We’re Out Of The Pandemic Phase, But We’ve Already Lost Track Of COVID
The U.S. seems to be losing track of COVID-19 as cases remain massively undercounted, in part due to the rise of at-home testing. Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and survey company Momentive found that in the week ending April 16, most positive COVID cases were detected by at-home rapid tests, a first for the U.S. […]
Guillain-Barre Risk After COVID-19 Vaccines Low, Surveillance Data Show
Risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome after COVID-19 vaccines was low overall, but unusually high after the Johnson & Johnson shot, surveillance data showed. Among 15.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines included in the Vaccine Safety Datalink, the unadjusted incidence rate of confirmed Guillain-Barré syndrome 1 to 21 days after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was […]
Opinion | Our Lab Testing Capacity Is Getting Dangerously Low
Continued mutations in SARS-CoV-2 mean new and emerging variants, a sign that COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon, despite a relaxing of public health measures around the country. And due to the increased availability of at-home antigen-based testing, published case counts are likely being underreported by public health officials, making a COVID-19 resurgence more difficult […]
Experts Break Down What Could Help Improve Access to Paxlovid
Access to Paxlovid, the first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19, has expanded since the FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-made medication in December. However, physicians and pharmacists say there is still more that can be done to make sure the potentially life-saving drug reaches the right people at the right time. […]
The impact of COVID-19 on drug use — and how it contributes to overdose risk
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of people who use drugs in ways that hurt their mental health and changed drug use behaviors, increasing their risk for overdose, according to surveys and interviews with individuals in rural Illinois captured in a new study in Addiction Science and Clinical Practice. Drug overdoses have soared during […]
No Boost in Shock-Free Days with Steroid Combo in Patients With Sepsis
A steroid combo to beat back septic shock, delirium in COVID-19 patients, and hospital adherence to ventilator standards during the pandemic were examined in studies at the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) virtual Critical Care Congress. No One-Two Punch for Septic Shock A single-center study found that adding fludrocortisone to hydrocortisone did not increase […]
Did Black Patients with COVID-19 See Greater Benefits With Novel Mab Therapy?
Hospitalized Black/African-American patients with COVID-19, and a baseline C-reactive protein (CRP) <150 mg/L, experienced a “markedly greater improvement” in survival without ventilation (SWOV), according to an analysis of LIVE-AIR study data. While SWOV at 28 days was improved among all patients with the agent versus placebo (hazard ratio 2.54, 95% CI 1.46-4.41, P=0.0009), the benefit […]
COVID Was Third Leading Cause of U.S. Deaths in 2021, Says CDC
While COVID-19 in 2021 was again the third leading cause of death in the U.S., racial and ethnic disparities narrowed from the year before, provisional CDC data indicated. Overall, 65.2% of the COVID-19 deaths in 2021 were among white individuals, 16.5% were among Hispanic individuals, and 13.3% were among Black individuals. In 2020 these proportions […]
Stricter Pandemic Policies Took Toll on Mental Health
People’s mental health suffered when strict COVID-19 control measures were put in place by their governments, according to two new studies. In one longitudinal analysis drawing on data from 15 countries excluding the U.S., policies with higher stringency were associated with higher mean psychological distress scores during the first 15 months of the pandemic (standardized […]
Decoy particles trick coronavirus as it evolves: Emerging therapeutics could overcome drug-resistant variants
They might look like cells and act like cells. But a new potential COVID-19 treatment is actually a cleverly disguised trickster, which attracts viruses and binds them, rendering them inactive. As the ever-evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus begins to evade once promising treatments, such as monoclonal antibody therapies, researchers have become more interested in these “decoy” nanoparticles. […]