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COVID-19 News Roundup

Week of April 27th

Apr 27, 2020 | Kaija Stern - Doximity Marketing Manager


With so much information going around, it can be difficult to sort through it all and get clear answers surrounding the current impact of COVID-19, especially as it can feel like it changes drastically day by day. Our team has compiled the most recent information to give you a progress snapshot for the week of April 27, 2020. 

 

General Update

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) held a media briefing on April 17 with state-by-state analyses on the future of social distancing measures, recommending that states meet very low rates of infections before considering to reopen - less than 1 estimated infection per 1 million people. IHME also announced that COVID-19 may have already peaked in the US on April 15, with 2,481 deaths. Please visit covid19.healthdata.org to explore their model updates.

 

R&D 

As of April 20, there are three possible candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation and an additional 67 candidate vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation. The first is a viral vector that was used during the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and is currently in phase 2 of evaluation. The other two contenders, both in phase 1 of evaluation, are a DNA and RNA vaccine and have been past candidates for a variety of infections including HIV, HPV, and Zika, among others. 

Many universities and research facilities are turning to hydroxychloroquine, a drug more commonly used to treat malaria and autoimmune diseases such as Lupus, as a possible solution. Singapore, Barcelona, Seattle, Toronto, and Minneapolis are all participating in various PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) studies.

 

Global Health Response

The World Health Organization released its COVID-19 Strategy Update on April 14, which is intended to help guide national and subnational public health responses. The document examines what the global community knows so far about the virus and provides recommendations for moving forward. 

 

Hospitals and You

It’s now been almost two weeks since hospitals in the US peaked in resource use on April 14. On this day, a total of 66,748 hospital beds were needed (with a shortage of 8,127). Of the required resources, 18,286 were ICU beds. In addition, 16,631 invasive ventilators were needed that day. Thankfully, hospitals are beginning to see a decrease in resource needs, following data projections. 

Depending on geography and patient demographics, some hospitals are beginning to see the light, and have started to strategize and plan for what healthcare marketing will look like post-pandemic. When we look at consumer behavior, we tend to think of a bell curve: there are the innovators, the early adopters, the later adopters, followed by a few that are slower to catch on. As Mathew Sweezey explained for the AMA, “This isn’t normal. Entire populations were forced into new behaviors overnight.” Physicians and patients alike will return to their post-COVID lives relying more than ever on technology, and staying ahead of the digital game will continue to be the way forward for many hospital marketing teams.

 

COVID Roundup-1

Source: Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2020