Dr. Jennifer Gomez, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and an expert in the impact of violence on black and other minority youth and young adults, had this to say about the Black Lives Matter protests. "The tragedies that we're witnessing are neither new nor isolated. And, of note, they haven't stopped, even though videos have made it possible for the world to be watching and condemning the government-sanctioned violence against black people in the U.S. The difference is this moral elevation, this action-oriented hope, that has resulted in so many of us coming together to fight for justice. And, at long last, for some of us to finally listen and bear witness to the anti-black hate and violence that so many of us for so many years have been sharing without being believed." Gomez explained that as a black feminist trauma psychologist, she sees moral elevation often. "What should be completely depressing engenders action-oriented hope," she said. "When truth of depravity is finally acknowledged, we discover avenues for enacting change on large and small scales. Witnessing those actions in ourselves and others gives us this moral elevation that makes life worthier of living."

A new study by Chinese researchers found that COVID-19 pediatric patients had higher incidents of initial symptoms like fever, vomiting, and diarrhea than adult patients and often recovered an average of 3 to 4 days after treatment. Research on COVID-19 pediatric cases is still limited, but this new study offers a fresh perspective on the early diagnosis and epidemic control of COVID-19 in children and could enhance early intervention and diagnosis. The new study highlights the fact that so much about the pathogen underlying the disease remains unknown and there’s so much more to learn, added Dr. Teena Chopra, a professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine. “[What] is interesting is that the children [in the study] did not present with severe disease unlike adults,” she said. “And most of them had mild or moderate symptoms.” Chopra added that the study has lots of implications for authorities pondering decisions such as school reopenings in the fall. Although the sample size is a “small number, it gives us insight into the world of children and helps us understand the impact on a younger age group,” said Chopra who serves on Wayne State’s reopening task force as well as one of a Detroit area school. School officials “should take studies like this into account before opening schools and making decisions about whether it can affect children or not,” she said.

David Rosenberg, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, wrote an article for The Conversation. “One of the hallmarks of obsessive-compulsive disorder is contamination fears and excessive hand-washing. Years ago, a patient with severe OCD came to my office wearing gloves and a mask and refused to sit on any of the “contaminated” chairs. Now, these same behaviors are accepted and even encouraged to keep everyone healthy. This new normal in the face of a deadly pandemic has permeated our culture and will continue to influence it. Many stores now prominently post rules mandating face masks and hand sanitizer use and limit the number of customers allowed inside at one time. Walkers and joggers politely cross the street to avoid proximity to each other. Only a few months ago, this type of behavior would have been considered excessive, irrational, even pathological, and certainly not healthy. So, where do doctors draw the line between vigilance to avoid being infected with the coronavirus and obsessive-compulsive disorder that can be harmful? This is an important question that I, a psychiatrist, and my co-author, a wellness and parenting coach, often hear.”

Julie Wargo Aikins, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences, Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, wrote an article for The Conversation. “As the weather has warmed in my Midwestern town, my neighborhood is full of children on bicycles pretending to be riding through the Wild West. I can’t walk down the sidewalk without stepping on chalk drawings or hopscotch boards. There are children jumping rope and playing ball. In the eight years I’ve lived here, I’ve never witnessed this before. As a clinical psychologist who studies children’s friendships, I am fascinated by this development. Children’s social worlds have been upended by the suspension of school and extracurricular activities due to the pandemic. Many older children and adolescents have been able to maintain their friendships over social media. But, for younger children, this approach is less likely to be available to them and less likely to meet their social needs. In some places, a silver lining of COVID-19 may well be the resurgence of childhood friendships in American neighborhoods.”

The desperately ill patients who deluged the emergency room at Detroit Medical Center in March and April exhibited the telltale symptoms of the coronavirus: high fevers and infection-riddled lungs that left them gasping for air. With few treatment options, doctors turned to a familiar intervention: broad-spectrum antibiotics, the shot-in-the-dark medications often used against bacterial infections that cannot be immediately identified. They knew antibiotics are not effective against viruses, but they were desperate, and they feared the patients could be vulnerable to life-threatening secondary bacterial infections as well. “During the peak surge, our antibiotic use was off the charts,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, the hospital’s director of epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship, who estimated that more than 80 percent of arriving patients were given antimicrobial drugs. “At one point, we were afraid we would run out.” Chopra and other doctors across the country who liberally dispensed antibiotics in the early weeks of the pandemic said they soon realized their mistake. “Many physicians were inappropriately giving antibiotics because, honestly, they had limited choices,” she said. Chopra estimated that up to a third of coronavirus patients who died at the hospital were killed by opportunistic pathogens like C. difficile, a pernicious infection that causes uncontrolled diarrhea and is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. That figure, she said, was quite likely heightened by the poor underlying health of patients who also had diabetes or hypertension or were obese. “Even before Covid hit, our population in Detroit was very vulnerable to drug-resistant infections,” said Chopra, a professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University.

Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry, updated a Jan. 11, 2020 article he wrote for The Conversation about how the human brain can be  manipulated to tribalism during the politics of fear and racism. “Tribalism has become a signature of America within and without since the election of President Trump. The nation has parted ways with international allies, left the rest of the world in their effort to fight the climate change, and most recently the pandemic, by leaving the World Health Organization. Even the pandemic was not a serious issue of importance to our leaders. We did not care much about what was happening in the rest of the world, as opposed to the time of previous pandemics when we were on the ground in those countries helping block the progress so long as it was China’s or the European Union’s problem. This marks drastic change from previous U.S. altruistic attitude, including during the World War II.” Javanbakht continued: “The irony of evolution is that while those attached to tribal ideologies of racism and nationalism perceive themselves as superior to others, in reality they are acting on a more primitive, less evolved and more animal level.”

A doctor at Detroit’s Wayne State University School of Medicine has published new findings of a trend in older patients who are severely ill with COVID-19 and also test positive for Clostridioides difficile — a bacteria sometimes referred to C. diff or CDI. The CDI bacteria causes life-threatening diarrhea and is usually a side effect of taking antibiotics, according to the CDC. Wayne State’s observations offer the inaugural CDC journal report of CDI infections in COVID-19 patients. “This is the first report highlighting COVID-19 patients who presented with diarrhea and were found to have both C. diff and diarrhea as a co-infection,” says Dr. Teena Chopra, who is also a professor of infectious diseases at the WSU School of Medicine and corporate medical director of infection prevention hospital epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship at WSU and the Detroit Medical Center. “Most of these patients were very sick and had a higher mortality. COVID-19 can present as diarrhea, and a lot of these patients are getting unnecessary antibiotics. We always think of C. diff when we have patients who have diarrhea, and now we have to think of COVID-19 in these patients, too.”

Stephanie Hartwell, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean, Sheryl Kubiak, School of Social Work dean, and Ijeoma Nnodim-Opara, assistant professor of internal medicine and pediatrics, wrote an article for The Conversation about how COVID-19 has disproportionately hit lower-income areas and communities of color. “Nowhere is this discrepancy more evident than in prisons, jails and homeless shelters – made up disproportionately of poorer, black and Latino men and women. Here, COVID-19 cases have mushroomed due to dormitory-style living conditions and the inability of people, often with underlying health issues, to practice social distancing. As the virus rages on, comprehensive COVID-19 testing for these populations remains elusive. As experts on jails, health disparities and how to help former prisoners reintegrate into society, we believe that missteps in how we transition incarcerated individuals back to the community would only put this vulnerable populace at greater risk of getting and transmitting COVID-19.”

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has introduced a 6-step plan to re-start businesses that have been shut down during the coronavirus pandemic. It aims to balance the desire to revive the economy against the need to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19. A new study says states can do both if they prioritize industries where workers can keep their distance from each other or work remotely. Wayne State University researchers Shooshan Danagoulian, Zhe Zhu and Philip D. Levy wrote the report. Danagoulian, an assistant professor of economics, says professional services such as accounting are best-suited to resume safe operation. “Accountants work in separate offices, which precludes the spread of the virus, but they can also do their work from home fairly effectively,” Danagoulian says. By contrast, factory workers can’t do their jobs from home. But manufacturers can take steps to help workers maintain their distance. “We suggest giving priority to industries where — if people can’t work from home — they can operate effectively while minimizing the spread of the virus,” Danagoulian says. “It would provide a bigger boost to the economy should production resume in those industries.”

Dr. Teena Chopra, professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University and in charge of infection control at Detroit Medical Center, and Dr. Anita Chopra, board-certified in internal medicine and sees patients at the University of Washington Neighborhood Shoreline Clinic in Seattle, wrote an op-ed for Bridge. “As front-line medical workers, our battle with COVID-19 is personal. We are physicians and sisters, waging war against an enemy that caught us defenseless. As we helped our communities plan for battle in two U.S. hotspots, we’ve drawn strength from reminiscences of our childhoods. We are inspiring each other to relentlessly protect the well-being of our patients and communities. One in Seattle, which saw the first COVID-19 case in the United States in a situation that escalated quickly, and the other in Detroit, which has faced a tsunami of cases and become one of the nation’s epicenters.”

