(2020-04-01). Beware #AprilFoolsDay! Social media users rally against Covid-19 jokes and falsehoods. rt.com 
The coronavirus has put a damper on April Fools' Day this year, with calls not to spread fake news about the pandemic, and people on social media urging others not to joke about Covid-19 or its possible cures. | On Wednesday, the Indian government used the hashtag #AprilFools to urge everyone not to "make #Coronavirus a joke" and stay vigilant against false rumors about the rapidly-spreading disease. | #Coronavirus a joke! #FightAgainstRumour is as important as (2020-04-01). 'Ask the government': Former Celtics star claims NBA season could resume at classified US Air Force site Area 51. rt.com 
Having held the 2019 Summer League at the University of Nevada, NBA chiefs could find a novel solution to ending the season at a less conventional base in the state — with Area 51 suggested by former champion Paul Pierce. | Area 51, the US Air Force base which is notorious among conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts, could become the home of the NBA as a makeshift setting for the conclusion of the season, former All-Star Paul Pierce has suggested. | Responding to a proposal by former rival Jay Williams that the remainder of the campaign could be played on cruise ships, Boston Celtics icon Pierce named…
(2020-04-01). COVID-19: The Capitalist Emperor has no Clothes. dissidentvoice.org As the capitalist emperor strolls down the avenue of U.S. public opinion butt-naked but for the first time since the 1930s, more and more people are starting to realize that they were not crazy. The brutal failures of the capitalist system that they saw were not a figment of their imagination or a diversion from …
(2020-04-01). Trump Ally Accuses WHO of 'Spreading Chinese Propaganda' as Beijing Blasts West's Cover-Up Claims. sputniknews.com China has dismissed as 'nonsense' recent media reports about its alleged attempts to cover up the true scale of fatalities in Hubei — the province where the COVID-19 outbreak began late last year.
(2020-03-31). Twitter Blocks Iranian Leader's Accounts. telesurenglish.net In the early hours onTuesday morning, Twitter blocked the accounts of the Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. | RELATED: According to the Twitter notification, the Iranian supreme leader accounts violate the social network policies. Twitter administration did not give more details of specific reasons for the action. | The profiles in Arab, English, and Persian were censored. Then Persian and English on…
(2020-03-31). On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times. thenation.com On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times…
(2020-03-31). Limiting Trump's Screen Time Isn't 'Censorship,' It's Journalism. fair.org 
Choosing to keep cameras trained on the president necessarily means devoting less time to other stories that might actually inform viewers about the course of the pandemic and how to fight it—whether it's talking to infectious disease experts on what measures are necessary to limit the death toll, or reporting on other nations' successes and failures.
(2020-03-30). Trump threatens to 'take over' San Francisco from 'sick puppy' Pelosi in fiery reply to her Covid-19 response bashing. rt.com 
President Donald Trump slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on 'Fox and Friends,' suggesting the federal government could take over her "slum" district San Francisco, as the two locked horns on the coronavirus pandemic response. | "Look, she's a sick puppy in my opinion," the president said when asked about Pelosi criticizing his response to the coronavirus outbreak. "She really is. She's got a lot of problems." | Trump continued his fuming against Pelosi later when he slammed her for "playing the impeachment game" and being controlled by "the radical left," including freshman New York Congresswoman and Green Ne…
(2020-03-29). ONE MUST PAY: Trump promises Harry & Meghan no free ride in US. rt.com 
President Donald Trump has assured Britain's Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle that the US taxpayer won't be footing their security bill, after the absconding royals left Canada to settle in Los Angeles. | "I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom," Trump tweeted on Sunday. "It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!" | I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Megh…
(2020-03-28). [Obituary] Aron Goldhirsch. thelancet.com Medical oncologist specialising in breast cancer. Born on April 25, 1946, in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, he died on Feb 26, 2020, in Lugano, Switzerland, aged 73 years.
