Global & Public Health (all articles)
India’s surge leads to further global COVID rise as role of variants probed
29 Apr, 2021 | 08:41h | UTCIndia’s surge leads to further global COVID rise as role of variants probed – CIDRAP
See also: India Blames a Virus Variant as Its Covid-19 Crisis Deepens – The New York Times (free registration required) AND Why the COVID-19 Variants Spreading in India Are a Global Concern – TIME
Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)
Variant? “The current 🇮🇳 wave of #COVID19 has a different clinical behavior. It’s affecting young adults. It’s affecting families. It’s a new thing altogether. Two-month-old babies are getting infected.” Also many reports of reinfections/breakthroughs.🧵https://t.co/qve23lduGb pic.twitter.com/FFIBaFsh0J
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) April 28, 2021
Brazilian regulatory authorities decide not to approve the Gamaleya vaccine
29 Apr, 2021 | 08:38h | UTCBrazil Rejects the Gamaleya Vaccine – Science Translational Medicine
See also: Russia’s Sputnik V developers reject Brazil’s criticisms – Reuters
CDC Study: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines reduce Covid-19 hospitalization risk by 64% after the first dose and 94% after the second dose among adults aged ≥65 years
29 Apr, 2021 | 08:42h | UTCCommentaries: Pfizer/Moderna Vaccine Protection: 64% at First Dose, 94% at Second – HealthDay AND Pfizer and Moderna vaccines reduce Covid-19 hospitalization risk by 94% among older adults, CDC study says – CNN
Commentary on Twitter
New @CDCMMWR has good news: mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna) reduced the risk of #COVID19-related hospitalization by 94% among fully vaccinated people 65+. CDC recommends getting a COVID-19 vaccine to prevent severe COVID-19 illness: https://t.co/W4SFuV6wQp. pic.twitter.com/Jf4ph2rl4s
— CDC (@CDCgov) April 28, 2021
Ethics Commission Position Statement: Admission criteria and management of critical care patients in a pandemic context – “Age cannot be used as the sole criterion for admission nor denial of access to ICU settings”
29 Apr, 2021 | 08:36h | UTC
China May Become World’s Biggest Vaccine Supplier As India Defaults On Global Deliveries
29 Apr, 2021 | 08:39h | UTC
Pre-post study: A hospital quality improvement intervention significantly reduced the rates of cesarean delivery for nulliparous, term, singleton, vertex births
29 Apr, 2021 | 08:21h | UTCHospital Quality Improvement Interventions, Statewide Policy Initiatives, and Rates of Cesarean Delivery for Nulliparous, Term, Singleton, Vertex Births in California – JAMA (free for a limited period)
Editorial: Initiatives to Reduce Cesarean Delivery Rates for Low-risk First Births – JAMA
Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)
"Rates of cesarean delivery for NTSV births in California decreased [from 26% to 22.8%] in the setting of a coordinated hospital-level collaborative and statewide initiatives designed to support vaginal birth.
