A Covid-19 Update: @drnic1 @fsgoldstein @2healthguru

In the second installment of PopHealth Week's Covid-19 update (listen to first here), my guests included Nick van Terheyden, MD (@drnic1), Fred Goldstein, MS (@fsgoldstein) and Gregg Masters MPH (@2healthguru).

We provide an update on the Covid-19 pandemic including a novel approach to safe re-opens for business and educational institutions.

We also discuss the global and US specific stats including confirmed cases, deaths and where we stand on regional and national geo-cluster containment, and mitigation efforts including an update on the treatment and prevention (vaccine) horizon.

Dashboard via Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University:

Global Total Confirmed (as of 8/11/20)

Cases: 18,585,774 

Deaths: 701,665

United States Total Confirmed

Cases: 4,775,621 25.6% share
Deaths: 156,906 22.3% share

This amidst a Covid-19 ‘balancing act’ factoring in the opposing forces of:

• Outcome 1: Stop the pandemic (get R0 below 1.0 via usual public health measures to contain or mitigate spread).
• Outcome 2: Keep economy going (nobody working takes its toll on health and wellbeing)
• Outcome 3: Protect the hospital system from overwhelm (flatten the curve, our clinicians are exhausted).

We've a long way to go to see how this 'novel' coroniavirus chooses ultimately to run its course be be confronted by either effective treatment and/or prevention via one or more vaccines.

Stay tuned!

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