Teena Chopra, a professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University who leads infection control for the Detroit Medical Center’s eight hospitals, tied many of its COVID-19 deaths to a high rate of elderly patients sickened at area nursing homes. DMC does not publicly report the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. "We are seeing a lot of nursing home populations brought to us very sick, and coming to us with severe illness," she said. Underlying health issues may make the symptoms of COVID-19 more difficult to detect in nursing home populations, she said, because "their biological age is different from their physical age." "They have very subtle symptoms, because their immunity is lower and they may not mount a fever like others can," she said. It may be several days before caregivers suspect a COVID-19 infection "and by then it's too late.” Although the city of Detroit has begun a project to test nursing home staff and residents, Chopra expressed frustration that it hadn't happened sooner and also said it shouldn't be limited to Detroit. "We need to test everybody in a nursing home and separate the positive cases from the ones who are negative," she said.

Experts acknowledge there are still enough unknowns about the virus and its impact on pregnancy to keep expectant mothers – and their doctors – up at night. Many U.S. hospitals now require that all incoming patients have their temperatures taken and symptoms screened at the door. As tests for the virus become more available and in more common use at metropolitan hospitals, some doctors urge they should be standard practice everywhere. “This is a hot topic among hospitals now,” said Char-Dong Hsu, chair of the Wayne State University Obstetrics and Gynecology Department. Similarly to the population at large, as many as eight out of ten pregnant women who have covid-19 may be asymptomatic yet contagious, he noted, meaning they could pose an extra danger to other women and providers if they aren’t identified.

There are indications that Michigan’s coronavirus case count may be leveling off, prompting even Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to start thinking about how the state will begin to ease the stay-at-home order and other social distancing measures implemented to contain the outbreak. Since April 3, when the state reported nearly 2,000 new cases, new positive cases have started to decline. The executive order mandating stay-at-home expires April 30. One of Whitmer’s criteria for at least partially reopening the state involves testing and that could be problematic, according to health officials. Dr. Teena Chopra, a professor of infectious diseases at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, said testing in Michigan is very limited and not sufficient to understand the true burden of disease. “I would recommend the state to start universally testing all high-risk individuals including (the) elderly, obese, diabetics, immunocompromised etc., regardless of symptoms,” she said. “Once life reopens it won’t be like a switch on, it will be from darkness to dimness,” said Chopra. “We would need to have a structured restart. I would still advise to keep a distance from others and wear a mask while (shopping) for groceries.” Even as the social distancing measures are modified or lifted, Chopra said that the virus will still be placing demands on health officials, the government and the public. “Pease remember we are still in the mitigation phase of the pandemic and we need to plan for the other phases now. All of this planning and further planning to prevent future pandemics should be done now,” she said.

As weeks of distancing turn into months, many people are experiencing a greater and greater sense of isolation. They’re also dealing with the uncertainty of when and how the pandemic will end, the fear of getting infected, the economic crisis that has cost millions of Americans their jobs, and the inconsistent messaging about the virus from authority figures. “All aspects of life are affected” by the pandemic, said Arash Javanbakht, a trauma specialist and assistant professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University. “It was like one day, everything changed.” And while the current crisis is stressful for everyone, people who already have conditions like anxiety or depression may be especially at risk, psychologists say. For people with anxiety disorders, for example, “any new stressor can make it worse,” Javanbakht said. It’s safe to say that billions of people around the world are in a stressful situation right now. For many, life changed nearly overnight, with little time to prepare, Javanbakht noted. Some are now trying to work from home while caring for children. Others have been laid off or furloughed and may be worried about how they will pay their bills. Meanwhile, people are getting a lot of contradictory information about the virus and the measures needed to combat it, Javanbakht said. While President Trump may say one thing, public health officials may say another. “It’s confusing and stressing,” Javanbakht said.

