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Global & Public Health (all articles)

Efficacy of Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine slips to 84% after six months, data show.

29 Jul, 2021 | 11:19h | UTC

Efficacy of Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine slips to 84% after six months, data show – STAT

Original study (preprint): Six Month Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine – medRxiv

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

https://twitter.com/hildabast/status/1420481872212070404

 

CDC changes mask guidance in response to threat of Delta variant of Covid-19.

28 Jul, 2021 | 10:23h | UTC

Commentary: CDC changes mask guidance in response to threat of Delta variant of Covid-19 – CNN

See guidance: Guidance for Implementing COVID-19 Prevention Strategies in the Context of Varying Community Transmission Levels and Vaccination Coverage – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

 

Commentaries on Twitter

 

Very rare cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) after AstraZeneca vaccine: a global safety database analysis – the estimated rate of TTS after the first dose was 8.1 per million vaccinees; after the second dose, the estimated rate was 2.3 per million vaccinees.

28 Jul, 2021 | 10:19h | UTC

Very rare thrombosis with thrombocytopenia after second AZD1222 dose: a global safety database analysis – The Lancet

Related:

WHO Guidance for clinical case management of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) following vaccination to prevent coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

AHA/ASA Guidance: Diagnosis and Management of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis with Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia – “No heparin products in any dose should be given.”

ISTH Interim Guidance for the Diagnosis and Treatment on Vaccine Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia

Case series: therapeutic plasma exchange in 3 patients with vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia.

Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) – a novel clinico-pathological entity with heterogeneous clinical presentations.

Case report: Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia After the Messenger RNA–1273 Vaccine.

Laboratory testing for suspected COVID-19 vaccine–induced (immune) thrombotic thrombocytopenia.

Concerned about the latest AstraZeneca news? These 3 graphics help you make sense of the risk – “Two people in Australia have died from thrombosis with thrombocytopenia after 3.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine delivered”.

Case series: Adjunct immune globulin for vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia.

Case report: Successful treatment of vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT).

[Preprint] Meta-analysis of risk of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia following ChAdOx1-S recombinant vaccine – Overall risk is 1 in 139,000; for age 65 and over, about 1 in 1,000,000; for age under 55, between 1 in 20,000 to 60,000.

Cohort study: Arterial events, venous thromboembolism, thrombocytopenia, and bleeding after vaccination with Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S. 11 excess venous thromboembolic events per 100 000 vaccinations; 2.5 excess cerebral venous thrombosis per 100 000 vaccinations.

Case series of 12 patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis with thrombocytopenia after Ad26.COV2.S vaccination – all women younger than 60 years, with symptoms from 6 to 15 days after vaccination

Vaccine-induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia: Frequently Asked Questions

Pathologic Antibodies to Platelet Factor 4 after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccination

Editorial: SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine–Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia – “The very low prevalence of this complication of vaccination, however severe, relative to the benefits of preventing Covid-19 must be emphasized”

Case Report: Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia after Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

Papers Confirm Rare Thrombocytopenia Link to AstraZeneca Vaccine

Guidance on syndrome of Thrombosis and Thrombocytopenia occurring after coronavirus Vaccination

 

Commentary on Twitter

 

Editorial: Nine lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic for improving hospital care and health care delivery.

28 Jul, 2021 | 10:17h | UTC

Nine Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic for Improving Hospital Care and Health Care Delivery – JAMA Internal Medicine

 

Report: Improved ventilation essential to safe use of buildings and public spaces, say leading engineers.

28 Jul, 2021 | 10:16h | UTC

News release: Improved ventilation essential to safe use of buildings and public spaces, say leading engineers – Royal Academy of Engineering

Report: Infection Resilient Environments: Buildings that keep us healthy and safe – National Engineering Policy Centre

Related:

WHO: Roadmap to improve and ensure good indoor ventilation in the context of COVID-19

CDC releases new ventilation guidelines for indoor environments to reduce Covid-19 risk

Guidance: Using Ventilation and filtration to reduce aerosol transmission of COVID-19 in long-term care homes

 

Commentary on Twitter

https://twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/1419607205565894657

 

Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from children and adolescents.

