Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/07/covid-19-scan-jul-13-2021
COVID-19 Scan for Jul 13, 2021
Healthcare COVID vaccine mandates; COVID-19 in dialysis patients
Filed Under:
COVID-19
Public health groups support mandatory COVID vaccines in healthcare
Today a consensus statement by several leading public health organizations and a commentary in the Annals of Internal Medicine voiced support for mandating COVID-19 vaccinations in US healthcare workers (HCWs).
The consensus statement, published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, was submitted by seven associations and societies, including the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Association for Professionals in Epidemiology and Infection Control (APIC), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and it covered US COVID vaccines' real-world effectiveness data, clinical trial findings, and safety results.
The three COVID-19 vaccines under US emergency use authorization (EUA) have a high efficacy to prevent COVID-19 infection, an even higher efficacy against serious infection, and high effectiveness against COVID infection, the authors write. They also note that the vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson) have good profiles.
"Exemptions from this policy apply to those with medical contraindications to all COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States and other exemptions as specified by federal or state law," write the authors. "The consensus statement also supports COVID-19 vaccination of non-employees functioning at a healthcare facility (for example, students, contract workers, volunteers, etc.)."
Jul 13 Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol statement
The commentary frames the issue in the context of mandating flu vaccines, which some healthcare centers have been doing for almost 15 years. Not only is COVID-19 deadlier than the flu, it causes greater workplace and labor force disruptions and affected far more people in 2020 than the average yearly flu impact. Additionally, the authors add, all three COVID-19 vaccines under EUA in the United States have a higher vaccination effectiveness than the typical flu vaccine (70% to 95% vs 30% to 50%).
While healthcare organizations have taken care to protect workers, vaccines would provide continual protection without needing workplace or behavioral changes, the authors write.
They add, "We cannot rely on patients being vaccinated to prevent nosocomial transmission because some patients cannot get the vaccine, some will decline, and vaccine may not be effective in immunocompromised patients."
Jul 13 Ann Intern Med commentary
COVID-19 seroprevalence less than 20% in US dialysis patients
COVID seroprevalence at the beginning of 2021 was 18.9% in 21,464 US patients who received dialysis, or roughly a rise of 15 percentage points compared with July 2020, according to a study yesterday in JAMA Network Open.
The researchers looked at 21,464 patients who received dialysis from US Renal Care facilities in January, excluding people who had received COVID vaccinations. Less than one in five (18.4%) had COVID-19 antibodies, which translated to an 18.7% seroprevalence across the US dialysis population and 21.3% across the US adult population (95% confidence intervals, 18.1% to 19.2% and 20.3% to 22.3%, respectively).
Comparatively, in July 2020, unweighted seroprevalence was 4.4%, which translated to 4.7% in the US dialysis population and 5.4% in the general US population. The researchers also noted that in July seroprevalence was less uniformly spread across geographic areas and between urban and rural areas.
January 2021 dialysis patients were an average age of 63.1 years, with more than 49% 65 or older. More than half (57%) were men, and a disproportionate amount were of racial or ethnic minority (Hispanic, 18%; Black, 29%). In the unweighted sample, those who were 18 to 44 years old (25.9%), were Hispanic or lived in Hispanic neighborhoods (25.1%), or had the lowest income bracket (24.8%) had higher seroprevalence.
"The results suggest that, because these subpopulations overlap with people who express high levels of vaccine hesitancy in the US, vaccination campaigns may need to engage these high-risk groups to achieve sufficient penetration and reach community-level protection against SARS-CoV-2," the researchers write.
Jul 12 JAMA Netw Open study
COVID-19 Scan for Jul 13, 2021
Healthcare COVID vaccine mandates; COVID-19 in dialysis patients
Filed Under:
COVID-19
Public health groups support mandatory COVID vaccines in healthcare
Today a consensus statement by several leading public health organizations and a commentary in the Annals of Internal Medicine voiced support for mandating COVID-19 vaccinations in US healthcare workers (HCWs).
The consensus statement, published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, was submitted by seven associations and societies, including the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Association for Professionals in Epidemiology and Infection Control (APIC), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and it covered US COVID vaccines' real-world effectiveness data, clinical trial findings, and safety results.
The three COVID-19 vaccines under US emergency use authorization (EUA) have a high efficacy to prevent COVID-19 infection, an even higher efficacy against serious infection, and high effectiveness against COVID infection, the authors write. They also note that the vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson) have good profiles.
"Exemptions from this policy apply to those with medical contraindications to all COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States and other exemptions as specified by federal or state law," write the authors. "The consensus statement also supports COVID-19 vaccination of non-employees functioning at a healthcare facility (for example, students, contract workers, volunteers, etc.)."
Jul 13 Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol statement
The commentary frames the issue in the context of mandating flu vaccines, which some healthcare centers have been doing for almost 15 years. Not only is COVID-19 deadlier than the flu, it causes greater workplace and labor force disruptions and affected far more people in 2020 than the average yearly flu impact. Additionally, the authors add, all three COVID-19 vaccines under EUA in the United States have a higher vaccination effectiveness than the typical flu vaccine (70% to 95% vs 30% to 50%).
While healthcare organizations have taken care to protect workers, vaccines would provide continual protection without needing workplace or behavioral changes, the authors write.
They add, "We cannot rely on patients being vaccinated to prevent nosocomial transmission because some patients cannot get the vaccine, some will decline, and vaccine may not be effective in immunocompromised patients."
Jul 13 Ann Intern Med commentary
COVID-19 seroprevalence less than 20% in US dialysis patients
COVID seroprevalence at the beginning of 2021 was 18.9% in 21,464 US patients who received dialysis, or roughly a rise of 15 percentage points compared with July 2020, according to a study yesterday in JAMA Network Open.
The researchers looked at 21,464 patients who received dialysis from US Renal Care facilities in January, excluding people who had received COVID vaccinations. Less than one in five (18.4%) had COVID-19 antibodies, which translated to an 18.7% seroprevalence across the US dialysis population and 21.3% across the US adult population (95% confidence intervals, 18.1% to 19.2% and 20.3% to 22.3%, respectively).
Comparatively, in July 2020, unweighted seroprevalence was 4.4%, which translated to 4.7% in the US dialysis population and 5.4% in the general US population. The researchers also noted that in July seroprevalence was less uniformly spread across geographic areas and between urban and rural areas.
January 2021 dialysis patients were an average age of 63.1 years, with more than 49% 65 or older. More than half (57%) were men, and a disproportionate amount were of racial or ethnic minority (Hispanic, 18%; Black, 29%). In the unweighted sample, those who were 18 to 44 years old (25.9%), were Hispanic or lived in Hispanic neighborhoods (25.1%), or had the lowest income bracket (24.8%) had higher seroprevalence.
"The results suggest that, because these subpopulations overlap with people who express high levels of vaccine hesitancy in the US, vaccination campaigns may need to engage these high-risk groups to achieve sufficient penetration and reach community-level protection against SARS-CoV-2," the researchers write.
Jul 12 JAMA Netw Open study