Media Coverage

Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, was quoted for a story on WKBW on a judge’s ruling that a local COVID-19 patient be allowed to receive an experimental drug as part of her treatment. “Some studies report a benefit — some studies do not,” said Russo. “Ivermectin is believed to have both anti-inflammatory properties and potentially anti-viral against the new coronavirus.” The story also ran in The Desert Review.

A letter written in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests prioritizing the first dose of the Moderna vaccine to the masses before a second dose. However, health experts warn that the letter may not be fully accurate. “That correspondence to the New England Journal was a sub-analysis of the data submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” says Kenneth V. Snyder, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery. “Whenever you look at data that wasn’t part of the primary outcome of a trial, you have to be very careful about quoting it as perfectly reproducible.” John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, agrees with Snyder, saying the letters were based on “fuzzy numbers” and not brand new numbers from a well-done study. “We have to be very careful extrapolating from a re-analysis of sub-groups from the original studies or these uncontrolled, just checking and seeing what some patients have shown, which is what happened in the study from Israel,” Sellick says.

In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said indoor family entertainment centers can reopen March 26, and amusement parks — like Six Flags Darien Lake — can open as early as April. Health experts say that with proper public health measures, amusement parks are not high-risk locations for contracting COVID-19. Noting that it is helpful if dining happens outdoors, Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, says: Since theme park attractions are mostly outdoors, “all of those types of activities – particularly if you’re going to package them together with distancing and masks – are really going to be very safe.” Stagnant and dry indoor air is more conducive to virus transmission. John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, notes: “The wider open the venue, you’re not sharing contaminated air with other people.”

There are more encouraging signs in the fight against COVID-19 in New York. The state’s single day COVID-19 positivity rate is now below 3 percent for the first time since late November. With positivity numbers down, and more vaccines being distributed, despite the death toll, some are becoming optimistic. “I think the bottleneck in supply is going to be significantly alleviated over the next month and will increase the amount of doses available significantly over the next few weeks. Hopefully, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will be approved sometime in the next week or so,” says Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases.

With COVID-19 vaccinations underway, it is important to avoid the many kinds of traps that scammers may set. Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, says any time you are asked for money, credit card information or your social security number, that is a scam. “The supply of vaccine is low and the demand is high, so there will be scams going around,” he says. “Now in New York state everyone over the age of 65 is eligible. That is a huge segment of our population, and many scams that are prevalent target elderly people.” Murphy says you should hang up on any scam calls or delete emails with strange links and report any scams you may receive.

The risk of catching the coronavirus on an airplane, and ways to reduce that risk, have been well documented since SARS-CoV-2 started spreading across the world. But airports come with their own potential dangers that people should consider as they prepare to take a flight. Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, advises people to eat and drink before going to the airport. “The risk is whenever your mask is down,” he says. “You do want to avoid the temptation of sitting there and having the preflight drink or meal. I do not recommend that at all.” For those who must eat something, Russo recommends finding a grab-and-go item — and then going as far as possible from other people to eat it. Once it’s time to board the aircraft, Russo said it is best to avoid any stampede. “Let everybody get on there and wait,” he says. “Even though masks significantly mitigate risk, they’re imperfect.”

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s announcement to allow broader visitation at New York’s 613 nursing homes spurred relief and questions from families who wonder how the visits will look. Bruce R. Troen, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, has raised concerns over the plans for increased visitation and use of rapid testing. “The ideal target for rapid testing is individuals who are exhibiting symptoms. For those who are asymptomatic and may be infected, rapid testing is less precise with both false negatives and false positives,” he says. The preferred screening for the virus is the “PCR test,” which is much more sensitive than the “rapid antigen test,” he notes. But it often takes several days to get results from the more reliable test, Troen adds.

After almost a year of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, there is still the question of when life will get back to some level of normalcy. Experts say this has a lot to do with when we reach herd immunity. “Essentially what it is, whichever way you call it, is that once you get to a certain level of immunity in the population, then the disease will not spread as much,” says John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases. “Getting to community or herd immunity is a combination of both the vaccine and natural immunity,” says Sellick. In the meantime, he urges people to continue following public health measures and do their part to stop the spread.

Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, is quoted on a story on new research that looks at how well COVID-19 vaccines perform against new variants of the virus. “If we extrapolate the findings from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to the vaccines that are widely used in the United States at this time, the Pfizer and the Moderna RNA vaccines, both of those vaccines actually demonstrate greater efficacy against non-variant strains than the Johnson and Johnson vaccine,” Russo said. “So, I would expect, though it’s not quite clear if these vaccines will have decreased efficacy similar to the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, it seems highly likely that they’ll protect against serious disease, hospitalizations, and bad outcomes from infections due to these variants.”

Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, is mentioned in stories on actress Gwyneth Paltrow as being among the increasing number of COVID-19 patients experiencing lingering symptoms months after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. Russo was quoted from a previous interview when he said that a novel coronavirus infection causes “inflammation” in multiple organs, including the heart, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and sometimes the central nervous system. “It takes time to recover from that.”

Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, is quoted in a story on when Western New York can expect to reach herd immunity. “It’s been guesstimated that we need probably 70 to 80 percent of the population to have protection against the coronavirus,” he said.

Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, is quoted in stories on COVID-19 patients who develop bumps, inflammation and swelling of the tongue while sick. “These symptoms aren’t surprising,” said Russo. “It’s common for viruses to cause both rashes and changes in the mucus membranes, like ulcers or spots in the mouth—and SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus) has already been linked with a number of skin conditions.”

Manoj J. Mammen, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, is a co-author on both the previous and current guidelines on treating patients severely ill with COVID-19.  Authored by 43 clinicians from 14 countries, the guidelines concern patients hospitalized with severe and critical disease in intensive care units. “The new guidelines demonstrate what we have learned about treating patients with severe COVID-19, while underscoring how much still needs to be determined,” Mammen said.

A story on how the arrival of new COVID-19 variants and the increasing rate of vaccinations is affecting WNY quotes Jennifer A. Surtees, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry, who is doing genomic sequencing of the virus. “The vaccines are amazing and this is a bit of a race, but containment strategies still need to be in place.” The article also quotes John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, who said about the new variants, “Just because we don’t have the laboratory evidence, doesn’t mean it’s not here.”

Stories quote John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, on the effectiveness of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. “Potentially, the first dose of the vaccine gives a lot of protection, but you’re going to need the second dose to get good, durable protection,” said Sellick.