Using a model developed previously by the authors, a risk assessment was conducted to predict the change in the risk of ASF entering Japan as a result of the coronavirus pandemic in humans. The annual probability of ASF entering Japan was calculated to be 23% (90% prediction interval: 0-91%), 4.7% (0-24%) in February, 0.4% (0-2.1%) in March and 0.004% (0-0.01%) in April 2020 indicating a significant decline in the risk of ASF entry into Japan from China. The decline was attributed to a decline in the number of air travelers from China and amount of restaurant food.

It is known that LIMA-to-LAD is the major determinant of the patient’s prognosis and long term survival for a large percentage of the population with coronary artery disease Off pump, minimally invasive LIMA-to-LAD provides excellent long-term results ). As Awad et al state, this pandemic has disrupted and challenged delivery of health care services worldwide ). LIMA-to-LAD can be performed with minimal resources in an isolated area from COVID-19 facilities within the hospital.Hybrid treatment of coronary heart disease is another option for patients under these circumstances . Surgeons must take the lead and play an active role in the decision process. . As the authors conclude, given fluidity of the current situation, there is need for new processes and clinical decision – making that will allow patients to receive appropriate treatment,

Although most autoimmune diseases are considered to be CD4 T-cell or antibody-mediated, many respond to CD20-depleting antibodies that have limited influence on CD4 and plasma cells. This includes rituximab that is used in cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and off-label in a large number of other autoimmunities, notably multiple sclerosis, where ofatumumab is in late stage development and ocrelizumab is approved for use. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic created concerns about immunosuppression in autoimmunity, leading to cessation or a delay in immunotherapy treatments. However, based on the known and emerging biology of multiple sclerosis and COVID-19, it was hypothesised that whilst B-cell depletion should not necessarily expose people to severe SARS-CoV-2-related issues, it may inhibit protective immunity following infection and vaccination. As such, drug-induced B-cell subset inhibition that controls multiple sclerosis and other autoimmunities, would not influence innate and CD8 T-cell responses, which are central to SARS-CoV-2 elimination, nor the hyper-coagulation and innate inflammation causing severe morbidity. This is supported clinically, as the majority (mortality rate n=~5/392) of SARS-CoV-2 infected, CD20-depleted people with multiple sclerosis have recovered. However, protective neutralising-antibody and vaccination responses are predicted to be blunted, until naïve B-cells repopulate, based on B-cell repopulation-kinetics and vaccination responses, from published rituximab and unpublished ocrelizumab (NCT00676715, NCT02545868) trial data, shown here. This suggests that it may be possible to undertake dose-interruption to maintain inflammatory disease control in MS and other autoimmune diseases, whilst allowing effective vaccination against SARS-CoV-29, if and when an effective vaccine is available.

The COVID-19 has posed a wide range of urgent questions: about the disease, testing, immunity, treatments, and outcomes. Extreme situations, such as pandemics, call for exceptional measures. However, this threatens the production and application of evidence. This paper directs evidence production towards four types of uncertainty in order to address the challenges of the pandemic: Risk, Fundamental uncertainty, Ignorance, and Ambiguity. Eliminating ambiguity, being alert to the unknown, and gathering data to estimate risks are crucial to preserve evidence and save lives. Hence, in order to avoid fake facts and to provide sustainable solutions we need to pay attention to the various kinds of uncertainty. Producing high quality evidence is the solution, not the problem.

