Editor's Note In an August 27 letter, Robert Redfield, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asked the nation’s governors to have COVID-19 vaccine distribution sites fully operational by November 1, the September 2 McClatchy DC reports. Delivery firms received guidance to prepare freezer farms in…

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Editor's Note This prospective meta-analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO) Rapid Evidence Appraisal for COVID-19 Therapies, which pooled data from seven randomized clinical trials of critically ill patients with COVID-19, finds that administration of systemic corticosteroids, compared with usual care or placebo, was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality.…

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Editor's Note Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health told the Kaiser Health News on September 1 that a COVID-19 vaccine could be available earlier than expected if clinical trial results are overwhelmingly positive. An independent Data and…

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Editor's Note The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, on September 1, released draft guidelines to help policymakers plan for equitable allocation of a COVID-19 vaccine. The committee that drafted the guidelines was formed at the request of the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from Iceland finds that antibodies against COVID-19 remained stable 4 months after diagnosis. The researchers measured antibodies in serum samples from 30,576 people in Iceland, using six assays (including two pan-immunoglobulin (pan-Ig) assays). They then tested 2,102 samples collected from 1,237 people up to…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and 13 academic medical centers in 12 states found that 6% of healthcare workers had antibody evidence of COVID-19 infection, but 29% of them were asymptomatic and 69% had not received a diagnosis of COVID-19.…

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Editor's Note The World Health Organization (WHO) on August 21 recommended that children in the community setting under age 5 not wear face masks as a preventive measure against COVID-19. Other recommendations include: For those aged 6 to 11 years, there should be a risk-based approach that considers factors such…

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Editor's Note This study, led by economists from Washington University in St Louis, finds that the ideal COVID-19 vaccine policy should emphasize age more than work-exposure risk for vaccination priority. To provide a best-practice scenario to supplement a vaccine distribution strategy, the researchers tracked eight age groups in more than…

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Editor's Note In an interview with the Financial Times, Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn, MD, on August 30, said the FDA could fast-track approval of a COVID-19 vaccine before late-stage clinical trials are complete if regulators believe the benefits of doing so outweigh the risks. Dr Hahn…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers at University of Oxford, UK, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, questions whether rigid safe distancing rules are oversimplified and outdated science based on experiences of past viruses. Instead of single, fixed physical distance rules, the researchers propose graded recommendations that better reflect…

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