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June 14, 2021
Risk Factors for Hospitalization Disease Severity and Mortality in Children and Adolescents with COVID-19 Results from a Nationwide German Registry
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A cohort study of children and adolescents (n=1,501) who were admitted to the hospital between March 18, 2020 and April 30, 2021 in Germany and who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 found that although approximately half of the cohort was not admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19, 72% had infection-related symptoms during…
Perceptions and Concerns Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination in a Military Base Population
Younger age and medical occupation were independent predictors of vaccine hesitancy according to results from a survey of individuals working on a military base in Ohio, administered between November 2020 and January 2021. Among 816 survey respondents, 185 (23%) self-identified as vaccine hesitant. The vaccine hesitant group reported more concern about short-term side effects (43%…
The SARS-CoV-2 MRNA Vaccine Breakthrough Infection Phenotype Includes Significant Symptoms, Live Virus Shedding, and Viral Genetic Diversity
A study of 24 breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections among fully vaccinated US Military Health System beneficiaries indicated that most infections (67%) occurred among those without comorbid conditions, 57% reported close contact with a COVID-19 case in the past month, and no case of breakthrough infection resulted in hospitalization. Sequencing from 10 of 13 qPCR-positive specimens indicated…
Community-Level Evidence for SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Protection of Unvaccinated Individuals
A study of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in 177 different communities in Israel indicated that for every 20 percentage point increase in the proportion of individuals who were vaccinated in a given population, the positive test fraction for the unvaccinated population decreased approximately two-fold, which the authors suggest shows that vaccination provides indirect protection to unvaccinated individuals. Findings…
Impact of Baseline SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Status on Syndromic Surveillance and the Risk of Subsequent Covid-19 – a Prospective Multicentre Cohort Study
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] The presence of SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid antibodies at baseline was associated with almost 80% protection against SARS-CoV-2 re-infection for a period of at least eight months, according to a study of healthcare workers (HCW) in Switzerland. Among 4,818 participants, 144 (3%) were seropositive at baseline. Among 2,713 participants with ≥1 SARS-CoV-2 test during…
Safety Immunogenicity and Efficacy of a COVID-19 Vaccine (NVX-CoV2373) Co-Administered With Seasonal Influenza Vaccines
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] As part of the Phase 3 randomized trial for the Novavax SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, a sub-study found that co-administration of an influenza vaccine resulted in no change in influenza vaccine immune response, and a slight reduction in antibody responses to the Novavax vaccine. The authors suggest that this could indicate the viability of…
A Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid and Spike Antibody Detection Using Three Commercially Available Automated Immunoassays
A study comparing the Abbott SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid IgG, Beckman-Coulter SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG, and Roche Anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid total antibody assays found that all three demonstrated 100% specificity, and sensitivities of 98%, 93%, and 90%, respectively. After the exclusion of samples from immunocompromised patients, all assays exhibited ≥95% sensitivity. In sequential samples collected from the same individuals,…
COVID-19 Treatment Combinations and Associations with Mortality in a Large Multi-Site Healthcare System
A study conducted between March and July 2020 that assessed the association between COVID-19 mortality and different treatment combinations found that anticoagulation treatment alone was associated with significantly reduced mortality for both patients receiving intensive care and non-intensive care. The four treatment combinations studied were anticoagulation only (OR=0.2), anticoagulation and remdesivir (OR=0.3), anticoagulation and corticosteroids…
June 11, 2021
Seroprevalence of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG Antibodies in the Staff of a Public School System in the Midwestern United States
A cross-sectional seroprevalence survey of teachers and staff (N=753) at a school in suburban Indiana conducted in July 2020 found that 1.7% of tested persons had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. Persons with a previously confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection had 48-fold higher odds of seropositivity compared to persons without previous infection, controlling for mask usage, travel history, symptom…
Emergency Department Visits for Suspected Suicide Attempts Among Persons Aged 12–25 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–May 2021
Emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher among young females aged 12-17 between February 21 and March 20, 2021 compared to the same period in 2019, according to a review of US National Syndromic Surveillance Program data. Among young males of the same age, emergency department visits for suicide attempt were up…
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