Infection Control
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The Age of Misinformation and Vaccine Hesitancy
Within this broader disinformation is specific distrust of the vaccines under development for COVID-19. In addition, the messaging of doing something potentially dangerous at “warp speed,” along with media descriptions of a “race to a vaccine,” have made people nervous.
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The Key Question About COVID-19 Vaccines: Are They Safe?
The sheer size of the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials will enhance prelicensure safety and efficacy evaluation. Many post-market evaluations are in development to bolster existing surveillance for adverse events.
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COVID-19 Vaccine Imminent, but No Magic Bullet Expected
As the continuing global pandemic threatens to overwhelm the medical response, there are tempered expectations about an imminent SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to protect the battered healthcare workforce. The Food and Drug Administration is not expecting a magic bullet, saying it would accept a vaccine with 50% efficacy as long as they are confident it would be no lower than 30% effective.
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Survey: Few Outpatient Surgery Complications During COVID-19 Pandemic
Using extra safety precautions, hundreds of ambulatory surgery centers reported on outcomes from the early days of the public health crisis.
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CMS Identifies Telemedicine Quality Tracking Measures
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is providing more detailed guidance for how healthcare providers should report electronic clinical quality measures for telehealth encounters. A total of 39 electronic clinical quality measures were recently published for the 2021 performance period.
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CDC Backtracks on Testing Controversy
After widespread criticism from the medical community, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped a controversial recommendation that de-emphasized the importance of testing asymptomatic contacts of COVID-19 cases.
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FDA: Barrier Enclosures for Aerosol-Generating Procedures May Increase Risk to HCPs
Citing increased risk to healthcare workers and patients, the Food and Drug Administration has revoked emergency use authorization for barrier enclosure devices that cover a COVID-19 patient’s head and upper body during aerosol‐generating procedures such as tracheal intubation.
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COVID-19 Precautions Reduce Flu Cases
There are encouraging signs that masking and other measures taken to prevent COVID-19 are diminishing seasonal influenza globally. Flu virus circulation declined when COVID-19 measures were taken in the Northern Hemisphere, with the same epidemiology observed as the flu season began later below the equator, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
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CDC: COVID-19 Infections in Healthcare Personnel Increase Tenfold
In what is likely a substantial undercount, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that between Feb. 12 and July 16, there were 100,570 COVID-19 cases in healthcare workers and 641 deaths reported in the United States. General trends in COVID-19 in HCP mortality include the deaths occurred in those who were older, male, Asian, Black, and with an underlying medical condition, the CDC reported.
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Ethical Framework for Prioritizing Healthcare Workers to Receive Vaccine
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisors cited ethical reasons for selecting healthcare workers as first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.