Coronavirus [NEW TOPIC PAGE]

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 Coronavirus

Using Digital Data to Protect and Promote the Most Vulnerable in the Fight Against COVID-19
R Chunara et al, Frot Public Health, June 12, 2020

The digital divide shows that the most vulnerable (e.g., elderly, certain socioeconomic or cultural groups) may not often have access to the same digital tools, nor follow the same patterns of illness and reporting as other populations. This may present issues when population-level inferences are to be made from such data.

Proteomic Profiling in Biracial Cohorts Implicates DC-SIGN as a Mediator of Genetic Risk in COVID-19
DH Katz et al, MEDRXIV, June 11, 2020

Recent work has identified two genetic risk loci that confer greater risk for respiratory failure in COVID-19: the ABO locus and the 3p21.31 locus. To understand how these loci might confer risk, we utilized proteomic profiling and genetic information from three cohorts including black and white participants to identify proteins influenced by these loci.

Artificial-intelligence tools aim to tame the coronavirus literature
M Hutson, Nature, June 11, 2020

Driven by a combination of factors — including the availability of a large collection of relevant papers, advances in natural-language processing (NLP) technology — AI tools find the studies that are most relevant to the user, and in some cases to extract specific findings from the results.

Coronavirus research updates: A massive number of viral imports seeded the UK outbreak
Nature News, June 11, 2020

Researchers tracked the number of times the virus reached the United Kingdom and began to spread inside the country’s borders. Genomic analysis found that there were 1,356 such introductions, although the researchers say that this number is preliminary and probably an underestimate.

Sex differences in immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 that underlie disease outcomes
T Takahashi et al, MEDRXIV, June 9, 2020

Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Fecal Viral Shedding in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
S Parasa et al, JAMA Network Open, June 11, 2020

This systematic review of 23 published and 6 preprint studies found that approximately 12% of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection reported gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Liver enzyme levels outside reference ranges were observed in 15%-20% of patients, and RNA shedding in stool was detected in up to 41% of patients.

Lots of us are infected by the coronavirus — and don’t know it. Here’s what that means.
DP Oran et al, Washington Post, June 11, 2020