December 8, 2020 - a podcast by COVID19LST

In today's episode we discuss:

—Climate: No-fault compensation for vaccine injury. Are we looking at the other side of equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines? An opinion piece on COVID-19 vaccination explains that though there are 79 higher-income countries ready to pay for vaccine distribution in 92 lower-income countries, there is not yet an established method for injury compensation if an adverse vaccine event takes place. This suggests the need for an injury compensation plan in these lower-income countries by incorporating existing systems in wealthier countries, some World Health Organization programs, and the COVAX Facility, an international partnership to help support vaccine access in lower-income countries.

—Epidemiology: One study estimated SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in the US as of September 2020. This cross-sectional study, conducted primarily by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, Georgia), sampled 177,919 residual serum specimens from across all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico during 4 collection periods between July and September, 2020. They found that less than 10% of participants in 42 of 49 jurisdictions had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, with estimates of seropositivity projected in a given jurisdiction to range between fewer than 1% to 23%. This finding suggests a large variation in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence across jurisdictions and that most individuals do not exhibit SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from prior infection, highlighting the need for ongoing preventative practices (face masks, social distancing, etc.) and continued nationwide sera testing to inform SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology in the US.

—Understanding the Pathology: SARS-CoV-2 antibody and COVID-19 severity may vary with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). A group associated with Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania compared the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in 29 children with minimal (n=10) or severe COVID-19 (n=9) to those with MIS-C (n=10). They discovered that children with MIS-C have higher titers of IgG antibody than children with severe COVID-19 that effectively neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and may be due to longer time since onset of infection. This study is one of the first to study this immunological process in children in hopes of identifying pathophysiological pathways to investigate further.

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