I truly miss seeing all of you!  Here's a brief video that I put together; I hope you enjoy it:  https://youtu.be/rbIMeMgXzAc

 The numbers:

US:                         69,197 cases              1,046 deaths              1.51% fatality rate (increase from yesterday)

South Korea:            9,241 cases                 131 deaths             1.4% fatality rate (slight increase from yesterday)

Germany:              39,355 cases                  222 deaths             0.56% fatality rate (stable)

Maryland:                   580 cases                      4 deaths               0.6% fatality rate (decrease from yesterday)

The fatality curve is still steep; when it starts to flatten then and only then will we be able to predict when we can begin to relax the current recommendations:  stay home, remain vigilant, frequent hand washing, social distancing >6 feet.  Nationally, our number may be skewed because of the severe acuity in NYC.  Presently, our only defense is being proactive - stay home!  The contention that we might be able to send some people back to work around Easter, in my current opinion, is unlikely.  Our early measures in Maryland presently seem to be stabilizing and I am hopeful we can all remain diligent to stick to the plan.

In NYC, a very hot area, the number of people that are COVID+ is extremely high.  It is predicted that 50% of their population will contract this disease, which translates to over 4 million cases.  The prediction that 20% of these people will need hospital care is the surge we are trying to flatten.  It is not going well there.

Therapeutics:

·      The Columbia/Oz trial:  it is a combination of a good clinical idea and the scientific method to look for a remedy!  Bravo to Dr. Oz!

    Some issues with the study kept it from starting, it begins today or tomorrow.  It's a 10-day study so the earliest we will know anything

     will be the first week in April.

·      A recent China report yesterday showed a 30-patient trial of Hydroxychlorquine (HC) vs placebo which showed no difference than

     placebo.  This is discouraging but it was a very small study from China and also did not include Azithromycin. Additional information

     from China using HC alone suggests it keeps mild cases from progressing to severe cases.

·      Soon to be available will be home testing for diagnosis and antibody detection that confers immunity.  People who have antibody to

     COVID-19 may be immune from future infection.

·      The use of passive immunity to fight the virus using recovered patients’ serum (which contains neutralizing antibody) is being used in

     NYC.

What else? And on a lighter note:

Well, a couple of things.  First, thanks to the State and local leadership.  Gov. Larry Hogan continues to be ahead of the curve and I think his early maneuvers have kept us in better shape than many areas.  Steve Snelgrove, President at HCGH and his team are working tirelessly to keep our hospital COVID-19 ready.  Every day, I am on a conference call with the COVID-19 Task Force for the Columbia Association (CA).  Milton Matthews, our President and CEO, is a steady-at-the-helm leader doing a fantastic job planning and looking out for Columbia and the vast number of CA employees.  One of the things Milton said recently in a memo, which I believe is true: "This constantly evolving crisis is not building character - it is revealing character".  These are just a few of the people working every day to keep us as safe as possible - HEROS!

One more very important message: avoid Advil (ibuprofen) and Aleve (naproxen) for any reason until we know more about a possible connection to making a COVID-19 infection worse. Use Tylenol (acetaminophen) only.  

And on a lighter note: