Article Summary
February 8, 2021
Antibody Responses Boosted in Seropositive Healthcare Workers after Single Dose of SARS-CoV-2 MRNA Vaccine
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Among healthcare workers who received a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, those who had SARS-CoV-2 infection 30-60 days prior to vaccination (n = 36) had significantly higher antibody levels at 3 weeks post-vaccination than individuals with no prior infection (n = 152). After the first vaccine dose, both previously infected and…
Efficacy or Delivery? An Online Discrete Choice Experiment to Explore Preferences for COVID-19 Vaccines in the UK
An online discrete choice experiment study enrolling participants in the UK (n = 1,501) to assess the relative impact of vaccine properties, delivery and media coverage on vaccine uptake showed that efficacy was the factor the most influential in uptake (OR = 2.8 for 90% efficacy versus 70% efficacy), and the positive effect of high…
Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation on Vaccination Intent in the UK and USA
A randomized controlled trial exposing participants to either misinformation or factual information about COVID-19 vaccines found that among people who at baseline stated they would definitely accept the vaccine, exposure to misinformation led to a 6.2 percentage point reduction in vaccine intent among participants in the UK and a 6.4 percentage point reduction among US…
Remdesivir for Treatment of COVID-19; an Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
A systematic review and meta-analysis of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 showed that data from randomized controlled trials (n=5 trials) indicated significant improvement in the 28-day recovery rate, need for low flow oxygen support through day 14, and mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation requirement through days 14 to 28 of follow-up in the…
Impact of Systemic Corticosteroids on Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 January 2021 Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A meta-analysis of five peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials (n = 7,645 patients) of systemic corticosteroid treatment for COVID-19 showed no overall difference in survival among hospitalized patients who received systemic corticosteroid therapy compared to usual care or placebo (OR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.64 – 1.05). Subgroup analysis of 1,967 critically ill…
Implementation of an In-House Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR Assay for the Rapid Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 Marseille-4 Variant
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A study evaluating an in-house, real-time RT-PCR (qPCR) assay to detect a SARS-CoV-2 variant with an S477N substitution in the receptor binding domain associated with increased binding affinity to ACE2 found that the assay reliably detected this variant. All 6 cDNA samples from the variant strains tested positive using the assay, whereas…
Field Performance Evaluation of the PanBio Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Assay in an Epidemic Driven by 501Y.v2 (Lineage B.1.351) in the Eastern Cape South Africa
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A prospective diagnostic evaluation of the field performance of the Abbott PanBio antigen test indicated that the assay reliably detected SARS-CoV-2 variant 501.V2 (lineage B.1.351) infections in patients presenting at mobile community testing centers in South Africa, with sensitivity strongly dependent on viral load (100% detection if cycle threshold (CT) was <20,…
Genetic Conservation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Replication Complex in Globally Circulating Isolates and Recently Emerged Variants from Humans and Minks Suggests Minimal Pre-Existing Resistance to Remdesivir
A study analyzing the genetic diversity of the RNA replication complex that is targeted by the antiviral drug remdesivir in a large set of human SARS-CoV-2 isolates (n > 90,000), including the B.1.1.7 and 501.V2 variants and mink isolate (n>300) sequences, found that previously-identified amino acid substitutions that caused reduced susceptibility to remdesivir in-vitro were…
Rapid Electrochemical Detection of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2Rapid Electrochemical Detection of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2
A study describing an electrochemical biosensor based on multiplex rolling circle amplification (RCA, in which a short DNA or RNA primer is amplified to make a long single strand) to detect the N and S genes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus showed that the assay could detect as few as 1 copy/microliter of the genes in…
Genomic Epidemiology Identifies Emergence and Rapid Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 in the United States
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Sequencing of 212 B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 variant genomes collected from testing facilities in the U.S. between December 2020 to January 2021 found that while the proportion of B.1.1.7 variants among S gene target failure samples varied by state, detection of the variant had a doubling rate of a little over a week and…
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