Reply to Morais-Almeida.To the Editor,We appreciate Dr. Morais-Almeida’s comments 1 about our Letter to the Editor, presenting additional literature about asthma prevalence in severe COVID-19 patients and highlighting data that contrasts our hypothesis that asthma, particularly type 2 asthma, may be protective against severe disease.The data that protection may be dependent on type 2 immunity is derived from the higher percentage of asthmatics being atopic2, also reflected in the series of ~2,500 patients regularly followed up in our Allergy Unit. Yu et al. 3 provided preliminary evidence about this in a single-center retrospective study, where COVID-19 atopic patients had less severe infections, milder lung damage compared to age- and gender- matched COVID-19 controls.ACE-2, the SARS-CoV-2 receptor, is linked to type 1 and 2 interferon signatures, and found to be overexpressed in type 2-low asthmatics4. Nevertheless, different outcomes in distinct asthma phenotypes still need to be addressed in COVID-19 studies.Besides Italy and China, reports from Russia 5 on ~1,300 intensive care unit patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirm the observation of a low prevalence of chronic lung diseases (i.e. asthma as well as COPD).Although preliminary data on the first COVID-19 cases in the US6 seem to contrast these observations, the higher prevalence of asthma in US COVID-19 hospitalised patients should be considered alongside a higher overall prevalence in these countries compared to Europe and China, as well as on the influence of other comorbidities (i.e. obesity) and host factors (i.e. age, race: 33% were non-Hispanic black patients in the study by Garg et al.) impacting COVID-19 outcomes. Another report from Sweden 7highlights the association between severe asthma and severe COVID-19.The severe asthma phenotype is often characterized by mixed granulocytic populations (neutrophilic and eosinophilic), prevalent type 1 inflammation, increased IFN-γ levels in the airways and ineffectiveness of ICS. This severe phenotype by itself, although accounting for less than 5% of asthmatic patients, would justify the CDC (and other institutions) including asthma as a risk factor for COVID-19. Data from the UK 8, apart from confirming the role of additional comorbidities, draw attention to the recent use of oral steroids, which, indeed, may be a clue for uncontrolled and/or severe asthma.Uncontrolled asthma is a risk factor for viral exacerbations and hospitalizations and we embrace the opportunity to stress the importance of optimal adherence to asthma controlling medications, regular follow-up and specialist-assessment of disease activity. Moreover, treatable comorbidities, which may impair asthma control, should always be managed. Promoting vaccination for preventable respiratory infections (i.e. Influenza and Pneumococcal pneumonia) is also advisable. Future studies may help better distinguishing the impact of different asthma phenotypes and comorbidities on COVID-19 outcome.Carli G.1, Cecchi L.1, Stebbing J.2, Parronchi P.3, Farsi A.11 SOS Allergy and Clinical Immunology, USL Toscana Centro, Prato Italy2 Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK3 Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

Introduction: Remote monitoring (RM) has profoundly transformed the standard of care for patients with cardiac electronic implantable devices. It provides easy access to valuable information about arrhythmic events, acute decompensation manifestations and device-related issues without the need of continuous in-person visits. Methods: Starting March 1st, 332 patients were introduced to a RM program during the Italian lockdown in order to limit the risk of in-hospital exposure to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2. Patients were categorized in two groups based on the modality of RM delivery [home (n=229) vs office (n= 103) delivered]. The study aimed at assessing the efficacy of the new follow-up protocol, reported as the mean RM Activation Time (AT) and the need for technical support for its activation. Patients’ acceptance and anxiety status was also quantified by means of the Home Monitoring Acceptance and Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale. Results: AT time was <48 hours in 93% of patients and 7% of them required further technical support. Despite a higher number of trans-telephonic technical support in home-delivered RM group, AT was comparable between groups (1.33±0.83 days in home-delivered vs 1.28±0.81 days in office-delivered patients; p=0.60). Twenty-eight (2.5%) urgent/emergent in-person examinations were planned. High degree of patient’s satisfaction was reached in both groups while anxiety status was higher in office-delivered group. Conclusions: RM was effective, safe and well tolerated by patients during the Italian lockdown. Our findings confirm the efficacy of this approach to reduce in-hospital visits, guaranteeing patients’ safety and quality of care.

Importance: Cardiac tamponade requiring emergent intervention is a possible complication of COVID-19 infection. Favorable clinical outcomes are possible if timely management and drainage are performed, unless ventricular failure develops. Observations: Cardiac tamponade in COVID-19, based on the limited reported cases, seems to be more common among middle-aged men. Prognosis is worse amongst patients with concomitant ventricular failure. Design and methods: This is a case series of three COVID-19 patients complicated by cardiac tamponade, requiring surgical intervention at a single institution in New York. Interventions: Pericardial window, Pericardiocentesis Outcomes: One patient had recurrence of cardiac tamponade with hemorrhagic component but fully recovered and was discharged home. Two patients developed cardiac tamponade with concomitant biventricular failure, resulting in death. Conclusions and Relevance: Cardiac Tamponade with possible concomitant biventricular failure can develop in COVID-19 patients; incidence seems to be highest at the point of marked inflammatory response. Concomitant ventricular failure seems to be a predictor of poor prognosis.

