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June 2, 2021
Stopping the Misinformation BNT16b2 COVID-19 Vaccine Has No Negative Effect on Women’s Fertility
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A study of 47 women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Israel found no significant differences in IVF cycle outcomes in all participants prior to and after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, suggesting that vaccination has no negative effect on fertility using assisted reproductive technology. No significant differences were observed in the number…
Previous COVID-19 Infection, but Not Long-COVID, Is Associated with Increased Adverse Events Following BNT162b2/Pfizer Vaccination
History of COVID-19 infection was associated with greater odds of reporting at least one moderate-to-severe adverse event symptom following the first dose of the Moderna vaccine (56% vs 47%, OR=1.5), according to an analysis of data from a self-reported electronic survey of healthcare workers in England (n=974; 27% with PCR- or serology-confirmed infection). After adjusting…
Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern Evade Humoral Immune Responses from Infection and Vaccination
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody binding and neutralizing activity in sera of both convalescent individuals who had recovered from infection that occurred prior to the spread of variants of concern (VOC) (n=69) and recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (n=50) were reduced against the B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1 VOC, according to a cohort study. The largest…
Safety and Immunogenicity of a Recombinant DNA COVID-19 Vaccine Containing the Coding Regions of the Spike and Nucleocapsid Proteins Preliminary Results from an Open-Label Phase 1 Trial in Healthy Adults Aged 19-55 Years
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] An open-label phase 1 trial in Korea for the recombinant COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidates GX-19 and GX-19N (Genexine, Inc.) (n=61) found that geometric mean titers (GMTs) of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies elicited by vaccination were lower than convalescent sera (although higher than pre-vaccination sera). GX-19N-elicited T-cell responses were stronger than GX-19 and were similar…
Convalescent-Phase Sera and Vaccine-Elicited Antibodies Largely Maintain Neutralizing Titer against Global SARS-CoV-2 Variant Spikes
Sera collected from individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to April 2020 (n=18) neutralized pseudoviruses with the mutated spike proteins of variants of concern, including B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and B.1.1.248, with only a minor loss in neutralizing activity. Similarly, neutralizing activity among individuals fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (n=5) were only reduced up to 3-fold by…
Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations Reveals Three Types of Temporal Dynamics and One Is Correlated with International Travels
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Analysis of over 1 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes identified 115 non-synonymous mutations estimated to be present in >3% of global COVID-19 cases. COVID-19 cases were identified from 714 country-month combinations from 98 countries. High frequency mutations were defined as frequency changes occurring between a >15% increase and <5% decrease over 2 months, including…
June 1, 2021
Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection 1 Year After Primary Infection in a Population in Lombardy, Italy
Individuals with known prior SARS-CoV-2 infection had a 93% lower incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the following year, according to a cohort study in Italy from February 2020 to February 2021. During a mean follow-up of 280 days, 5 reinfections occurred in 1,579 patients with a prior positive PCR test (mean interval between infections >230…
SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Kinetics Eight Months from COVID-19 Onset: Persistence of Spike Antibodies but Loss of Neutralizing Antibodies in 24% of Convalescent Plasma Donors
Following infection with SARS-CoV-2, the half-life of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies was shorter than the half-life of antibodies directed against spike or nucleocapsid. In a cohort study of 148 individuals followed for a median of 8.3 months, antibodies followed a biphasic decay curve. Neutralizing antibody titers contracted the fastest, with an estimated half-life of 47 days…
Cellular and Humoral Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 MRNA Vaccine in Patients on Hemodialysis
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] In a cohort of patients on intermittent hemodialysis (n=81), the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine elicited diminished anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses compared to healthy controls (n=34). Plasma and saliva IgG responses and antibody binding to variants of concern were lower in dialysis patients, particularly binding against the B.1.351 variant. Consistent with humoral responses, vaccine-induced cellular immune…
The Indirect Effect of MRNA-Based Covid-19 Vaccination on Unvaccinated Household Members
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Incidence of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection was 43% lower among unvaccinated spouses of healthcare workers (HCWs) vaccinated with mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) 10 weeks after the first dose compared to spouses of unvaccinated HCWs, according to an analysis of national-level administrative data in Finland. The authors suggest that the vaccines may confer…
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