28 Jul, 2021 | 10:08h | UTC

Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from Children and Adolescents – New England Journal of Medicine

Related:

Effect of Vaccination on Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in England – “the likelihood of household transmission was approximately 40 to 50% lower in households of index patients who had been vaccinated 21 days or more before testing positive than in households of unvaccinated index patients”.

Covid-19 vaccination prevents transmission from vaccinated to unvaccinated household members.

Study in England showed one dose of COVID-19 vaccine can cut household transmission by up to half – This protection is on top of the reduced risk of a vaccinated person developing symptomatic infection, which is around 60 to 65% after the first dose

Study: Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and risk factors for susceptibility and infectivity

A meta-analysis on the role of children in SARS-CoV-2 in household transmission clusters

Report: SARS-CoV-2 setting-specific transmission rates. Households showed the highest transmission rates (21.1%). Asymptomatic infections do occur but much less efficiently than symptomatic infection.

CDC Report: Transmission of SARS-COV-2 infections in households

The household secondary attack rate of SARS-CoV-2: A rapid review

 

Commentary on Twitter

 

WHO reports progress in the fight against tobacco epidemic – Highlights threats posed by new nicotine and tobacco products.

28 Jul, 2021 | 10:01h | UTC

News release: WHO reports progress in the fight against tobacco epidemic – World Health Organization

Report: WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2021: New and Emerging Products – World Health Organization

Commentary: While Global Tobacco Control Measures Improve, Electronic Cigarettes Evade Regulation in Many Countries – Health Policy Watch

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

 

Amazon and Google are finally tackling one of healthcare’s biggest problems: unstructured health data.

28 Jul, 2021 | 09:50h | UTC

Amazon And Google Are Finally Tackling One Of Healthcare’s Biggest Problems: Unstructured Health Data – Forbes

 

Major medical groups call for employers to mandate Covid-19 vaccines for health care workers.

27 Jul, 2021 | 03:44h | UTC

Major medical groups call for employers to mandate Covid-19 vaccines for health care workers – CNN

Original Document: Joint Statement in Support of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for All Workers in Health and Long-Term Care

 

Commentaries on Twitter

 

Another study shows increased immune response with heterologous Oxford-AstraZeneca/mRNA vaccination.

27 Jul, 2021 | 03:48h | UTC

Immunogenicity and reactogenicity of heterologous ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/mRNA vaccination – Nature Medicine

Commentary: A ‘mix and match’ approach to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination – Nature Medicine

Related:

WHO warns against mixing and matching COVID vaccines.

Germany issues world’s strongest recommendation for mixing Covid-19 vaccines.

Heterologous Oxford–AstraZeneca and Moderna Vaccination induce increased levels of neutralizing antibody compared to 2 doses of Oxford–AstraZeneca.

Heterologous Oxford–AstraZeneca and BioNTech/Pfizer Vaccination induce increased levels of neutralizing antibody compared to 2 doses of Oxford–AstraZeneca.

[Preprint] Mixing Covid jabs has good immune response, study finds – “The Com-Cov trial looked at the efficacy of either two doses of Pfizer, two of AstraZeneca, or one of them followed by the other. All combinations worked well, priming the immune system”.

Phase 2 RCT: Immunogenicity and reactogenicity of a Pfizer-BioNTech booster in patients that have received a single dose of AstraZeneca vaccine – “BNT162b2 (Pfizer) given as a second dose in individuals prime vaccinated with ChAdOx1-S (AstraZeneca) induced a robust immune response, with an acceptable and manageable reactogenicity profile”.

RCT: Mixing 2 different Covid vaccines is associated with increased risk of side effects.

 

Commentary on Twitter

 

[Preprint] Covid-19: Longer interval between Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine doses boosts immunity.

