Articles related to Allergy & Immunology

This roundup of articles highlights the 14 vaccines doctors are targeting in the fight against COVID‑19, in addition to featuring one doctor’s claim that the virus was active in France in December 2019, almost a month earlier than previously believed.

This JAMA “Viewpoint” describes how to interpret two types of diagnostic tests commonly in use for SARS-CoV-2 infections—reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and IgM and IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)—and how the results may vary over time.

Although still a lower projection from a month ago, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation (IHME) model increase is due to “many states experiencing flatter and thus longer epidemic peaks.” It also said that coronavirus deaths across the country are not falling “very quickly” after their estimated peak.

Although the findings reported in Blood should be considered as hypothesis-generating and preliminary in nature, a small clinical trial suggested ibrutinib may protect against lung injury and improve pulmonary function in hypoxic patients with COVID-19.

The Journal of Internal Medicine stresses that, although the timing of antiviral therapy may significantly slow COVID-19 progression, the study was underpowered to evaluate the therapeutic effect of the drugs and they should continue to be used only in studies, not empirical use.

A JAMA “Original Investigation” seeks to discover the characteristics, clinical presentation, and outcomes of 5,700 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States, specifically in the New York City area.