Article Summary
April 6, 2021
Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019: New Implications for Intervention and Control
The median incubation period between SARS-CoV-2 exposure and symptom onset was 7 days, based on the estimated exposure date from 787 non-Wuhan cases (of which 598 are from mainland China). A longer incubation period was positively correlated with age and negatively correlated with disease severity. 92% of infected persons developed symptoms within 14 days. Huang…
April 5, 2021
A Multicountry Perspective on Gender Differences in Time Use during COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, women spent more time than men on tasks such as childcare and household chores, according to responses from eight cross-sectional surveys and one longitudinal survey of adults in the US, Canada, Denmark, Brazil, and Spain (n = 31,141). These differences were stronger for parents. The authors note that to the extent…
Health Literacy, Digital Health Literacy, and COVID-19 Pandemic Attitudes and Behaviors in U.S. College Students: Implications for Interventions
Among 256 US college students surveyed in June 2020, only 49% reported adequate health literacy (HL) and 57% found digital health literacy (DHL) tasks easy overall. DHL tasks included searching for health information online. Both HL and DHL were independently associated with overall compliance with basic preventive practices for COVID-19. Higher DHL was significantly associated…
Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes in the US, March 1, 2020, to January 2, 2021
The US experienced 22.9% more deaths than expected (522,368 excess deaths) between March 1, 2020 and January 2, 2021. The rate of excess deaths was higher among non-Hispanic Black (208.4 deaths per 100 000) than non-Hispanic white or Hispanic populations (157.0 and 139.8 deaths per 100 000, respectively); these groups accounted for 16.9%, 61.1%, and 16.7% of…
Dynamic Prioritization of COVID-19 Vaccines When Social Distancing Is Limited for Essential Workers
A modeling study assessing vaccine allocation in the US across priority groups by age and essential worker status determined that prioritizing essential workers could potentially avert between 20,000 (when nonpharmaceutical interventions are strong) and 300,000 (when these interventions are weak) deaths. The authors suggest their findings indicate that optimal vaccine allocation may change over time,…
Persistence of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Depends on the Analytical Kit: A Report for Up to 10 Months after Infection
A study of hospitalized and non-hospitalized symptomatic patients (n = 210 samples, 84 patients) over a period of 10 months using six different commercial assays for antibody detection found that assays targeting total antibodies presented higher positivity rates and reached the highest positivity rates sooner than assays directed against IgG alone. The inter-assay agreement was…
Antibody Responses to the BNT162b2 MRNA Vaccine in Individuals Previously Infected with SARS-CoV-2
Among healthcare workers in California who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (n = 1,090), spike-specific IgG antibody levels and ACE2 antibody binding inhibition responses were similar between individuals who had been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and received a single dose (n = 35), and those who had no prior infection and received both vaccine doses (n…
COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test as Screening Strategy at Points of Entry: Experience in Lazio Region, Central Italy, August–October 2020
Between mid-August to mid-October 2020, 1,176 of 73,643 rapid antigen test results (1.6%) were positive for travelers at points of entry in the Lazio Region of Italy via the STANDARD F COVID-19 Ag FIA, but only 40.5% antigen-positive samples also tested positive by RT-PCR. Antigen tests with a higher semiquantitative result were more likely to…
Infection- and Vaccine-Induced Antibody Binding and Neutralization of the B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 Variant
Acutely infected COVID-19 patients and those who received the Moderna vaccine had significantly reduced IgG binding to the B.1.351 variant receptor binding domain (RBD) compared to the B.1-lineage RBD-specific IgG response. However, sera containing polyclonal antibodies to the spike protein could still effectively neutralize B.1.351. Individuals with prior infection or vaccinated individuals had a nearly…
SARS-CoV-2 Infection Is Asymptomatic in Nearly Half of Adults with Robust Anti-Spike Protein Receptor-Binding Domain Antibody Response
In a study of 4996 participants (aged 18–82 years, 34.5% men) from Greece with plasma antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein between June and November 2020, 49% of seropositive cases (39/79) reported no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection-related clinical symptoms. The majority of SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic infections were “unsuspected” cases (26/39) who had no known contact with a…
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