The coronavirus is pushing people to make a lot of tough choices. Dr. Teena Chopra, an infectious disease expert at Wayne State University, weighs in with a doctor's perspective on those choices and responds to listeners’ questions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic moves into high gear in Michigan, thousands of frontline hospital workers are facing increasing stress, fatigue and frustration going into the second month of the public health crisis that is projected to kill more than 2,000 in the state over the next several weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed flaws and vulnerabilities in how government responds to pandemics and how hospitals staff, supply and deliver health care to populations they serve. Some medical experts fear once the current emergency is over, political leaders and hospital executives will go back to bickering over holding down budget deficits and rising health care costs instead of focusing on real solutions. They say permanent changes in health care delivery and financing should be made because future killer outbreaks should be expected. "Inertia is a powerful force. (After a crisis is over), people tend to step back to their baseline position," said Mark Schweitzer, M.D., incoming dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine. "I hope we learn from this and change." Teena Chopra, M.D., DMC's corporate director of epidemiology, said COVID-19 has exposed Detroit's broken public health system and fragile health care infrastructure. She said high incidence of chronic disease, poverty, low literacy rates and lack of trust in the medical system of many inner-city residents contributes to the high numbers of cases and hospitalizations in Detroit. "We will see even worse than what we are seeing today (last Thursday). We haven't peaked yet. We are going to see a lot of cases; we are going to see a lot more deaths. We are on the exponential phase of the epidemic curve," said Chopra, who also is a professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine.

A growing number of influential physicians and scientists are getting behind an effort to use the blood of those who have recovered from COVID-19 to help others battle the deadly disease. For more than 100 years, health care providers have used the liquid part of the blood, known as plasma, from those who have recovered from illnesses to help those stricken with the Spanish Flu, H1N1, SARS and more. That's why a group of physicians and scientists from 57 institutions in 46 states including Michigan are hoping plasma will help prevent and treat COVID-19 — especially since there have been 1.8 million confirmed cases and more than 113,000 deaths around the world as of Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center are considering a clinical trial involving plasma that is part of the project, said Dr. Robert Sherwin, director of ResearchOne at WSU's School of Medicine. This is exciting to Sherwin, who is also an emergency room physician at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit, because he is taking care of patients in a world he likens to a war zone at a hospital that has been among the most overwhelmed. “There is essentially no specific proven therapies right now, and we really have nothing to offer these patients with any definitive confidence that it will improve their outcome," Sherwin said. "It's frustrating and heartbreaking. Everyone is an emotional wreck because of this right now. Not because of lack of efforts, but out of pure frustration. The disease is winning."

Some physicians, but not all, are reporting that hospitals are now discharging more patients with the coronavirus to recover at home than seeing new patients in emergency rooms. These reports might be a hopeful sign that the surge in COVID-19 cases may be nearing its peak. While some hospitals say they’re starting to see signs of the virus letting up, Dr. Teena Chopra, a professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University who is also in charge of infection control for the Detroit Medical Center, said its hospital admissions for COVID-19 are still on the upswing. She cautioned against drawing early conclusions about flattening the curve and creating “false hope” that could prompt people to stop observing social distancing, ultimately leading to more lives lost. “We won’t be out of the woods until we have a vaccine,” she said.

Incoming Wayne State University medical school dean and vice president of health affairs Mark Schweitzer, M.D., has a unique perspective on how Michigan is coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, as he is living in New York City, the nation’s number one hot spot for coronavirus. Schweitzer, who plans to arrive in Detroit the week of April 23, was hired earlier this year after a national search to replace Jack Sobel, M.D., who is stepping down to resume patient are and research duties after five years of helping to turn around the WSU School of Medicine.

The city of Detroit announced that Wayne State University medical students will be running the COVID-19 test results of nursing home residents overnight. Mayor Mike Duggan said there are 27 nursing homes in Detroit and 14 have reported some rate of infection; there have been 12 deaths.

The city of Detroit announced that Wayne State University medical students will be running the COVID-19 test results of nursing home residents overnight. Mayor Mike Duggan said there are 27 nursing homes in Detroit and 14 have reported some rate of infection; there have been 12 deaths.

