Article Summary
December 16, 2020
Neuroimaging Manifestations in Children with SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Multinational, Multicentre Collaborative Study
A study of neuroimaging manifestations in 38 children from 8 countries identified acute- and delayed-phase SARS-CoV-2-related central nervous system abnormalities ranging from mild to severe. The most common imaging patterns observed were immune-mediated disseminated encephalomyelitis-like changes of the brain (n=16), myelitis (n=8), and neural enhancement (n=13). Splenial lesions (n=7) and myositis (n=4) were predominantly observed…
Sustained Positivity and Reinfection With SARS-CoV-2 in Children: Does Quarantine/Isolation Period Need Reconsideration in a Pediatric Population?
A retrospective observational study of sustained SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positivity in children found that of 989 pediatric patients who had tested positive, 172 had multiple subsequent tests over months, of whom 68 had two or more consecutive positive tests (median interval 14 days), and 27 of those 68 had sustained-positive status (median 26 days). In addition,…
Global, Regional, and National Estimates of Target Population Sizes for Covid-19 Vaccination: Descriptive Study
A descriptive study of target populations for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among member states of the WHO found that target population sizes vary by vaccination goal and geographic region. Europe has a high share of essential workers (63 million, 9%) and people with underlying conditions (266 million, 37%) who may be important to vaccinate to maintain societal…
Clinical, Laboratory, and Temporal Predictors of Neutralizing Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 among COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Donor Candidates
A study assessing the durability of neutralizing antibody responses (nAb) and factors to streamline plasma donor selection found that nAb titers correlated with COVID-19 severity (aOR=6.59), age (aOR=1.03 per year), and male sex (aOR=2.08). Functional levels declined over time and a small number of individuals (2.8%) who recovered from COVID-19 lacked adaptive immune responses. Of…
Nursing Home Staff Networks and COVID-19. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
A higher degree of connectedness between nursing homes via shared staff and contractors was associated with reporting COVID-19 cases. A large-scale analysis of nursing home connections via shared staff and contractors that used smartphone geolocation data found that 5% of smartphone users who visited a nursing home for at least one hour also visited another…
The Effect of Shelter-in-Place Orders on Social Distancing and the Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Texas
A study of the impacts of shelter-in-place policies in Texas found that the growth rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths decreased when a large percentage of the population stayed home. The greatest number of people sheltering occurred during the first week of the policy implementation, and steadily declined thereafter. The study did not find evidence…
December 15, 2020
Understanding Drivers of COVID-19 Racial Disparities: A Population-Level Analysis of COVID-19 Testing among Black and White Populations
Missouri Department of Health data show that Black populations in the St. Louis and Kansas City regions had lower COVID-19 testing rates per diagnosed cases compared to white populations consistently throughout the pandemic. During March to June 2020, zip codes in the lowest quartile of testing rates, which had higher proportions of Black, uninsured, and…
Impact of Population Growth and Aging on Estimates of Excess U.S. Deaths During the COVID-19 Pandemic, March to August 2020
Accounting for changes in the population age in the four-year period between 2015 and 2019 compared to the period between March and August of 2020 reduced estimates of excess deaths in the US from 301,400 deaths to 218,000 deaths, which substantially increased the contribution of COVID-19-related deaths (173,300 from March to August) to an excess…
Evaluating Intervention Strategies in Controlling COVID-19 Spread in Care Homes: An Agent-Based Model
Routine testing of staff in care homes was shown to be more effective than other infection control interventions, according to a transmission model parameterized to a care home setting in Scotland. Using isolation of symptomatic residents, testing of new admissions, social distancing, and restricted visiting as the reference intervention, the addition of routine testing of…
Individual and Community-Level Risk for COVID-19 Mortality in the United States
Jin et al. developed a model to produce absolute risk estimates for the general adult population across 477 US cities and for the Medicare population aged 65 years and older across 3,113 counties. Incorporating various sociodemographic factors and pre-existing conditions and validated with 54,444 deaths due to COVID-19 from June to October 2020, the model…
Previous page Next page