Editor's Note As of April 19, nearly 40% of US adults have been given at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports. A total of 85,365,180 Americans have been fully vaccinated, which is 25.7% of the total population. The CDC says…

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Editor's Note In this study led by researchers at New York University Langone Medical Center, New York City, a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorder was associated with an increased risk for mortality in COVID-19 patients, but diagnoses of mood and anxiety disorders were not. This analysis of 7,348 adult COVID-19…

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Editor's Note Owners of hospitals in Chicago and Los Angeles plan to close their facilities in the first half of 2021, the January 14 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles informed its workers on December 31, 2020, that the hospital would be suspending all patient care…

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Editor's Note Moderna Inc (Cambridge, Massachusetts) on November 16 announced that its vaccine is 94.5% effective at preventing COVID-19. Their analysis of a 30,000-person trial (half received the vaccine and half received a placebo) finds that 90 of the 95 COVID-19 documented cases are in the placebo group. The Moderna announcement…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on October 28 issued an interim final rule that requires CMS to cover any COVID-19 vaccines that receive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization at no cost to beneficiaries. The rule also will increase what Medicare pays hospitals for COVID-19…

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Editor's Note This study from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, finds that a susceptible, infected, removed (SIR) epidemic model can be adapted to local population characteristics to inform hospital planning for epidemic-related surges in hospital capacity. Using COVID-19 patients only, the SIR model estimated that it would be 31 to…

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