COVID-19 Mega thread

[Beet]

I have never seen top American health officials so negative about a virus.

"It almost certainly is going to be a pandemic," says Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"A pandemic seems inevitable," writes FDA commisioner & chief scientist Scott Gottlieb & Luciana Borio.

"We’re basically at a pandemic now," says Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic's vaccine research group.

"It's increasingly unlikely that the virus can be contained," says Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control.

Gottlieb and Borio particularly, expect that there are already more unknown than confirmed cases running around in the U.S. undetected. They make the sensible recommendation that local health centers instead of the CDC only, should be equipped to test anyone with unexplained pneumonia (and test negative for bacterial pneumonia or known viruses) via PCR testing. They expect local clusters of unexplained pneumonia to start showing up within communities soon, which will be the first sign. However, they are hopeful that warmer spring and summer weather will slow the transmission of the virus.

Stock market rise.

The Dow has gained about 1,000 points this week and has essentially regained its pre-coronavirus peak, suggesting that the big money does not yet think we are looking at an armageddon sort of situation. Even Hong Kong's Hang Seng has gained about 1,000 points lately. My view is that the big money is dumb money -- it represents largely institutional investors who are not experts or epidemiologists, and is slow to react. Now is a good chance to sell. However that is my opinion.

Death rate.

Three days ago, 362 died, 487 recovered. Today, 565 died, 1,171 recovered. The average death rate since then is 23%.

[Beet]

Gonna just copy this over from Reddit -



Neil Ferguson (one of researchers from original Imperial paper) -- up to 50k infections per day in China

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALQTdCYGISw&feature=youtu.be

tweet with clip: https://twitter.com/MRC_Outbreak/status/1225146256558870531

update # 1

Summary --

- surveillance picking up in China, right now 10% or less infections being detected

- overseas, we may be detecting only a quarter of current infections

- estimate up to 50k occurring in China

- most efficient interventions -- mentions lack of vaccine, testing of anti-virals, identifying as many cases as possible as early as possible - whether such measures will be effective in this case remains to be seen

- next few weeks will tell us about likelihood of control measures working

update # 2

MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis says that details relating to the video will be published soon and to keep an eye on their Twitter (@MRC_Outbreak) and this page: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/news--wuhan-coronavirus/

If the Chinese cases being 10% of the actual total and the international ones being 25% of the actual total are in roughly the right ballpark, that is good news in terms of the fatality rate (lowers it) but bad news in terms in terms of the transmissability and the possibility of containing it. Given that I haven't thought it could be contained for a while now, I will hope that the detection rate is at least that low (hopefully lower) and hope that gives us a lower fatality rate.

Ehh not necessarily it could just mean there are a lot of people lying dead in their homes that haven't been discovered.

[Beet]

Dr. Li Wenliang, who originally reported coronavirus in December 2019, is reported dead of the virus. This is the most bizarre and unusual news yet to come out of this entire story thus far. Consider that earlier this month, China told the WHO (or it was reported elsewhere):

• The death rate is 2% (Also commonly cited by authorities and mainstream outlets)
• 80% of deaths are over age 60
• 75% had underlying diseases
• Thailand, Washington State & Chinese doctors all found medicines that supposedly helped dramatically

If this is the case, if you get the disease, you supposedly have a 2% chance of dying. Of those 2% who die, four parts out of five are over 60, so if you are under 60 you would have to be one of those 1 part out of 5 to die. Further, if you are under 40, the chances must be even smaller. Further, if you have no underlying disease, the chance is smaller still. The chance of a 34 year old healthy man, who is a high profile figure sympathetically regarded nationally & surely by medical & judicial authorities, and receiving medical treatment, dying, is supposedly abjectly low, well below 1%. That leaves a number of possibilities:

1) He was very, very, very, very, very unlucky. While possible, this would be a remarkable coincidence, as he is only one of a handful of very high profile cases in the world. He is one of the few people in all of China whose death cannot be covered up.

2) The mortality rate is a lot higher than 2%. That would be in line with the 23% I posted yesterday.

