gollum123 shared this article from MarketWatch: Do masks really work? Ask the dozens of Starbucks customers who tested positive for COVID-19 in Seoul this month after a woman with coronavirus sat under one of the cafe's air-conditioners. According to a local news report, at least 56 coronavirus cases have been linked to that one customer. The kicker: The four masked workers avoided infection...

"This speaks volumes about the role masks can play," Ma Sang Hyuk, a pediatric infectious diseases physician in South Korea, explained to Bloomberg News. "Masks may not provide 100% protection, but there's nothing out there that's as effective."

Local authorities made it mandatory this week for everybody to wear masks both indoors and outdoors, as the greater Seoul area has seen a surge in coronavirus cases.

A Nevada resident is thought to be the first person in the United States to be infected twice by the coronavirus, according to findings released this week. The New York Post reports: The 25-year-old man, of Reno, experienced a sore throat, cough, headache, nausea and diarrhea -- and first tested positive for the COVID-19 on April 18, according to a study published to the website SSRN Thursday, which has yet to be peer-reviewed. His symptoms had resolved by April 27, and he tested negative for the virus twice in May, the study says. Then on May 31, he sought treatment again for the same symptoms, in addition to a fever and dizziness, according to the study. The patient was hospitalized five days later as his symptoms worsened to include muscle aches, a cough and shortness of breath. He then tested positive for the coronavirus a second time. Another test revealed he had antibodies against the infection. A Hong Kong man was the first patient ever confirmed to be reinfected with the coronavirus. Two European cases of COVID-19 reinfection were reported one day later.

Earlier today, Elon Musk demonstrated his startup Neuralink's brain link device working in a pig named Gertrude. While the science and the device itself were front-and-center at the presentation, the surgical robot the company debuted is equally as important because it's designed to handle the full surgical installation process. "That includes opening up the scalp, removing a portion of the skull, inserting the hundreds of 'thread' electrodes 6mm deep along with the accompanying chip, then closing the incision," reports CNET. TechCrunch takes a closer look at the robot: The rounded polycarbonate sci-fi design of the brain surgeon bot looks like something out of the Portal franchise, but it's actually the creation of Vancouver-based industrial design firm Woke Studio. To be clear, Musk's engineers and scientists have created the underlying technology, but Woke built the robot's look and user experience, as well as the behind-the-ear communication end piece that Neuralink has shown in prior presentations. Neuralink's bot features clean white (required for ensuring sterility, per Woke), arcing lines and smooth surfaces for a look that at once flags its advanced technical capabilities, but also contains some soothing and more approachable elements, which is wise considering what the machine is intended to do.

Woke says the Neuralink surgical robot can be separated into three main parts: The head, the body and base. The head of the robot is that helmet-like piece, which actually holds the head of the patient. It also includes a guide for the surgical needle, as well as embedded cameras and sensors to map the patent's brain. The intent of the design of this piece, which includes a mint-colored interior, is to give the robot "an anthroprmorphic characteristic" that helps distract from the invasive nature of the procedure. There are also single-use disposable bags that line the interior of the helmet for sterile operation. The Neuralink robot also has a "body," that humped rear assembly, which includes all the parts responsible for the motion of the robot as it sets up from the procedure. The third element is the base, which basically keeps the whole thing from tipping over, and apparently also contains the computing brains of the brain-bot itself.

An anonymous reader shares a report: For every 1,000 people infected with the coronavirus who are under the age of 50, almost none will die. For people in their fifties and early sixties, about five will die -- more men than women. The risk then climbs steeply as the years accrue. For every 1,000 people in their mid-seventies or older who are infected, around 116 will die. These are the stark statistics obtained by some of the first detailed studies into the mortality risk for COVID-19. Trends in coronavirus deaths by age have been clear since early in the pandemic. Research teams looking at the presence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in people in the general population -- in Spain, England, Italy and Geneva in Switzerland -- have now quantified that risk, says Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "It gives us a much sharper tool when asking what the impact might be on a certain population that has a certain demographic," says Kilpatrick. The studies reveal that age is by far the strongest predictor of an infected person's risk of dying -- a metric known as the infection fatality ratio (IFR), which is the proportion of people infected with the virus, including those who didn't get tested or show symptoms, who will die as a result.

