Contagion Live News Network: Coronavirus Updates for April 28, 2020

Hello and thank you for joining Contagion. I’m assistant editor Grant Gallagher, here with an update on our latest COVID-19 coverage.

The United States has now surpassed 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been about 60,000 deaths attributed to the outbreak in the country thus far.

On Contagion today, we covered a head to head debate on whether younger patients with COVID-19 should be prioritized. On one side of the debate, it was argued that prioritizing younger patients is discriminatory against older adults, who already face many barriers in the health care system. On the other hand, it was argued that younger people have a longer stretch of life ahead of them given they deserve the same opportunities to experience life, pursue their goals, and flourish as human beings.

We also covered the dangers of COVID-19 spreading through our crowded prison systems. Some have argued that nonviolent offenders should be released in light of resource strains and a need to prevent prisons from becoming new hotspots of infection.

And lastly, we covered the role of asymptomatic carriers in nursing home COVID-19 outbreaks. Nursing homes have been hard hit by the virus, and the prominent role of presymptomatic and asymptomatic carriers suggests a symptom based strategy is not enough. With limited testing supplies available, studies like the one we cover may suggest a need to divert resources to the most vulnerable.

For more on these stories and other infectious disease news, visit Contagionlive.com. Be sure to follow the spread of outbreaks across the globe with the Contagion outbreak monitor.

For Contagion, I’m Grant Gallagher, thanks for listening.