3) The government deliberately killed him to somehow punish him for whistleblowing. While I heard some people (morbidly) hoping this to be true due to what it would imply about the CFR, what this implies about the government's intent & what else they are suppressing is perhaps even more terrifying.

4) He had an underlying disease that has not been reported. It is possible, but he looks quite healthy in photos. Plus, he was an active doctor.

One other thing is extremely strange about the official story of his case. He first noticed symptoms on January 10 and was in the hospital by January 13. Between then and now is 3 weeks. Current CFR that are lower than mine depend on an assumption about the time frame of death, that it occurs relatively quickly, whereas recovery takes longer. If this doctor was ill for 3 weeks and died at the end of this period, it suggests those assumptions are off.

There is yet another very bizarre and strange facet of this case. It is reported that he tested negative for the virus several times before finally testing positive around January 30. There was another case of a woman in Hong Kong who tested negative, then positive later. The same is true of a case in Canada. This could lead to the very disturbing possibility that the virus can live at such low traces that it cannot be picked up by current testing methods. People could be testing negative & then being released falsely.

The second, somewhat more reassuring possibility is that he originally simply had pneumonia, but caught coronavirus in the hospital. However the problem with this is that it contradicts the official story, which is quite specific: He got it from a woman he was treating for glaucoma. Further, if this was true it would be known because he would have tested positive for either bacteria infection or other known viral pneumonia.

In sum, the death of Dr. Li Wenliang raises a number of problems and for the first time I am afraid,

A) The government is not being nearly as straightforward as I had thought, and/or

B) The mortality rate is higher than thought, and/or

C) The virus is, unknown to us, undetectable even by existing common methods of nucleic acid testing

[Beet]

I appreciate the optimism, and I hope that we've seen the worst of this.

But I'm just not that sure we're out of the woods yet.

Full disclaimer: I'm a microbiology undergrad who's spent the last four years listening to jaded lecturers talking about how tough dealing with this kind of stuff is, so I'm a little cynical.

I mean, we're still encountering local opposition in the fight to finally eliminate polio, for goodness sake, and we can't stop the flu ravaging us every year. There are undiagnosed cases in Singapore, Thailand and the non-Hubei regions of China that still pose a significant threat. And even if this is somehow contained, we'll likely see another outbreak in the next few years.

I really don't want to go full 'Beet' (never go full Beet). We're not looking at millions of deaths in the next few weeks, and here in the West, we are fairly well protected. But it only takes a small slip-up for things to escalate. A medical student with a fever visits his parents in Mumbai, coughing away on a crowded bus. A UK businesswoman returns home from Singapore, and spends an hour in a border queue, gently swaying.

We shouldn't panic. But we need to stay vigilant, and engaged. Otherwise we risk making the same mistakes that let this get out of Wuhan in the first place. Nothing spread a virus like apathy.

No need for this unnecessary dig. I have not said anything more alarming than what you have already said in your post. The idea that my posts are somehow really faar out there is ridiculous.

Death rate.

Four days ago 362 died, 487 recovered. Today 636 died, 1,489 recovered. The death rate for the past 4 days is 22%.

[Beet]

I'm sorry that I included that jibe. I do try to edit out those kinds of comments, and it's really not my intention to go around being snarky. It's been a tiring week here as I chew through my dissertation, and as a consequence, I've had less patience as I browse. I'll admit, I've struggled with the rather hyperbolic tone you've adopted.

There's so much conversation to be had on the spread of n-CoV, and I just wish we could all keep an open mind.

On a more positive note, you've posted a ton of statistics, and I'm intrigued, do you have any recommendations for reading on the outbreak? I've been using the John Hopkins Dashboard (link below), and the Guardian, but could do with some more outlets, to get a more rounded view.

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Thank you. I just search Twitter for #coronavirus, r/China_Flu, r/coronavirus, and what people post on Atlas. I find some interesting things this way. For instance @RonaldBakerIII claims the virus came from the Malayan pangolin bat. Guy claims to be a CEO at a company called "Net Express" but when you go to the website it's closed. Is what he says credible? Or not? Who knows?