schwit1 writes: The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that doesn't need any special computer equipment to get results. The 15-minute test from Abbott Laboratories will sell for $5, giving it a competitive edge over similar tests that need to be popped into a small machine. The self-contained test is the size of a credit card and is based on the same technology used to test for the flu, strep throat and other infections. It's the latest cheaper, simpler test to hit the U.S. market, providing new options to expand testing as schools and businesses struggle to reopen and flu season approaches. The FDA also recently greenlighted a saliva test from Yale University that bypasses some of the supplies that have led to testing bottlenecks. Both tests have limitations and neither can be done at home. Several companies are developing rapid, at-home tests, but none have yet won approval. Abbott's new test still requires a nasal swab by a health worker, like most older coronavirus tests. The Yale saliva test eliminates the need for a swab, but can only be run at high-grade laboratories. And in general, rapid tests like Abbott's are less accurate than lab-developed tests.

schwit1 shares a report from The Boston Globe: A new study estimates the Biogen conference held at Boston's Marriott Long Wharf hotel in February played a far greater role in spreading the coronavirus than previously thought. The research team analyzed the genetic sequences of the virus that caused COVID-19 in the 772 patients, almost all from Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk counties. By examining mutations in the genetic code that naturally occur as the virus makes copies of itself -- subtle changes that act like a passport stamp showing where the pathogen has been -- the sleuths identified more than 80 distinct SARS-CoV-2 genomes of viruses that infected the Boston area in the first five months of the year. Most of the viruses came from elsewhere in the United States and Western Europe, the scientists said. But one virus with a unique genetic signature had an outsize impact. Some 289 of the 772 patients, or more than a third, were infected with a virus traceable to the meeting held on Feb. 26-27 by Cambridge biotech Biogen.

In a remarkable sign of how the virus can spread unpredictably and take a disproportionate toll on society's most vulnerable members, the 289 conference-related cases included 122 people living in Boston-area homeless shelters and employees who work there, the study says. It's unclear what path the virus took to get there. By multiplying the proportion of conference-related viral genomes in each of the four counties by the total number of coronavirus infections in Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, the scientists estimate that 20,000 infections could be linked to the Marriott event. The study never mentions Biogen by name. It simply refers to an "international business conference held in Boston from February 26-27." "We never would have knowingly put anyone at risk," it said in a statement. "When we learned a number of our colleagues were ill, we did not know the cause was COVID-19, but we immediately notified public health authorities and took steps to limit the spread."

Two patients were reinfected with the coronavirus in Europe, according to local broadcasters who confirmed the incidents with virologists. The Hill reports: The patients, one from Belgium and the other from the Netherlands, were confirmed to have been reinfected with COVID-19, Reuters reported. Marian Koopmans, a Dutch virologist, confirmed to broadcaster NOS that the patient from the Netherlands was elderly with a compromised immune system, but did not provide more details about the infection. Koopmans told NOS that in order for reinfection, a virus must change its genetic code. She added during the interview with the broadcaster that, given the veracity of the virus, recurrence of infection was to be expected.

The second patient in Belgium was a woman who had contracted COVID-19 first in March and then a second time in June, Reuters reported. The woman, who was reported to be in her 50s, had a low level of coronavirus antibodies in her system, Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst told broadcaster VRT. Like Koopmans, Van Ranst cited a genetic mutation of the virus that may have been the cause for reinfection. And whether or not the recurrence of infection will be more rampant in the community is still uncertain. Yesterday, researchers in Hong Kong reported the area's first confirmed reinfection of the virus, 4 1/2 months after the patient's initial infection.

Africa has been declared free from wild polio by the independent body, the Africa Regional Certification Commission. From a report: Polio usually affects children under five, sometimes leading to irreversible paralysis. Death can occur when breathing muscles are affected. Twenty-five years ago thousands of children in Africa were paralysed by the virus. The disease is now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There is no cure but the polio vaccine protects children for life. Nigeria is the last African country to be declared free from wild polio, having accounted for more than half of all global cases less than a decade ago.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Growing up in a greener urban environment boosts children's intelligence and lowers levels of difficult behavior, a study has found. The analysis of more than 600 children aged 10-15 showed a 3% increase in the greenness of their neighborhood raised their IQ score by an average of 2.6 points. The effect was seen in both richer and poorer areas. There is already significant evidence that green spaces improve various aspects of children's cognitive development but this is the first research to examine IQ. The cause is uncertain but may be linked to lower stress levels, more play and social contact or a quieter environment. The increase in IQ points was particularly significant for those children at the lower end of the spectrum, where small increases could make a big difference, the researchers said.

