My letter is in response to reading Facebook comments on Times News articles on COVID-19. Comments such as “false data, political positioning, the data is null and void, when you incentivize an illness, wake up you are being manipulated.”

Wow, talk about the book “The Death of Expertise” by Tom Nichols.

This is what I have learned after reading many articles on COVID-19 from the highly respected Nature Journal. It has the latest information by scientists from all over the world.

The infection fatality rate is hard to gauge. The IFR and herd-immunity threshold of an epidemic lets us know how seriously we should take this disease. There are a range of methods used by various countries that show that 5-10 people will dies for every 1,000 people. The scientist mentioned in July tends to think it is around 0.5-1 percent. Currently there are 120 tests for antibodies worldwide which are expected to help define the numbers between getting infected and dying. Two larger recent surveys in Brazil and Spain estimated an IFR of 10 deaths for every 1,000. Researchers are waiting for the larger studies that estimate the IFR across age groups, and among those with pre-existing conditions which will provide the most accurate picture of how deadly the disease is.

More news: Adults can experience blood clots but researchers found that children seem to have resistance to clotting, not leading to heart attacks or strokes. Few children present with excessive clotting. They think it might be because of the condition of their blood vessels. Children also don’t get as ill because they might have a stronger, effective initial immune response.

Researchers are launching new trials to compare doses of blood thinners that will be therapeutic for blood clotting. Beth-Israel in Boston has begun a trial to evaluate a new, more powerful clot-busting medications called plasminogen activator. Despite conflicting studies, remdesivir has shown some promise. The steroid drug dexamethasone has shown “startling results” and has cut deaths by one-third among critically ill patients. Researchers are working quickly on new drugs but “need more collaboration on trials.”

Please know that biologists and scientists are working day and night to get antivirals and vaccines. That’s all, folks,

Debra Becker, RN

Carbon County