Here's What We Know about the Most Touted Drugs Tested for COVID-19

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April 16, 2020

Dear Reader, Even after death, COVID-19 could be contagious. A new report found that a forensic practitioner working in Bangkok, Thailand, most likely caught the infection from a deceased patient. For today's lead story, health and medicine editor Tanya Lewis gives a rundown of the promising drugs being tested as treatments against the novel coronavirus. In non-pandemic news, we may be a big step closer to cracking one of the universe's biggest and most fundamental mysteries. And scientists say they now understand what caused extreme melting in Greenland last summer.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Medicine Here's What We Know about the Most Touted Drugs Tested for COVID-19 Numerous contenders—from a controversial malaria medication to treatments that regulate the immune system—are now in clinical trials By Tanya Lewis

Space Strange Extragalactic Strands Mystify Astronomers A distant galaxy has sprouted filaments hundreds of thousands of light-years long—and no one knows why By Robin George Andrews

Natural Disasters What Happens When Other Disasters Hit during a Pandemic? Emergency management experts are concerned about everything from evacuations to public messaging By Andrea Thompson

Public Health The Bodies of People Who Died from COVID-19 May Still Be Contagious A forensic worker in Thailand most likely caught the virus from a deceased patient, a preprint study suggests By Laura Geggel,LiveScience

Physics Weird Neutrino Behavior Could Explain Long-standing Antimatter Mystery But more data are needed before physicists know for sure By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Evolution Melting Ice Reveals a "Lost" Viking-Era Pass in Norway's Mountains Artifacts show people used the route for 1,000 years—then abandoned it, possibly amid a plague By Tom Metcalfe

Medicine COVID-19 Patients Need to be Tested for Bacteria and Fungi, Not Just the Coronavirus Many hospitalized victims are developing potentially lethal secondary co-infections such as bacterial pneumonia and sepsis By Oliver Schacht

EARTH Persistent Cloudless Skies Helped Fuel Exceptional Greenland Ice Melt Warm temperatures, clear weather and little snow all played a role in last summer's major melt event on the ice sheet By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Computing AI Will Help Scientists Ask More Powerful Questions Self-learning systems can discover hidden patterns in immense data sets, transcending what humans could ever find on their own By Pushmeet Kohli

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Mentalist Blisters Skin with Brainwaves Originally published in June 1899 | April 2020

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