Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Nov. 2, 2020

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Nov. 2, 2020 – Nov. 6, 2020.

Reuters (10/30, Ahluwalia, B) reported there have been more than nine million cases of coronavirus in the U.S. as of Friday. Reuters added, “On Thursday, the United States reported a record 91,254 new cases,” and “on average, over 77,000 cases are being reported every day in the last seven days, double the level seen two months ago.”

CNN (10/30, Cullinane, Chavez) reported “this is the fastest the country has added 1 million new cases since the pandemic began.”

The New York Times (11/2, Rabin) reports a CDC study indicates that pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 are at higher risk for developing severe COVID-19. The CDC study found pregnant women “were significantly more likely to require intensive care, to be connected to a specialized heart-lung bypass machine, and to require mechanical ventilation than nonpregnant women of the same age who had Covid symptoms.” In addition, “pregnant women faced a 70% increased risk of death, when compared to nonpregnant women who were symptomatic.”

The Washington Post (11/2, Wan) reports that while the risk for severe illness and death is higher for pregnant women, the overall risk “remains small.”

The AP (11/3, Choi) reports, “A higher percentage of Americans said they’re on a special diet to lose weight or for other health reasons compared with a decade ago...a report Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” has found. The CDC report revealed that “17% of Americans said they were on diets during the 2017-2018 survey period, up from 14% a decade earlier.” The CDC report also “notes that about half of American adults have diet-related chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, and that special diets are a way many people try to manage them.” The findings were published in the CDC’s NCHS Data Brief No. 389.

Reuters (11/4, Beasley, Maddipatla) reports, “Biogen Inc has shown ‘exceptionally persuasive’ evidence that its experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug is effective,” according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff. If approved in March, “the drug, aducanumab, [would be] the first new treatment for the disease in decades and the first that appears to be able to slow progression of the fatal, mind-wasting condition that affects millions of people.”

The New York Times (11/5, Mandavilli) reports researchers found that children infected with SARS-CoV-2 “produce weaker antibodies and fewer types of them” compared to adults. The findings were published in Nature Immunology and suggest that children “clear their infection much faster.” The findings may also explain why children are less likely to become ill, since “an overly strong immune response may be to blame in people who get severely ill or die from COVID-19.”

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