It’s been an important week with big developments in potential COVID-19 vaccines; News on how steroid therapy may help some COVID patients; There’s results from the Actemra trial in COVID pneumonia patients; News that sputum samples may be just as effective as nasopharyngeal samples for detecting SARS-CVv-2; And researchers have linked vaccination to reduced risks of Alzheimer disease.
Children younger than 5 years have lower median cycle threshold values compared with older children, adults
A phase 3 study of tocilizumab (Actemra®) for the treatment of hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia did not meet its primary and key secondary end points.
Vaccination with mRNA-1273, Moderna’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine candidate, led to robust immune responses and protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in nonhuman primates.
Sputum sampling was found to be a valuable method for diagnosing and monitoring patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to a recent systematic review and meta-analysis published in EBioMedicine.
Pfizer and BioNTech have selected a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine candidate and have initiated their phase 2/3 safety and efficacy trial.
At median of 16 days from testing date, 35 percent report not having returned to usual state of health.
The observational study, which was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, aimed to assess the effect of glucocorticoid therapy on mortality and the need for mechanical ventilation in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
The trial, which is the first to be implemented under Operation Warp Speed, is expected to enroll around 30,000 adults and will be conducted at multiple clinical research sites across the US.
Early research shows the vaccine, at dose of 5×1010 viral particles, seems safe, induces immune response.
