Month: June 2020

With over 2 million cases in the US since the coronavirus pandemic began in late December, there are now many people who have recovered from COVID-19. At the same, there have been reports of people who continue to have long-term side effects from the infection.   I am a professor and physician and I specialize in infectious diseases of adults. I not only care for patients with bacterial, parasitic and viral infections - including COVID-19 – but actively teach and perform research into diseases that infectious pathogens cause. Here I offer a summary of what is known today about recovering from COVID-19 – and where there are important gaps in our knowledge. Much of this information, which has been gleaned from studies that began after the 2003 SARS outbreak, is important for those reco...

It's no time to get complacent. That's the message public health leaders want Michiganders to understand as businesses open up, restrictions are lifted and coronavirus case numbers begin to inch upward. For the fourth consecutive day Saturday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced more than 300 newly confirmed coronavirus cases. The seven-day average of daily new cases rose to 275 after bottoming out June 15 at 152.  After weeks of a downward trajectory in new coronavirus cases, a falling number of hospitalizations and COVID-19 deaths, Michigan is starting to see a rise once again.  "We are certainly concerned that as more businesses open up, there is a greater risk of spread of disease," said Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and...

The 3M company, which makes valve masks for such occupations, illustrates on its website how they work: inhaled air is filtered through the fabric part of the mask, and hot, humid exhaled air goes out through the valve. The system may be what you want when tearing out a kitchen for remodeling, but the valve defeats the purpose when you’re trying to slow the spread of a virus. Public health experts have been recommending mask-wearing to prevent respiratory droplets from spreading into the air when you exhale, speak, cough or sneeze, and the valves allow those droplets through. Medical masks, you’ll notice, do not have valves. “Any mask that incorporates a one-way valve (typically a raised plastic cylinder about the size of a quarter on the front or side of the mask) that is designed to ...