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March 4, 2021
Sars-Cov-2 Infection in Uk University Students: Lessons from September-December 2020 and Modelling Insights for Future Student Return
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A modeling study suggests that student adherence to testing and isolation is likely to contribute more to reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission than staggering return dates, based on data from the first term of the 2020/2021 academic year in universities in the UK. The authors suggest that in the presence of the more transmissible…
Estimated Transmissibility and Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B.1.1.7 in England
A transmission model fitted to COVID-19 epidemiological data from the UK around the time of the emergence of the B.1.1.7 variant suggest that the variant is 65-82% more transmissible, but has similar risk of hospitalization, critical illness, and death compared to earlier variants. Simulations done while removing a more transmissible variant from the model could…
Alcohol Withdrawal Rates in Hospitalized Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A cohort study in a hospital system in Delaware found an increase in rates of alcohol withdrawal (AW) during 2020 compared to 2019. Incidence in 2020 peaked at 1.8-fold higher than 2019 during the last 2 weeks of the stay-at-home order. AW rates remained elevated during the reopening period. Sharma et al. (Mar 3, 2021). Alcohol…
Prevalence of Inflammatory Heart Disease Among Professional Athletes With Prior COVID-19 Infection Who Received Systematic Return-to-Play Cardiac Screening
Cardiac screening among professional athletes recovering from mild COVID-19 or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=789) identified 5 athletes (0.6%) with imaging evidence of inflammatory heart disease that resulted in restriction from play. Screening occurred a median of 19 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test, though 202 (26%) athletes were diagnosed by antibody testing alone. 460…
Delayed Large Local Reactions to MRNA-1273 Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2
A case series of 12 patients reported delayed large local reactions (skin redness, tenderness and swelling) in response to the Moderna vaccine within 4 to 11 days (median 8 days) after the first dose. In all cases, the reactions appeared near the injection site after complete resolution of the initial local and systemic symptoms associated…
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Agent Use May Not Be Associated with Mortality of Coronavirus Disease 19
In a study of patients with COVID-19 using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or acetaminophen, there was no significant difference in all-cause mortality between the groups (4% vs 3%, HR=1.33, 95% CI: 0.63-2.88) after using propensity score matching to create comparable groups of treated and untreated patients (n=397 data pairs). There were also no significant differences…
Effect of Ivermectin on Time to Resolution of Symptoms Among Adults With Mild COVID-19
In a randomized clinical trial among patients with symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=400), a 5-day course of ivermectin did not significantly improve the time to symptom resolution compared with placebo (10 vs 12 days, HR=1.07, 95%CI: 0.87-1.32). Fifteen (7.5%) patients in the ivermectin group versus 5 (2.5%) in the placebo group discontinued treatment due to…
Impacts of Introducing and Lifting Nonpharmaceutical Interventions on COVID-19 Daily Growth Rate and Compliance in the United State
Implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), measured as the percentage of electronic devices staying at home, led to a reduction in COVID-19 cases among US counties. Implementing one NPI was associated with a reduction of the daily COVID-19 growth rate by 176 cases per 100,000, with a stronger reduction in counties with a higher proportion of…
March 3, 2021
Preliminary Efficacy of the NVX-CoV2373 Covid-19 Vaccine Against the B.1.351 Variant
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Results from a multicenter, randomized, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled trial in South Africa of the NVX-CoV2373 (Novavax) nanoparticle vaccine indicated that among 2,684 participants who were SARS-CoV-2 seronegative at baseline (94% HIV-negative; 6% people living with HIV), vaccine efficacy was 49.4%, with 15 and 29 predominantly mild to moderate COVID-19 cases in vaccine and…
Recent Changes in COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] The willingness of United States Healthcare workers (HCW) to receive an emergency use authorization (EUA)-approved COVID-19 vaccine increased substantially from October, 2020 to December, 2020, according to data from the Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes (HERO) Registry. The largest gain in vaccine willingness was observed among physicians, 91% of whom said…
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