October 4, 2020 - Therapeutics
Therapeutics
October 4, 2020
After a three-day spike, Alabama’s COVID results returned to earth today - 789 new cases (incl. 70 probables) and 6,473 tests. Both numbers are below the 7-day averages in those categories. The one-day positivity rate (12.2%) almost exactly matches the State’s weekly positivity rate (12.8%). Among Southern states, only Mississippi has a higher rate.
There have been dramatic improvements recently on the campuses of the University of Alabama and Auburn. Below are weekly infections (students, faculty & staff combined) for each of the UA System campuses and Auburn for the last 3 weeks, all of which declined (except UAB, which remained low and stable):
Tuscaloosa campus - 136 (week of 9/17); 63 (week of 9/24); 33 (week of 10/1)
UAB campus - 28 (week of 9/17); 23 (week of 9/24); 27 (week of 10/1)
UAH campus - 20 (week of 9/17); 13 (week of 9/24); 13 (week of 10/1)
UAB Hospital staff - 30 (week of 9/17); 48 (week of 9/24); 21 (week of 10/1)
Auburn Main campus - 109 (week of 9/15); 53 (week of 9/22); 17 (week of 9/29)
While the State’s college campuses are improving, the same cannot be said of the State, as a whole. As of today, not one single county in Alabama has a 14-day positivity rate under 5%, which is the recommended threshold for opening up an economy, according to the World Health Organization. In contrast, there are 23 states in the U.S. with positivity rates under 5%. There are 13 counties in Alabama with a positivity rate exceeding 20%, while only four states (MS; SD; ID; and WI) have a rate that high.
There are three primary therapeutics now available to COVID-19 patients who become hospitalized - remdesivir (a drug developed to treat Ebola); dexamethasone (a type of steroids); and a new experimental antibody cocktail produced by Regeneron. All three therapeutics have been administered to President Trump in the last 36 hours. I’m not qualified to comment on the proper use of these drugs or their potential side effects, but I will simply note that none of them existed or were known to be beneficial to COVID patients when the disease first ravaged our country last spring. Fortunately for President Trump and the nation, the discovery of the effectiveness of these drugs against COVID has been a game changer, reducing the death rate even as the infection rate remains extremely high.
That’s what happens when science and scientists are left alone and allowed to flourish. We can only hope the same is true in the quest for one or more vaccines. Here are the totals:
9/21 - 818
9/22 - 804
9/23 - 569
9/24 - 1,053
9/25 - 2,452
9/26 - 933
9/27 - 730
9/28 - 662
9/29 - 571
9/30 - 1,147
10/1 - 1,043
10/2 - 954
10/3 - 1,682
10/4 - 789