Ironically these pangolins look more like little armadillos. They are an endangered species and are henceforth smuggled in China and elsewhere. Here is a study published October 24 2019 by the Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources:

The Guangdong Wildlife Rescue Center received 21 live Malayan pangolins from the Anti-smuggling Customs Bureau on 24 March 2019; most individuals, including adults and subadults, were in poor health, and their bodies were covered with skin eruptions. All these Malayan pangolins were rescued by the Guangdong Wildlife Rescue Center, however, 16 died after extensive rescue efforts. Most of the dead pangolins had a swollen lung which contained a frothy liquid, as well as the symptom of pulmonary fibrosis, and in the minority of the dead ones, we observed hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. We collected 21 organ samples of lung, lymph, and spleen with obvious symptoms from 11 dead Malayan pangolins to uncover the virus diversity and molecular epidemiology of potential etiologies of viruses based on a viral metagenomic study. This study will be beneficial to pangolin disease research and subsequent rescue operation.

Though there was high species variety of Coronavirus detected, SARS-CoV was the most widely distributed.

Besides the Sendai virus, Coronaviruses were also detected as potential pathogens of Malayan pangolins. The phylogeny of Coronavirus sequences assembled and strains from four Coronavirus genera demonstrated complex genetic relationships and high species diversity of the Coronavirus in Malayan pangolins

We found high viral diversity of dead Malayan pangolins, and the Sendai virus and Coronavirus may be the dominant pathogens responsible for their death. The Sendai virus showed a close relationship between the Malayan pangolin and the strain isolated from humans, whereas Coronavirus sequences showed a high species diversity.

To date, this is the first metagenomic study of virus diversity in pangolins in China.

https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/11/11/979/htm

Who knows, maybe this Baker guy is full of sh__, but an interesting read.

5) As a healthcare worker working in an overloaded hospital, he may have delayed his own treatment to continue attending to patients, which could increase the severity of any infection.

6) Being a healthcare worker, he may have been exposed to the virus on multiple occasions, much more often than other cases. The higher viral load may have resulted in a more severe reaction than in most cases.
6a) A reiteration of your fourth point, with the suggestion that the "underlying disease" may not be a long-term health issue but the kind of bacterial infection common in hospital settings.

But at the core of it is your first point: "unlikely" and "impossible" are not synonyms. Especially without seeing his medical charts, there are no grounds to speculate about mortality rate from a single case.

Ok but according to the BBC:

In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January.

During January 10-12, the hospitals were not that full yet, were they? At that time the Wuhan government was still claiming no new cases for days. Wikipedia claims that he was not confirmed until February 1 because of a lack of test kits; some sources say February 1, others (like above) January 30. So clearly the international reporting is muddled. I remember distinctly a BBC article saying he tested negative more than once before finally testing positive, but I cannot find it now.

A chilling quote from WSJ:
“It happened so suddenly,” one doctor in Wuhan who knew Dr. Li said in a phone interview late Thursday night. An unfortunate part of this disease is that the final deterioration is very sudden.

[Beet]

Death rate.

Four days ago, officially 492 died, 906 recovered. Today 723 died and 2,063 recovered. The death rate in the past 4 days is 17%.

[Beet]

Death rate.

Four days ago, officially 492 died, 906 recovered. Today 723 died and 2,063 recovered. The death rate in the past 4 days is 17%.

How are you calculating this number?

(723 - 492) / 2063 = 11 %

(723 - 492) / (2063 - 906) = 20%

I don't know what you're doing.

It's (723 - 492)/[(2063 - 906) + (723 - 492)].

A larger study of 138 patients was published yesterday.

- Mortality 4.3%, although like most mainstream sources they are assuming all nonresolved cases recover. Counting only resolved cases, the mortality is 6/53 = 11%.

- Median time to ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) 8 days.

- Median time in hospital for recovered patients 10 days.

- Median age of hospitalized patients 56, median age of ICU patients 66

- High blood pressure and diabetes may be risk factors.

- 41% got it while in the hospital.

- Symptoms 99% fever, 70% dry cough, 60% fatigue

-  All of the patients in this study received antibacterial agents, 90% received antiviral therapy, and 45% received methylprednisolone. However, no effective outcomes were observed.

