A model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests that a small number of venue types, such as restaurants, hotels, and religious venues, account for the majority of infections. The model also helps explain why infections disproportionately affect people living in deprived areas.
Almost a year since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, there remains considerable uncertainty about the safest ways to restore economic and social life to something resembling normality.
According to the creators of the new model, the model provides a tool for identifying high risk venues and testing alternative paths out of lockdown.
On the upside, the model indicates that capping the number of people allowed into venues at any one time is more effective and less disruptive than uniformly reducing everyone’s freedom of movement.
For instance, the model predicts that limiting the occupancy of a venue to 20% of its maximum capacity reduces new infections by more than 80%.
Because people are likely to respond by spreading their visits more thinly throughout the day, however, the measure reduces the total number of visits by a relatively modest 42%.
Type 2 diabetes: Is losing fat key to reducing heart failure risk?
A recent study reveals that losing fat without reducing muscle mass results in a significantly lower risk of heart failure in people with type 2 diabetes.
In the United States, around 1 in 10 people have diabetes, and 90–95% of them have type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes usually develops after age 45. Estimates suggest that by 2045, 700 million adults worldwide will have this condition.
Type 2 diabetes usually begins as insulin resistance. This is a condition wherein the body’s cells no longer react to the insulin the pancreas produces to control blood sugar.
Genetics, ethnicity, and advancing age all play a role in the development of insulin resistance and diabetes. However, excess weight, a lack of exercise, an unhealthful diet, and smoking may be driving factors in its occurrence.
Once doctors diagnose this condition, the primary treatments they advise generally include taking medications and making certain lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and improving the diet.
As diabetes nearly doubles the risk of death due to heart disease or stroke and increases the risk of having heart failure by a factor of two in males and five in females, many researchers are focusing on preventing these and similar health complications for those with diabetes.