A spike in the number of coronavirus cases in Detroit’s nursing homes is straining the region’s hospitals and is partially responsible for an uptick in the state’s already-high mortality rate. Now, public health officials are working to head off the kind of facility-based outbreak that has killed hundred of elderly nursing home residents in Seattle, New York and elsewhere. Dr. Teena Chopra, a professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and a DMC epidemiologist, called the growing mortality rate among the region’s nursing home population “astonishing.” She estimated that about 60% of coronavirus-infected residents who are admitted to metro Detroit hospitals die, and that the population accounts for at least 25% of the region’s overall coronavirus deaths. The Detroit Health Department and Wayne State University are heading up a new citywide testing effort, with a goal of testing the entire resident population at one nursing home per day.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer plans to announce an extension of her stay-at-home order as public health officials recorded another 114 deaths from the coronavirus in Michigan in the past day. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported another 1,376 confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 20,346 and total deaths to 959 on April 8. Detroit has become a hot spot for the virus, and has continued to ramp up testing efforts. The city was set to start using its Abbott Laboratories rapid COVID-19 testing on residents and workers in nursing homes. For resident who can’t go to a test site, Wayne State University School of Medicine students will visit nursing homes to take samples, and then run the tests at night.

Stress isn’t just something that happens in your head – the effects reach almost every other part of your body. In simple terms, stress is the way your body responds to potential dangers. Stress is not inherently evil or bad for you, and is a biological response designed to help us successfully escape threats. In an ideal world, your body responds to stress and returns to its normal state – but in a less-than-ideal world, stress can become chronic and start to negatively impact your health. “People that are stressed may use food as a comfort,” said Dr. Joel Kahn, clinical professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine. “You don’t usually eat much broccoli when you’re stressed. You’re usually grabbing for a doughnut and chips.”

Since many common household disinfection products are in short supply, some have been substituting products not meant for use in the home. The Michigan Poison Center at the Wayne State University School of Medicine has received more than 80 calls regarding accidental misuse of automotive products, household industrial cleaning products and disinfectants. “We’ve had a few instances of people ingesting it (hand sanitizer),” said Denise Kolakowski, an educator with the center. “We’re not shocked because we understand that people are scared.” The center has recently issued a reminder about disinfection products.

As of Tuesday, black people made up 33% of cases in Michigan and 40% of deaths, despite being just 14% of the state’s population. This racial disparity is also reflected in other states, although some states have not released data broken down by race, including New York, deemed to be the country’s epicenter. Years of slavery, racism, and discrimination have compounded to deliver poor health and economic outcomes for blacks, including heart disease, diabetes, and poverty, that are only being magnified under the lens of the coronavirus pandemic. “What we are seeing is that because of the way COVID-19 attacks the body, in terms of what it does to the lungs and how it interacts with the part of the body that controls the blood system, people with hypertension are more susceptible to the illness itself,” said Phillip Levy, a professor of emergency medicine and assistant vice president of translational science and clinical research innovation at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

Supported by a grant from Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson, the WSU Physician Group has purchased four new devices that will provide rapid, on-site processing of COVID-19 test samples in Detroit. Th units are now in place in Detroit Medical Center hospitals. The units allow the hospitals to perform tests on high-risk patients in-house to avoid the delays of sending the tests to commercial laboratories. The devices provide results in less than an hour. “Rapid identification to facilitate appropriate isolation of COVID-19 patients is mission-critical to reducing the spread of COVID-19 in the hospital environment and the community,” said Dr. Charles Shanley, president and CEO of the physician group and vice dean of clinical affairs for the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

The Michigan Poison Center at the Wayne State University School of Medicine is urging people to only use disinfection products intended for household use. The poison center says many of these products are in short supply, so some people have been resorting to substituting products instead. Misusing some products is dangerous, and can be life-threatening.

The Michigan Poison Center at the Wayne State University School of Medicine is urging people to only use disinfection products intended for household use. The poison center says many of these products are in short supply, so some people have been resorting to substituting products instead. Misusing some products is dangerous, and can be life-threatening.

The Michigan Poison Center at the Wayne State University School of Medicine is urging people to only use disinfection products intended for household use. The poison center says many of these products are in short supply, so some people have been resorting to substituting products instead. Misusing some products is dangerous, and can be life-threatening.