Emerging and reemerging viral diseases can lead to devastating effects on human lives and at times also lead to economic crises. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic due to the novel coronavirus (nCoV), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which originated in Wuhan, China, has caused a global public health emergency. Still, the molecular mechanism of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, its clinical manifestations and pathogenesis is not completely understood. The global scientific community has intensified their efforts to understand the biology of SARS-CoV-2 to develop vaccines and therapeutic interventions to prevent the rapid spread of the virus and to control mortality and morbidity associated with COVID-19. To understand the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2, appropriate animal models that mimic the biology of human SARS-COV-2 infection is urgently needed. In this review, we outline animal models that have been used to study previous human coronaviruses (HCoVs), that includes severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Importantly, we discuss which model is appropriate for SARS-CoV-2 as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each.

ABSTRACT Background: COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11st, 2020. Responses to this crisis integrated resource allocation for the increased amount of infected patients, while maintaining an adequate response to other severe and life-threatening diseases. Though cardiothoracic patients are at high risk for Covid-19 severe illness, postponing surgeries would translate in increased mortality and morbidity. We reviewed our practice during the initial time of pandemic, with emphasis on safety protocols. Methods: From March 11st to May 15th 2020, 148 patients underwent surgery at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of CHUSJ. The clinical characteristics of the patients were retrospectively registered, along with novel containment and infection prevention measures targeting the new Corona Virus. Results: The majority of adult cardiac patients were operated on an urgent basis. Hospital mortality was 1.9% (n = 2 patients). Most of adult thoracic patients were admitted from home, with a diagnosis of neoplasic disease in 60% patients. Hospital mortality was 3.3% (1). Fifteen children underwent cardiothoracic surgery. There was no mortality. The infection prevention procedures applied, totally excluded the transmission of Covid-19 in the Department. Conclusion: While guaranteeing a prompt response to emergent, urgent and high priority cases, novel safety measures in individual protection, patients circuits and pre-operative diagnose of symptomatic and asymptomatic infection were adopted. The surgical results corroborate that it was safe to undergo cardiothoracic surgery during the initial time of Covid-19 pandemic. The new policies will be maintained while the virus stays in the community.

Epidemic diseases contiguously propagate between propitious substances, along with sub-rosa characteristics specifically contiguousness and replication speed may expound ferocity of epidemic diseases such as COVID-19. Most likely, due to high contiguous velocity; in very short time COVID-19 may have become global pandemic disease and key menace to manhood. Deterrence of propagation may help in devastate virus transmogrify using instantaneous traceability of individualized health activities and trackability of public footprints using smart devices, radiography, and social networks.

As college courses transition to online instruction in response to COVID-19 incorporating inquiry-based learning is all the more essential for student engagement. However, implementation can prove challenging for instructors. I describe a strategy for inquiry-based learning that is straightforward to apply in a variety of course modalities, including asynchronous and synchronous online courses. I describe an assignment where students explore the developmental basis of morphological evolution. Flowers offer an excellent example to address this concept and are easy for students to access and describe. Students were asked to conduct research on local flowering plants by collecting and dissecting flower specimens to determine their whorl patterns and then generate hypotheses to explain the developmental genetic basis of the patterns identified. This task allowed students to apply their scientific thinking skills, explore nature, and connect their understanding of the developmental basis of evolutionary change to everyday life. I designed this assignment to be completed asynchronously, and it can be easily modified for synchronous online and traditional face-to-face meetings. Incorporating inquiry using readily available, tangible, tractable real-world examples is a pragmatic and effective approach during and beyond COVID-19.

The biological father of an 11-year-old girl infects his daughter, who returns to her biological mother's family before the father's diagnosis. The daughter endures a 1-day, mild illness. However, despite close physical contact prior to and during the girl's illness, her mother, stepfather and 1-year-old half-brother were not infected.

