Less Death and Fewer Hospitalizations

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Anchor lead: What accounts for an apparent decline in severity of Covid-19? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Numbers of people infected with Sars-CoV2 continue to rise nationally, yet the rates of hospitalization and death are largely declining, recent data show. Brian Garibaldi, a critical care medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, says one factor is simply a bigger denominator, with more younger people becoming infected, but there may be another factor involved.

Garibaldi: I think the other interesting question is whether or not the size of the exposure that you have actually correlates with whether or not you get disease in the first place number one, then number two whether or not you get really sick. For many other viruses it’s true that if you are exposed to a larger amount of virus you are at higher risk of getting infected and higher risk of developing severe disease. And there’s some emerging data that suggests in areas where people are more likely to be wearing masks and are more compliant with physical distancing that we’re seeing a decrease in the number of people who get hospitalized and a decrease in the number of people who die.  :34

So wear a mask, Garibaldi says. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.