Article Summary
January 5, 2021
Accuracy of the Veterans Health Administration COVID-19 (VACO) Index for Predicting Short-Term Mortality among 1307 Yale New Haven Hospital Inpatients and 427224 Medicare Patients
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] The Veterans Health Administration COVID-19 (VACO) Index was shown to accurately estimate risk of short-term mortality among a wide variety of patients. The index was validated using 1,307 Yale New Haven Hospital inpatients and over 420,000 Medicare patients and consistently identified those at greatest relative risk of death. The authors suggest…
A National US Survey of Pediatric Emergency Department Coronavirus Pandemic Preparedness
Pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) experienced decreases of non-COVID-19 patients and implemented modifications to staffing, workflow and clinical practice. According to a survey of 25 departments, 60% had COVID-19-dedicated units and 32% modified their pediatric patient age to include adults. All PEDs changed their staffing model, with 80% of PEDs implementing changes affecting physicians. 62% reported…
Confidence and Receptivity for COVID-19 Vaccines: A Rapid Systematic Review
A systematic review and meta-analysis showed declining COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, from >70% in March to <50% in October. In an analysis of data from 126 studies and surveys, drivers of decline in vaccine acceptance included perceived risk, concerns over vaccine safety and effectiveness, doctors’ recommendations, and inoculation history. In assessing the impact of survey design,…
Comprehensive Mapping of Mutations to the SARS-CoV-2 Receptor-Binding Domain That Affect Recognition by Polyclonal Human Serum Antibodies
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] Mutations in three main epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) affect neutralizing activity of convalescent polyclonal serum. Mutations that affect neutralizing activity usually occur at only a few sites and mutations occurring at the E484 site had the largest average effect with a >10 fold reduction in the neutralization…
Performance of At-Home Self-Collected Saliva and Nasal-Oropharyngeal Swabs in the Surveillance of COVID-19
A study assessing the performance of at-home self-collected saliva and nasal-oropharyngeal (NOP) swabs for SARS-CoV-2 testing (RT-PCR) among patients who met the criteria for suspected COVID-19 identified 70 out of 201 patients with positive samples from saliva, NOP, or both swabs. 37/70 (53%) were positive in both swabs, 18/70 (26%) were positive in saliva swabs…
Rapid Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Detention Facility, Louisiana, USA, May–June, 2020
A cohort investigation in a detention facility in Louisiana identified rapid transmission and high cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among quarantined inmates. Among 143 persons in 6 quarantined dormitories tested using serial nasal swabs, 53 were PCR positive at initial testing and an additional 58 persons tested positive at later time points (cumulative incidence 78%)….
What Is the Value of Community Oximetry Monitoring in People with SARS-CoV-2 A Prospective Open-Label Clinical Study
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed A prospective study (n=41) in the UK found that at-home oximetry monitoring could be predictive of hospital admission. Monitoring identified 9 participants whose SpO2 dropped ≤94%, of which three dropped ≤92% and were admitted to the hospital. The mean maximum reduction in SpO2 was 2.8%, and the average time to maximum…
Strategies to Minimize SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Classroom Settings Combined Impacts of Ventilation and Mask Effective Filtration Efficiency
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] A laboratory experiment simulating a reduced occupancy classroom with aerosolized salt as a surrogate for potential SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission suggests that good ventilation with up to 10 air exchanges per hour was not enough to achieve an infection probability of less than 1% following exposure for over an hour. However, use…
January 4, 2021
Prevalence and Clinical Profile of SARS-CoV-2 Infection among Farmworkers in Monterey County California June-November 2020
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A prospective surveillance study of SARS-CoV-2 infection and antibody prevalence among farmworkers in California’s Salinas Valley from June 15 to November 30, 2020 found 22% positivity for nucleic acid detection among workers tested at federally-qualified migrant and community health clinics, as compared to 17% among other adults from the same communities (RR=1.3)….
Communicating Scientific Uncertainty in an Age of COVID-19: An Investigation into the Use of Preprints by Digital Media Outlets
An analysis of framing devices used by digital media outlets to emphasize the scientific uncertainty of COVID-19-related pre-prints (e.g., mentioning that the study was a pre-print, unreviewed, preliminary) in the early stages of the pandemic found that news outlets frequently did not identify the research they cited as pre-print research, and instead identified it as…
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