Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness


September 28, 2020

The Association between Influenza Vaccination and the Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Severe Illness and Death a Systematic Review of the Literature

[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A systematic review of 12 studies found that receiving seasonal influenza vaccination was not associated with greater risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection or disease severity in any studies. Several studies found that influenza vaccination was associated with lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, while others found no relationship (7 studies, 242,323 patients). Similarly, several…


Association of Race and Ethnicity With Comorbidities and Survival Among Patients With COVID-19 at an Urban Medical Center in New York

Despite a higher incidence of COVID-19 and a higher proportion of positive test results, non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients with COVID-19 had slightly lower risk of death than their non-Hispanic white counterparts (aHR=0.8, p=0.03 for Non-Hispanic Black and aHR=0.7, p=0.002 for Hispanic patients). These findings were based on a cohort study conducted at a medical…


Behavioural Barriers to COVID-19 Testing in Australia

[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] In a national longitudinal survey in Australia (April-June), 49% of people strongly agreed they would get tested if they had COVID-19 symptoms and 96% agreed to some extent that they would get tested. Common barriers to testing were the belief that testing is painful (11%), not knowing how to get tested (7%),…


COVID-19 in Youth Soccer

[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Youth soccer clubs in the US involving 85,861 players that had restarted in-person activities reported 218 COVID-19 cases among their members. None of the cases resulted in hospitalization or death. The authors used these cases to estimate the incidence of COVID-19 among youth soccer athletes and concluded that it was lower than…


Age-Specific COVID-19 Case-Fatality Rate: No Evidence of Changes over Time

Using national-level surveillance data from April to August in Italy, Signorelli and Odone reported the case fatality of COVID-19 varied significantly by age (ranging from 0.1-2.8% in people <60 years up to 29-35% in people ³80 years). However, the age-specific rates were similar over time, as estimated at 2, 4 and 6 months since the onset of…


Racial Disparities in Incidence and Outcomes Among Patients With COVID-19

During 2 weeks in March in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, COVID-19 incidence was higher among Black residents (vs. White: OR=5.4). Adjusting for zip code of residence, Black race (aOR=1.8) and poverty (aOR=3.8) were associated with a greater likelihood of have COVID-19, but only poverty was associated with COVID-19 ICU admission (aOR=3.6). Muñoz-Price et al. (Sept 25, 2020)….


COVID-19 Trends Among School-Aged Children — United States, March 1–September 19, 2020

  The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in school-age children increased from March and peaked in July and August, followed by a decline in September. During March 1–September 19, 2020, the US reported a total of 277,285 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in school-aged children. The average weekly COVID-19 incidence among adolescents aged 12–17 years was approximately…


Risk Factors Associated with Adverse Fetal Outcomes in Pregnancies Affected by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Secondary Analysis of the WAPM Study on COVID-19

The risk of vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was very low in a multinational cohort of 250 neonates born to pregnant women with COVID-19, with only 1 infant (0.4%) testing positive by RT-PCR of pharyngeal swabs performed after delivery. The infant who tested positive was asymptomatic and had a negative RT-PCR test after 14 days of…


Mass Screening of Asymptomatic Persons for SARS-CoV-2 Using Saliva

A study that conducted mass screening for SARS-CoV-2 among two cohorts of asymptomatic persons in Japan, a contact tracing cohort (n=161) and an airport quarantine cohort (n=1,763), reported the overall sensitivity of RT-PCR testing with nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs was 86% and saliva samples was 92%, with specificity for both samples >99.9%. Due to the lack…


Humoral Response and PCR Positivity in Patients with COVID-19 in the New York City Region, USA: An Observational Study

A cross-sectional study in the New York City region reported that 99.5% patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=624) and 37% patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=719) showed evidence of seroconversion with anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies detected 4 weeks after the illness. PCR positivity was detected up to 28 days from symptom resolution. Wajnberg et al. (Sept…



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