Article Summary
November 9, 2020
Preexisting and de Novo Humoral Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in Humans
Using flow cytometry, SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (S)-reactive IgG antibodies were detected in 6 of 65 SARS-CoV-2-uninfected individuals (5 with RT-qPCR-confirmed seasonal human coronaviruses [HCoVs] infection and 1 without recent HCoV infection). The authors conclude that this may suggest the presence of cross-reactive immunological memory from preexisting infection rather than de novo immunity. Ng et al. (Nov…
What Pfizer’s landmark COVID vaccine results mean for the pandemic
[Press release, not peer-reviewed] Pfizer and BioNTech announced that the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine had 90% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in an interim analysis of an ongoing Phase 3 trial. This is the first SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trial to release Phase 3 efficacy data. The trial includes 43,538 participants, 94 of whom developed COVID-19. The press release…
Differences of SARS-CoV-2 Serological Test Performance between Hospitalized and Outpatient COVID-19 Cases
A study evaluating two commercially available SARS-CoV-2 serological assays (Virotech, VT-assays and Euroimmun, EI-assays) among using 116 COVID-19 cases (51 inpatients and 65 outpatients) reported the sensitivity of the VT-assay against IgA and IgG was markedly lower among outpatients than inpatients (IgA: 6% vs. 64%; IgG: 86% vs. 96%). The sensitivity of the EI-assay against…
Effect of Hydroxychloroquine on Clinical Status at 14 Days in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19: A Randomized Clinical Trial
A multicenter, blinded, placebo-controlled randomized trial among 479 patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection reported that treatment with hydroxychloroquine was not associated with changes in clinical status (on an ordinal scale from 1 as death to 7 as discharged with normal activities) 14 days following randomization (aOR 1.0, 95% CI 0.7-1.4), nor mortality 28 days following…
Intergenerational Residence Patterns and Covid-19 Fatalities in the EU and the US
A study using aggregate data from 29 European countries and all 50 US states reported a positive correlation between intergenerational co-residence (age 18−34 years living with their parents) and COVID-19 mortality. On average, each additional percent increase in intergenerational co-residence was associated with a 3-4% increase in cumulative deaths from COVID-19 40-100 days following the…
Effectiveness of Contact Tracing and Quarantine on Reducing COVID-19 Transmission: A Retrospective Cohort Study
A cohort study among COVID-19 patients in Portugal (n=551) from March 1 to April 30, 2020 found no significant difference in the attack rate from index cases between patients who received contact tracing, isolated and had close contacts who were quarantined and those who did not (12%, 95% CI 7–19% vs. 9%, 95% CI 8–11%,…
November 6, 2020
Scientific Quality of COVID-19 and SARS CoV-2 Publications in the Highest Impact Medical Journals during the Early Phase of the Pandemic: A Case Control Study
The scientific quality of COVID-19 publications in the three highest ranked scientific medical journals (NEJM, JAMA, and The Lancet) was below the quality average of these journals for non-COVID-19 research. Among 155 COVID-19 studies and 130 non-COVID-19 studies included in the analysis, the non-COVID-19 publications had higher levels of evidence as defined by the level…
Changes in Health Services Use Among Commercially Insured US Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The use of preventive and elective care services dropped dramatically during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic and was not compensated by a commensurate rise in telemedicine. A cross-sectional study of health service use among people in the US with commercial health insurance found that while telemedicine use increased, the magnitude of decline…
Implication of Backward Contact Tracing in the Presence of Overdispersed Transmission in COVID-19 Outbreaks
Identification of the source of newly-detected SARS-CoV-2 infections (“backward contact tracing”), was found to be a potentially effective outbreak control measure. Endo et. al used a simple branching process model and found that backward tracing was expected to identify a primary case generating 3-10 times more infections than average, which could increase the proportion of…
Evaluation of COVID-19 Testing Strategies for Repopulating College and University Campuses: A Decision Tree Analysis
A decision-tree analysis evaluating five SARS-CoV-2 testing strategies for college students returning to campus found that testing all students upon arrival and then retesting them seven days later identified the greatest number of cases. The five different strategies evaluated were: (1) classifying students with symptoms as having COVID-19, (2) RT-PCR testing for symptomatic students, (3)…
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