📰 Letter #77 - Coronavirus reinfections / Drug maker AstraZeneca pauses COVID-19 vaccine trials / Lady Gaga's VMA performance

Hi. Here’s 5 point updates about what’s happening with COVID-19 in India and across the world.

The drug giant said it is “routine action” to pause trials whenever there is an unexplained illness among participants. “In large trials, illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully,” according to AstraZeneca. This comes after nine major pharma companies, including AstraZeneca, signed a petition, committing to not rush the process of developing a vaccine for COVID-19. - Twitter

Coronavirus aka SARS-CoV-2 aka COVID-19 is unlike anything that we have know for a long time. Even the world’s best scientists and medical professionals are only still learning about the virus, which has resulted in more confusion than a conclusion. For months we were told that the virus won’t affect a recovered COVID-19 patient as they have developed antibodies to fight further infection. But there have been several cases around the world where patients who have been declared as recovered getting reinfected, sometimes after months.

In the past few weeks, several cases of COVID-19 reinfections have been reported from across India. Two cases were reported from Mumbai, where patients who were declared recovered in July tested positive for COVID-19.

Earlier, a resident doctor from the anaesthesia department of Sion Hospital and three doctors from BYL Nair Hospital, including a resident, a senior medical officer and an assistant professor, had tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time after recovering from the first infection months ago.

A private hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday confirmed COVID re-infection in a 27-year-old woman who had tested positive in July and was discharged after recovery.

Lady Gaga’s vibe at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards was to wear a mask, but make it fashion. ⁠

The pop icon made a clear statement at the virtual ceremony on Sunday night, telling fans to “mask up” while sporting a collection of her own couture face accessories. And honestly, did we expect anything less from the woman who gave us the meat dress? ⁠

⁠Other performers ditched their masks, but she kept her’s on the entire time. While accepting the first-ever TriCon award, which honors her work as a musician and philanthropist, the singer made a powerful statement.⁠

⁠“Stay safe, speak your mind, and I might sound like a broken record, but wear a mask,” she said on stage. “It’s a sign of respect.”

⁠Because the flu and Covid19 can have overlapping symptoms, figuring out which one someone has — or if they have neither — will be tricky but also important. Both the flu and Covid-19 are contagious respiratory illnesses with similar symptoms, including fever and dry cough. But Covid-19 is significantly more contagious and deadly in certain conditions, and there’s currently no vaccine to curtail the disease’s spread around the world.⁠

⁠In addition, some case reports from early in the pandemic, when the flu was still circulating in China over the winter, showed that some people did have simultaneous infections. The very real potential for co-infection with the flu (or a cold) and Covid-19 could make diagnosis tricky: Things like a runny nose or sore throat aren’t all that common with Covid-19, but public health experts warn that doesn’t mean you definitely don’t also have the coronavirus.

This newsletter is created by - @salmanmushir, from Bangalore, India. I host a podcast called Salman Needs A Job, and I create content about jobs on my Instagram and YouTube.

Next one on Monday.