Editor's Note This study, funded by the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, finds that individuals who are antibody positive for COVID-19 based on commercial assays, versus those who are antibody negative, are at decreased risk of future COVID-19 infection. In this analysis of 3,257,478 patients with…

Read More

Editor's Note Up to 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) single-dose COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to states, community health centers, and pharmacies next week, if the vaccine receives Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the February 24 The Hill reports. An…

Read More

Editor's Note This study from the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, shows that the proportion of asymptomatic patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 is significant, and why universal testing is important to prevent hospital-acquired infection. Of 2,882 patients admitted to the hospital, 103 were COVID-19 positive.…

Read More

Editor's Note An electronic medical record (EMR) data analysis by Epic Health Research Network for the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that from March through December 2020, hospital admissions were 8.5% below predictions because of COVID-19. The analysis, which is based on Epic’s EMR data on all inpatient admissions from December…

Read More

Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on February 18, issued a statement saying there is no epidemiological evidence out of more than 100 million cases globally that COVID-19 can be transmitted through food or food…

Read More

Editor's Note This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study finds a huge drop in routine vaccinations in Medicare beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing data from January to July 2019 and January to July 2020, declines of 70% to 89% in routine vaccinations were seen in mid-April 2020.…

Read More

Editor's Note This follow-up survey of 5,285 US adults, which was completed in September 2020, finds that overall: 1,710 (33.0%) reported anxiety or depression symptoms 1,536 (29.6%) reported COVID-19 related trauma- and stressor-related disorder symptoms 781 (15.1%) reported increased substance use 618 (11.9%) reported having seriously considered trying to kill…

Read More

Editor's Note In a February 18 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Marty Makary, MD, a surgeon and a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, predicts that the US will have herd immunity to COVID-19 by April. He notes that COVID-19 cases have dropped…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on February 17, announced that it had updated its information on offsite (ie, virtual) surveys and reviews. In response to COVID-19, the Joint Commission stopped most onsite surveys and reviews from March 16 to May 31, 2020, and they developed processes for offsite events. As…

Read More

Editor's Note A survey by Morning Consult finds that of 16,970 working US adults polled, 56% said they would receive a COVID-19 vaccination if offered. This percentage rose to 61% during the final week of the survey, which was conducted between October 29, 2020, and January 29, 2021, according to…

Read More