Article Summary
February 26, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 Viremia Is Associated with Distinct Proteomic Pathways and Predicts COVID-19 Outcomes
[pre-print; not peer-reviewed] Levels of plasma SARS-CoV-2 viremia at the time of presentation to a hospital’s emergency department predicted both disease severity and mortality within 28 days. Viremia (defined as presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in plasma samples) was present in around 40% of participants and was associated with a dose-dependent effect on clinical outcome. Li…
Seasonal Human Coronavirus Antibodies Are Boosted upon SARS-CoV-2 Infection but Not Associated with Protection
Cross reactive antibodies generated by pre-pandemic human coronavirus (hCoV) infections are common but are not associated with protection against infection or poor clinical outcomes after infection with SARS-CoV-2. Using samples from a pre-pandemic biobank, 4% of pre-pandemic sera contained antibodies that bound the full-length spike from SARS-CoV-2 and 16% of samples contained antibodies capable of…
Reduction in COVID-19 Patients Requiring Mechanical Ventilation Following Implementation of a National COVID-19 Vaccination Program — Israel, December 2020–February 2021
In Israel, the ratio of COVID-19 patients over the age of 70 requiring mechanical ventilation declined 67% compared to those under 50 from October–December 2020 to February 2021 after a national immunization program resulting in a 2-dose vaccination coverage of 84% among people over the age of 70. The authors suggest that this provides preliminary…
The Effects of “Dry Swab” Incubation on SARS-CoV-2 Molecular Testing
Parikh et al. suggest that “dry swabs” (which do not use transport medium) may be accurate for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. Flocked swabs were inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 and then incubated in either the typical medium or a dry, sterile conical tube. All dry swabs tested at days 1, 2, and 7 provided results that were within two…
An Updated Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of 25 Randomized Trials Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Treatments in COVID-19 Disease
A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials published between the beginning of the pandemic and September 2020 found that ten days of remdesivir compared to standard care was associated with a lower risk of death in patients with COVID-19. The review, which covered 25 trials evaluating 17 treatments among a total of 11,597 patients,…
Dexamethasone in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19 — Preliminary Report
In patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the administration of 6 mg/day for ten days of the steroid dexamethasone resulted in statistically significantly lower 28-day mortality among those who were receiving either invasive mechanical ventilation (29% vs. 41%) or oxygen alone (23% vs. 26%) at randomization but not among those receiving no respiratory support (18% vs. 14%)….
Bamlanivimab Does Not Neutralize Two SARS-CoV-2 Variants Carrying E484K in Vitro
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] An in vitro study of the neutralizing ability of the monoclonal antibody treatment bamlanivimab against five emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern determined no neutralization effect could be detected against either the B.1.351 (first described in South Africa) or P.2 (first described in Brazil) variants, both of which harbor the E484K substitution. The…
Interleukin-6 Receptor Antagonists in Critically Ill Patients with Covid-19
A trial of two IL-6 receptor antagonists, tocilizumab and sarilumab, in critically ill hospitalized adults with confirmed COVID-19 found that in-hospital mortality in the pooled IL-6 receptor antagonist groups was 27% (108 of 395 patients), as compared with 36% (142 of 397 patients) in the group of people receiving standard care, which results in a…
Tocilizumab in Hospitalized Patients with Severe Covid-19 Pneumonia
A multi-center phase 3 clinical trial of intravenous treatment using the IL-6 receptor antagonists tocilizumab in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia found that tocilizumab did not result in significantly better clinical status or reduced mortality compared to placebo (19.7% vs 19.4%) at 28 days. At day 14, clinical status was also not to be…
Risk Factors Associated With COVID-19 Transmission Among US Air Force Trainees in a Congregant Setting
A higher number of symptoms and higher viral loads were associated with subsequent clusters of SARS-CoV-2 cases among cohorts of US Air Force basic trainees. Among 10,613 US Air Force basic trainees, of whom 3% (403) received a diagnosis of COVID-19 during the study period, higher numbers of symptoms and higher viral loads (lower cycle…
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