(2020-03-17). [Comment] COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic. thelancet.com During the past 3 weeks, new major epidemic foci of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some without traceable origin, have been identified and are rapidly expanding in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, with the first confirmed cases being identified in African and Latin American countries. By March 16, 2020, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China had increased drastically and the number of affected countries, states, or territories reporting infections to WHO was 143.1 On the basis of "alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction", on March 11, 2020, the…
(2020-02-28). [Articles] Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts. thelancet.com In most scenarios, highly effective contact tracing and case isolation is enough to control a new outbreak of COVID-19 within 3 months. The probability of control decreases with long delays from symptom onset to isolation, fewer cases ascertained by contact tracing, and increasing transmission before symptoms. This model can be modified to reflect updated transmission characteristics and more specific definitions of outbreak control to assess the potential success of local response efforts.
(2020-02-21). Paul Paz y Miño, Saqib Bhatti & Beverly Bell on Environmental Justice & Cross-National Solidarity. fair.org 
There will only be an increasing number of frontline struggles between extractive, climate-disrupting industry and those willing to stand up to it. Corporate media's inadequate attention, and unwillingness to truly call out the moneyed interests causing present and future harms, make them more often part of the problem than the solution.
(2020-02-19). [Correspondence] Asymptomatic cases in a family cluster with SARS-CoV-2 infection. thelancet.com Since December, 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has led to a serious epidemic in China and other countries, resulting in worldwide concern.1 Family clusters of infected individuals have been reported, and this phenomenon could present a serious threat to public health if not strictly controlled. In a previously reported family cluster, most infected individuals had clinical symptoms, decreased lymphocyte counts, and abnormal chest CT images, and were positive for the virus on quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis.
(2020-02-13). [Correspondence] Therapeutic and triage strategies for 2019 novel coronavirus disease in fever clinics. thelancet.com In December, 2019, numerous unexplained pneumonia cases occurred in Wuhan, China. This outbreak was confirmed to be caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), belonging to the same family of viruses responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).1 The SARS epidemic in 2003 was controlled through numerous measures in China. One effective strategy was the establishment of fever clinics for triaging patients. Based on our first-hand experience in dealing with the present outbreak in Wuhan, we have established the following clinical s…
(2020-02-07). [Comment] Corticosteroids in acute respiratory distress syndrome: a step forward, but more evidence is needed. thelancet.com Debate continues about the potential role of corticosteroids as therapy for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).1—3 In The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Jesús Villar and colleagues4 report the results from a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial investigating prolonged dexamethasone treatment in patients with established moderate-to-severe ARDS, which adds important new data to this debate. In this study, patients in the dexamethasone group had reduced duration of ventilation and mortality compared with those in the control group;4 the primary outcome, ventilator-free days at 28 days, w…
(2020-01-13). [Comment] A critical approach to personalised medicine in ARDS. thelancet.com Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterised by different pathogenetic pathways leading to similar clinical presentations. The mechanisms leading to ARDS are now better understood than ever; nevertheless, mortality remains high, probably due to biological heterogeneity, which hinders identification of an effective therapy.1 Therefore, recent studies have focused on identifying specific ARDS phenotypes in an attempt to improve diagnosis, optimise therapeutic interventions, and allow better selection of patients for future randomised controlled trials.
(2020-01-13). [Articles] Development and validation of parsimonious algorithms to classify acute respiratory distress syndrome phenotypes: a secondary analysis of randomised controlled trials. thelancet.com ARDS phenotypes can be accurately identified with parsimonious classifier models using three or four variables. Pending the development of real-time testing for key biomarkers and prospective validation, these models could facilitate identification of ARDS phenotypes to enable their application in clinical trials and practice.
(2019-12-17). [Spotlight] Organising international research in critical care medicine: current challenges and potential solutions. thelancet.com During the first years of intensive care medicine, many of its treatments were introduced because they were thought to be beneficial to patients, despite there being a lack of evidence from high-quality research to support these premises. However, in the last 20 years intensive care medicine research has picked up the pace and countless randomised controlled trials have been performed, supplying clinical care with the much needed scientific foundation, discarding obsolete treatments, and saving lives.