CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: Latest studies
COVID-19 antibody tests not backed by solid data
Studies assessing the accuracy of COVID-19 antibody tests had major shortcomings, an analysis released on Thursday found, indicating that existing research does not prove the tests can confirm with certainty whether people have been infected with the novel coronavirus. Cochrane, a British-based journal that reviews research evidence, looked at 54 studies that sought to measure the reliability of the antibody blood tests. The studies were often small, did not use the most reliable methods, and their results were often incomplete, the analysis found. The analyzed studies looked at nearly 16,000 blood samples, 89% of which had a high risk of bias because patients were unlikely to match the general population.
Greater risk for pregnant women
Pregnant women face an increased risk of severe coronavirus infections, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released on Thursday showed. Pregnant women with COVID-19 are 50% more likely to need intensive care and 70% more likely to be put on mechanical ventilators than non-pregnant women, although pregnant women did not have a higher risk of death, CDC researchers reported in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Earlier in the pandemic, researchers in China and Britain reported no extra risk for pregnant women.
Coronavirus traces found in Spanish sewage in March 2019
Spanish researchers have found traces of the novel coronavirus in Barcelona wastewater collected in March 2019, nine months before COVID-19 was identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan. University of Barcelona virologists led by Albert Bosch had been monitoring wastewater since April of this year. When they decided to test older samples, they said they found genetic material from the virus in one sample from March 12, 2019. The presence of the virus genome so early in Spain, if confirmed, would indicate the pathogen appeared much earlier than previously thought.
Flu vaccine might have saved some elderly in US
COVID-19 death rates may be lower in communities where large proportions of elderly residents received flu vaccines, based on data from more than 2,000 counties around the United States. Researchers found that a 10% increase in vaccination coverage among people older than 65 was associated on average with a 28% decrease in the COVID-19 death rate in a given county.
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