Researchers at Wayne State University have completed an analysis that studied specific industry characteristics to guide industry openings in a way that lowers contagion risks and maximizes economic benefits until broader COVID-19 testing becomes available and immunity testing becomes efficient and reliable enough. “With protective gear and testing still in limited supply, there is a need to find the safest way to open and operate businesses to avoid a resurgence of the virus,” says Dr. Phillip Levy, professor of emergency medicine and assistant vice president for translational science and clinical research innovation at WSU, and chief innovation officer for the WSU Physician Group. “It is critical that we look at alternatives to lower contagion risks and maximize economic benefits. Using specific industry characteristics to guide industries in their reopening efforts will be key to lowering the further spread of the virus.” Shooshan Danagoulian, assistant professor of economics, led the research. Levy and Zhe Zhu, assistant professor of economics, also worked on it. The scope for physical distancing and remote work will vary by industry and region. The team focused on Michigan and metro Detroit.

Just when you think you understand COVID, it changes. It's a very deceptive virus; to keep up with it, it is a challenge,” says Dr. Teena Chopra, corporate medical director for Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control at Detroit Medical Center and a Wayne State University professor. “And particularly, it is manifesting differently by age, by race, by sex. Very early on, we were able to understand that, particularly in the city of Detroit.” One set of her COVID patients, especially the younger ones, are developing pulmonary embolisms – blood clots that get stuck in the lungs and can be deadly. “They are manifesting as sudden onset shortness of breath,” Dr. Chopra says. “And some of them are showing higher mortalities than others.”  Meanwhile, patients coming from nursing homes (a big part of DMC’s patient population) may not even appear to have COVID during a first examination, says Dr. Chopra. They may not have a fever or chills. “These older patients do not have the same symptoms,” she says. “They don't mount up the same immune response.” Yet many of them are testing positive for the virus. “We are beginning to test every patient coming from a nursing home, whether they have symptoms or not, because we want to assume they have it.”

Detroit residents waited for hours on Tuesday to get free COVID-19 tests at a new facility that for the first time offered testing to people who did not already have symptoms of the disease and a doctor's authorization for the test. Tuesday's tests were the start of a free program for Detroit residents, said Dr. Phillip Levy, professor of emergency medicine at Wayne State University. Even those without symptoms can get tested with a nasal swab for the virus as well as have their blood drawn to test for antibodies. "Detroit is one of the hardest hit areas in the country. It's got some of the highest case loads, some of the highest death rates, so it's really important that we get testing out into the community," Levy said in a telephone interview. "If you're thinking about restarting the economy, it's important to know you are not acutely infectious and you have evidence of immunity," he added. Michigan has been one of the worst hit states, but officials have said the infection rate is dropping. As of Monday, Michigan had reported more than 38,000 COVID-19 cases and 3,407 deaths. Detroit made up the largest portion of those with almost 8,700 cases and 950 deaths. The Wayne State program expects to test as many as 400 people on Tuesday and hopes to do the same every day for the next six to eight weeks, working closely with Michigan as it ramps up its own testing efforts, Levy said. In the Detroit program, the tests are administered by Garcia Laboratories using Abbott Laboratories instruments, Levy said.

City employees make critical visits to the Detroit health department for a coronavirus test. On the other side of the long cotton swab: medical students in protective gear who have volunteered to be on the front line of the fight. “We’ll just go in about an inch, swirl around a couple times,” Michael Moentmann calmly explained before swabbing the nostril of water department employee Leon Wheeler. Moentmann, 23, had planned to watch surgeries as a medical student at Wayne State University in Detroit, but then a highly contagious virus disrupted everything this spring. So he signed up in one of America's hardest-hit communities, testing police officers, firefighters, bus drivers and others who keep the city running. “What better way to launch a medical career than helping with a pandemic? We couldn't do this without them," said John Zervos of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, who recruited roughly 80 students from medical schools at Wayne State, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. Lucia Luna-Wong, a fourth-year student at Wayne State, said she didn't hesitate when offered a chance to join a “crash course in public health.” She wants to specialize in infectious diseases. “This is so valuable, from bedside manners to learning about health disparities in the city. This is just an unbelievable experience for me. I'm going to be a better doctor,” said Luna-Wong, 38, a native of Peru.