Confirmed:

https://twitter.com/RolandBakerIII/status/1226149513653411840

Not surprising given the Amoy Gardens SARS infection pattern I posted of earlier.

Caixin: Key Diagnostic Test May be Missing Many Cases (nucleic acid test). Seems like negative NAT tests are being used by hospitals with a shortage of beds with an excuse to send people home, even if their chest X rays clearly show pneumonia.

The next step up for testing accuracy is gene sequencing, which is more expensive.

[Beet]

Death rate.

Three days ago, officially 565 died, 1,171 recovered. Today officially 807 died, 2,617 recovered. The death rate of the past 3 days is 14%.

[Beet]

Death rate.

Three days ago, officially 565 died, 1,171 recovered. Today officially 807 died, 2,617 recovered. The death rate of the past 3 days is 14%.

Are you willing to understand why it was misleading that you were talking about a 60%+ death rate a couple weeks ago?

No, that was based on the best information we had at the time; and this is based on the best information we have now. The method has not changed. The final death rate may not be 14% either.

[Beet]

Would there be any point in burning the corpses anyway? I thought corona viruses only survive a few hours outside of a live host.

The analysis of 22 studies reveals that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days, but can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures with 62-71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite within 1 minute. Other biocidal agents such as 0.05-0.2% benzalkonium chloride or 0.02% chlorhexidine digluconate are less effective.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30046-3/fulltext

[Beet]

Death rate.

3 days ago officially 636 died, 1,489 recovered. Today 906 died, 3,245 recovered. The CFR for the most recent three days is 13%.

[Beet]

The biggest study yet of 1,099 cases, however only 67 are resolved.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.06.20020974v1

- Median age 47, significantly younger than previous studies
- Median age of "severe" cases 52, significantly younger than previous studies
- Mortality rate of resolved cases is 22%, under the mainstream method only 1.36%
- Incubation period only 3 days, but up to 24 days.
- 1 severe case of a child under 15, which would be the first reported.

At this point, it is clear neither incubation period nor nucleic acid test are reliable indicators. This is very bad.

[Beet]

Death rate.

Three days ago, 723 died and 2,063 recovered. Today 1,018 died and 4,052 recovered. The death rate for the past 3 days remains 13%.

NTD News*, an extension of the Falun Gong movement, did a rather unethical but fascinating investigation into a crematorium in Wuhan, finding:

- x4-5 more bodies than usual
- 38% are from the hospital, 61% are from home
- Only 8 out of 127 cases daily had nCov on the death certificate

Let us assume that no "home" cases are being diagnosed one way or another, and the additional load on the crematorium is about ~100 daily. Then they are getting ~38 additional load from hospital cases, and let us assume all 8 officially counted are hospital cases. Then of the likely nCov deaths, about 8/38 or only about 21% make it into the official death rate. By this back-of-the-envelope calcuation then the actual daily hospital death rate in Wuhan is about x5 what is reported (and overall 12-13x reported). Or in the case of Hubei province, the hospital death rate is 500 per day. This also has implications for the case fatality rate. If an extra 400 per day are added to this toll, then it is 43% (assuming that there are no undiagnosed hospital recoveries).

* Note I do not really trust NTD News, as they have at least one video of what appears to be an epileptic patient on their YouTube channel; however this particular call seems plausible.

[Beet]

Uhh, this post is going to ruffle some feathers, but I don't post anything to alarm anyone.. just to raise some points. There are certain points of comfort that are not really valid ATM.

The virus is in China, and I'm not

Virtually every health expert has now said this is going to be a pandemic and many have said it may be uncontrollable and expect outbreaks outside China, including in Western countries. US health authorities are not even trying very hard to contain this. They are releasing a bunch of people from Wuhan out of quarantine without testing.

