Coronavirus Breaking News

Seattle-based Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced 'We are now open-sourcing a toolset for researchers and data scientists to better model and understand the progression of COVID-19 in a given community over time. This toolset is comprised of a disease progression simulator and several machine learning (ML) models to test the impact of various interventions.'

On October 30, 2020, AWS stated 'the ML models help bootstrap the system by estimating the disease progression and comparing the outcomes to historical data. Next, you can run the simulator with learned parameters to play out what-if scenarios for various interventions.'

To get started, AWS published a few sample ML simulations at the state and country levels in the covid19_simulator.ipynb notebook in https://github.com/aws-samples/covid19-simulation, which you can run on Amazon SageMaker or a local environment.

Based on the evidence that non-medical face masks prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, various governments are mandating the wearing of masks in the community. However, fueled partly by media claims that masks can cause hypoxia and are therefore dangerous, concerns have emerged about the safety of wearing face masks.

In a new, small crossover study published by JAMA on October 30, 2020, wearing a 3-layer non-medical face mask was not associated with a decline in oxygen saturation in older participants. This means results that wearing non-medical face masks in community settings is safe.

To survive, humans need oxygen going from our lungs to the cells in our body. Sometimes the amount of oxygen in our blood can fall below normal levels. When the levels are too low, we may need to take extra oxygen, known as oxygen therapy, says the U.S. FDA.

To clarify this health risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA issued a Consumer Update on October 30, 2020, “Pulse Oximeters and Oxygen Concentrators: What to Know About At-Home Oxygen Therapy.”

'COVID-19 is one of many health issues that may cause oxygen levels to drop. When the levels are too low, consumers may need to take extra oxygen, known as oxygen therapy. One way to get extra oxygen into the body is by using an oxygen concentrator. Oxygen concentrators are medical devices required to be sold and used only with a prescription,' says the FDA.

A literature review of 14 studies published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases on October 29, 2020, found compared to younger - middle aged adults, the susceptibility to SARS-CoVo2 virus infection for children aged under 10 years of age is estimated to be significantly lower. And, there is evidence of more limited spread in schools when some mitigation measures are implemented.

Furthermore, these researchers from Harvard University and the UK suggested 'efforts should be undertaken to diminish mixing in individuals aged 18-35 years to mitigate the spread of the epidemic in the community.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Framework for Conditional Sailing Order on October 30, 2020, that outlines actionable items for the cruise line industry to follow so they can resume passenger operations with an emphasis on preventing the further spread of COVID-19 on cruise ships and from cruise ships into communities, and to protect public health and safety.

Robert R. Redfield, M.D., the CDC's director stated in a press release “the cruise industry has a shared goal to protect crew, passengers, and communities and will continue to work together to ensure that all necessary public health procedures are in place before cruise ships begin sailing with passengers.”

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced it received on October 30, 2020, a recommendation from the independent data monitoring committee (IDMC) for the REGN-COV2 antibody cocktail treatment trials for COVID-19 that the current hospitalized patient trial be modified.

Specifically, based on a potential safety signal and an unfavorable risk/benefit profile at this time, the IDMC recommends further enrollment of patients requiring high-flow oxygen or mechanical ventilation be placed on hold pending collection and analysis of further data on patients already enrolled.

The IDMC also recommends continuing enrollment of hospitalized patients requiring either no or low-flow oxygen as the risk/benefit remains acceptable in these cohorts. Finally, the IDMC recommends the continuation of the outpatient trial without modification.

Regeneron stated it is also informing the U.S. FDA, which is currently evaluating the REGN-COV2 treatment for a potential emergency authorization in mild-to-moderate outpatients at high risk for poor outcomes.

MIT researchers announced they have now found that people who are asymptomatic may differ from healthy individuals in the way they cough. These differences are not decipherable to the human ear. But it turns out that they can be picked up by artificial intelligence.

In a paper published in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, the MIT team reports on an AI model that distinguishes asymptomatic people from healthy individuals through forced-cough recordings, which people voluntarily submitted through web browsers and devices such as cellphones and laptops.

“The effective implementation of this group diagnostic tool could diminish the spread of the pandemic if everyone uses it before going to a classroom, a factory, or a restaurant,” said co-author Brian Subirana, a research scientist in MIT’s Auto-ID Laboratory, in a press release issued on October 29, 2020.

Ultimately, they 'envision that audio AI models like the one they’ve developed may be incorporated into smart speakers and other listening devices so that people can conveniently get an assessment of their disease risk, perhaps on a daily basis.'