The study, published in the journal Plos Medicine, used satellite images to measure the level of greenness in neighborhoods, including parks, gardens, street trees and all other vegetation. The average IQ score was 105 but the scientists found 4% of children in areas with low levels of greenery scored below 80, while no children scored below 80 in areas with more greenery. The benefits of more greenery that were recorded in urban areas were not replicated in suburban or rural areas. [T]his may be because those places had enough greenness for all children living there to benefit. Behavioral difficulties such as poor attention and aggressiveness were also measured in the children using a standard rating scale, and the average score was 46. In this case, a 3% rise in greenery resulted in a two-point reduction in behavioral problems, in line with previous studies.

phalse phace writes: Researchers in Hong Kong on Monday reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, a 33-year-old man who was first infected by SARS-CoV-2 in late March and then, four and a half months later, seemingly contracted the virus again while traveling in Europe. The case raises questions about the durability of immune protection from the coronavirus.

There have been scattered reports of cases of Covid-19 reinfection. Those reports, though, have been based on anecdotal evidence and largely attributed to flaws in testing. But in this case, researchers at the University of Hong Kong sequenced the virus from the patient's two infections and found that they did not match, indicating the second infection was not tied to the first. There was a difference of 24 nucleotides -- the 'letters' that make up the virus' RNA -- between the two infections. Experts cautioned that this patient's case could be an outlier among the tens of millions of cases around the world and that immune protection may generally last longer than just a few months.

A new cluster of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand prompted a widespread investigation to identify where they're coming from. The New Zealand Herald reports: Nearly 90 new cases of Covid-19 have now been linked back to the new cluster, which itself stemmed from an "index case" — a 50-year-old man working at Mt Wellington's Americold coolstore, with no history or link to overseas travel. Contact tracers have been trying to work backwards from that index case, who tested positive on August 11, in hopes of finding the "primary case" — or the person who brought the virus into the country in the first place.

Friday — more than a week and 175,000 tests since the start of the outbreak — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shared some details on how exhaustive that process had been. Virtually all of the country's border and managed isolation staff have been tested in the past 10 days, and so far there had been no additional cases, outside the mystery infection of a maintenance worker at Auckland's Rydges hotel...

University of Auckland microbiologist Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles says it's quite possible we'll never get any further. "Is that a big deal? From the testing we've done so far, it looks like this is a pretty tight cluster — so I would say, no," she said. "What we have lost is the opportunity to know how it happened, or what gaps need plugging. But at the same time, we have to remember that nothing is 100 per cent guaranteed to work all of the time."

A plan to release over 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022 received final approval from local authorities, against the objection of many local residents and a coalition of environmental advocacy groups. The proposal had already won state and federal approval. CNN reports: Approved by the Environment Protection Agency in May, the pilot project is designed to test if a genetically modified mosquito is a viable alternative to spraying insecticides to control the Aedes aegypti. It's a species of mosquito that carries several deadly diseases, such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The mosquito, named OX5034, has been altered to produce female offspring that die in the larval stage, well before hatching and growing large enough to bite and spread disease. Only the female mosquito bites for blood, which she needs to mature her eggs. Males feed only on nectar, and are thus not a carrier for disease.

The mosquito also won federal approval to be released into Harris County, Texas, beginning in 2021, according to Oxitec, the US-owned, British-based company that developed the genetically modified organism (GMO). The Environmental Protection Agency granted Oxitec's request after years of investigating the impact of the genetically altered mosquito on human and environmental health. "This is an exciting development because it represents the ground-breaking work of hundreds of passionate people over more than a decade in multiple countries, all of whom want to protect communities from dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and other vector-borne diseases," Oxitec CEO Grey Frandsen said in a statement at the time. However, state and local approval for the Texas release has not been granted, said Sam Bissett, a communication specialist with Harris County Public Health.

The EPA permit requires Oxitec to notify state officials 72 hours before releasing the mosquitoes and conduct ongoing tests for at least 10 weeks to ensure none of the female mosquitoes reach adulthood. However, environmental groups worry that the spread of the genetically modified male genes into the wild population could potentially harm threatened and endangered species of birds, insects and mammals that feed on the mosquitoes.

AleRunner writes: In the first half of 2020, Sweden has recorded its highest death total in 150 years. "In total, 51,405 Swedes died in the six-month period, a higher number than in any year since 1869, when 55,431 people died, partly as a result of a famine," reports The Guardian. In what may be a reaction to this failure, which makes Sweden the worst coronavirus country in Scandinavia, Sweden has announced a change to their new contact-tracing policy. The Local explains: "If you test positive for the coronavirus you may now be given instructions to call people with whom you have been in contact and may have infected, instead of healthcare staff doing the job for you, or it not being done at all."