The virus can be contained by epidemiological methods, such as contact tracing

The virus, unfortunately, can be spread from person to person. People who are asymptomatic may be spreaders, so testing for fever cannot filter out the virus, like with SARS. Further, the upper bound of the incubation period is unknown, with some reports of over 40 days, so a 14 day quarantine period is no longer a solution. It is possible that some spreaders, including children, never develop symptoms. Further, even direct scientific testing, such as the PCR test which is the most sensitive test developed to date, is not accurate. There is absolutely no way to know whether someone has the virus, regardless of epidemiological history, symptoms, or even scientific testing.

If I'm just careful around everyone, it doesn't matter who is infected, I'll be safe

OK, so you say. There's no way to know who's infected. But it won't matter, because I'll just be careful around everyone. But unfortunately, this is not a solution because the virus is aerosolized, which means it can travel several hundred meters through the air for you to breathe in. You cannot be so careful that you can avoid coming within several hundred meters of any other human being.

If it gets serious, I'll just stock up on non-perishables and hole up in my place

This is what people in China are trying to do. Unfortunately, it does not prevent you from being infected via circulating air or sewage systems in multifamily units. Further, how long will you remain isolated? You can't remain isolated forever. Which brings us to...

All of this will blow over, just like SARS, the Spanish flu, etc.

Unfortunately, not all coronaviruses blow over. Some remain with us permanently, like the common cold or the flu. They may go into abeyance at some points, but they will always come back. They keep coming back every year with no end. Unfortunately, the difference with COVID-19 is that it is far more lethal than the common cold or the flu.

It's just a matter of time before they develop a treatment or vaccine.

Unfortunately, this is not necessarily true. All the wonders of modern science have not managed to develop a vaccine or treatment for the common cold. In fact, most antivirals on the market today are not really cures, they just help around the edges. There is no guarantee that any effective treatment or vaccine will ever be developed in our lifetimes.

Well, worst case scenario is I get it. It has a low mortality rate, and I'm young. I'll probably live.

Unfortunately, even if you survive this one, you could get reinfected again. People who survive most coronaviruses are only immune for a few years, and then, like the flu, you can get it again. And even if you survive it, you won't be young forever... in fact, the younger you are, the more likely you are to die of COVID-19, because a 77 year old man, for instance, will probably die of heart disease or other old age related illness. Whereas as a 24 year old man, you could get it at age 25, again and age 28, 31, 34, 37, and so on... the odds are higher that you will die of it at some point.

All in all, I would say the situation is rather grave (but it is not the end of the world; humanity will survive. And if there is anything you should not do, it is be alarmed. Rational, dispassionate, conservative and scientific thought must be maintained at all times). There is no answer, there can only be an attempt to find solutions which are as yet, unknown.

Edit: Death rate.

Three days ago, officially 807 died, 2,617 recovered. Today officially 1,114 died, 4,702 recovered. The death rate of the past 3 days remains 13%.

[Beet]

Death rate.

3 days ago officially 636 died, 1489 recovered. Today officially 1,368 died, 5,968 recovered. The case fatality rate of the past 3 days is 14%.

[Beet]

Death rate.

3 days ago 1,018 died and 4,052 recovered. Today officially 1,490 died and 7,054 recovered. The case fatality rate of the past 3 days is 14%.

Edit: An article in Radiology finds a certain combination of ground-glass opacity in certain parts of the lungs on the CT scan, that develops rapidly, can be a diagnostic criteria for COVID-19.

Also, I predict that before this is all over a mainstream outlet such as the NYTimes will publish an article looking into genetic risk factors (including ACE2 receptors), and when it does, it will be very significant no matter what is reported.

[Beet]

Death rate.

3 days ago 1,018 died and 4,052 recovered. Today officially 1,490 died and 7,054 recovered. The case fatality rate of the past 3 days is 14%.

Edit: An article in Radiology finds a certain combination of ground-glass opacity in certain parts of the lungs on the CT scan, that develops rapidly, can be a diagnostic criteria for COVID-19.

Also, I predict that before this is all over a mainstream outlet such as the NYTimes will publish an article looking into genetic risk factors (including ACE2 receptors), and when it does, it will be very significant no matter what is reported.

What are ACE2 receptors, and who is most at risk based on them?

It's an enzyme based on a single nucleotide polymorphism which means it has stable inheritance over generations. If the virus latches on to these receptors in the cells, then it can be used to identify who is genetically at risk.

