Just saw this pre-print “COVID-19 Outbreak Associated with Air Conditioning in Restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020“. Very short, very to the point. Evidence that droplet transmission happened in this particular outbreak via the ventilation within a building. Abstract below: During January 26–February 10, 2020, an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease in an air-conditioned restaurant …
The American Society for Microbiology has a useful resource on COVID19 and the novel coronavirus. This includes some links, slides, videos, information about ASM activities, and more. See: COVID-19 is a pneumonia-like disease with symptoms including fever, dry cough and shortness of breath that was first identified in Wuhan, China. The disease is caused by …
Another quick COVID19 Journal club in the Built Environment. This study (“Detection of Air and Surface Contamination by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Hospital Rooms of Infected Patients” combined air and surface sampling to look at the distribution of the virus in a healthcare setting with infected patients. This is another RNA-based …
Quick post here. There is a news story about a preprint of possible interest. Scientists report (in the non peer reviewed preprint) that they were able to find evidence for the novel coronavirus in sewage even before cases were reported in the town where the sewage is from. Dutch scientists were able to find the …
A preprint came out yesterday entitled “Transmission Potential of SARS-CoV-2 in Viral Shedding Observed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center“. They looked at actual virus shed by patients in a healthcare setting (as opposed to artificial virus aerosols). They found widespread contamination of surfaces and objects in the room… but all of the detection …
A short rant, precipitated by a Letter to JAMA that I was reading today. Detection of viral RNA DOES NOT EQUAL detection of infectious virus particles which DOES NOT EQUAL transmission risk. Are all these things related? Of course. Are they the same thing? NO. This was prominent in the news recently with the finding …
This is a super-short preprint… just a letter and a few tables but contains some really useful information. The authors looked at the viability (not just viral RNA!) of SARS-CoV-2 under different conditions including various surfaces, temperatures, and with various disinfectants. Example good news: The virus is disinfected very readily Example bad news: They detected …
A new New York Times article of interest on on the new coronavirus and how long it survives on surfaces and in the air. Article by Apporva Mandavilli with comments from lead author of a new paper on the topic Dr. Vincent Munster and also Dr. Linsey Marr and Dr. Jeffrey Shaman. A new study could have …
(cross posted to the UCD Microbiome SRP blog) What do you get when you combine UC Davis alumni, tomato seeds, and citizen science? That would be Project GASP (“Germ”-ination Alumni Science Project). I didn’t come up with the name, I swear. This project, sponsored and paid for by the College of Biological Sciences at UC …
Interesting preprint worth checking out (note – this is a non peer reviewed preprint). “It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.” Abstract: Mobile phone apps implementing algorithmic contact tracing can speed up the process of tracing newly diagnosed individuals, spreading information …