Science - USA (2020-09-04)

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NEWS

Hurricane Laura’s double punch

DISASTERS | When it roared ashore
last week in Louisiana, Hurricane Laura
packed a double whammy, endangering
public safety with its wind and water and
slowing efforts to stem the COVID-19 pan-
demic. Its top wind speed at landfall,
241 kilometers per hour, was the fifth
highest documented for any U.S. hur-
ricane. Laura tied a record for the fastest
intensifying storm in the Gulf of Mexico,
with its wind increasing on 26 August by
105 kilometers per hour in just 24 hours;
the causes of such rapid strengthening are
little understood. The storm led to at least
19 deaths in Louisiana and Texas. It also
threatened to accelerate the spread of
COVID-19; testing centers were tempo-
rarily closed, and residents of southwest
Louisiana, which bore the storm’s brunt
and had been recording some of the
state’s highest rates of positive test
results, evacuated elsewhere. Seven hur-
ricanes and tropical storms have hit
the United States so far this year, one
of the most active seasons on record.

IN BRIEF Edited by Jeffrey Brainard

DISPATCHES FROM THE PANDEMIC

Hurricane Laura’s damage came mostly

from wind, but floodwaters surrounded a

house in Little Chenier, Louisiana.

1148 4 SEPTEMBER 2020 • VOL 369 ISSUE 6508

Dutch mink farms ordered shut

AGRICULTURE | The Dutch government

last week decided to end mink farming to

prevent the animals from becoming sources

of the virus that causes COVID-19. More than

40 mink farms in the Netherlands—almost

one in three—have had outbreaks of the

virus since late April, triggering massive

culls. A Dutch law adopted in 2012 banned

mink farming by 2024 for ethical reasons,

but now the remaining farms must close by

March 2021. The government has set aside

€182 million to indemnify farmers. Although

farms implemented hygiene rules, scientists

suspect infected people carried the virus into

them. Denmark, Spain, and the United States

have seen outbreaks at mink farms as well.

Poop test halts college cluster

PUBLIC HEALTH | By testing dormitory

wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that

causes COVID-19, the University of Arizona

may have stamped out a potential outbreak

before it could spread. Several countries,

U.S. municipalities, and some universities

have been checking sewage for RNA from

the virus, which can signal infections shortly

before clinical cases and deaths are recorded.

In Arizona, officials announced last week

that wastewater from a student dormitory

contained the viral RNA just days after stu-

dents had moved into their rooms in August;

all 311 residents and dorm workers had

previously tested negative on a mandatory

test for COVID-19. The university retested all

of them and found two students who were

asymptomatic but positive for the virus; they

were then quarantined.

A boost for rapid COVID-19 testing

DIAGNOSTICS | The U.S. Food and

Drug Administration last week issued an

emergency use authorization to Abbott, a lab-

oratory company, for a 15-minute test for the

COVID-19 virus that could help expand the

number of Americans regularly tested. The

new diagnostic, called BinaxNOW, detects

proteins, or antigens, that are unique to the

virus with high accuracy and at a cost of only

$5 each. Other coronavirus tests that identify

genetic material unique to the virus typically

Published by AAAS