27 Jul, 2021 | 03:50h | UTC

News release: Longer interval between Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine doses boosts immunity – Newcastle University

Original Study (preprint): Sustained T cell immunity, protection and boosting using extended dosing intervals of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine

Commentaries:

Commentary: Covid-19: Longer interval between Pfizer doses results in higher antibody levels, research finds – BMJ

Expert reaction to preprint from PITCH study looking at interval between two Pfizer vaccine doses, and antibody and T-cell responses – Science Media Centre

Related:

Debate: Should we delay second vaccine doses to give one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to more people? (several texts on the subject)

 

Opinion | What does public health really mean? Lessons from covid-19.

27 Jul, 2021 | 03:46h | UTC

What does public health really mean? Lessons from covid-19 – The BMJ Opinion

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

 

[Preprint] Test-negative case-control study: Effectiveness of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in older people during SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant transmission in Brazil – Adjusted effectiveness was 77.9% for symptomatic Covid-19, 87.6% against hospitalization, and 93.6% against death.

27 Jul, 2021 | 03:41h | UTC

Effectiveness of the ChAdOx1 vaccine in the elderly during SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant transmission in Brazil – medRxiv

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

https://twitter.com/MHitchingsEpi/status/1418599162795360260

 

[Preprint] Test-negative case-control study: Effectiveness of CoronaVac vaccine in older people during SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant transmission in Brazil – Adjusted vaccine effectiveness was 41.6% for symptomatic Covid-19, 59.0% against hospitalizations and 71.4% against deaths.

27 Jul, 2021 | 03:39h | UTC

Effectiveness of the CoronaVac vaccine in the elderly population during a Gamma variant-associated epidemic of COVID-19 in Brazil: A test-negative case-control study – medRxiv

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

https://twitter.com/MHitchingsEpi/status/1418599162795360260

 

CoronaVac vaccine: its results are patchy, but the world can’t ignore its usefulness.

27 Jul, 2021 | 03:38h | UTC

CoronaVac vaccine: its results are patchy, but the world can’t ignore its usefulness – The Conversation

Related:

RCT: CoronaVac showed efficacy of 83.5% for preventing symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Prospective national cohort in Chile showed CoronaVac effectiveness was 65.9% for symptomatic Covid-19, 87.5% for hospitalization, 90.3% for ICU admission, and 86.3% for death.

Phase 1/2 RCT: CoronaVac is well tolerated and safe and induces strong humoral responses in children and adolescents aged 3–17 years.

Perspective | Are Chinese COVID vaccines underperforming? a dearth of real-life studies leaves unanswered questions.

WHO approval of Chinese CoronaVac COVID vaccine will be crucial to curbing pandemic.

Brazilian town experiment shows mass vaccination can wipe out COVID-19.

WHO validates Sinovac-CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and issues interim policy recommendations.

[Press release – not published yet] The city of Serrana in Brazil has seen a 95% drop in Covid-19 deaths after almost all adults were vaccinated with Chinese CoronaVac – The findings suggest the pandemic can be controlled after 75% of people are fully vaccinated.

[Not published yet] Observational study in Uruguay found CoronaVac reduced mortality by 97 percent – “In people who had received two doses, it reduced infection with the coronavirus by 57 percent and intensive care admissions by 95 percent”.

 

Study: Lateral flow antigen testing can rapidly and accurately detect early COVID-19 among patients presenting with flu-like illness and can be a plausible alternative to RT-PCR.

26 Jul, 2021 | 02:56h | UTC

Comparing the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care lateral flow antigen testing for SARS-CoV-2 with RT-PCR in primary care (REAP-2) – EClinicalMedicine

News release: Lateral flow tests are 95% effective at detecting Covid-19 when used at the onset of symptoms – University of Oxford

Related:

Interactive Infographic | Interpreting a lateral flow SARS-CoV-2 antigen test – “This calculator demonstrates how interpreting a covid-19 lateral flow device (LFD) result varies according to the pre-test probability, and the sensitivity and specificity of the LFD used”.

Rapid point-of-care tests for diagnosing COVID-19 infection: the latest Cochrane evidence

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

 

M-A: Psychiatric patients at increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality.

