Experts question use of repeated Covid-19 tests after a patient recovers

Though a growing number of studies have shown that some patients who have Covid-19 test positive for several weeks or even months after infection, experts are questioning the validity of testing people over and over again after they have recovered. In one case in Montreal, a young mother tested positive when her baby was born, and continued to test positive for the virus for 55 days, during which time the hospital did not allow her to return after being discharged, nor could she hold or nurse her baby. “It’s a red herring,” infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm tells STAT's Helen Branswell of post-recovery testing. “Because what it leads us to believe is something that very likely is not true, and that is that we’re still shedding infectious virus.” Read more here.

Here's what else is new with Covid-19:

STAT has learned that the University of Utah has "mutually agreed" to terminate a teaching contract with Amit Patel, who was one of the authors listed on the two high-profile Covid-19 papers that were retracted last week. Patel also seems to have had a role in introducing the lead author of the papers to Surgisphere, the company that maintains the database that has been at the center of the controversy with the retracted studies.
The findings of a study published Friday may signal the end of the road on the use of hydroxycholoroquine for Covid-19. Researchers in the U.K. reported that the malaria drug had "no beneficial effect" on how long Covid-19 patients stayed in hospital or any other measure of the severity of the infection.
A small CDC survey found that some people are misusing cleaning products in an effort to keep Covid-19 at bay: Around 1 in 5 reported using bleach on food or on their skin, while about a quarter said how they used cleaning products resulted in "an adverse health effect."
In a new First Opinion, scientists Pardis Sabeti and Andres Colubri — who have developed tools that allow people to report symptoms and share epidemiological data in real time — warn that contract tracing apps to track Covid-19 ought also to come with proper safeguards to protect people's privacy and prevent discrimination. "It is reasonable to fear that information gathered from disease-tracking technologies could be misused to target and harm ... vulnerable groups," they write.