Autopsy slowdown hinders quest to determine how coronavirus kills

Autopsy slowdown hinders quest to determine how coronavirus kills



Researchers need tissue samples to determine what is killing people affected by COVID-19. (Giorgos Moutafis/Reuters)

Autopsy slowdown is hindering research

Strained health-care systems, lockdowns and safety requirements have hampered efforts to collect tissue from people who have died after coronavirus infection. “We need those tissues to determine what is killing patients affected by COVID-19,” says pathologist Roberto Salgado. “Is it pneumonia? Is it blood clots? Why do they develop kidney failure? We have no clue.” (Nature | 5 min read)

Travel limits hit Australian research jobs

Some 7,000 researchers — more than 4% of Australia’s research force — could lose their jobs within the next 6 months because of a drop in international students. Australian universities, which employ nearly half of the country’s researchers, depend on foreign students for about one-quarter of their revenue. Because of a dramatic drop in the number of these students due to travel bans and visa restrictions, universities will lose billions of dollars — costing scientists their jobs and hobbling PhD projects, according to a report from the country’s chief scientist. (Nature | 3 min read)

How the coronavirus is changing publishing

Fast-tracked peer review, extended scoop-protection policies and video calls between authors and editors are among the many new measures journals are taking in an effort to share coronavirus discoveries more quickly and openly. “COVID-19 may help make these ideas standard,” says journal editor Bernd Pulverer. (Nature Index | 5 min read)

‘Four tests, and I still don’t know if I’ve had it’

Journalist Stephanie Baker thought she might have had COVID-19, so she decided to get an antibody test, which indicates whether a person has been exposed to the virus. In fact, she took four — and was left with “conflicting results that left me even more anxious — and with more questions than at the start”. Her experience demonstrates why such tests can do more harm than good, and why countries are still scrambling to find tests that are accurate enough to power large-scale disease-control efforts. (Bloomberg Businessweek | 6 min read)

Read more: Will antibody tests for the coronavirus really change everything? (Nature, from April)

For some, surviving is just the start

From hard-hit Italy, physicians report that some people who survived the coronavirus face long convalescences — which are even longer for people with lighter symptoms. “It leaves something inside you,” says 77-year-old Albertina Bonetti. “And you never go back the way you were before.” (The New York Times | 7 min read)

11 million The number of people that authorities in Wuhan, China, aim to test for COVID-19 within a ten-day period. (BBC | 5 min read)

NOTABLE QUOTABLE “Trying to shame people into 100 percent risk reduction will be counterproductive. What Americans need now is a manual on how to have a life in a pandemic.” HIV taught public-health experts that an abstinence-only message doesn’t work for sex. It won’t work for social contact either, argues infectious-disease epidemiologist Julia Marcus. (The Atlantic | 7 min read)