Medical Treatments

Edgar Urriola got sick around St. Patrick's Day; he's now on a ventilator. Then the kids got ill. Now his family is trying to keep life as normal as possible while hoping for his recovery.

Dr. Jinoos Yazdany, a rheumatologist from the University of California, San Francisco, and NPR science correspondent Joe Palca answer questions about the drug hydroxychloroquine.

An overblown immune response could be killing a portion of the sick, and some doctors think that new treatments being tested could help at least some of those patients.

Cuomo says 731 people died on Monday. "Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a brother, is a sister. So a lot of pain again today," he adds.

President Trump continues to promote hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has not been proved to work against coronavirus and COVID-19. He's relying on anecdotes, not science.

An office of the Department of Health and Human Services surveyed 323 U.S. hospitals and found shortages of "intravenous therapy poles, medical gas, linens and food." Many are still scrambling.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 5.7% and 20% of children with COVID-19 end up in the hospital, with 2% or fewer needing intensive care.

There have been dramatic spikes in demand for sedatives, pain medications, paralytics and other drugs that are crucial for patients who are on ventilators.

Emergency physician Dr. Tsion Firew and NPR science correspondent Rob Stein answer more listener questions about getting tested for COVID-19, including false negative tests.

Emergency physician Dr. Tsion Firew and NPR science correspondent Rob Stein answer listener questions about getting tested for COVID-19, and how those tests are processed.

As hospitals are forced to delay or cancel certain medical procedures so they can focus resources on treatment of COVID-19, it's disrupting ongoing care for people with other serious illnesses.

Ventilators can be lifesaving for some critically ill patients, but they're no panacea. The experience so far with COVID-19 is that the majority of patients put on ventilators don't survive.