Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the University of Cincinnati, finds that areas with low vaccination rates experienced a more intense surge of new cases during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily driven by the Delta variant. In the analysis, COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people during…
Editor's Note A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) national survey analysis found that a recommendation from a healthcare provider may help increase COVID-19 vaccination rates, according to a February 8 report in JAMA. The survey, analyzed in the December 17, 2021, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, titled…
Editor's Note In this study, Canadian researchers at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario) confirm that their newly developed inhaled form of COVID-19 vaccine provides long-lasting protection against the original strain of SARS-Cov-2 and variants of concern. The researchers compared two types of adenovirus platforms for the vaccine. The adenoviruses serve as…
Editor's Note According to the February 10 Healthcare Purchasing News, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced a new American Rescue Plan funding of $66.5 million to help expand outreach efforts to boost COVID-19 vaccine rates. The funding will…
Editor's Note This study by researchers at Umea University in Sweden finds a progressive waning in vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 of any severity during the first 9 months after the second vaccination, with the rate of waning differing by vaccine type Analyzing the total population of Sweden, vaccine effectiveness was…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 28 identified the recall by Empowered Diagnostics (Pompano Beach, Florida) of its CovClear COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test and ImmunoPass COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Rapid Test as Class I, the most serious. Empowered Diagnostics distributed these tests with labeling indicating they were…
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…
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…
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…
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…