Article Summary
March 1, 2021
Antibodies with Potent and Broad Neutralizing Activity against Antigenically Diverse and Highly Transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Variants
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A study identifying the structural and functional determinants of serum with broad neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 determined that combinations of two antibodies with broadly neutralizing activity decrease the in vitro generation of escape mutants. The structural characteristics of four monoclonal receptor-binding domain-targeting antibodies isolated from three early-outbreak convalescent donors with broadly neutralizing polyclonal…
SARS-CoV-2 Spike D614G Change Enhances Replication and Transmission
The SARS-CoV-2 S-614G variant was found to enhance binding to recombinant human ACE2 receptors, increase replication in lung and nasal cell culture systems, increase replication in a humanized ACE2 mouse model, and increased transmissibility in hamster and ferret SARS-CoV-2 models. While this mutation resulted in small increases in binding and replication in vitro, it conferred…
Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
A retrospective cohort study of COVID-19 risk among exposed children and adults in households where an index case was diagnosed found an overall infection risk of 10.1%, with median time to diagnosis of 3 days after positive diagnosis of the index case. The study used home addresses recorded in electronic health records to identify the…
Incubation Period for COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
A systematic review and meta-analysis (n = 15 studies, 6,300 patients) estimated that the incubation period for SARS-CoV-2 is 5.7 days (range: 5.2-6.3 days). Data were included through March 31, 2020, and most of the studies included in the meta-analysis used different parametric distributions for calculating the pooled incubation period. Rai et al. (Feb 23,…
Retail Store Customer Flow and COVID-19 Transmission
A mathematical model analyzing retail customer flow and SARS-CoV-2 transmission found that then restricting customers to one-way movement could reduce transmission rates to less than one-third of the rate with two-way movement, if all customers comply and transmission occurs primarily through close contact. The model was calibrated using published epidemiologic data and predicted that for…
SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Children Following the Full Re-Opening of Schools and the Impact of National Lockdown: Prospective, National Observational Cohort Surveillance, July-December 2020, England
Following the full reopening of schools in England in September 2020, COVID-19 cases among children lagged adult rates but ultimately followed similar trends. A strong correlation was observed in regional infection rates between adults and secondary (R2=0.96-0.98), primary (R2=0.93-0.94) and preschool-aged (R2=0.62-0.85) children. The November 2020 lockdown was associated with declines in adult infection rates,…
February 26, 2021
Risk of Death among Teachers in England and Wales during the Covid19 Pandemic
[pre-print; not peer-reviewed] An analysis of publicly available data on COVID-19 mortality in England and Wales suggests that absolute mortality rates for teachers were low (under 39 per 100,000), but that secondary school teachers had slightly higher risk of dying of COVID-19 relative to all professionals and working-aged people. Primary school teachers were not at…
The Public Health Impact of Delaying a Second Dose of the BNT162b2 or MRNA-1273 COVID-19 Vaccine
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] An agent-based model estimated the impact of a strategy of delaying a second COVID-19 vaccine dose on cumulative mortality and found that a delayed second dose approach could result in reduced cumulative mortality under certain conditions, particularly in people under 65 years of age. The model was constructed using a simulated population…
Stepping Back to School: A Step-by-Step Look at COVID Introduction, Spread, and Exportation
[Report, not peer-reviewed] Covasim, a model previously used to describe SARS-CoV-2 transmission among inter-personal contacts in King County, Washington predicted that the rate of introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into K-12 school classroom settings is proportional to the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the community. The model is an agent-based model of contacts at home, school, work and…
Obesity May Hamper SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Immunogenicity
[pre-print; not peer-reviewed] Antibody titers two weeks after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were lower in obese healthcare workers (BMI >30), after adjusting for age. 99.5% of the 248 participants developed a humoral immune response after vaccination, and antibody titers were higher in younger people and in women. The authors note that…
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