This article in Science Magazine points to the possible use of virus in wastewater as a marker for future cases of Covid-19.This Paris report is pre-published in the journal Med Rxiv. " Sewers offer near–real-time outbreak data, because they constantly collect feces and urine that can contain coronavirus shed by infected humans." Sebastien Wurzel is a virologist in the Eau de Paris, the city's water authority. They noted “high concentrations” of viral RNA several days before 10 March, the first day that Paris recorded multiple deaths from COVID-19 and concentrations continued to rise a few days ahead of an acceleration in clinical cases and deaths in Paris." Besides prediction of the development of cases, wastewater sampling also picks up virus associated with the vast number of infected people who do not present symptoms for the disease. This has also been done in Australia.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/may/11/humans-and-neanderthals-co-existed-in-europe-far-longer-than-thought
Writing in Nature and Nature Ecology and Evolution, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology revealed that modern humans were present in Europe at least 46,000 years ago, according to new research on objects found in
Bulgaria, and overlapped with Neanderthals for far longer than previously thought. Tools and remains were
found at a cave called Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria indicating that modern humans and Neanderthals
were present at the same time in Europe for several thousand years, giving them enough time for biological and cultural interaction.
https://theconversation.com/your-genes-could-determine-whether-the-coronavirus-puts-you-in-the-hospital-and-were-starting-to-unravel-which-ones-matter-137145
This is from The Conversation, and it describes research on computer models that analyze different alleles in the HLA or Human Leukocyte Antigen System which code for proteins that are on the immune cell membranes and determine the immune response to the coronavirus. The more viral peptides the person's immune system cells can detect, the stronger the person's immune response to the virus. The model predicts that some HLA types bind to a large number of viral peptides and some don't, a factor in how effect the immune response to viral infection is.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/technology/plandemic-judy-mikovitz-coronavirus-disinformation.html
This is a NYT article about Judy Mikovitz, a discredited scientist, attacker of Anthony Fauci (not that he is infallible) and social media darling, whose assertion that masks infect people and that mouse viruses cause chronic fatigue syndrome have been discredited but still receive play. Why are people like "Dr. Judy" called pharma whistleblowers and so riveting to the public imagination?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/well/family/coronavirus-pediatricians-worries-children.html This is a NYT article from the Check-Up by pediatrician-writer Perry Klass. It seems that there is room for every specialty on the Covid-19 boat. Pediatricians are worried for their patients, not only because of some of the strange and worrisome symptoms observed in some children in NYC recently, but also because of the likelihood of parents missing immunization dates for their young 'uns. A pediatrician at Drexel reports that the under-2 set has been receiving their immunizations but the older children are missing vaccines that are usually given at 4 and 11. Even as we are constantly imagining the accelerated progress of a coronavirus vaccine, families are frightened of going anywhere near clinics or hospitals. What this could presage is resurgent infections, according to the article, from whooping cough to measles, meningitis and bacterial sepsis. This also brings into sharp focus some of the economic disparities in this virus scenario and in health care delivery in general.