Updated, peer reviewed and published at Canadian Journal of Medicinehttps://cjm.cikd.ca/article_60573.htmlUntil recently, ibuprofen has been avoided in all COVID-19 protocols world-wide. The author has been trying since March, 2020 to publish a paper that disputes this unfortunate incident and he finally managed since May 2020 to publish two manuscripts that not only prove non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs not harmful for COVID-19, rather they were shown to possess a potential to cure the disease based on a unique new theory suggested to explain COVID-19 pathogenesis and he suggested NSAIDs to be added to unique protocol he suggested using nitazoxanide/azithromycin to manage early cases of COVID-19. In this manuscript, considered the fourth related to the subject, the author represents the first clinical results of using NSAIDs/Nitazoxanide/Azithromycin protocol, used partly or fully, that includes relatively cheap FDA approved drugs used in seventeen Egyptian patients, whether confirmed or suspected, including children, adults and two pregnant ladies whom have been mostly symptoms-free in five days. The manuscripts also presents a road-map to illustrate how to deal efficiently with early cases of COVID-19 according to the author’s clinical experience.

We describe two cases of favorable and unexpected recovery in positive patients with COVID-19, suffering from multiorgan comorbidity and already assisted with the left ventricular assist device. We have observed that, although in the presence of more comorbidities, when the maintenance of a valid support of the cardiovascular function is guaranteed, the possibility of successfully overcoming the SARS-CoV-2 infection is still alive.

The current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with severe pulmonary and cardiovascular complications. This report describes a young patient with COVID-19 without any comorbidity presenting with severe cardiovascular complications, manifesting with pulmonary embolism, embolic stroke, and right heart failure. Management with short-term mechanical circulatory support, including different cannulation strategies, resulted in a successful outcome despite his critical cardiovascular status.

Coronavirus (CoV) pandemics have become a huge threat to the public health worldwide in the recent decades. Typically, severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV) caused SARS pandemic in 2003 and SARS-CoV-2 caused the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Both viruses have been reported to originate from bats. Thus, direct or indirect interspecies transmission from bats to humans is required for the viruses to cause pandemics. Receptor utilization is a key factor determining the host range of viruses which is critical to the interspecies transmission. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor of both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, but only ACE2s of certain animals can be utilized by the viruses. Here, we employed pseudovirus cell-entry assay to evaluate the receptor-utilizing capability of ACE2s of 20 animals by the two viruses and found that SARS-CoV-2 utilized less ACE2s than SARS-CoV, indicating a narrower host range of SARS-CoV-2. Especially, SARS-CoV-2 tended not to use murine or non-mammal ACE2s. Meanwhile, pangolin CoV, another SARS-related coronavirus highly homologous to SARS-CoV-2 in its genome, yet showed similar ACE2 utilization profile with SARS-CoV rather than SARS-CoV-2. To clarify the mechanism underlying the receptor utilization, we compared the amino acid sequences of the 20 ACE2s and found 5 amino acid residues potentially critical for ACE2 utilization, including the N-terminal 20th and 42nd amino acids that may determine the different receptor utilization of SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and pangolin CoV. Our studies promote the understanding of receptor utilization of pandemic coronaviruses, potentially contributing to the virus tracing, intermediate host screening and epidemic prevention for pathogenic coronaviruses.

Aims In light of the recent safety concerns relating to NSAID use in COVID-19, we sought to evaluate cardiovascular and respiratory complications in patients taking NSAIDs during acute lower respiratory tract infections. Methods We carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and observational studies. Studies of adult patients with short-term NSAID use during acute lower respiratory tract infections, including bacterial and viral infections, were included. Primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were cardiovascular, renal and respiratory complications. Results In total, eight studies including two randomised controlled trials, three retrospective and three prospective observational studies enrolling 44140 patients were included. Five of the studies were in patients with pneumonia, two in patients with Influenza, and one in patients with acute bronchitis. There was uncertainty as to the effects on mortality (RR 0.87 [0.63, 1.18]), but pleuro-pulmonary complications were more common with NSAID use (RR 2.62 [1.96, 3.50]). However, all studies exhibited high risks of bias, primarily due to lack of adjustment for confounding variables. Cardiovascular outcomes were not reported by any of the included studies. Conclusion Short-term NSAID use during acute lower respiratory tract infections was associated with more pleuro-pulmonary complications although this may be due to confounding by indication. There remains significant uncertainty on the effects on mortality. Such results should be interpreted cautiously given the very low quality of evidence. Mechanistic and clinical studies addressing the captioned subject are urgently needed, especially in relation to COVID-19.

The “coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)” outbreak was first reported in December 2019 (China). Since then, this disease has rapidly spread across the globe and in March 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Since the outbreak was first announced, our journal has extensively focused on the clinical features, outcomes, diagnosis, immunology, and pathogenesis of COVID-19 and its infectious agent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We published our first COVID-19 article on 19 February, focusing for the first time on the clinical characteristics of 140 cases of human-to-human coronavirus transmission without any links to the Huanan Wet Market.2 Hypertension and diabetes were mentioned as risk factors and there was no increased prevalence in allergic patients. This early study reported that the main symptoms at hospital admission were fever (91.7%), cough (75.0%), fatigue (75.0%), gastrointestinal symptoms (39.6%), and dyspnea (36.7%). Lymphopenia and eosinopenia were also reported as important signs and biomarkers for monitoring and severity of the patients.2 The prevalent eosinopenia in COVID-19 patients and the possible anti-viral role of eosinophils were further discussed in several following publications inAllergy .3,4 Our second COVID-19 paper brought attention to the wide range of clinical manifestations of this disease, from asymptomatic cases to patients with mild and severe symptoms, with or without pneumonia as well as with only diarrhea.5Patients with common allergic diseases did not develop distinct symptoms and severe courses. Cases with pre-existing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or complicated with a secondary bacterial pneumonia were severe. Another article, timely appearing in our journal, alerted the scientific community that even in experienced hands there was a 14.1% false negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnosis in COVID-19 cases and were later diagnosed positive after repeated tests.6 A pediatric article was also published extensively analyzing 182 cases and it was reported that children with COVID-19 showed a mild clinical course.7 Patients with pneumonia had a higher proportion of fever and cough and increased inflammatory biomarkers compared to those without pneumonia. There were 43 allergic patients in this series and there was no significant difference between allergic and non-allergic COVID-19 children in disease incidence, clinical features, laboratory, and immunological findings. Allergy was not a risk factor for disease and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection and did not significantly influence the disease course of COVID-19 in children.7The immunology of COVID-19 was extensively reviewed in two articles from leading experts with a comprehensive discussion of the tip of the iceberg in COVID-19 epidemiology, anti-viral response, antibody response to SARS-CoV-2, acute phase reactants, cytokine storm, and pathogenesis of tissue injury and severity. 8,9Two studies timely reported the role of possible trained immunity in countries with a Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination programme and a relatively low COVID-19 prevalence and mortality rate.10,11 In an extensive RNA sequencing analyses of SARS-CoV-2 receptor and their molecular partners revealed that ACE2 and TMPRSS2 were coexpressed at the epithelial sites of the lung and skin, whereas CD147 (BSG), cyclophilins (PPIA and PPIB), CD26 (DPP4) and related molecules were expressed in both, epithelium and in immune cells.12Allergists, respiratory physicians, pediatricians, and other health care providers treating patients with allergic diseases are frequently in contact with patients potentially infected with SARS-CoV-2. Practical considerations and recommendations given by experts in the field of allergic diseases can provide useful recommendations for clinical daily work. Since the beginning of this current pandemic, our journal has disseminated clinical reports, 2,3,5,6,13 statements on the urgent need for accuracy in designing and reporting clinical trials in COVID-19,14 preventive measures,10,11,15 and Position Statements elaborated by experts in the field in close collaboration with the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and its task force “Allergy and Its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) ”.16-28 (keynote information in table 1). A compendium answering 150 frequently encountered questions regarding COVID-19 and allergic diseases has been recently published by experts in their respective area.29 In addition, readers can put further questions regarding this “living ” compendium electronically to the authors and their answers will be available through a new category in the journal’s webpage.30Besides, EAACI in collaboration with ARIA, has provided recommendations on operational plans and practical procedures for ensuring optimal standards in the daily clinical care of patients with allergic diseases, whilst ensuring the safety of patients and healthcare workers.23Table 1: Examples of recently published recommendations, statements and Position Papers of the EAACI

Distance learning has been a means to provide an education to those who are unable to participate in on-campus, face-to face classes. Teams of instructional design specialists that focus on online education put significant effort into course development. This planned process is very different from emergency remote education in response to a crisis. In early 2020, it was discovered that an extremely contagious respiratory illness termed COVID-19 had spread to every corner of the earth. As of mid-March 2020, the need to transition from face-to-face classroom instruction to exclusively online education landed on the doorstep of America’s universities. COVID-19 has catalyzed a transition in the ecology of American education for all students, but especially the underserved and minoritized. Ecology, by definition, is concerned with the interactions of an organism and its environment. The circumstances of the pandemic have caused vast and rapid change in both the internal and external environments of the organisms (e.g., students) and the systems in which they reside (e.g., U. S. educational systems). The purpose of this paper is to provide some considerations for instructors who find themselves “thrown into teaching remotely,” and help them think about how best to create sustainable systems, broaden participation and build capacity in a more equitable and inclusive manner.

Background: The liberal administration of hydroxychloroquine-sulphate (HCQ) to COVID-19 patients has raised concern regarding the risk of QTc prolongation and cardiac arrhythmias, particularly when prescribed with azithromycin. We evaluated the incidence of QTc prolongation among moderately and severely ill COVID-19 patients treated with HCQ and of the existence of concomitant alternative causes. Methods: All COVID-19 patients treated with HCQ (between Mar 1 and Apr 14, 2020) in a tertiary medical center were included. Clinical characteristics and relevant risk factors were collected from the electronic medical records. Individual patient QTc intervals were determined before and after treatment with HCQ. The primary outcome measure sought was a composite endpoint comprised of either an increase ≥ 60 milliseconds (ms) in the QTc interval compared with pretreatment QTc, and/or a maximal QTc interval >500 ms. Results: Ninety patients were included. Median age was 65 years (IQR 55-75) and 57 (63%) were male. Thirty-nine patients (43%) were severely or critically ill. Hypertension and obesity were common (n=23 each, 26%). QTc prolongation evolved in fourteen patients (16%). Age > 65 years, congestive heart failure, severity of disease, C-reactive protein level, hypokalemia and furosemide treatment, were all associated with QTc prolongation. Adjusted analysis showed that QTc prolongation was five times more likely with hypokalemia [OR 5, (95% CI, 1.3-20)], and three times more likely with furosemide treatment [OR 3 (95% CI, 1.01-13.7)]. Conclusion: In patients treated with HCQ, QTc prolongation was associated with the presence of traditional risk factors such as hypokalemia and furosemide treatment.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the demographic shifts in emergency service admissions, possible measures and room for improvement in emergency services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methodology: Our study retrospectively analyzed the demographic features and clinical admission types of patients admitted to Batman District State Hospital Emergency Service at two different time periods, one prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the other during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results were compared between the two periods designated as the pandemic period and the pre-pandemic period. Results: The number of patients admitted to emergency service was 47.681 in the pre-pandemic period and 9455 in the pandemic period (p<0.01). The number of patients admitted for trauma was 1247(2.61%) in the pre-pandemic period and 59(0.62%) in the pandemic period (p<0.01). The number of patients hospitalized to cardiology department or coronary care unit for acute coronary syndrome was 602(1.26%) in the pre-pandemic period and 29(0.3%) in the pandemic period (p<0.01). The number of patients hospitalized to neurological intensive care unit for acute cerebrovascular disease was 542(1.13%) in the pre-pandemic period and 22(0.2%) in the pandemic period (p<0.01). The number of patients hospitalized to pulmonary diseases department or intensive care unit for dyspnea was 622(1.21%) in the pre-pandemic period and 515 (5.4%) in the pandemic period (p <0.01). Conclusion: Measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infection have caused a significant drop in emergency service admissions. We are of the opinion that this will lead to an increase in deaths occurring at home, and we will soon encounter patients with worse prognosis and overcrowded emergency services. In order to prevent this problem, we believe that the public awareness about emergency conditions requiring emergency service admission should be heightened alongside of the ‘stay home’ calls.

