Editor's Note This retrospective cohort analysis led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that a crisis standards of care (CSOC) scoring system designed to allocate scarce resources during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with racial inequities. A total of 498 adult patients…

Read More

Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 16, designated the recall of SD Biosensor’s Standard Q COVID-19 Ag Home Test as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because the test, which uses a nasal swab sample to detect COVID-19 antigens, is not authorized, cleared,…

Read More

Editor's Note In this poll of 2,200 adults in the US, conducted in December 2021 by philanthropy de Beaumont Foundation, 78% of respondents said physicians who intentionally spread misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines should be disciplined, JAMA Network February 16 reported. According to JAMA, most professional medical societies and specialty…

Read More

Editor's Note On March 15, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted an emergency use authorization request to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a second booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine for adults aged 65 and older who have already received a booster of an approved COVID-10 vaccine. The two companies…

Read More

Editor's Note There is a growing concern that ongoing evolution of COVID-19 could lead to variants that are capable of avoiding some or all of the immune response generated by prior infection or vaccination. To this end, Johns Hopkins researchers examined whether mutations in the Omicron variant gave it the…

Read More

Editor's Note As of March 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that the Omicron BA.2 subvariant was responsible for 23.1% of all COVID-19 cases in the US, the March 15 Reuters reports. The subvariant is behind about 39% of cases in the Northeast, New York, and…

Read More

Editor's Note This study from the UK finds that primary immunization with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine provided limited protection against the Omicron variant. A booster substantially increased protection, but that waned over time. Included in the analysis are 886,774 Omicron variant infected patients, 204,154 Delta variant infected patients, and…

Read More

Editor's Note According to a March 4 notice filed by NYC Test & Trace Corps, New York City's (NYC’s) initiative for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, the city is ending universal contact tracing by the end of April, Becker’s Hospital Review March 10 reported. This means that NYC Health +…

Read More

Editor's Note Based on data submitted by Janssen Biotech Inc., a pharmaceutical company wholly owned by Johnson & Johnson, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized on March 7 the extension of the shelf life for refrigerated Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, the American Hospital Association March 14 reported. The…

Read More

Editor's Note ECRI, on March 14, issued its annual list of Patient Safety Concerns, which is dominated this year by staffing shortages and healthcare workers’ mental health that have been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, the top concerns were typically associated with clinical issues caused by…

Read More