26 Jul, 2021 | 02:57h | UTC

News release: Psychiatric patients at increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality – European College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Original article: Mental disorders and risk of COVID-19-related mortality, hospitalisation, and intensive care unit admission: a systematic review and meta-analysis – The Lancet Psychiatry

 

COVID vaccines to reach poorest countries in 2023 — “Amid a COVID surge in Africa, vaccine promises from richer nations are not enough to bring an early end to the pandemic, experts say”.

26 Jul, 2021 | 02:51h | UTC

COVID vaccines to reach poorest countries in 2023 — despite recent pledges – Nature

 

WHO Guideline on the prevention of drowning through provision of day-care and basic swimming and water safety skills.

26 Jul, 2021 | 02:30h | UTC

WHO Guideline on the prevention of drowning through provision of day-care and basic swimming and water safety skills – World health Organization

See also: World Drowning Prevention Day 2021 (25 July)

News release: Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death – United Nations

Related:

AAP Technical Report | Prevention of Drowning.

The Burden of Unintentional Drowning: Global, Regional and National Estimates of Mortality from the Global Burden of Disease Study

Preventing drowning: an implementation guide – World Health Organization

Global report on drowning: preventing a leading killer – World Health Organization

Report: Open Water Drowning and Risks for Children

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment and Prevention of Drowning: 2019 Update – Wilderness and Environmental Medicine

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

 

WHO: Vaccine inequity undermining global economic recovery.

23 Jul, 2021 | 10:53h | UTC

News release: Vaccine inequity undermining global economic recovery – World Health Organization

Dashboard: Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity

Commentaries: Urgent need for COVID-19 vaccine equity – University of Oxford AND COVID-19 Vaccine Inequity Undermines Global Economic Recovery  – Health Policy Watch

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

 

Perspective | SARS-CoV-2 human challenge studies — establishing the model during an evolving pandemic.

23 Jul, 2021 | 10:49h | UTC

SARS-CoV-2 Human Challenge Studies — Establishing the Model during an Evolving Pandemic – New England Journal of Medicine

Related: World’s first coronavirus “Human Challenge” study receives ethics approval in the UK (several texts on the subject) AND Are SARS-CoV-2 Human Challenge Trials Ethical? – “A clinical trial is underway in the UK in which young, healthy participants are exposed deliberately to SARS-CoV-2 to assess the viral inoculum needed to produce an infection and to test vaccine efficacy”.

 

What are the Delta, Gamma, Beta and Alpha Covid variants?

23 Jul, 2021 | 10:45h | UTC

What are the Delta, Gamma, Beta and Alpha Covid variants? – BBC

Related: Increased transmissibility and global spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern – “Estimated transmissibility increases of alpha 29% (95% CI: 24–33), beta 25% (95% CI: 20–30), gamma 38% (95% CI: 29–48) & delta 97% (95% CI: 76–117)”. AND WHO renames COVID-19 variants with the Greek alphabet (i.e., Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc), making them simple, easy to say and remember. The naming system aims to prevent calling COVID-19 variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing & discriminatory.

 

New series from The Lancet: Physical Activity 2021.

23 Jul, 2021 | 10:37h | UTC

Homepage: Physical Activity 2021 – The Lancet (free registration required for all articles)

Summary and commentary: Experts call for immediate action to ensure physical activity is built into everyday lives – News Medical

 

Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)

 

How the Delta variant achieves its ultrafast spread – “Viral load is roughly 1,000 times higher in people infected with the Delta variant than those infected with the original coronavirus strain, according to a study in China”.

23 Jul, 2021 | 10:46h | UTC

How the Delta variant achieves its ultrafast spread – Nature

Original study: Study shows the viral loads in the Delta infections are ~1000 times higher than those in the earlier strain infections on the day when viruses are firstly detected.

 

The Lambda variant: is it more infectious, and can it escape vaccines? A virologist explains.

23 Jul, 2021 | 10:43h | UTC

The Lambda variant: is it more infectious, and can it escape vaccines? A virologist explains – The Conversation

Related: Lambda, the Newest WHO Variant of Interest, is Now in 29 Countries – Health Policy Watch

 

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