Michael Z. Levy, PhD, commented in Spanish on regional station Telemundo 62 about COVID-19 in the Philadelphia area. His message: “The first wave hit us hard; we weren't ready. Now we can prepare and get our balance for the next one.”

With COVID19 testing not available for all, “there’s no way to calculate your risk right now between households,” comments Michael Levy, PhD.

The US and France have seen far fewer transplantations w/the advent of COVID-19, found a team including Peter Reese, MD, MSCE. Among the many reasons: An organ donor takes up an ICU bed and a ventilator.

Susan Ellenberg, PhD, commented today on ABC’s Good Morning America about good clinical trial practice: As we race toward a

COVID-19 clinical trials to develop treatments will get answers faster if people collaborate, Susan Ellenberg, PhD, commented.  “As some treatments show evidence of benefit, we will be moving to studies of drug combinations, and these trials will require larger sample sizes — meaning, in most cases, multicenter trials.”

Ebbing Lautenbach, MD, MPH, MSCE, commented on sudden second-week decline in some patients with COVID-19. Two and a half months into the pandemic, it’s well documented, “but we’re still not sure why it happens,” he said.

Jing Huang, PhD, commented that in Lehigh County, PA, a previously high rate of COVID-19 transmission appeared to drop—perhaps because, as suggested by cell phone data, residents began more effectively social distancing. But comparisons between cities, said Michael Levy, PhD, are difficult, given the lack of comparable rigorous data.

Before we relax social distancing, we need a better picture of how many people are really infected with COVID-19. Otherwise, the rate “drop” states have been told should signal them to reopen isn’t real, Jennifer Pinto-Martin, PhD, MPH, told ABC News. 

M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, and others at Penn Medicine are giving us a heartfelt view from the front lines of COVID-19.

Across the United States, black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts. If the data from other large cities hold true in Philadelphia — where 41 percent of residents are African American — the emerging recognition of disparities demands our immediate attention, write Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH, and Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE.