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June 8, 2021
Assessment of Effectiveness of 1 Dose of BNT162b2 Vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 Infection 13 to 24 Days After Immunization
The risk of any SARS-CoV-2 infection was reduced by 51% between 13 to 24 days after the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine when compared to a period of 1 to 12 days after vaccination, according to a comparative effectiveness study in Israel (n=503,875). The weighted daily incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection decreased from 43.4 infections…
Nanobodies from Camelid Mice and Llamas Neutralize SARS-CoV-2 Variants
Two groups of single-domain antibodies, known as nanobodies, isolated from llamas and genetically engineered mice was identified to possess anti-SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) neutralizing activity. The first group is able to bind to a region in the RBD largely preserved across SARS-CoV-2 mutations but rarely targeted by human antibodies, while the second group demonstrated…
Improved Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 by Using Nucleoprotein and Spike Protein Fragment 2 in Quantitative Dual ELISA Tests
A combination of two quantitative ELISA assays using SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) and spike subunit 2 (S2) was able to detect at least 10% more true positive COVID-19 cases compared to a commercially available antibody test (Abbott) when tested against a panel of 42 SARS-CoV-2 positive serum samples and 37 negative control samples. Analysis of assay…
Portable HEPA Purifiers to Eliminate Airborne SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review
A systematic review of 11 studies found that portable HEPA purifiers were able to significantly reduce airborne SARS-CoV-2-surrogate particles. Experimental parameters varied considerably, including room sizes varying from 14.75 to 108 m3, and surrogate particle size from 0.012um to <1mm. Overall, HEPA filter-based personal air cleaners were overall the most efficient in removing surrogate particles…
June 7, 2021
Slight Reduction in SARS-CoV-2 Exposure Viral Load Due to Masking Results in a Significant Reduction in Transmission with Widespread Implementation
A mathematical model fit to data from King County, Washington found that in a scenario where masks only lowered viral exposure by about 50%, they were still effective at controlling SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and moderately efficacious masks would reduce exposure viral load ten-fold among people who get infected despite masking in the era before vaccines were…
The Role of HIV Infection in the Clinical Spectrum of COVID-19 a Population-Based Cohort Analysis Based on US National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Enclave Data
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A study using electronic health record data from 54 clinical sites in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative found that people living with HIV (PLWH, n=13,170) had a higher risk of COVID-19 death and hospitalization after adjusting for age and sex. The associations were attenuated, but remained significant, after adjusting for smoking status,…
Plasma ACE2 Predicts Outcome of COVID-19 in Hospitalized Patients
Among patients with COVID-19 (n=306), high plasma levels of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) at hospital admission were associated with increased illness severity within 28 days (OR = 1.8), and plasma ACE2 was significantly higher among patients with hypertension. Circulating ACE2 was also significantly higher in patients with COVID-19 with pre-existing heart conditions and kidney…
Neutralising Antibody Activity against SARS-CoV-2 VOCs B.1.617.2 and B.1.351 by BNT162b2 Vaccination
A study of the effectiveness of neutralizing antibody titers (NAbTs) against the B.1.617.2 SARS-CoV-2 variant, first identified in India and now widely circulating in the UK, found that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine elicited anti-wild-type spike antibodies in all participants, while NAbTs were reduced 5.8-fold against B.1.617.2 relative to wild-type, a significantly greater reduction…
Adverse Outcomes Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Variant B.1.351 Infection in Vaccinated Residents of a Long Term Care Home, Ontario, Canada
Over a period of 3 weeks, an outbreak at a long-term care facility in Ontario, Canada likely originating from an unvaccinated staff member infected with the B.1.351 variant sickened 4 staff members (2 fully vaccinated, 1 single dose, one unvaccinated) and 9 fully vaccinated residents. Two unvaccinated staff members had infections due to other variants…
Effectiveness of MRNA COVID-19 Vaccines among Employees in an American Healthcare System
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A study of SARS-CoV-2 infections among employees of the Cleveland Clinic Health System found that after adjusting for the slope of the epidemic curve, age, and job type, vaccination was associated with a significantly reduced risk of infection (HR = 0.03), corresponding to a vaccine effectiveness of 97.1%. Vaccine effectiveness was 89.2%…
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