Article Summary
January 12, 2021
Excess Cerebrovascular Mortality in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic
During April 2020, 40 states and New York City experienced fewer stroke-related emergency calls and an excess cerebrovascular mortality during April 2020. Decreased stroke-related emergency calls were associated with excess stroke deaths 1-2 weeks later. Among 23 states and New York City, a 10% increase in time spent at home was associated with a 4%…
The Burden of the Pandemic on the Non-SARS-CoV-2 Emergencies: A Multicenter Study
A decrease in total weekly emergency medical visits was observed following social distancing mandates in Sao Paolo, Brazil in March 2020. While emergency medical visits due to trauma, abdominal plain, chest pain, and the common cold saw a decrease, emergency medical visits due to other conditions such as acute appendicitis, acute myocardial infarction, and stroke…
Empiric Evidence of Ethnic Disparities in Coronavirus Positivity in Washington State
Minority groups experienced higher rates of SARS-CoV-2 positivity compared to white patients in Washington State during the first wave of the pandemic (n=18,667). Latinx patients had nearly a 5-fold risk of positivity compared to white patients, while Black patients had nearly a 2-fold risk of positivity. Notably, 22% of Latinx patients had self-pay insurance compared…
Attendance at London Workplaces after Symptom Onset: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Staff Members with Confirmed COVID-19
32% of workers diagnosed with COVID-19 went to the workplace even after the onset of symptoms, based on a cohort of 130 symptomatic COVID-19 cases in London. Compared to females, males were 66% less likely to attend the workplace after onset of COVID-19 symptoms. Age and occupation were not associated with workplace attendance after symptom…
Trends in Pediatric Hospitalizations for Coronavirus Disease 2019
Rates of pediatric hospitalization for COVID-19 showed significant variation across 22 states from May to November 2020. In May, Hawaii and Rhode Island had the lowest pediatric hospitalization rates (0 per 100,000) while New Jersey and Colorado had the highest (5 and 4.4 per 100,000 children, respectively). In November, Hawaii and New Hampshire had the…
Bidirectional Contact Tracing Could Dramatically Improve COVID-19 Control
A modeling study found that bi-directional contact tracing could double the reduction in effective reproductive number (Reff) compared to conventional forward-tracing alone. Bi-directional contact tracing identifies potential infectors of known cases, which could lead to identification of additional cases arising from the potential infectors. The authors also suggest expanding the tracing window from 2-6 days…
Will They, or Won’t They? Examining Patients’ Vaccine Intention for Flu and COVID-19 Using the Health Belief Model
Lower vaccine acceptance was associated with younger age (18-49) and lower income (<20,000 per year or undisclosed) in a nationally representative survey conducted in October among US respondents (n=525). Additionally, survey participants who reported not having anyone close to them directly affected by COVID-19 showed significantly more negative COVID-19-related health behavior such as not avoiding…
Impact of Recommended Maternal Vaccination Programs on the Clinical Presentation of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Prospective Observational Study
No association was observed between Influenza and Tdap vaccination status and clinical presentation of SARS-CoV-2 and/or severity of symptoms in a cohort of SARS-CoV-2 positive pregnant women in Spain (n=1,150). However, low vaccination adherence was observed among the subgroup of women who reported Latin-American ethnicity, which could have implications for the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaign. de…
The Sensitivity and Costs of Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Infection With Saliva Versus Nasopharyngeal Swabs
A systematic review and meta-analysis (37 studies with 7,332 paired nasopharyngeal swab and saliva samples) found that while saliva samples had slightly lower sensitivity to detect SARS-CoV-2, they could be more cost-effective. Against a reference standard of a positive result on either sample, saliva sensitivity was 7.9% lower than nasopharyngeal swab sensitivity among persons without…
Mitigation Policies and COVID-19–Associated Mortality — 37 European Countries, January 23–June 30, 2020
European countries that implemented stricter mitigation policies during the beginning of the pandemic tended to report fewer COVID-19 deaths through the end of June 2020, according to data from 37 European countries. Using the Oxford Stringency Index (OSI) to measure the stringency of policies (higher number corresponds to stricter policies), a 1-unit increase in the…
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