Clinical and immunological assessment of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections | Nature Medicine
A cohort of asymptomatic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 had significantly lower levels of virus-specific IgG antibodies compared to a cohort of age- and sex-matched symptomatic infected patients.
Inferring the effectiveness of government interventions against COVID-19 | Science
Governments are attempting to control the COVID-19 pandemic with nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). However, the effectiveness of different NPIs at reducing transmission is poorly understood. We gathered chronological data on the implementation of NPIs for several European, and other, countries between January and the end of May 2020. We estimate the effectiveness of NPIs, ranging from limiting gathering sizes, business closures, and closure of educational institutions to stay-at-home orders. To do so, we used a Bayesian hierarchical model that links NPI implementation dates to nationa...
Ranking the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 government interventions | Nature Human Behaviour
Analysing over 50,000 government interventions in more than 200 countries, Haug et al. find that combinations of softer measures, such as risk communication or those increasing healthcare capacity, can be almost as effective as disruptive lockdowns.
The temporal association of introducing and lifting non-pharmaceutical interventions with the time-varying reproduction number (R) of SARS-CoV-2: a modelling study across 131 countries - The Lancet Infectious Diseases
Non-compulsory measures sufficiently reduced human mobility in Tokyo during the COVID-19 epidemic | Scientific Reports
While large scale mobility data has become a popular tool to monitor the mobility patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of non-compulsory measures in Tokyo, Japan on human mobility patterns has been under-studied. Here, we analyze the temporal changes in human mobility behavior, social contact rates, and their correlations with the transmissibility of COVID-19, using mobility data collected from more than 200K anonymized mobile phone users in Tokyo. The analysis concludes that by April 15th (1 week into state of emergency), human mobility behavior decreased by around 50%, resul...
Chapter 1. How resilient have European health systems been to the COVID-19 crisis? | Health at a Glance: Europe 2020 : State of Health in the EU Cycle | OECD iLibrary
This chapter provides an initial assessment of the impact of COVID-19 and the resilience of European health systems to the pandemic, bearing in mind that the pandemic is ongoing and so any definitive assessment would be premature. As of 31 October, over 7 million people were infected and 220 000 died from the virus across EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. During the first wave, the virus had a much more adverse impact on a number of Western European countries, notably Belgium, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as Sweden. Since...
Belgium′s COVID-19 health care collapse: ′It will happen in 10 days′ | Science| In-depth reporting on science and technology | DW | 30.10.2020
More than 300,000 of Belgium's 11 million people have COVID-19 right now. The president of Belgium's medical union tells DW how desperate and precarious the country's health system has become.
Precautionary breaks: planned, limited duration circuit breaks to control the prevalence of COVID-19 | medRxiv
The COVID-19 pandemic in the UK has been characterised by periods of exponential growth and decline, as different non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are brought into play. During the early uncontrolled phase of the outbreak (early March 2020) there was a period of prolonged exponential growth with epidemiological observations such as hospitalisation doubling every 3-4 days (growth rate r ≈ 0.2). The enforcement of strict lockdown measures led to a noticeable decline in all epidemic quantities ( r ≈ −0.06) that slowed during the summer as control measures were relaxed ( r ≈ −0.02). Sinc...
The problem with 'shielding' people from coronavirus? It's almost impossible | Coronavirus | The Guardian
We can’t simply ‘cocoon’ our most vulnerable when they rely on others for care and services, say public health academics Devi Sridhar and Yasmin Rafiei
The impact of COVID-19 and strategies for mitigation and suppression in low- and middle-income countries | Science
Lower-income countries have recognized the potential impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from observing ongoing epidemics. Many have intervened quickly and early with measures to slow viral transmission, which may partly explain the low rates observed so far in these countries. Walker et al. calibrated a global model with country-specific data (see the Perspective by Metcalf et al. ). Despite the potentially protective effects of younger demographics, the closer intergenerational contact, limitations on health care facilities, and frequency of comorbidities in lower-income countri...
Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 pseudovirus by BNT162b2 vaccine–elicited human sera | Science
Recently, a new SARS-CoV-2 lineage called B.1.1.7 (variant of concern: VOC 202012/01) emerged in the United Kingdom that was reported to spread more efficiently and faster than other strains. This variant has an unusually large number of mutations with 10 amino acid changes in the spike protein, raising concerns that its recognition by neutralizing antibodies may be affected. Here, we tested SARS-CoV-2-S pseudoviruses bearing either the Wuhan reference strain or the B.1.1.7 lineage spike protein with sera of 40 participants who were vaccinated in a previously reported trial with the mRNA-ba...