Article Summary
June 1, 2021
Improving COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Health Literacy and Vaccine Uptake in Patients: Comparison on the Readability of Patient Information Leaflets of Approved COVID-19 Vaccines
Patient-facing information documents for COVID-19 vaccines hosted by regulatory bodies in the US (Food and Drug Administration) and in the United Kingdom (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority) were shown to have a readability score corresponding to a 7th to 8th grade level and an 8th to 9th grade level, respectively, according to the Flesch-Kincaid…
Neutralization Heterogeneity of United Kingdom and South-African SARS-CoV-2 Variants in BNT162b2-Vaccinated or Convalescent COVID-19 Healthcare Workers
97% (28 of 29) of healthcare workers with no prior infection had neutralizing activity against the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant of concern in their sera 1 week after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, compared to only 60% (9 of 15) of healthcare workers who had COVID-19 6 months earlier. Geometric mean titers (GMTs)…
Correlation of Vaccine-Elicited Antibody Levels and Neutralizing Activities against SARS-CoV-2 and Its Variants
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Analysis of sera from individuals fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech (n=30) and Moderna (n=19) vaccines ≥22 days after the second dose showed that neutralizing activity against pseudoviruses bearing mutated spike proteins from variants of concern was detectable in all participants but was reduced by 7-10 fold against the B.1.351 variant. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG…
Distinct Immunological Signatures Discriminate Severe COVID-19 from Non-SARS-CoV-2-Driven Critical Pneumonia
An analysis of the immune response profile of COVID-19 patients suggests that T-cell exhaustion and impaired early antiviral response are characteristic of severe COVID-19 when compared to other causes of severe pneumonia. The authors enrolled participants with either or mild/moderate (n=86) or severe COVID-19 disease (n=35) and participants with other causes of hospital acquired pneumonia…
Rate and Risk Factors for Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 Infection After Vaccination
Breakthrough infection rates were not statistically significantly different by sex or the type of mRNA vaccine administered, according to an analysis of data from a cohort of US veterans (n=14,875). Risk of breakthrough infection increased with age (HR=1.11) and presence of anemia (HR=1.37) and was lower among Black vs white veterans (HR=0.65). The 410 breakthrough…
Prior COVID-19 Protects against Reinfection, Even in the Absence of Detectable Antibodies
Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the UK between August 2020 and January 2021 was 80% lower among individuals with lab-confirmed infection but later testing antibody-negative (i.e. RNA-positive antibody-negative) compared to individuals who did not have infection (no test or RNA-negative and antibody-negative) during March to July 2020, according to an analysis of datasets obtained from…
A Population-Based Analysis of the Longevity of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Seropositivity in the United States
An observational study of 39,086 US individuals with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 followed up to 10 months from March 2020 to January 2021 found that prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) antibodies reached approximately 90% 21 days after infection, then declined to 88% for S antibodies and 68% for N antibodies after 10 months….
Colchicine for Community-Treated Patients with COVID-19 (COLCORONA): A Phase 3, Randomised, Double-Blinded, Adaptive, Placebo-Controlled, Multicentre Trial
The anti-inflammatory drug colchicine did not change the rate of hospital admission or death related to COVID-19 (a composite endpoint) in a phase 3 double-blind placebo-controlled trial among non-hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19 either by PCR testing or clinical criteria (OR=0.79, 95%CI: 0.61-1.03). The primary endpoint occurred in 4.7% (104 of 2,235) patients in the…
May 28, 2021
Evaluating Data Types: A Guide for Decision Makers Using Data to Understand the Extent and Spread of COVID-19
A rapid consultation produced by a panel of experts from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine identified 7 data types used as indicators for evaluating local course of COVID-19 and 5 criteria to assess the reliability and validity of each data type. The 7 data types include confirmed cases, hospitalizations, emergency department visits,…
6-Month Multidisciplinary Follow-up and Outcomes of Patients with Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS-TS) at a UK Tertiary Paediatric Hospital: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Organ-specific sequelae were uncommon at the 6-month follow-up in a cohort of children aged <18 years (median age 10.2 years) diagnosed with pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (n=46). Echocardiograms were normal in 96% of patients, and gastrointestinal symptoms were only present in 13% of patients at 6 months among those with baseline…
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