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  • Who gets a COVID vaccine first? Access plans are taking shape

    28 Sep, 2020
    Advisory groups around the world release guidance to prioritize health-care workers and those in front-line jobs.
    Whether it takes weeks, as US President Donald Trump has hinted, or months, as most health-care experts expect, an approved vaccine against the coronavirus is coming, and it’s hotly anticipated. Still, it will initially be in short supply while manufacturers scale up production. As the pandemic continues to put millions at risk daily, including health-care workers, older people...
  • COVID-19 can affect the heart

    28 Sep, 2020
    COVID-19 has a spectrum of potential heart manifestations with diverse mechanisms
    The family of seven known human coronaviruses are known for their impact on the respiratory tract, not the heart. However, the most recent coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has marked tropism for the heart and can lead to myocarditis (inflammation of the heart), necrosis of its cells, mimicking of a heart attack, arrhythmias, and acute or protracted heart failure (musc...
  • Determinants of the outcomes of patients with cancer infected with SARS-CoV-2: results from the Gustave Roussy cohort

    23 Sep, 2020
    Abstract
    Patients with cancer are presumed to be at increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes due to underlying malignancy and treatment-induced immunosuppression. Of the first 178 patients managed for COVID-19 at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre, 125 (70.2%) were hospitalized, 47 (26.4%) developed clinical worsening and 31 (17.4%) died. An age of over 70 years, smoking status, metastatic disease, cytotoxic chemotherapy and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group score of ≥2 at the last vis...
  • National Geographic recommends which vaccines you can trust

    22 Sep, 2020

    More than 150 coronavirus vaccines are in development across the world—and hopes are high to bring one to market in record time to ease the global crisis. Several efforts are underway to help make that possible, including the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, which has pledged $10 billion and aims to develop and deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by January 2021. The World Health Organization is also coordinating global efforts to...
  • HPB surgery in the time of COVID

    22 Sep, 2020

    Editor

    The pandemic resulting from the transmission of the SARS‐CoV‐2 to the human population has stressed every health care system in the world. The impact on the provision of surgical services has been profound and one of the first and ubiquitous responses was to cease all non‐essential surgical operating. HPB centres internationally have reported a reduction in the number of surgical resections and the adoption of non‐surgical management of pathologies that traditionally were tr...
  • Structural basis for neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV by a potent therapeutic antibody

    18 Sep, 2020
    Abstract
    The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in an unprecedented public health crisis. There are no approved vaccines or therapeutics for treating COVID-19. Here we report a humanized monoclonal antibody, H014, that efficiently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV pseudoviruses as well as authentic SARS-CoV-2 at nanomolar concentrations by engaging the spike (S) receptor binding domain (RBD). H0...
  • Clinical characterization and risk factors associated with cytokine release syndrome induced by COVID-19 and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy

    18 Sep, 2020
    Abstract
    An excessive immune response during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) can induce cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which is associated with life-threatening complications and disease progression. This retrospective study evaluated the clinical characteristics of severe CRS (sCRS, grade 3–4) induced by severe COVID-19 (40 patients) or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy as a comparator (41 patients). Grade 4 CRS was significantly more common in the COVID-19 group (15/40 (3...
  • Progress in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 and the role of surgeons in the front line of the pandemic

    6 Sep, 2020
    The current struggle to control and contain COVID-19 is critical and surgeons are on the front line in the fight against this virus. Surgeons, and other medical workers in the field of surgery, have a solid foundation and experience in medical treatment and intensive care, and an understanding of the support of respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and other systemic organs. Furthermore, the operative standards of aseptic techniques in their daily work enable surgeons to adapt to the working e...
  • Is BMI Higher in Younger Patients with COVID‐19? Association Between BMI and COVID‐19 Hospitalization by Age

    4 Sep, 2020
    Abstract
    Objective

    Obesity has been found to be a risk factor for hospitalization with coronavirus disease (COVID‐19). This study investigated whether patients hospitalized with COVID‐19 differed in BMI at older versus younger ages and whether trends were independent of diabetes and hypertension.

    Methods

    A cross‐sectional analysis of patients hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID‐19 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital from March 19, 2020, until April 4, 2020, was pe...
  • Heart Failure In Covid‐19 Patients: Prevalence, Incidence And Prognostic Implications

    4 Sep, 2020
    ABSTRACT
    AIMS

    Data regarding impact of COVID‐19 in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients and its potential to trigger acute heart failure (AHF) is lacking. The aim of this work was to study characteristics, cardiovascular outcomes and mortality in patients with confirmed COVID‐19 infection and prior diagnosis of HF. Also, to identify predictors and prognostic implications for AHF decompensations during hospital admission and to determine whether there was a correlation between withdr...
  • Prevalence of Surface Contamination With SARS-CoV-2 in a Radiation Oncology Clinic

    4 Sep, 2020
    The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has resulted in a global pandemic. It is hypothesized that the virus spreads from person to person via respiratory droplets or contact with contaminated surfaces and objects. Prior studies evaluating environmental contamination with SARS-CoV-2 have been conducted in health care settings treating patients known to have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, studies evaluating clinics that do not ...
  • The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on the practice of thoracic oncology surgery: a survey of members of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS)

    1 Sep, 2020
    OBJECTIVES
    There is widespread acknowledgment that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted surgical services. The European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) sent out a survey to assess what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the practice of thoracic oncology surgery.
    METHODS
    All ESTS members were invited (13–20 April 2020) to complete an online questionnaire of 26 questions, designed by the ESTS learning affairs committee.
    RESULTS
    The response rate was 23.0% an...