Editor's Note This study by researchers with the University of Birmingham, England-led COVIDSurg-GlobalSurg Collaboratives (global partnerships of more than 15,000 surgeons) finds that patients who isolate before their surgical procedures to protect themselves from COVID-19 have a higher risk of postoperative pulmonary complications than those who don’t isolate. Researchers analyzed…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, find that most COVID-19 patients have persistent antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus for more than a year after acute infection. The study also shows that patients with more severe disease had higher…

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Editor's Note In an August 5 statement, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) says healthcare workers (HCWs) must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or have at least received their second dose by September 30, Fox 5 San Diego reports. This new order is different from last month’s order that…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 2 issued its final Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule for FY 2022. The final rule: increases Medicare payment rates by a net 2.5%, compared to FY 2021, for hospitals that are meaningful users of electronic health records…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers from Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, Washington, report on rare cases of postvaccination myocarditis and pericarditis. Of 2,000,285 individuals who received at least one COVID-19 vaccination in the analysis, 20 had vaccine-related myocarditis and 37 had pericarditis. Myocarditis occurred a median of 3.5 days…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers at South Dakota State University in Brookings found that only 15% of healthcare workers (HCWs) in three rural communities had antibodies to COVID-19 over an 8-month period before vaccines came out. From May 13 through December 22, 2020, 336 volunteers at five healthcare…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) on August 4 announced the launch of a “Talk It Up” campaign to help surgeons address their patients’ concerns and help them understand the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The campaign includes a series of videos about the importance of vaccination,…

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Editor's Note Coronavirus sequencing research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has uncovered several COVID-19 variants present in its patient population, but Delta is the top one and easily transmitted. Though the researchers had identified just two cases of the Delta variant in Miami-Dade County a month…

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Editor's Note As of August 1, 2021, more than 10,200 people in Florida were hospitalized with COVID-19, which surpasses the 10,179 reported during the previous peak on July 23, 2020, Becker’s Hospital Review reported on August 2. Because of this peak in hospitalizations, some Florida hospitals and healthcare systems are…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Massachusetts Department of Public Health finds that people vaccinated against COVID-19 can carry as much coronavirus as those who are unvaccinated. After multiple large public events in a Barnstable County, Massachusetts town, 469…

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