Hospital Infection Control & Prevention
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Misinformation Continues to Undermine Pandemic Response
Misinformation and outright lies have swept the globe during the last two years, undermining the pandemic response in hospitals and communities. In a recent call to action report, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology warned infection preventionists this phenomenon has been harmful and no doubt will occur during the next pandemic.
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APIC Asks Feds for Infection Prevention Reinforcements
The leading organization for infection preventionists is trying to elevate and solidify their role in healthcare after many were dislodged from traditional duties or otherwise overwhelmed during the pandemic. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology has issued a call to action report, which describes IPs as key players in pandemics and emergency response, as well as the longstanding wall between vulnerable patients and healthcare infections.
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Mind the Gap: A Wary Shift from Pandemic to Endemic
As COVID-19 cases drop dramatically and public health officials relax masking guidelines based on the local situation, there is the temptation to assume the pandemic is over and is entering a broadly defined endemic phase.
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Urgent Need for ‘Universal’ Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2
There is an emerging consensus in the scientific community that is two-fold: COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon, and continuous vaccine boosters eventually could yield diminishing returns. What is needed are new, second-generation vaccines that confer broader immunity against both circulating variants and mutations yet to arise.
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APIC Sets New Strategic Priorities Amid COVID-19
Like other healthcare workers, infection preventionists have been overwhelmed in the churning waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. An unpublished survey conducted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and The Ohio State University School of Nursing revealed a “startling” level of stress and burnout.
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Omicron ‘Milder’ Infection View Skewed by Prior Immunity
The COVID-19 omicron variant has been widely observed to cause “milder” disease, but this appears largely to be an illusion caused by the level of immunity via prior infection or vaccination that now exists in the human population.
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Infectious Disease Experts Sound Alarm on True Toll of RSV
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is something of a contradiction: The leading cause of hospitalization of infants in the United States (58,000 annually) is largely unappreciated beyond the pediatric population. In what essentially is a hidden seasonal epidemic, RSV causes 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths annually in the United States in those age 65 years and older.
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Vaccines Saved 1 Million Lives in 2021
COVID-19 vaccines prevented an estimated 1 million deaths and 10 million hospitalizations in the United States in 2021, according to a new modeling study by the Commonwealth Fund.
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The Ethical and Pandemic Problem with Boosters
COVID-19 booster shots are highly controversial from a global perspective. Similar to other industrialized nations, 75% of the people in United States have taken at least one dose, 63% are fully vaccinated, and 25% have received the booster. Yet, more than 30 countries worldwide have vaccinated less than 10% of their population.
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Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Vaccine Mandate
Hospitals still struggling to fully vaccinate workers received good news on Jan. 13 when the Supreme Court ruled the federal government can enforce its mandate that healthcare workers receive COVID-19 vaccine unless granted medical or religious exemptions. But the court effectively nullified the federal mandate that employers with at least 100 workers mandate COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing.