Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on January 8 updated its guidance to clarify that overlapping may occur in phases of vaccinating priority groups, Reuters reports. The CDC reiterated that priority recipients of the COVID-19 vaccines are still healthcare workers, nursing home residents, those aged 75…

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Editor's Note This study examines factors influencing patients’ decisions to accept or decline telepsychiatry care after stay-at-home orders were initiated in Michigan. Researchers from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, surveyed 244 patients whose in-person appointments were scheduled within the first 3 weeks of stay-at-home orders. The majority (202, 82.8%)…

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Editor's Note This decision analytical model from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that transmission of COVID-19 by asymptomatic individuals accounts for more than half of all transmissions. Combining baseline assumptions that peak infectiousness occurs at the median of symptom onset and that 30% never develop…

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Editor's Note Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on January 8 announced the renewal of the COVID-19 national public health emergency declaration, the American Hospital Association reports. The renewal is effective January 21 and will last 90 days. The declaration provides hospitals, health systems, and healthcare workers…

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Editor's Note Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, President and CEO of Ofstead & Associates, has announced that Ofstead & Associates is offering all of their webinars for free until January 21. The CE-eligible webinars include: Uncovering device adverse events to improve safety for patients and personnel Respiratory protection: Unmasked. A selection…

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Editor's Note In mid-March 2020, when many countries closed schools in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19, Sweden decided to keep preschools with children 1-6 years of age and schools with children 7-16 years of age open. In this January 6, 2021, letter to the editor, researchers from…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 6, 2020, issued an update on offsite surveys and reviews, noting that it had stopped most onsite surveys and reviews from March 16 to May 31, 2020. During that time they developed processes for conducting offsite or virtual events. As of mid-December, more…

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Editor's Note From December 14 to December 23, 2020, monitoring by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System found 4,393 (0.2%) adverse events after administration of 1,893,360 first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Of these adverse events, 21 were determined to be cases…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 6, 2021, reported on an online questionnaire sent to organizations in September 2020 to learn about their challenges and needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 735 respondents, representing a variety of healthcare settings, reported: a medium to high impact on their…

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Editor’s Note In this study of nursing home residents with COVID-19, increased age, male gender, and impaired cognitive and physical function were independent risk factors for all-cause 30-day mortality. Of 5,256 nursing home residents with COVID-19 in 351 US nursing homes: Odds of death were 1.46 times higher for residents…

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