for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.2 However, viral dynamics in infected patients are still yet to be fully determined. Here, we report our findings from different types of clinical specimens collected from 82 infected individuals.
(2020-02-20). [Comment] The burden of viral respiratory infections in young children in low-resource settings. thelancet.com Acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI), encompassing bacterial and viral pneumonias, acute viral bronchiolitis, and bacterial and viral bronchitis, remain the leading cause of global child mortality.1 The thrust of global prevention and treatment efforts has been directed against bacterial causes of ALRI, and deaths from bacterial pneumonia have decreased substantially since 1990 because of improved access to health care and life-saving antibiotics, as well as increased use of vaccines targeted at bacterial respiratory pathogens.
(2020-02-06). [Spotlight] Coronavirus epidemic: preparing for extracorporeal organ support in intensive care. thelancet.com Zoonotic viral infections are more frequently crossing species to infect human populations. In 2003, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus was transmitted to humans from exotic animals in wet markets in China, and in 2015, the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus was transmitted from camels in Saudi Arabia. In both cases, and with the 2019 coronavirus outbreak in China, the original host of the virus is likely to be bats.
(2020-02-05). [Correspondence] Nicotine patches with e-cigarettes for smoking cessation: Twitter discussion from a respirology journal club. thelancet.com On Dec 12, 2019, our Twitter-based University of Toronto Respirology and Sleep Journal Club1 discussed Walker and colleagues' pragmatic, randomised, parallel-arm trial designed to look at the effectiveness of combining nicotine patches with an e-cigarette (with and without nicotine) on 6-month smoking abstinence.2 Our discussions highlighted the challenges of studying populations of smokers in general, given the habitual nature of the exposure, challenges related to follow-up, and a need for reliable and valid objective measures of smoking abstinence (appendix).