Article Summary
October 1, 2020
Expert Forecasts of COVID-19 Vaccine Development Timelines
Among 28 vaccine experts (20 Canada, 6 US) with 25 median years of experience working with vaccines (range 8–42), 53% said the pace of COVID-19 research is increasing the potential for errors. The median probability forecast that a vaccine would receive a black box warning label for a widely deployed vaccine was 30% and that…
Recent Endemic Coronavirus Infection Is Associated with Less Severe COVID-19
Pre-existing immune responses against endemic human coronaviruses (eCoVs), which are etiologic agents for the “common cold” that share extensive sequence homology with SARS-CoV-2, may mitigate disease manifestations from SARS-CoV-2 infection. A study among 252 patients with a COVID-19 related hospitalization reported lower risk of ICU admission (OR=0.1) and death (HR=0.3) among patients with eCoV antibodies…
Expression of SARS-CoV-2 Entry Receptors in the Respiratory Tract of Healthy Individuals, Smokers and Asthmatics
Using publicly available microarray datasets, Matusiak and Schürch reported different protein expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry receptors and cofactors ACE2, TMPRSS2, BSG (CD147) and FURIN among various airway tissue types between smokers vs. non-smokers, and between people with asthma vs. healthy controls. These findings warrant further studies to use larger numbers of samples from multiple donor cohorts and more antibodies…
The Obesity Paradox: Analysis from the SMAtteo Covid-19 REgistry (SMACORE) Cohort
Obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) was associated with a higher risk of ICU admission (adjusted OR=1.96, 95%CI 1.03-3.75) among a cohort of 331 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at the beginning of the epidemic in Italy. There were no significant differences in mortality, mortality in ICU and length of hospital stay between obese patients and non-obese patients….
Real-Time Screening of Specimen Pools for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infection at Sanya Airport, Hainan Island, China
A 10:1 pooled test strategy for nasopharyngeal swabs was used to screen airline passengers arriving in China. Among 944 specimens collected and tested for RNA using the Xpert Xpress assay, the pooled approach identified 2 positive individuals who were immediately quarantined, which resulted in no local contacts in China. The pooled approach saved 827 (87.6%)…
SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among a Southern U.S. Population Indicates Limited Asymptomatic Spread under Physical Distancing Measures
The seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG among people accessing health care for reasons other than COVID-19 symptoms in a low-density, suburban and rural population in North Carolina was 0.8% (24 of 2973) of outpatients and 0.7% (10 of 1449) of inpatients. Participants were sampled between March and June 2020, when state restrictions and physical distancing mandates…
Epidemiology and Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19 in Two Indian States
SARS-CoV-2 contact investigations in two Indian states showed a younger age distribution of COVID-19 cases and deaths than has been previously reported in the United States, and these differences are not attributed to underlying age differences in the general population. Among 575,071 contacts exposed to 84,965 confirmed cases, the secondary attack rate ranged from 5%…
The Emotional Path to Action: Empathy Promotes Physical Distancing and Wearing of Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The emotion of empathy was linked to physical distancing and wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic among participants in the US, UK, and Germany. In June 2020, 1526 participants were randomized to (1) read an informative text about coronavirus [information only]; (2) read informative text about an immunocompromised woman with COVID-19 [information and empathy];…
September 30, 2020
The Potential Contribution of Face Coverings to the Control of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Schools and Broader Society in the UK a Modelling Study
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A modeling study shows that adoption of masks in secondary schools and community settings under current test-trace-isolate (TTI) levels could reduce the size of a second wave in the UK but not prevent it. Under current tracing levels, and at effective mask coverage of 30%, 46% of those with symptomatic infection would…
COVID-19 among People Experiencing Homelessness in England: A Modelling Study
A modeling study found that continuing measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection among people experiencing homelessness would result in a small projected number of cases and deaths (1754 infections, 31 deaths) in the context of a second wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population (June 2020 to January 2021). However, in a scenario with no…
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