News

The Times-Standard is reporting that St. Joseph Hospital has already started clinical trials of the antiviral drug remdesivir with a local COVID-19 patient.

"They fell into the severe COVID category with dropping oxygen and thus were a candidate for the trial," St. Joseph Health-Humboldt County CEO Roberta Luskin-Hawk told the Times-Standard's Ruth Schneider.

The intravenous drug that was used to treat Ebola patients has shown promise in treating mild to severe COVID-19 patients. When given early enough in treatment, it is hoped it will cut down a patient's viral load and stave off the worst of the disease, though the ongoing trial is designed to determine its ultimate efficacy and safety. Read the Times-Standard's full report here.

The Lost Coast Outpost, meanwhile, reports that the first weeks of the 2020 Census are off to a rocky start locally and "there's plenty of concern that the coronavirus pandemic threatens to leave us significantly undercounted."

The Census is vitally important as the once-a-decade count determines everything from funding levels to vital services to a regions state and federal political power. The Outpost's story quotes California Center for Rural Policy Executive Director Connie Stewart saying that each person counted in the Census brings in about $2,000 of funding for the county. So yeah, it's important and people are being urged take the card they get in the mail seriously and go online to stand up virtually and be counted.

See the Outpost's full story here.