"The rest of the US had no change."https://t.co/jwKkQZ4nix @cmqcc
— Ben Harder #BlackLivesMatter (@benharder) April 27, 2021
CDC says fully vaccinated Americans can go outside without masks – but masks still needed in crowds
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:44h | UTCCDC Guidance: Choosing Safer Activities – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Commentaries: CDC: If You’re Vaccinated, You Don’t Need To Mask Outdoors (Unless You’re In A Crowd) – NPR AND CDC: Fully vaccinated Americans can go maskless outdoors – CIDRAP
Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)
If you are fully vaccinated against #COVID19, you can start doing many things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, get a vaccine as soon as you can. See full details: https://t.co/s5kXwg65fB pic.twitter.com/fvhehUiiCi
— CDC (@CDCgov) April 27, 2021
Socioeconomic status determines COVID-19 incidence and related mortality in Santiago, Chile
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:41h | UTC
Commentary on Twitter
An analysis of #COVID19 incidence and mortality in Santiago, Chile, highlights major consequences of healthcare disparities in a highly segregated city, showing that these inequalities disproportionately affected younger people @OxfordStats @HarvardChanSPH https://t.co/8f2Q2PdqBj pic.twitter.com/Ip1cikxvi7
— Science Magazine (@ScienceMagazine) April 27, 2021
Covid-19 in India: Cases, deaths and oxygen supply
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:40h | UTCCovid-19 in India: Cases, deaths and oxygen supply – BBC
See also: In Covid’s grip, India gasps for air: ‘If there is an apocalypse, this has to be one’ – STAT
How the UK found the first effective Covid-19 treatment — and saved a million lives (about the RECOVERY trial and the effects of Dexamethasone)
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:36h | UTCHow the UK found the first effective Covid-19 treatment — and saved a million lives – Vox
Related: Covid-19: The Inside Story of the RECOVERY Trial AND Covid: The London bus trip that saved maybe a million lives – BBC
Scientists say the rush to do Covid research led to a whole lot of waste
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:34h | UTCScientists Say The Rush To Do COVID Research Led To A Whole Lot Of Waste – NPR
Original Article: How COVID-19 has fundamentally changed clinical research in global health – The Lancet Global Health
Related: Data Show Panic and Disorganization Dominate the Study of Covid-19 Drugs (other commentaries on the subject)
See also: The Lancet Series: Clinical Trials in Global Health
Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)
Quantity > quality? The magnitude of #COVID19 research of questionable methodological quality reveals an urgent need to optimise clinical trial research—but how?
A new @LancetGH Series discusses challenges and solutions. Read https://t.co/z4SluR3yuh 1/5 pic.twitter.com/94RRVT0qhF
— The Lancet (@TheLancet) April 16, 2021
Tracking the Evolution of a ‘Variant of Concern’ in Brazil – “P.1 may be 1.7 to 2.4 times more transmissible than earlier variants”
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:38h | UTCTracking the Evolution of a ‘Variant of Concern’ in Brazil – NIH Director’s Blog
Related: Genomics and epidemiology of the P.1 SARS-CoV-2 lineage in Manaus, Brazil – Science
Overview of SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults living with HIV – Low CD4 cell counts, or untreated HIV infection is associated a more severe clinical course
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:32h | UTCOverview of SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults living with HIV – The Lancet HIV
Commentary on Twitter
New Review: Overview of SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults living with HIV: https://t.co/xXTntfIYPF pic.twitter.com/6w6MUSbo3n
— The Lancet HIV (@TheLancetHIV) April 27, 2021
USPSTF Statement recommends screening for hypertension in adults 18 years or older with office blood pressure measurement – diagnostic confirmation with blood pressure measurements outside of the clinical setting is advised before starting treatment
28 Apr, 2021 | 08:16h | UTCEvidence Report: Screening for Hypertension in Adults: Updated Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force – JAMA
Author Interview: USPSTF Recommendation: Screening for Hypertension in Adults
Editorials: The USPSTF Recommendation on Blood Pressure Screening: Making 2021 the Transformative Year in Controlling Hypertension AND USPSTF Recommendation Statement on Hypertension Screening in Adults—Where Do We Go From Here? – JAMA Network Open AND Will the 2021 USPSTF Hypertension Screening Recommendation Decrease or Worsen Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Blood Pressure Control? – JAMA Network Open AND USPSTF Recommendations for Screening for Hypertension in Adults: It Is Time to Unmask Hypertensive Risk – JAMA Cardiology
JAMA Patient Page: Screening for Hypertension in Adults
Immunization services begin slow recovery from COVID-19 disruptions, though millions of children remain at risk from deadly diseases – WHO, UNICEF, Gavi
27 Apr, 2021 | 08:41h | UTCRelated report: Disability considerations for COVID-19 vaccination: WHO and UNICEF policy brief, 19 April 2021 – World Health Organization
Commentary on Twitter
While immunization services begin slow recovery from #COVID19, millions of children around the 🌍🌏🌎 remain vulnerable to deadly diseases.
More info 👉https://t.co/YjskC8z6nc pic.twitter.com/SEv8d2VSAB
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 26, 2021
Why the World Should Worry About India – “The world’s largest vaccine producer is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge—and that’s everyone’s problem.”
