Questions from “Four Months In: What Have Clinicians Learned About COVID-19 Management?”
Now that we are 4 months in, do we have any information on how COVID-19 compares to the seasonal flu?
We know that at every age cohort, COVID-19 is leading to more hospitalizations and deaths compared to the flu.
There has been some recent research on blood types and COVID. Does your blood type increase your risk of COVID?
New England Journal of Medicine published a paper showing a relationship between COVID-19 and Type A blood (slightly higher risk) and Type O blood (slightly lower risk). Keep in mind that having Type O blood doesn’t give you a free pass, and that plenty of folks with Type O blood have gotten sick and died from COVID-19. Rather this helps us understand the pathology a bit better and can help guide future treatment and prevention. (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2020283?query=featured_coronavirus#article_references)
Patients who don’t trust the medical system may have more trust in their peer groups. Can you talk about how those peer groups can be helpful spreading the message about vaccine safety?
I would suggest that they start with empathy, try to find out why a person doesn’t trust the medical system. Often times it has to do with a legitamately bad experience. Sometimes it’s more foundational, like a lack of understanding around science. Either way the solution is invariably communication and trust building, and it can take time.
Additional resources:
Information on Vitamin D for respiratory infections:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHFD62SqJ9M&t=38s
Community use of facemasks and COVID-19:
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818
Real-time tracking of pathogen evolution: www.nextstrain.org