Background and Purpose: SARS-coV-2 pandemic continues to cause an unprecedented global destabilization. There is an urgent need to develop vaccines or identify molecules to treat severe cases and repurposing of drugs is the best approach at this hour. Thalidomide, despite having an infamous history has been successfully repurposed and tested for various disease conditions including inflammatory diseases and tumor. Few reports emphasize the use of thalidomide with a SARS-coV-2 pneumonia patient being successfully treated with thalidomide. Experimental Approach: A meta-analysis comparing the transcriptomes of SARS-coV-2 infected tissues with thalidomide and lenalidomide-induced transcriptomic changes in transformed lung, endothelial and hematopoietic models was performed. Key Results: Thalidomide and lenalidomide exhibited pleiotropic effects affecting a range of biological processes including inflammation, immune response, angiogenesis, MAPK signaling, NOD-like receptor signaling, TLR signaling, leukocyte differentiation and innate immunity, the processes which are aberrantly regulated in severe COVID-19 patients. In addition, we show the similarities between the expression profiles of SARS-coV-2 infected lung and systemic lupus erythematous. Conclusion and Implications: The present study recommends thalidomide analogs as a “better fit” to treat severe cases of novel viral infections, healing the damaged network by compensating the impairment caused by the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).

Aim: Pharmacovigilance data are primarily used to identify adverse drug reactions. However, scanning for associations of drugs and adverse events that occur less frequently than expected provides hypotheses for drug repurposing, i.e. a known drug could be therapeutically beneficial for a new indication like the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Methods: Drugs associated with viral respiratory tract infections and/or influenza were extracted from the U.S. FAERS pharmacovigilance data using OpenVigil2.1-MedDRA17, filtered for significant inverse associations (punadj<0.05), checked for plausibility, and categorised by their WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification code. Results: ATC clustering of 82 candidate drugs revealed anti-diabetics, neuropharmacologic sigma-receptor agonists, peptidase inhibitors, kinase inhibitors and anti-androgens. Chloroquine appears as a statistically significant risk factor for viral diseases supporting actual knowledge. Conclusion: OpenVigil 2 delivers new hypotheses for drug repurposing, theoretically for all indications. There is affirmative data for some of our results; the remaining proposed candidate drugs without already known antiviral mechanism of action should stimulate further exploration.

Dear Editor,We read with interest the published article by Ikeda et al. [1], they performed thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) in a patient with Marfan syndrome (MFS) for acute complicated type B aortic dissection (TBAD) during COVID-19 pandemic.The evidence around TEVAR for MFS is scarce and open repair remains the gold treatment[2]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients are either being denied treatment or given inferior options on the basis of age, comorbidities and risk of COVID pneumonia; however, the guidelines for aortic intervention in the United Kingdom have remained largely unchanged from pre-COVID-19 era [3]. Our questions to the authors relate to whether their solution was an unnecessary compromise. There is no clear indication defined in their case as a cold leg doesn’t necessary means an ischaemic limb. The TEVAR procedure performed aiming to minimise hospital stay, yet this approach may have put the patient at higher risk of developing paraplegia and visceral organ malperfusion, while compromising her long-term care.There is need to clarify if she had risk factors that prone her to a higher risk acquiring severe COVID-19 which necessitated deviating from the traditional open surgery recommended for MFS patients with TBAD [2]. The authors did not report on renal function, evidence of bowel malperfusion or whether there was resistant hypertension that needed immediate intervention. If the need to expediate intervention was the fear of limb ischaemia, is it conceivable a femoro-femoral bypass could have saved the limb and definitive open surgery on her aorta could have been performed at a later stage, especially since she was haemodynamically stable.Moreover, as Marfan-diseased aortas are prone to further dilatation, we believe their justification for opting for endovascular repair should also have been more balanced, exploring the know high rate of long-term TEVAR-associated complications in MFS patients including endoleaks, retrograde dissection, stent-graft-induced new entry tears, surgical conversions and reintervention. There is also need for imaging follow-up to assess the success of TEVAR and early detection of aforementioned complications.