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“We’re now getting more of these MIS-C kids, but this time, it just seems that a higher percentage of them are really critically ill,” said Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. During the hospital’s first wave, about half the patients needed treatment in the intensive care unit, she said, but now 80 to 90 percent do. The reasons are unclear. The surge follows the overall spike of Covid cases in the United States after the winter holiday season, and more cases may simply increase chances for severe disease to emerge. So far, there’s no evidence that recent coronavirus variants are responsible, and experts say it is too early to speculate about any impact of variants on the syndrome. (Belluck, 2/16)

Almost 7% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in France had abnormal eye nodules, according to a Radiology article today, leading the authors to recommend looking for posterior pole nodules in patients who have severe disease. The French Society of Neuroradiology study ran from Mar 4 to May 1, 2020, and researchers looked at 129 patients across 16 hospitals who had severe COVID-19 and underwent a brain MRI. Nine showed abnormal nodules in the posterior pole of the eyeball, although two people also had them outside of the macular region as well. Bilateral nodules were found in 8 of 9 people. No patient had optic nerve, chiasm, or tract abnormalities. (2/16)

For the study, conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published earlier this month in the journal Cell, researchers examined hundreds of blood samples collected prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, examining them for antibodies to seasonal coronaviruses (CoV). About 20% of the samples had antibodies to seasonal coronaviruses (CoV) that, in theory, could bind to both cold-causing CoVs but also to "key sites on SARS-CoV-2," the novel coronavirus, the researchers said. But these antibodies were not able to neutralize the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, they found, and "were not associated with better outcomes in people who later went on to get COVID-19," according to a news release on the findings. (Farber, 2/16)

When the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in the spring of 2020, there was little to no guidance on how to treat them. Two research letters published last week in separate JAMA journals looked at how drug dispensing in US retail pharmacies and Italian hospitals changed as more information came to light—and, not surprisingly, they reveal early demand for drugs promoted with little evidence for their efficacy. The studies reported increased demand for the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, the anti-parasitic ivermectin, the antibiotic azithromycin, and the antiviral combination lopinavir-ritonavir, an HIV drug. They also showed high demand for zinc and vitamin C. (McLernon, 2/16)

People who survive a bout of Covid-19 with mild symptoms or even no symptoms may be able to thank their Neanderthal ancestors, a new study suggests. Researchers found a genetic mutation that reduces the risk of severe Covid-19 infection by about 22%. It was found in all the samples they took of Neanderthal DNA, and in about 30% of samples from people of European and Asian origin. (Fox, 2/16)

Scientists around the country looked at the Food and Drug Administration last August and saw trouble. New FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, less than a year into his job and months before an election that polls showed President Trump was trailing, had just approved an emergency application to allow physicians to use blood plasma from those who had recovered from COVID-19 to treat those who were still suffering. (Wilson, 2/16)