Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of June 8, 2020

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of June 8, 2020 – June 12, 2020.

Reuters (6/5, Chander, Roy) reported, “More than a third of Americans misused cleaners and disinfectants to try to prevent infection by the coronavirus, according to a survey” conducted by the CDC. The survey cited Americans using bleach to wash food, using disinfectants on bare skin, and intentionally inhaling or ingesting such products as common examples of such misuse.

NBC News (6/5, Edwards) reported, “Such acts are not only harmful, they also do nothing to prevent infections and should never be done.”

The Washington Post (6/8, Reinhard, Brown, Thebault, Sun) reports, “Fewer than half the states are following federal recommendations to report probable coronavirus cases and deaths, marking what experts say is an unusual break with public health practices that leads to inconsistent data collection and undercounts of the disease’s impact.” A review by the Washington Post “found that the states not disclosing probable cases and deaths include some of the largest: California, Florida, North Carolina and New York.” This “is one reason government officials and public health experts say the virus’s true toll is above the U.S. tally as of Sunday of about 1.9 million coronavirus cases and 109,000 deaths – benchmarks that shape policymaking and public opinion on the pandemic.”

Reuters (6/9, Joseph) reports, “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday it would distribute about $25 billion to hospitals that have not previously received relief funds as they grapple with a rise in COVID-19 cases.” Specifically, “the agency said it would provide about $15 billion of the total to hospitals serving patients covered by federal Medicaid program for low-income individuals and children’s health insurance program, and $10 billion to safety net hospitals that treat patients regardless of their insurance status.”

Reuters (6/10, Joseph) reports that research indicates “ventilators could be safely shared by two” patients with COVID-19 “for up to two days...validating an experimental method followed by hospitals struggling to handle the onslaught of lung failure cases with limited equipment.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The Wall Street Journal (6/11, Calfas, Subscription Publication) reports that in the U.S. on Thursday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million, partially driven by surges in states such as Florida, Oregon, Arkansas, Nevada, and South Carolina.

Politico (6/11, Roubein) reports the figure was reached “as states forge ahead with reopening their economies and demonstrators gather en masse to protest police brutality and racial inequality.” It took nearly three months for the U.S. “to officially hit 1 million confirmed cases on April 28, but just six weeks to double it.”

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