[Beet]

Death rate.
Three days ago officially 1,114 died, 4,702 recovered. Today officially 1,525 died, 8,158 recovered. The case fatality rate in the past 3 days is 11%.

Outside China, 9 new cases in Singapore is concerning. Further, four new cases in Japan with no apparent link to Wuhan whatsoever is concerning and curious.

A leaked document of a Wuhan Naval University from Jan 2 2020 shows that checks were imposed at that time for "unexplained pneumonia" and that anyone with a fever was not to be allowed in. This is 18 days before Chinese health authorities began to take the situation seriously in public. At that time they were still claiming no human to human transmission and arresting doctors for "spreading rumors." Source is a reporter for NTD News, Jennifer Zeng @jenniferatntd.

Xun Zhou, a Reader in Modern History at the University of Essex who researches China's health system has broken down the reasons for the unreliability of health reporting statistics from China for Al Jazeera English Inside Story. These problems occur at every level. [1] Those who are collecting the data often have no training or experience in diagnosing diseases. They are rushed and have little time. Therefore they often just write down anything randomly. [2] Once these figures go to the experts, the experts are supposed to validate the data, but they have nothing by which to do so. So they simply massage the numbers to make them look realistic. [3] Later these statistics go to the provincial level, where local leaders want to look good. They want to look like things are going well, so there is an incentive to minimize the numbers.

I have found John Campbell's YouTube channel to be a worthwhile source of information on this situation.

[Beet]

Marc Lipsitch is a Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard with 28,000 citations. This is what he had to say:

“I think it is likely we’ll see a global pandemic,” Lipsitch claimed, adding that “If a pandemic happens, 40% to 70% of people world-wide are likely to be infected in the coming year.”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/harvard-professor-sounds-alarm-on-likely-coronavirus-pandemic-40-to-70-of-world-could-be-infected-this-year/

[Beet]

In the last week, the Hubei Party Secretary who was overseeing the response to this in China was sacked and replaced by some security officials. They have decided to seal everyone in their homes and not let them come out, even for food.

[Beet]

Death rate.

3 days ago, officially 1,368 died and 5,938 recovered. Today officially 1,669 died and 9,475 recovered. The case fatality rate in the past 3 days is 8%.

The fact that most detected cases outside China in Asia so far have been in Singapore and Japan - two countries with the most advanced detection capabilities, is not reassuring as to the amount of undetected cases going on in Asia. If most detected cases had been in, say, Laos and Papua New Guinea, that would be more reassuring. The situation suggests that the known virus distribution is more determined by testing capability than actual presence of the virus.

[Beet]

Bad news. Experts have declared that people who have recovered may be re-infected as for some people, the antibodies last only a very short amount of time. This was first reported as a leak a couple days ago, but was dismissed as a rumor. Now it's confirmed. However there is a slight difference - this guy is saying that the antibody doesn't last long, whereas the other person is saying it's a rare case where the antibody, although it correctly latches onto the virus, fails to neutralize it and instead carries it all over the body. This phenomenon was only uncovered in 2017 and applies only to one type of dengue fever - it is rather rare (the other possibility is that the medication damaged their heart, or that the first infection damaged the heart & this interacts with the antibodies). When it happens, it increases the death rate and causes death by sudden heart attack. Hence the people who are "recovered" need to be examined to see what the clinical outcomes are in terms of being infected again after the first time.

The presence of antibodies making it worse may rule out effective vaccine development. I'm seeing discussion that this is why we don't have a SARS vaccine.

[Beet]

Dr. Ferguson pointing out that outside Hubei, China is only testing those with a travel history to and from Wuhan, which means underreporting of numbers outside Hubei. And that there is a surge in unexplained pneumonia cases outside Hubei. This is very, very bad news.

[Beet]

3 days ago officially 1,490 died and 7,054 recovered. Today officially 1,773 died and 10,900 recovered. The case fatality rate of the past 3 days is dropped to 7%.

[Beet]

Very bad news. This apparently can damage the kidneys and male reproductive organs upon infection.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.12.20022418v1