Article Summary
June 19, 2020
Does Culture Matter Social Distancing under the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Using Google COVID-19 community mobility reports, Huynh demonstrated that countries with a higher “Uncertainty Avoidance Index” had a lower proportion of people gathering in public, even after controlling for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Huynh. (Oct 2020). Does Culture Matter Social Distancing under the COVID-19 Pandemic? Safety Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104872
June 18, 2020
Disease and Healthcare Burden of COVID-19 in the United States
Miller et al. projected the cumulative disease burden from COVID-19 at the US county level using age-specific mortality patterns and assuming 20% of the population of each county acquires infection. Comparing burden with hospital capacity, the investigators observed that per capita burden of disease and relative healthcare system demand may be higher in rural areas,…
The Effectiveness of Interventions to Reduce COVID-19 Transmission in a Large Urban Jail
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] Malloy et al. used a stochastic dynamic transmission model to estimate various mitigation strategies in response to a COVID-19 outbreak in a large urban US jail among staff and prisoners. They found that reducing population, single celling, and testing asymptomatic persons could prevent approximately 83% of projected cases and hospitalizations and 89% of deaths over 83 days. Malloy et al. (June 18, 2020). The Effectiveness…
Risk of Depression in Family Caregivers Unintended Consequence of COVID-19
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] Gallagher and Wetherell found that family caregivers had a higher risk of depression than non-caregivers in an analysis using data from a longitudinal UK population–level dataset collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Depression was higher among caregivers both before (17% vs 12%) and during the pandemic (22% vs 18%). Among caregivers, loneliness (measured on a 3-point scale) was associated with a nearly 4-fold higher odds of depression. Gallagher…
Prevalence of COVID-19 Infection and Outcomes Among Symptomatic Healthcare Workers in Seattle, Washington
Mani et al. tested 3,477 symptomatic University of Washington Medicine employees between March 12 and April 23 at two high-throughput employee testing centers in Seattle, WA and found a prevalence of 5.3% for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Infection prevalence was similar between frontline healthcare workers (5.2%) and non-frontline staff (5.5%). Six employees reported COVID-19 related hospitalization, and all recovered. Mani et al. (June 16, 2020). Prevalence of COVID-19 Infection…
COVID-19 Outcomes Risk Factors and Associations by Race a Comprehensive Analysis Using Electronic Health Records Data in Michigan Medicine
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] Analyses of a non-random sample of 5,698 patients tested for COVID-19 in a Michigan health facility reveal that, adjusted for age, sex, and socioeconomic status, non-Hispanic African Americans were 1.7 times more likely to be hospitalized and 1.5 times more likely to enter the ICU. Stratifying by race, analyses found older age, male sex, obesity, and neighborhood density were…
Genomewide Association Study of Severe Covid-19 with Respiratory Failure
A genome–wide association study involving COVID-19 patients (n=1,980) at 7 hospitals in Europe identified two separate loci associated with genetic susceptibility to severe COVID-19 disease. One locus on chromosome 3 spans genes 6 genes (SLC6A20, LZTFL1, CCR9, FYCO1, CXCR6 and XCR1), several of which have functions that are potentially relevant to Covid-19. A second locus on chromosome 9 coincides with the ABO blood group locus. These…
Towards Intervention Development to Increase the Uptake of COVID-19 Vaccination among Those at High Risk Outlining Evidence-Based and Theoretically Informed Future Intervention Content
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] To assess barriers and facilitators to receiving a future COVID-19 vaccine among high-risk individuals, Williams et al. conducted a cross-sectional survey among 527 UK adults (mean age = 59.5) and found that 86% of respondents want to receive a vaccine. Perceiving that COVID-19 will persist for a long time was positively correlated with wanting…
Diagnostic Accuracy of Six Commercial SARS-CoV-2 IgGtotal Antibody Assays and Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies in Convalescent Sera
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] Using a set of 34 serum samples obtained from 26 COVID-19 positive patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, Stroemer et al. compared the diagnostic accuracy of six commercially available antibody tests. Sensitivity ranged from 79.4% (Euroimmun) to 96.2% (Abbott). Based on 100 samples from negative individuals, specificity ranged from 97% (Euroimmun) to 100% (Epitope), with 99% sensitivity for Abbot and Roche tests. A…
Performance of Oropharyngeal Swab Testing Compared to Nasopharyngeal Swab Testing for Diagnosis of COVID-19 —United States, January-February 2020
Investigators analyzed data on 146 nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swab pairs collected ≤ 7 days after COPVID-19 illness onset and tested them with RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 and found diagnostic results were 95.2% concordant. Results also showed that NP swabs could contain more viral material, resulting in lower cycle times, suggestion that NP swabs may have higher sensitivity to detect lower viral concentrations. …
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