Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 10 released a COVID-19 update announcing the following actions taken in its response to the pandemic: The FDA and National Institutes of Health have updated the CURE ID crowd-sourcing app to make it easier for healthcare providers to share their…

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Editor's Note A new survey from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health finds that the number of Americans with severe psychological distress and loneliness are up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing results of this April 2020 survey with a similar survey in 2018, the researchers found that: symptoms…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 9 released a guide for healthcare facilities to resume in-person, non-emergent, non-COVID-19 services in states and regions with no evidence of COVID-19 resurgence. Recommendations include: designating separate areas for COVID-19 care establishing non-COVID-19 care zones where patients can…

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Editor's Note Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving procedure whose benefits outweigh the risk of COVID-19 infection, finds this study. University of Washington, Seattle, researchers’ analysis of data found that from January 1 to April 15, emergency medical services (EMS) responded to 1,067 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests of which 478…

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Editor's Note Citing a response to public health concerns, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on June 7 reissued certain emergency use authorizations (EUAs) to specify which respirators are appropriate for decontamination and reuse. The FDA determined that certain respirators should not be decontaminated for reuse by healthcare professionals during…

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Editor's Note This study of spine surgeons around the world found they are experiencing the effects of COVID-19, including canceled procedures, changes in clinical roles, anxiety, and risk of exposure to the disease itself because of insufficient protective equipment. Researchers evaluated survey responses from 902 spine surgeons with membership in…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons on June 3 released new resources to help surgeons and hospitals address patients’ concerns about having surgical procedures that were delayed by COVID-19. The document, “Preparing to have surgery during the time of COVID-19,” includes a patient-surgeon discussion guide with suggested questions patients…

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Editor's Note The overall incidence of COVID-19 in children who had preoperative screening was less than 1%; however, this varied greatly between regions, ranging from 0.22% to 2.65%. Included in the study were pediatric patients presenting for surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, and Seattle…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 3 announced that it supports the following positions for healthcare organizations to prevent nosocomial COVID-19 infections as they resume routine patient care. Organizations should continue to follow CDC recommendations for universal masking of staff, patients, and visitors. Personnel should wear filtering facepiece (N95)…

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Editor's Note Patients having surgery after contracting COVID-19 are at greatly increased risk of postoperative death, this study finds. Researchers examined data for 1,128 patients from 235 hospitals in 24 countries. Overall 30-day postoperative mortality was 23.8%. Mortality was high across all subgroups including: elective surgery, 18.9% emergency surgery, 25.6%…

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