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Hi everyone, this is John Mandrula from the Heart.org Medscape Cardiology and this is this week in

Cardiology for August 14th, 2020. This week COVID, media hype, obesity, heart failure, impella, and fitness in AFIB.

First a brief COVID update.

Yesterday the US hit 5.4 million cases. US-des two weeks ago were 155,000 and this week 170,000.

So the rate of rise is 1.04 x per week, which puts us solidly on a plateau.

Now the news here in the US can be summed up in a very brief tweet that I saw this week from a New York Times reporter.

Coronavirus deaths yesterday in France, zero.

United Kingdom, zero.

Canada, four, Germany, six, Italy 6, United States, 1,450. My gosh. Now my view of the COVID situation has

been colored by a recent illness.

Last week on holiday, I was supposed to walk the Appalachian Trail

in the Smoky Mountains with Dr. Stacey Mandrola.

It was seven days, 73 miles at about 5,000 feet elevation, carrying our own water and food camping

each night with bears.

...