27 Apr, 2021 | 08:33h | UTCWhy the World Should Worry About India – The Atlantic
See also: Covid-19: Countries rally to support India through “storm that has shaken the nation” – The BMJ AND As India breaks another global Covid-19 record and hospitals run out of oxygen, countries pledge assistance and aid – CNN AND India’s COVID-19 crisis prompts global response – CIDRAP
Study in nursing homes shows rapid antigen testing could be a useful tool to identify contagious people at risk for transmitting SARS-CoV-2
27 Apr, 2021 | 08:35h | UTCEditorial: Utility of Rapid Antigen Tests in Nursing Homes
Commentary on Twitter
💥🆕 Despite lower positive agreement compared with RT-PCR, antigen test positivity had higher agreement with shedding of replication-competent virus. These results suggest that antigen testing could be a useful tool to rapidly identify contagious people. https://t.co/Dlw7ttLlSL pic.twitter.com/sGmfVIy02H
— Antibiotic Steward Bassam Ghanem 🅱️C🆔🅿️🌟 (@ABsteward) April 26, 2021
M-A: Prophylaxis against Covid-19: 1 – no benefit from Hydroxychloroquine; 2 – as studies on ivermectin so far have been small, it remains very uncertain whether ivermectin reduces SARS-CoV-2 infection
27 Apr, 2021 | 08:44h | UTCProphylaxis against covid-19: living systematic review and network meta-analysis – The BMJ
Opinion | Real-world data, not predictions, should drive decisions on Covid-19 and school opening
27 Apr, 2021 | 08:26h | UTCReal-world data, not predictions, should drive decisions on Covid-19 and school opening – STAT
Commentary from the author on Twitter
Real-world data, not predictions, should drive decisions on Covid-19 and school opening with @elbeezuchdt @citizen_oregon: Concept is simple. Schools are half/closed due to alarmist inaccurate models. Use real-world data to drive our decisions on kids.https://t.co/HfZl8IAVXq
— Monica Gandhi MD, MPH (@MonicaGandhi9) April 23, 2021
Covid-19: Infections fell by 65% after first dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine, data show
25 Apr, 2021 | 22:06h | UTC
Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)
Over one year into the #COVID19 pandemic, about 9⃣0⃣% of countries surveyed still report one or more disruptions to essential health services. Major efforts are required to restore and strengthen services in all countries.
👉 https://t.co/P34xPKY1Io pic.twitter.com/UYDQPX67Vw
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 23, 2021
Opinion | The International Community Has One Job: Getting COVID-19 Under Control
25 Apr, 2021 | 22:09h | UTC
Commentary on Twitter
India is in a crisis of unimaginable scale & predictable severity–and our international leadership is MIA and ready to move on. Pull it together & do your ONE JOB: getting the entire world out of the COVID mass casualty catastrophe.
w/@glassmanamanda https://t.co/0Xj3KZgUTh
— Rachel Bonnifield (@rachelbnfield) April 23, 2021
WHO chief – The world can bring the global COVID-19 pandemic under control in the coming months provided it distributes the necessary resources fairly
25 Apr, 2021 | 22:08h | UTCSee also: Opinion | I Run the W.H.O., and I Know That Rich Countries Must Make a Choice – The New York Times
Commentary on Twitter
We have all the tools to tame the #COVID19 pandemic everywhere in a matter of months. It comes down to a simple choice: to share or not to share. My piece on #VaccinEquity in the @nytimes. https://t.co/OIRAogZPwl
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 23, 2021
Recommendations to address patients fear of adverse effects and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy
25 Apr, 2021 | 21:58h | UTC
WHO: COVID-19 continues to disrupt essential health services in 90% of countries
25 Apr, 2021 | 22:12h | UTC
Commentary on Twitter (thread – click for more)
Over one year into the #COVID19 pandemic, about 9⃣0⃣% of countries surveyed still report one or more disruptions to essential health services. Major efforts are required to restore and strengthen services in all countries.
👉 https://t.co/P34xPKY1Io pic.twitter.com/UYDQPX67Vw
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 23, 2021
U.S. lifts pause on use of J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine
25 Apr, 2021 | 21:57h | UTCU.S. lifts pause on use of J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine – STAT
See also: CDC, FDA lift pause on using J&J’s coronavirus vaccine, add safety warning – CNN AND ACIP opts to lift pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccine – CIDRAP