The Journal of infectious diseases
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has unveiled unsettling disparities in the outcome of the disease among African Americans. These disparities are not new but are rooted in structural inequities that must be addressed to adequately care for communities of color. We describe the historical context of these structural inequities, their impact on the progression of COVID-19 in the African American (black) community, and suggest a multifaceted approach to addressing these healthcare disparities. (Of note, terminology from survey data cited for this article varied from blacks, African Americans, or both; for consistency, we use African Americans throughout.).
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High-throughput molecular testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be enabled by group testing in which pools of specimens are screened, and individual specimens tested only after a pool tests positive. Several laboratories have recently published examples of pooling strategies applied to SARS-CoV-2 specimens, but overall guidance on efficient pooling strategies is lacking. ⋯ We compare outcomes that may be expected in different testing situations and provide general recommendations for group testing implementation. A free, publicly-available Web calculator is provided to help inform laboratory decisions on SARS-CoV-2 pooling algorithms.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Phase 1 Safety and Immunogenicity Study of a Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine With an Adenovirus 26 Vector Encoding Prefusion F (Ad26.RSV.preF) in Adults Aged ≥60 Years.
Despite the high disease burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in older adults, there is no approved vaccine. We evaluated the experimental RSV vaccine, Ad26.RSV.preF, a replication-incompetent adenovirus 26 vector encoding the F protein stabilized in prefusion conformation. ⋯ Ad26.RSV.preF (LD and HD) had an acceptable safety profile and elicited sustained humoral and cellular immune responses after a single immunization in older adults.
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Influenza viruses harboring treatment-emergent I38F/M/N/T substitutions in the polymerase acidic (PA) endonuclease exhibited reduced susceptibility to baloxavir and were associated with virus rebound and variable clinical response in clinical trials. US regulatory review of registrational trial data also identified treatment-emergent PA substitutions E23K in A/H1N1 viruses and E23G/K, A37T, and E199G in A/H3N2 viruses, which conferred reduced susceptibility to baloxavir, although to a lesser degree than I38F/M/N/T substitutions, and were associated with virus rebound. Although these non-I38 substitutions emerged less frequently than substitutions at I38, they represent alternate pathways to baloxavir virologic resistance and should be monitored accordingly.
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The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has forced the clinical and scientific community to try drug repurposing of existing antiviral agents as a quick option against severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Under this scenario, interferon (IFN) β-1a, whose antiviral potential is already known, and which is a drug currently used in the clinical management of multiple sclerosis, may represent as a potential candidate. In this report, we demonstrate that IFN-β-1a was highly effective in inhibiting in vitro SARS-CoV-2 replication at clinically achievable concentration when administered after virus infection.