Article Summary
December 11, 2020
Intention of health care workers to accept COVID-19 vaccination and related factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] In a systematic review examining the intention of healthcare workers (HCW) to accept COVID-19 vaccination (11 studies, 8,847 HCWs), the overall proportion of HCWs that intend to accept COVID-19 vaccination was 56% (95% CI 44-68%) with a wide range among studies from 28% to 82%. Factors associated with increased HCW willingness…
Risk Factors Associated With In-Hospital Mortality in a US National Sample of Patients With COVID-19
A large cohort study (n=64,781) of patients with COVID-19 treated in 592 US hospitals during April and May 2020 found that the in-hospital mortality rate was 20.3%. Use of statin medications, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and calcium channel blockers were associated with decreased odds of mortality. The combination use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was associated with…
Analyses of Risk, Racial Disparity, and Outcomes Among US Patients With Cancer and COVID-19 Infection
A case-control analysis of electronic medical records from 73.4 million unique patients found that patients with a recent diagnosis of cancer were at significantly increased risk for COVID-19 infection and its adverse outcomes, especially among African Americans. Wang et al. (Dec 10, 2020). Analyses of Risk, Racial Disparity, and Outcomes Among US Patients With Cancer…
Multicenter Evaluation of the Clinical Performance and the Neutralizing Antibody Activity Prediction Properties of ten high throughput serological assays used in Clinical Laboratories
In a study evaluating ten enzyme immunoassays and three lateral flow chromatography assays, seven immunoassays were shown to have excellent specificity (98 to 100%) and good to excellent positive predictive values (82 to 100%) when used in a low (5%) seroprevalence setting. Sensitivity values as low as 74% and as high as 95% at ≥15…
Efficacy and harms of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis
A systematic review and meta-analysis found inconclusive results on the efficacy of remdesivir for treating patients with COVID-19 due to the lack of adequately powered and fully reported randomized trials evaluating efficacy and harms of its use in adult hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Piscoya et al. (Dec 10, 2020). Efficacy and harms of remdesivir for the…
Comparison of Estimated SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence through Commercial Laboratory Residual Sera Testing and a Community Survey
Estimates of seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among residents of metropolitan Atlanta during April-May 2020 ranged from 4.9% to 3.2%. These estimates were based on antibody tests conducted on residual sera from commercial laboratory samples (4.9% seroprevalence) and a community household survey (3.2% seroprevalence). Compared with more representative surveys, the authors conclude that that commercial…
False-negative results of initial RT-PCR assays for COVID-19: A systematic review
A systematic review of 34 studies (12,057 patients) on detection of SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR assays at first use estimated a false-negative rate of 13% (95% CI 9% to 19%), though identified substantial heterogeneity between studies, which ranged in their individual estimates from 1.8% to 58%. The authors were unable to investigate most potential sources of…
SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV viral load dynamics, duration of viral shedding, and infectiousness: a systematic review and meta-analysis
A meta-analysis of viral RNA shedding of SARS-CoV-2 (79 studies, 5,340 individuals), SARS-CoV (8 studies, 1,858 individuals), and MERS-CoV (11 studies, 799 individuals) found the mean duration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding was 17 days in upper respiratory tract, 14.6 days in lower respiratory tract, 17.2 days in stool, and 16.6 days in serum samples. No…
High Frequency and Prevalence of Community-Based Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] Among 730,000 SARS-CoV-2 test results from Los Angeles from August to October 2020, a higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic infection was identified among individuals who reported work in construction compared to other occupations and who identified as members of racial and ethnic minority groups. The prevalence of asymptomatic infection among Hispanic…
Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in Boston highlights the impact of superspreading events
An analysis using 772 complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes collected in Boston in February and March 2020 and genomes published by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data found numerous introductions of the virus in the Boston area, including two superspreading events. One event was an international business conference in Boston held in February, from which…
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