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

cardiology for June 19th, 2020. This week COVID, corticosteroids, coronary artery calcium, SGLT2 inhibition, and a new chemical

for heart failure.

First a brief update on COVID.

In the United States, the rate of growth of cases is about 1.10

X and that's about flat. There's 2.2 million cases here in the U.S. The deaths here in the United States last week were 115,000 and

this week they are 120,000. The rate of rise is about 1.04X and that's steady. The big news is that there are increases in cases in

the west and the south part of this country. As best I can tell, hospitalizations

and deaths have not increased in these states, but given that the

COVID disease process takes weeks, these changes might be coming.

The spike in cases coincides with both the relaxing of restrictions and the beginning of the protests,

so I think it's pretty much expected.

Internationally, Brazil, Mexico, and now India look very worrisome.

But there was big news in COVID-19.

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