Editor's Note The findings of this study by Israeli and Yale University researchers suggest that the waning of vaccine-induced protection against COVID-19 is counteracted in the short-term by a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In this case-controlled analysis of 306,710 Israeli adults 40 years and older, there was a…

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Editor's Note A Louisiana federal judge, on November 30, blocked the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers (HCWs) at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid nationwide, the November 30 Axios reports. In his ruling, the judge says the executive branch does not have the authority to bypass Congress in enforcing…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers from Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, finds that healthcare workers (HCWs) had significant changes in their personal and professional lives during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, before the availability of vaccines. Findings from this analysis of 1,344 HCWs (ie, nurses,…

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Editor's Note A federal judge, on November 29, blocked a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for healthcare workers (HCWs) in facilities participating in CMS programs in 10 states, the November 29 Bloomberg Law reports. In his ruling, the judge says the CMS mandate requires…

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Editor's Note This study from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, finds that racial and ethnic minority populations in the US experienced higher COVID-19 mortality rates, and those with lower educational attainment died at the highest rates within racial and ethnic groups. Among 219.1 million adults…

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Editor's Note A study by Premier healthcare consultants finds that the average annual salary for RNs grew about 4% to $81,376 this year, the November 17 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. The study, which examined salaries of about 60,000 nurses for The Wall Street Journal, notes that RN salaries are rising…

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Editor's Note This study led by nurse researchers at the University of Health Sciences, Gulhane Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey finds that nail brushes used during surgical hand scrubs are not necessary, and there is no difference between the effects of 1-minute and 2-minute scrubs on bacterial counts. The…

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Editor's Note This study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that 30% of healthcare workers (HCWs) in 2,086 US hospitals remained unvaccinated against COVID-19 as of September 15. Analyzing data on more than 3.3 million HCWs, the researchers found that vaccination rates climbed from 36% to…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine finds that staff common area surface contamination with SARS-CoV-2 did not predict healthcare worker (HCW) COVID-19 infection. A total of 640 samples were obtained from staff common areas over 20 weeks. Unadjusted analysis found that…

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Editor's Note This study from the UK of surgical patients in 18 countries finds that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted surgical patients—directly through comorbid infections and indirectly by increasing mortality—irrespective of their COVID-19 status. In a subgroup analysis of 3,176 adult emergency surgical patients, all-cause, in-hospital…

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