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UK vaccine advisors also recommend 12 week intervals between doses of both vaccines to protect more people with initial doses.
An Italian study in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy yesterday found that 21.9% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients acquired bacterial or fungal superinfections—infection by a secondary pathogen—that complicated the course of their recovery.
In other developments, Australia and Japan reported cases involving the South African SARS-CoV-2 variant.
The incoming administration's goals are to take stronger federal leadership to get efforts back on track and speed vaccination by five or six times its current pace.
Older people, Asians, and those with Medicaid coverage and preference for a non-English language at one US hospital system had fewer completed telemedicine visits than their peers during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study of patients scheduled for primary care or specialty telehealth visits at the University of Pennsylvania.
Only two reinfections occurred in antibody-positive workers, both asymptomatic, and researchers said earlier infection appears to protect for at least 6 months.
As cases soar in both the UK and South Africa, scientists are scrambling to detail variant virus characteristics.
The next few months could be difficult, if Christmas and New Years gatherings and travel seed a new surge in infections.
A study of hospital air contamination in JAMA Network Open last week found that 17.4% of air samples from environments near COVID-19 patients were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, the virus that causes COVID-19, but only 8.6% contained viable virus.
Leading US viral researchers assessed flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) against two viral strains during the 2019-20 flu season, finding 39% overall effectiveness. The study in Clinical Infectious Diseases late last week suggests that the seasonal flu vaccine was 45% effective against a mutated Victoria lineage B strain, but only 30% effective against 2009 H1N1 variants due to a late-season vaccine mismatch.
No COVID vertical transmission was found, but maternal antibody transfer was less than expected.
The findings provide hope that vaccines may generate long-term protection.
France eases its ban on travel from England, a move prompted by the discovery of a rapidly spreading variant virus.
One reason for concern: The variant has developed 23 mutations in just months.
More than 40% of US hospitals with ICUs are at 85% or higher capacity, as Pfizer agrees to supply 100,000 more vaccine doses.
A multistate analysis of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the American Journal of Epidemiology yesterday found that 12.6% of patients died, with blacks especially hard hit.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine likely protects against the UK variant, an official says.
Iran has more than 5 million diabetic residents, with over 600,000 needing daily insulin injections.
The findings challenge WHO guidance, which calls for antibiotics before the incision, rather than after cord clamping.
A study in JAMA Internal Medicine today demonstrates a sharp decline in US hospital COVID-19 mortality rates during the first 6 months of the pandemic, with wide variation across hospitals and poorer outcomes linked to higher county-level case rates.
