Editor's Note In January, 5,757 workers lost their employment because they refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as ordered by a federal mandate and various local mandates covering private businesses. Out of those workers, 4,934 were healthcare providers, the February 4 Becker’s Hospital Review reports from data gathered by executive…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on February 4 announced that it is adding wastewater surveillance to its COVID-19 dashboard data tracking system. The CDC will track the spread of COVID-19 variants based on measurements at more than 500 wastewater monitoring sites across the US. This…

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Editor's Note A new Cosmos study by Epic Research finds that cases of “hospital-developed COVID-19”—or patients who were admitted to the hospital free of infection but acquired COVID-19 during their hospital stay—are low, the American Hospital Association reported February 7. According to the study, only about 1.8% of patients admitted…

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Editor's Note This study led by Marty Makary, MD, MPH, and Dorry Segev, MD, PhD, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, finds natural immunity in unvaccinated healthy US adults up to 20 months after testing positive for COVID-19. Of 1,580 study participants, antibodies were detected in: 99% of…

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Editor's Note This analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the incidence of COVID-19 and hospitalization of COVID-19 patients by vaccination status indicates that vaccination protects against severe COVID-19. Among 422,966 COVID-19 patients in Los Angeles County from November 7, 2021, to January 8, 2022, 141,928…

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Editor's Note This multicenter study by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that COVID-19 patients have a significantly high risk for postoperative complications, particularly elderly males. Of 1,581 patients analyzed, more than half were males over 50 years of age, and most procedures (1,261,…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that racial and ethnic minorities have been more hesitant or unwilling to be vaccinated for COVID-19, compared to Whites. Of study participants in the US (87,388) and UK (1,254,294): Vaccine hesitancy was greater…

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Editor's Note Tons of extra medical waste generated in response to COVID-19 has put tremendous strain on healthcare waste management systems, threatening human and environmental health, according to a February 1 World Health Organization (WHO) report. In this global analysis WHO says: A large share of 87,000 tons of personal…

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Editor's Note The American Hospital Association (AHA) released a new fact sheet describing various waivers issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) during the COVID-19 pandemic that AHA opines should be extended or made permanent, as reported by the January 31 Healthcare Purchasing News. The waivers relate…

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Editor's Note Reducing OR time availability at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh, by 15% helped address a 30% staffing shortage caused by COVID-19, according to a study presented January 29 at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2022, the Anesthesiology Business Event in Dallas. A five-phase approach was used, which included:…

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