November 2, 2020 - a podcast by COVID19LST

In today's episode we discuss:

—Climate: No-Fault Compensation for Vaccine Injury and Equitable Access to Covid-19 Vaccines are explored by Public Health experts associated with Yale University. They discuss the concept of Vaccine Nationalism, the creation of the COVAX facility, and the plight of low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the concerns regarding the benefits and risks of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as vaccine manufacturers protection and liability, the authors suggest utilizing a no-fault compensation for vaccine injury.

—Epidemiology:  A compromised specific humoral immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain is related to viral persistence and periodic shedding in the gastrointestinal tract according to a cohort study conducted by various medical institutions in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, China. They found 21/289 Chinese patients with COVID-19 were readmitted due to persistent SARS-CoV-2 positivity. Among them, anal viral detection was positive in 15/21 (71.4%) patients and there was replication in the GI tract in 3/16 (18.7%) patients, with no respiratory tract replication. They hypothesize there is viral rebound due to decreased levels of IgA and IgG antibodies to the viral receptor-binding domain (RBD) and thus, a lack of protective humoral immune response suggesting this leads to persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the GI tract along with active viral shedding.

—Transmission & Prevention: Climatic influence on the magnitude of COVID-19 outbreak was explored via a stochastic model-based global analysis. Researchers evaluated the effect of climates on COVID-19 transmission in 228 cities across 3 climatic zones. They found that the temperature and humidity may be major contributors to COVID-19 transmission. Average temperatures and relative humidity were the primary contributors in Europe, diurnal temperatures were most important for India, and temperature seasonality was most important for Brazil. These findings highlight the relationship between climates and COVID-19 spread and provide more insight into COVID-19 transmission.

—R&D: Diagnosis & Treatments: Two sample pooling strategies for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection for efficient screening of COVID-19 were compared. Using 23 pools each containing 1 positive sample and either 5 or 9 negatives, authors demonstrated a similar diagnostic sensitivity to individual tests (p<0.005) but pooling viral transport medium resulted in a false negative while pooling swabs resulted in diagnosis without loss of sensitivity. Authors suggests pooling swabs may facilitate testing in higher quantities at lower costs, which could be used where resources are limited, however this strategy would require collecting double swab samples for individual re-testing should a pool test positive.

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