Articles related to Family Medicine/General Practice

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.

Hospitalized patients who had advanced COVID-19 with lung involvement and who received the antiviral agent remdesivir (Gilead Sciences) recovered faster than similar patients who received placebo, according to a preliminary data analysis from a US-led randomized, controlled trial.

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.

This feature article from the BMJ discusses how and why American oncologists are rushing to prioritize the patients at greatest risk, institute new protections, and learn from their collective experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.