In early June, Sweden switched from its failed "herd immunity" strategy to a contact-tracing strategy and has since seen a strong fall in new infections, though with a recent slight increase. The new contact-tracing strategy will be critical for the return of the Swedish economy with Sweden currently facing travel restrictions from Scandinavian neighbors such as Finland, whilst other Scandinavian and Baltic countries are already open for trade and tourism. Swedes will be hoping that the adjustment of their new coronavirus strategy will be a signpost for other countries rather than the warning of their old strategy.

Not so long ago, in June, we discussed how Sweden's old strategy had made Sweden a Pariah state and in May we had discussed how Sweden's old strategy caused many deaths whilst failing to deliver immunity.

A California resident has tested positive for plague, marking the state's first human case of the disease in five years, according to health officials. Live Science reports: The case was confirmed on Monday in a resident of South Lake Tahoe, according to a statement from the El Dorado County Department of Health and Human Services. The individual is described as an "avid walker" who may have been bitten by an infected flea while walking their dog in the Tahoe Keys area or along the "Truckee River Corridor" north of Highway 50, the statement said.

"Plague is naturally present in many parts of California, including higher elevation areas of El Dorado County," Dr. Nancy Williams, the El Dorado County public health officer, said in the statement. "It's important that individuals take precautions for themselves and their pets when outdoors, especially while walking, hiking and/or camping in areas where wild rodents are present. Human cases of plague are extremely rare but can be very serious." The patient is currently recovering at home under the care of medical professionals, the statement said.

Researchers at NYU Langone Health and Facebook's artificial intelligence division have teamed up to develop an AI model that uses less data and creates images faster than traditional MRI techniques, according to a Wall Street Journal report. From a report: The goal of the project is to create a five-minute MRI as an alternative to the 20 minutes to an hour it takes for current MRI machines to scan a patient, Michael Recht, MD, told the publication. Dr. Recht is professor and chair of New York City-based NYU Langone Health's radiology department and also a co-author of the research project. The combination of AI and MRI technology aims to construct images with less data rather than diagnose a medical condition. The project uses different technology and standards than those used to create AI-generated or synthetic media. Because it centers on constructing MRI scans, Facebook said the project must create images "that are accurate to the ground truth," compared to synthetic media, which usually needs to create a believable image, according to the report.

For the experiment, researchers created 108 patient images using standard MRI techniques as well as a second set of images in which some of the image data was thrown out. Facebook's AI model was then applied to construct the images with less data. Researchers used commercially available MRI machines, and data was collected from patients from various points of their bodies. Six MRI readers reviewed both sets of images, and readings were spaced out across a four-week period to ensure the readers could not recall important details from previous sets. Dr. Recht told the Journal that all six engineers concluded that the quality of the AI model-generated images was "as good [as] or better" than the conventional images. The AI system still needs regulatory approval, but NYU Langone is now using it to treat patients as part of an institutional review board study, according to the report.

Nations that hoard possible COVID-19 vaccines while excluding others will deepen the pandemic, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday, issuing a last-ditch call for countries to join a global vaccine pact. From a report: The WHO has an Aug. 31 deadline for wealthier nations to join the "COVAX Global Vaccines Facility" for sharing vaccine hopefuls with developing countries. Tedros said he sent a letter to the WHO's 194 member states, urging participation. The global health agency also raised concerns that the pandemic's spread was being driven now by younger people, many of whom were unaware they were infected, posing a danger to vulnerable groups. Tedros' push for nations to join COVAX comes as the European Union, Britain, Switzerland and the United States strike deals with companies testing prospective vaccines. Russia and China are also working on vaccines, and the WHO fears national interests could impede global efforts.

Haider Warraich, a cardiologist, writing for the New York Times: An intriguing new study from Germany offers a glimpse into how SARS-CoV-2 affects the heart. Researchers studied 100 individuals, with a median age of just 49, who had recovered from Covid-19. Most were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. An average of two months after they received the diagnosis, the researchers performed M.R.I. scans of their hearts and made some alarming discoveries: Nearly 80 percent had persistent abnormalities and 60 percent had evidence of myocarditis. The degree of myocarditis was not explained by the severity of the initial illness.

Though the study has some flaws, and the generalizability and significance of its findings not fully known, it makes clear that in young patients who had seemingly overcome SARS-CoV-2 it's fairly common for the heart to be affected. We may be seeing only the beginning of the damage. Researchers are still figuring out how SARS-CoV-2 causes myocarditis -- whether it's through the virus directly injuring the heart or whether it's from the virulent immune reaction that it stimulates. It's possible that part of the success of immunosuppressant medications such as the steroid dexamethasone in treating sick Covid-19 patients comes from their preventing inflammatory damage to the heart. Such steroids are commonly used to treat cases of myocarditis. Despite treatment, more severe forms of Covid-19-associated myocarditis can lead to permanent damage of the heart -- which, in turn, can lead to heart failure.

