Article Summary
October 23, 2020
Withdrawn: Decrease in Hospitalizations for COVID-19 after Mask Mandates in 1083 U.S. Counties
Withdrawn notice ( https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.21.20208728v2 ) [Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] An analysis of the impact of face mask mandates instituted over the spring and summer in the US indicated that mask mandates across 1,083 counties in the U.S decreased hospitalization rates from COVID-19 even when controlling for other factors that could affect disease severity. Using a staggered…
Adoption of Strategies to Mitigate Transmission of COVID-19 During a Statewide Primary Election — Delaware, September 2020
Survey responses from primary election poll workers in Delaware indicated that SARS-CoV-2 mitigation measures at polling places generally aligned with CDC guidelines and were widely adopted and feasible, but there were some gaps in infection prevention control efforts. Most poll workers surveyed had good knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 transmission and 80% had received COVID-19 mitigation training….
October 22, 2020
Association of the Covid‐19 Lockdown with Smoking, Drinking, and Attempts to Quit in England: An Analysis of 2019‐2020 Data
Cross-sectional surveys of 20,558 adults in the UK administered before and after the COVID-19 lockdown (April 2019-February 2020 and April 2020, respectively) found that the lockdown was not associated with significant changes in smoking prevalence, but was associated with increases in quit attempts, quit success, and cessation among past-year smokers. The lockdown was also associated…
The Confounded Crude Case-Fatality Rates (CFR) for COVID-19 Hide More than They Reveal—a Comparison of Age-Specific and Age-Adjusted CFRs between Seven Countries
A comparative analysis of the COVID-19 case-fatality rates (CFR) of seven countries suggests that age structure of cases could account for the wide variation of CFRs among countries. The crude country-level CFRs ranged from 0.82% (Israel) to 14.2% (Italy), resulting in a highest to lowest crude CFR ratio of 17.3. Meanwhile, the ratio of lowest…
Is “No Test Is Better than a Bad Test”? Impact of Diagnostic Uncertainty in Mass Testing on the Spread of COVID-19
Gray et al. suggest that tests for SARS-CoV-2 with poor sensitivity and specificity could be potentially worse than not implementing tests at all in a model-based analysis. The model scenarios include no lockdown, immunity passports, and incremental relaxation. Tests, even if highly sensitive, are not sufficient to prevent widespread infection in the no lockdown scenario….
A Minimal Model for Household Effects in Epidemics
In incorporating household effects in epidemiologic modeling frameworks, Huber et al. show that R0 depends on household size linearly for small households and as a square root of size for larger households. [EDITORIAL NOTE: A pre-print of this manuscript was summarized in the Lit Rep on July 13, 2020.] Huber et al. (Oct 21, 2020)….
Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Women’s Health and Safety: A Study of Immigrant Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
In-depth interviews from US immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) identified stress due to social and economic disruption and increased frequency and severity of IPV. Service providers who participated in in-depth interviews suggest adapting strategies such as strengthening virtual platforms, conducting safe telephone check-ins and text messages, and providing safe virtual and tailored safety…
Incidence of Health Care–Associated COVID-19 During Universal Testing of Medical and Surgical Admissions in a Large US Health System
Eight cases of possible incident SARS-CoV-2 were observed during hospitalization or within 14 days post-discharge among 2,992 patients who tested negative on admission to UW Medicine (Washington) hospitals between April 2 and May 14. Further review determined 1 to 6 cases as potential hospital-acquired infections, corresponding to a relatively low incidence of 0.8 to 5…
Angiotensin Enzyme Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers as Protective Factors in COVID-19 Mortality: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Odds of mortality were reduced in half among participants taking angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (95% CI = 0.3-0.7) in a retrospective cohort study (n=2,553) after adjusting for underlying conditions, length of stay, age, gender, and ICU admission. A notable confounder was the higher mortality frequency in patients with a history of underlying…
Efficacy of Tocilizumab in Patients Hospitalized with Covid-19
A randomized, placebo-controlled trial (n=243) demonstrated that tocilizumab (TCZ) was not effective in preventing intubation or death among moderately ill and hospitalized COVID-19 patients. At 28 days, the primary outcome of intubation or death was observed in 17 patients (10.6%) in the TCZ group and 10 patients (12.5%) in the placebo group (HR = 0.83,…
Previous page Next page