Article Summary
May 28, 2020
Using Social Media for Rapid Information Dissemination in a Pandemic: #PedsICU and Coronavirus Disease 2019
Kudchadkar et. al evaluated a social media campaign that promoted the joint usage of #PedsICU and #COVID19 on Twitter for posts relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic and pediatric critical care. During the time period monitored, 69% #PedsICU tweets included COVID-19 content. The most popular tweets shared on Twitter were open-access resources, links for updated literature, narrative reviews, and educational videos relevant to clinical care. Tweets including…
Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Paris, France: A Population-Based, Observational Study
Marijon et al. found that out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Paris, France doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weekly OHCA incidence increased from 13.4 to 26.6 per million inhabitants in the control and pandemic time periods, respectively. They also observed a higher rate of OHCA at home. The authors hypothesize that these results may be due to a direct effect…
Combining Fine-Scale Social Contact Data with Epidemic Modelling Reveals Interactions between Contact Tracing Quarantine Testing and Physical Distancing for Controlling COVID-19
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] Firth et al. simulated contract tracing and testing strategies for SARS-CoV-2 using a real-world social network generated from GPS data. They found that tracing 2nd degree contacts (e.g. contacts-of-contacts) was more effective than only tracing 1st degree contacts, but would result in almost one third of the local population being quarantined at…
Projected Increases in Suicide in Canada as a Consequence of COVID-19
McIntyre and Lee predict the number of excess suicides in Canada resulting from the impact of COVID-19 on unemployment. They estimate that an incremental 1-percentage point increase in unemployment from 2020 to 2021 would be associated with a 1.0% increase in the suicide rate. Assuming a small increase in unemployment (1.2-1.6%), they predict a total of 418 excess suicides in…
Clinically Significant Fear and Anxiety of COVID-19: A Psychometric Examination of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale
Lee et al. developed and evaluated a Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) using an online survey of 398 US adults. The CAS was correlated with coronavirus diagnosis, history of anxiety, coronavirus fear, functional impairment, alcohol/drug coping, religious coping, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, as well as social attitudes (e.g., satisfaction with President Trump). These findings support the validity…
Flattening the Mental Health Curve: COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders Are Associated with Alterations in Mental Health Search Behavior in the United States
Jacobson et al. examine whether stay-at-home orders produced changes in mental health search queries on Google during March 16-23, 2020. They found that mental health search queries (including search terms measuring anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, negative thoughts, irritability, fatigue, anhedonia, concentration, insomnia, and suicidal ideation) increased rapidly prior to the issuance of stay-at-home orders, and that these changes dissipated following the…
Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among Children Visiting a Hospital during the Initial Seattle Outbreak
[pre-print, not peer reviewed] Dingens et al. serologically screened residual samples from 1,076 pediatric patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital for evidence of past SARS-CoV-2 infection. Only 10 (1%) children were seropositive; however, most seropositive children (8/10) were not suspected of having had COVID-19. Dingens et al. (May 28, 2020). Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among Children Visiting a Hospital during the Initial Seattle Outbreak. Pre-print downloaded May 28 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.26.20114124
Comparison of Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Asymptomatic vs Symptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China
Among 78 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients who were exposed to the Hunan seafood market or had close contact with other patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, 42% were asymptomatic and 58% were symptomatic. Those who were asymptomatic were younger and more likely to be women (67% v 31%), compared to symptomatic patients. Asymptomatic patients also had a shorter duration of viral shedding from nasopharynx…
Hospitalization and Mortality among Black Patients and White Patients with Covid-19
Black patients disproportionately accounted for COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in a Louisiana integrated-delivery health system: 77% of hospitalizations and 71% of deaths were patients who were black, despite black residents comprising only 31% of the total population. Black race was associated with increased odds of hospitalization, even after controlling for age, comorbidities, use of public insurance (e.g. Medicare or Medicaid), residence in a…
COVID-19 Infections among Healthcare Workers Exposed to a Patient with a Delayed Diagnosis of COVID-19
Baker et al. report on a case in which 44 healthcare workers (HCW) were exposed to a single undiagnosed COVID-19 patient over a 13-day period. During this period, the patient stayed in a single room and HCWs did not use contact and droplet precautions. On the 13th day of hospitalization, the patient developed sudden acute…
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