Connecticut Green Living

In an hour-long call with the National Press Club today, Dr. Anothony Fauci covered seven tenets of the current pandemic and how we can work towards a healthier future: epidemiology, virology, transmission, diagnostics, clinical course, therapeutics and vaccines. Dr. Fauci has been director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984; he is a scientist and chief medical adviser to President Biden,and has served multiple previous Administrations including former President Trump’s. He also said because he is fully vaccinated he would not be afraid to fly now, but only if he had to. He does not recommend anyone fly strictly for pleasure now as we have plateaued at 60,000 cases a day, and with the numbers having inched up he greatly fears a fourth wave is imminent. In conversation with National Press Club President Lisa Matthews, Fauci reiterated that the Covid-19 pandemic is the worst epidemic since the 1918 flu, which he cited as claiming 50- to 100 mi...

In addition to freelance writing, I work part-time at an upscale market in Guilford, Connecticut. It has concerned me that I will have to go in and possibly expose myself to the virus, should an infected customer come through my line. I am not overly anxious about this, but anxiety will certainly grow the minute Guilford gets its fist confirmed case. Connecticut , as of today, has had two confirmed cases -- one of them a New York doctor who works at Bridgeport Hospital, and now a Wilton resident -- and those numbers will grow. How will the state's businesses respond to an outbreak and obvious need for employees to stay home? Seattle, Wash.-based Dorsey & Whitney is in the heart of the viral outbreak in the U.S., with the state suffering 136 cases so far, with 19 of them fatal*. They have put out a statement saying that the White House is considering deferring taxes for the cruise, travel and airline industries to help with the economic fallout, but more than that, the federa...

WASHINGTON (March 5, 2020) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a list of EPA-registered disinfectant products that have qualified for use against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 . “Using the correct disinfectant is an important part of preventing and reducing the spread of illnesses along with other critical aspects such as hand washing,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. He added that EPA is providing this information in "a public and transparent manner on disinfectant products to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 .” Products on EPA’s list of registered disinfectant products have qualified for use against COVID-19 through the agency’s Emerging Viral Pathogen program, according to a statement issued today. This program allows product manufacturers to provide EPA with data, even in advance of an outbreak, that shows their products work against more virulent viruses than SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses, ...

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK reported that they have administered 13,911 tests for Coronavirus , formally called Covid-19, of which 13,860 were negative and 51 positive. Journalist Chris Hayes of MSNBC retweeted this and pointed out that "For context this is 26 times the number of tests the US has run, as of the last publicly available info. But CDC isn’t making this data available." Scientists and their research are the best in the world right here in the States, but whether the tests are being rolled out quickly enough does remain to be seen. Researchers at Purdue, though, have come up with a possible test they would like to see move forward, though. Only a select number of state and local laboratories have permission from U.S. health officials to use diagnostic tests for COVID-19. If the virus is spreading nationwide, most communities do not have access to the necessary tests. Purdue University biomedical engineers have developed a hand...

A new finding from the largest study of its kind could improve disease monitoring for the H1N1 flu, which is the same strain that caused the influenza pandemic in 2009. . In 2009, H1N1 was a huge concern in Connecticut, where the Centers for Disease Control classified its outbreak as being regionally located. Other states, such as Virginia suffered widespread outbreaks. In June 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic. The virus had spread worldwide and had caused about 17,000 deaths by the start of 2010, but about a year later, WHO declared that the H1N1 influenza pandemic was over. Now, Penn State has announced via an Aug. 2 press release a new technique expected to be especially useful in the tropics, where H1N1 is still a concern because flu season never ends, and where new viruses often emerge. Scientists have identified a way to not only identify the presence of H1N1 in the body, but know whether it ever existed. In ...