Safely reopening Michigan’s economy requires widespread coronavirus testing, which is why Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is pushing for expanded testing and, recently, urged the state’s essential workers to get tested regardless of whether they have symptoms. But if you’re among the 49 percent of the state’s workforce that counts as an essential worker, don’t bank on getting one. Seven of 12 large Michigan health systems queried by Bridge Magazine said they are not yet testing asymptomatic essential workers, largely because they still lack enough supplies — particularly the nasal swabs used to collect samples — to expand beyond testing people who show symptoms such as coughing, fever or respiratory distress.  “We would like to test asymptomatic employees, but it’s not something that currently we are able to do,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, a professor of infectious disease at Wayne State University, who is also in charge of infection control for the Detroit Medical Center’s eight hospitals. “We need swabs, we need reagents, and we need the testing kits that we use to process the samples.” DMC is testing some asymptomatic employees who have had direct contact with COVID-19 patients, and some high-risk asymptomatic patients, such as those being treated for cancer who come in for procedures like bone marrow biopsies. With more  supplies, Chopra said, “the sky is the limit” in how many people the Detroit-based health system would like to test. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is “right in making the statement that asymptomatic essential workers should get tested, she’s absolutely right,” DMC’s Chopra said.

Change is often difficult. And when it is abrupt and massive, like the changes being wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, variation from the normal is even harder to accommodate. With face-to-face counseling sessions canceled because of social-distancing rules, mental health professionals in Michigan are resorting to online video sessions. But the full impact of the crisis on mental health is still emerging. “Here, we have a very rapid, immense, huge transition from one style of living to another," said Dr. Arash Javanbakht, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University. "It has affected all the different areas of life. And the transition was not planned. It just happened.” Add uncertainty over who is carrying the contagion and who is not, and how long the pandemic will last. Compound it with such a lack of control that staying at home is the only remedy, and conditions for mental health concerns like anxiety and depression are rampant, Javanbakht and other practitioners said. “Today, I was in the virtual clinic and people are stressed,” said the psychiatrist who specializes in trauma, stress and anxiety. His practice has moved online, like many others.

The 2020 graduating class of medical students has been anticipating this season for years. Instead, a spring that traditionally brings recognition and celebration has become a time of stark uncertainty. For students that matched with residency programs in-state, they have watched Michigan rise to be among the top 10 in the nation for known coronavirus cases — a pandemic hot spot, particularly in southeast Michigan. Incoming residents are grappling with an eagerness to join the front lines of COVID-19 care while experiencing some relief that they have a moment to prepare themselves before doing so. “We sit in this limbo,” explains fourth-year Wayne State School of Medicine student Andrew El-Alam, “we’re overqualified students, but underqualified physicians.” El-Alam, who matched in emergency medicine at Henry Ford Hospital, hopes that by his July start the incoming coronavirus cases are at a more manageable level. “I’ve come to terms that this is likely going to be here for a long, long time. But hopefully not at this level,” he said. The vice dean of Medical Education at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Dr. Richard Baker, has confidence in the class of 2020.“This is a heroic time. They will be heroes, whether they want to or not. It’s scary,” Baker said, adding, “This experience for this cohort of students going to residency will probably change them forever. But they’re up to the task.”

Wayne State Associate Professor of Psychiatry Arash Javanbakht and University of Michigan Doctoral Candidate Cristian Capotescu co-wrote a piece regarding the response to COVID-19. “More U.S. citizens have confirmed COVID-19 infections than the next five most affected countries combined. Yet as recently as mid-March, President Trump downplayed the gravity of the crisis by falsely claiming the coronavirus was nothing more than seasonal flu, or a Chinese hoax, or a deep state plot designed to damage his reelection bid. The current U.S. administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus threat is part of a larger problem in pandemic management. Many government officials, medical experts, scholars and journalists continued to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19, even as the disease upended life in China as early as mid-January. The results of this collective inertia are catastrophic indeed. The U.S., along with Italy, Spain, Iran and the French Alsace, is now the site of humanitarian tragedies, the kind we see erupting in the aftermath of natural disasters or military conflicts.

Arash Javanbakht, director of the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic and a professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University, talked about the venting and complaining while quarantined at home during the coronavirus epidemic.

With government officials debating how and when to reopen the economy, a fundamental question about the coronavirus pandemic remains unanswered: Just how deadly is this disease? The “case fatality rate” of covid-19 varies wildly from country to country and even within nations from week to week. Without widespread testing to find out how many people have been infected, it remains impossible to determine precisely the lethality of the virus in any given community or demographic group. Researchers know that many infections result in no symptoms. “You need to do more testing,” said Teena Chopra, professor of medicine at Wayne State University’s division of infectious diseases. Without testing, she said, public health experts are forced “to live in an unknown world, and an unknown environment.”