Tim Harford, writing for Financial Times (not paywalled): Last spring, I returned from the holiday of a lifetime in Japan, and reflected on the richness of the memories it had generated. Time flew by while I was there, but in hindsight 10 days somewhere vividly new had produced more memories than 10 weeks back home. I likened the effect to the compression of a film. Instead of storing each frame separately, video compression algorithms will start with the first frame of a scene and then store a series of "diffs" -- changes from one frame to the next. A slow, contemplative movie with long scenes and fixed cameras can be compressed more than a fast-moving action flick. Similarly, a week full of new experiences will seem longer in retrospect. A month of repeating the same routine might seem endless, but will be barely a blip in the memory: the "diffs" are not significant enough for the brain to bother with. After months of working from home, I now realise that there was something incomplete about this account. New experiences are indeed important for planting a rich crop of memories. But, by itself, that is not enough. A new physical space seems to be important if our brains are to pay attention.

The Covid-19 lockdown, after all, was full of new experiences. Some were grim: I lost a friend to the disease; I smashed my face up in an accident; we had to wear masks and avoid physical contact and worry about where the next roll of toilet paper was coming from. Some were more positive: the discovery of new pleasures, the honing of new skills, the overcoming of new challenges. But I doubt I am alone in finding that my memory of the lockdown months is rather thin. No matter how many new people or old friends you talk to on Zoom or Skype, they all start to smear together because the physical context is monotonous: the conversations take place while one sits in the same chair, in the same room, staring at the same computer screen.>

Time magazine reports on is a big scientific advance: "the understanding that our bodies often operate according to different clocks." Although the federal government recommends that Americans sleep seven or more hours per night for optimal health and functioning, new research is challenging the assumption that sleep is a one-size-fits-all phenomenon. Scientists have found that our internal body clocks vary so greatly that they could form the next frontiers of personalized medicine...

Human sleep is largely a mystery. We know it's important; getting too little is linked to heightened risk for metabolic disorders, Type 2 diabetes, psychiatric disorders, autoimmune disease, neurodegeneration and many types of cancer. "It's probably true that bad sleep leads to increased risks of virtually every disorder," says Dr. Louis Ptacek, a neurology professor at the University of California, San Francisco... The ideal sleep duration has long been thought to be universal. "There are many people who think everyone needs eight to eight and a half hours of sleep per night and there will be health consequences if they don't get it," says Ptacek. "But that's as crazy as saying everybody has to be 5 ft. 10 in. tall. It's just not true..."

About a decade ago, Ptacek's wife Ying-Hui Fu discovered the first human gene linked to natural short sleep; people who had a rare genetic mutation seemed to get the same benefits from six hours of sleep a night as those without the mutation got from eight hours. In 2019, Fu and Ptacek discovered two more genes connected to natural short sleep, and they'll soon submit a paper describing a fourth, providing even more evidence that functioning well on less sleep is a genetic trait...

Doctors once dismissed short sleepers as depressed or suffering from insomnia. Yet short sleepers may actually have an edge over everyone else. Research is still early, but Fu has found that besides being more efficient at sleep, they tend to be more energetic and optimistic and have a higher tolerance for pain than people who need to spend more time in bed. They also tend to live longer.

Applehu Akbar shared CNN's article about why some people experience Covid-19 differently: "When we looked in the setting of Covid disease, we found that people who had prior vaccinations with a variety of vaccines — for pneumococcus, influenza, hepatitis and others — appeared to have a lower risk of getting Covid disease," Dr. Andrew Badley, an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday night... There's been no definitive evidence of any other vaccines boosting immunity against Covid-19. But some researchers have suggested it's possible.... Last month, researchers found that countries where many people have been given the tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guerin had less mortality from coronavirus, a finding that fits with other research suggesting the vaccine can boost people's immunity in general.

But once you're infected, how much of the virus made it into your body could also have an impact on what your experience is, another expert told CNN on Monday. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at University of California, San Francisco, has been working with a team of researchers to understand how more people could go through their infections with minimal or no symptoms. About 40% of people infected with the virus don't have symptoms, according to an estimate last month by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gandhi's team found masks make a difference.

"What the mask does is really reduce the amount of virus that you get in, if you do get infected," she said. "And by reducing that... you have a lower dose, you're able to manage it, you're able to have a calm response and you have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all."