Why it is critical to distinguish COVID-19 from other infections
This is part of our Coronavirus Update series in which Harvard specialists in epidemiology, infectious disease, economics, politics, and other disciplines offer insights into what the latest developments in the COVID-19 outbreak may bring. Since the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, scientific literature and news reports have dedicated much attention to two groups of patients — those who develop critical disease and require intensive care and those who have silent or minimally symptomatic infections. Such accounts have mostly overlooked another large and important category of patients — those with symptoms concerning enough to seek care, yet not serious enough to need hospital treatment. Now, a new report by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance offers insights into this in-between category based on data collected from people presenting at an outpatient COVID-19 clinic in Greater Boston. The team’s observations, published April 20 in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, are based on data...