Month: November 2020

Sneeze velocity for four different nose and mouth types is shown. A) is open nasal passage with teeth, B) is open nasal passage without teeth, C) is blocked nasal passage without teeth, and D) is blocked nasal passage with teeth. Credit: University of Central Florida Sneezes from people who have congested noses and a full set of teeth travel about 60% farther than from people who don’t, according to a new study. New research from the University of Central Florida has identified physiological features that could make people super-spreaders of viruses such as COVID-19. In a study appearing this month in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers in UCF’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering used computer-generated models to numerically simulate sneezes in different t...

Goshen Health Hospital in Indiana has had to issue a public call for help from people with medical experience. In a Facebook post, the CEO wrote, “We invite you to consider if you are someone who could make a difference.” The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is bringing back retirees, redeploying employees from other parts of the country, and reassigning researchers to patient care after 905 employees contracted COVID-19 in the last two weeks. And in North Dakota, the governor announced last week that to avoid a shortage of staff the state would implement “crisis” guidelines that allow nurses who test positive for COVID-19 to continue to work, as reported by the Grand Forks Herald. Hospitals across the country are facing an influx of COVID-19 patients, the most Americans hospitalized for the di...

More than 200,000 dead since March. Cities in lockdown. Vaccine trials underway. And a holiday message, of sorts: "See that Thanksgiving celebrations are restricted as much as possible so as to prevent another flare-up." But it isn't the message of Thanksgiving 2020. It's the Thanksgiving Day notice that ran in the Omaha World Herald on Nov. 28, 1918, when Americans found themselves in a similar predicament to the millions now grappling with how to celebrate the holiday season amid the coronavirus pandemic. "Every time I hear someone say these are unprecedented times, I say no, no they're not," said Brittany Hutchinson, assistant curator at the Chicago History Museum. "They did this in 1918." On Thanksgiving more than a century ago, many Americans, like today, were living under various ph...

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - The state of Michigan reported a new record in daily coronavirus cases added Friday: 9,779 new cases. Along with those cases, were 53 deaths. That brings total cases statewide to 295,177, and total deaths to 8,377. Current statewide recoveries are at 138,862. The statewide recovery total is updated each Saturday on the MDHHS website. In Upper Michigan, 211 new cases were added Friday. The latest cases, deaths, and recoveries added are as follows (counties listed alphabetically): Alger: 1 case Baraga: 17 cases Chippewa: (-34 cases, MDHHS data entry error), 12 recoveries Delta: 38 cases Dickinson: 9 cases, 22 recoveries Gogebic: 14 cases Houghton: 36 cases Iron: 7 cases, 7 recoveries Keweenaw: 3 cases Luce: 0 cases Mackinac: 2 cases Marquette: 64 cases, 1 death M...

On Friday, more than 195,500 new infections were reported -- a number many considered unheard of just weeks ago. The highest number of single-day cases during the country's summer surge was a little more than 77,100 in July. The numbers offer just a glimpse at the devastation the pandemic has unleashed across American communities, with some cities ordering mobile morgues to handle the excess deaths, while hospitals in other parts have reported overwhelmed ICUs and exhausted staff. The spread is 'faster' and 'broader' than ever Despite the alarming numbers, multiple experts this week predicted things will likely get worse before they get better. The virus is still running unabated in the US and the rate of rising cases is now "dramatically" different from what it was before, Whi...