October 22, 2020
The Confounded Crude Case-Fatality Rates (CFR) for COVID-19 Hide More than They Reveal—a Comparison of Age-Specific and Age-Adjusted CFRs between Seven Countries
A comparative analysis of the COVID-19 case-fatality rates (CFR) of seven countries suggests that age structure of cases could account for the wide variation of CFRs among countries. The crude country-level CFRs ranged from 0.82% (Israel) to 14.2% (Italy), resulting in a highest to lowest crude CFR ratio of 17.3. Meanwhile, the ratio of lowest…
Is “No Test Is Better than a Bad Test”? Impact of Diagnostic Uncertainty in Mass Testing on the Spread of COVID-19
Gray et al. suggest that tests for SARS-CoV-2 with poor sensitivity and specificity could be potentially worse than not implementing tests at all in a model-based analysis. The model scenarios include no lockdown, immunity passports, and incremental relaxation. Tests, even if highly sensitive, are not sufficient to prevent widespread infection in the no lockdown scenario….
A Minimal Model for Household Effects in Epidemics
In incorporating household effects in epidemiologic modeling frameworks, Huber et al. show that R0 depends on household size linearly for small households and as a square root of size for larger households. [EDITORIAL NOTE: A pre-print of this manuscript was summarized in the Lit Rep on July 13, 2020.] Huber et al. (Oct 21, 2020)….
Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Women’s Health and Safety: A Study of Immigrant Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
In-depth interviews from US immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) identified stress due to social and economic disruption and increased frequency and severity of IPV. Service providers who participated in in-depth interviews suggest adapting strategies such as strengthening virtual platforms, conducting safe telephone check-ins and text messages, and providing safe virtual and tailored safety…
Incidence of Health Care–Associated COVID-19 During Universal Testing of Medical and Surgical Admissions in a Large US Health System
Eight cases of possible incident SARS-CoV-2 were observed during hospitalization or within 14 days post-discharge among 2,992 patients who tested negative on admission to UW Medicine (Washington) hospitals between April 2 and May 14. Further review determined 1 to 6 cases as potential hospital-acquired infections, corresponding to a relatively low incidence of 0.8 to 5…
Angiotensin Enzyme Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers as Protective Factors in COVID-19 Mortality: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Odds of mortality were reduced in half among participants taking angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (95% CI = 0.3-0.7) in a retrospective cohort study (n=2,553) after adjusting for underlying conditions, length of stay, age, gender, and ICU admission. A notable confounder was the higher mortality frequency in patients with a history of underlying…
Efficacy of Tocilizumab in Patients Hospitalized with Covid-19
A randomized, placebo-controlled trial (n=243) demonstrated that tocilizumab (TCZ) was not effective in preventing intubation or death among moderately ill and hospitalized COVID-19 patients. At 28 days, the primary outcome of intubation or death was observed in 17 patients (10.6%) in the TCZ group and 10 patients (12.5%) in the placebo group (HR = 0.83,…
The Use of Intravenous Immunoglobulin Gamma for the Treatment of Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Double-Blind Clinical Trial
Results from a randomized placebo-controlled trial in Iran (n=59) suggest that administration of intravenous immunoglobin (IVIG) could reduce in-hospital mortality rates due to severe COVID-19. Mortality was 20% in the IVIG group (6 of 30) vs 48.3% (14 of 29) in the placebo group. Multivariate analysis showed that IVIG was associated with a reduced in-hospital…
COVID-19 in a Correctional Facility Employee Following Multiple Brief Exposures to Persons with COVID-19 — Vermont, July–August 2020
A correctional facility officer in Vermont contracted SARS-CoV-2 after multiple brief encounters with 6 SARS-CoV-2 positive incarcerated or detained persons (IDPs) for a cumulative duration of 17 minutes. However, he did not meet the operational definition of a “close contact” in contact tracing investigations, which is being within 6 feet of infectious persons for 15…
Mitigating a COVID-19 Outbreak Among Major League Baseball Players — United States, 2020
An outbreak investigation of players and employees from three Major League Baseball teams did not find any secondary transmission from cases on the index team during field play over 11 hours and 8 minutes with 2 opposing teams. The outbreak had a 14.4% total attack rate (21 of 146 total exposed) from the index patient…
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