Author Archives: davidrcurry

Increasing vaccine acceptance using evidence-based approaches and policies: Insights from research on behavioural and social determinants presented at the 7th Annual Vaccine Acceptance Meeting

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International Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volume 105 p1-784
https://www.ijidonline.com/current

 

Original Reports
Increasing vaccine acceptance using evidence-based approaches and policies: Insights from research on behavioural and social determinants presented at the 7th Annual Vaccine Acceptance Meeting
Katie Attwell, Cornelia Betsch, Eve Dubé, …L. Suzanne Suggs, Valentina Picot, Angus Thomson
Published online: February 09, 2021
p188-193

HPV Vaccination Among Young Adults in the US

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JAMA
April 27, 2021, Vol 325, No. 16, Pages 1593-1688
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/currentissue

 

Research Letter
HPV Vaccination Among Young Adults in the US
Michelle M. Chen, MD, MHS; Nicole Mott, BS; Sarah J. Clark, MPH; et al.
JAMA. 2021;325(16):1673-1674. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.0725
This study uses data from the 2010-2018 National Health Interview Survey to characterize trends in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates, ages at vaccination, and numbers of doses received among young adults in the US between 2010 and 2018.

First-Dose COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Skilled Nursing Facility Residents and Staff

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JAMA
April 27, 2021, Vol 325, No. 16, Pages 1593-1688
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/currentissue

 

JAMA Insights
First-Dose COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Skilled Nursing Facility Residents and Staff
Radhika Gharpure, DVM, MPH; Anita Patel, PharmD, MS; Ruth Link-Gelles, PhD, MPH
has active quiz has audio
JAMA. 2021;325(16):1670-1671. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.2352
This JAMA Insights review from CDC COVID-19 Response team members presents data on the number of long-term care facilities and the numbers of residents and staff of those facilities who received first-dose vaccination through mid-January 2021 under the agency’s public-private partnership with CVS, Walgreens, and Managed Health Care Associates.

Online medication purchasing during the Covid-19 pandemic: potential risks to patient safety and the urgent need to develop more rigorous controls for purchasing online medications, a pilot study from the United Arab Emirates

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Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice
https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/
[Accessed 1 May 2021]

 

Online medication purchasing during the Covid-19 pandemic: potential risks to patient safety and the urgent need to develop more rigorous controls for purchasing online medications, a pilot study from the United Arab Emirates
Since the WHO announced that Covid-19 had become a global pandemic, online pharmacies have emerged as an extremely popular way to purchase medication due to the quarantine measures introduced by numerous count…
Authors: Ammar Abdulrahman Jairoun, Sabaa Saleh Al-Hemyari, Naseem Mohammed Abdulla, Faris El-Dahiyat, Maimona Jairoun, Saleh Karamah AL-Tamimi and Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar
Citation: Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice 2021 14:38
Content type: Research
Published on: 30 April 2021

An Ace Up Our Sleeves: The COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Revealed Our Strengths and Our Neglected Public Health Infrastructure

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Journal of Public Health Management & Practice
May/June 2021 – Volume 27 – Issue 3
https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/pages/currenttoc.aspx

 

Editorials
An Ace Up Our Sleeves: The COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Revealed Our Strengths and Our Neglected Public Health Infrastructure
Pierce, Heather H.
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 27(3):223-225, May/June 2021.

Maintaining a Focus on Health Equity During the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

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Journal of Public Health Management & Practice
May/June 2021 – Volume 27 – Issue 3
https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/pages/currenttoc.aspx

 

Commentary
Maintaining a Focus on Health Equity During the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
Martin, Erika G.; Birkhead, Guthrie S.; Holtgrave, David R.
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 27(3):226-228, May/June 2021.

Interim findings from first-dose mass COVID-19 vaccination roll-out and COVID-19 hospital admissions in Scotland: a national prospective cohort study

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The Lancet
May 01, 2021 Volume 397 Number 10285 p1597-1682, e11
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

 

Articles
Interim findings from first-dose mass COVID-19 vaccination roll-out and COVID-19 hospital admissions in Scotland: a national prospective cohort study
Eleftheria Vasileiou, et al
Open Access
Summary
Background
The BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer–BioNTech) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford–AstraZeneca) COVID-19 vaccines have shown high efficacy against disease in phase 3 clinical trials and are now being used in national vaccination programmes in the UK and several other countries. Studying the real-world effects of these vaccines is an urgent requirement. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between the mass roll-out of the first doses of these COVID-19 vaccines and hospital admissions for COVID-19.
Findings
Between Dec 8, 2020, and Feb 22, 2021, a total of 1 331 993 people were vaccinated over the study period. The mean age of those vaccinated was 65·0 years (SD 16·2). The first dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine was associated with a vaccine effect of 91% (95% CI 85–94) for reduced COVID-19 hospital admission at 28–34 days post-vaccination. Vaccine effect at the same time interval for the ChAdOx1 vaccine was 88% (95% CI 75–94). Results of combined vaccine effects against hospital admission due to COVID-19 were similar when restricting the analysis to those aged 80 years and older (83%, 95% CI 72–89 at 28–34 days post-vaccination).
Interpretation
Mass roll-out of the first doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA and ChAdOx1 vaccines was associated with substantial reductions in the risk of hospital admission due to COVID-19 in Scotland. There remains the possibility that some of the observed effects might have been due to residual confounding.
Funding
UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK.

Bilateral superior ophthalmic vein thrombosis, ischaemic stroke, and immune thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination

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The Lancet
May 01, 2021 Volume 397 Number 10285 p1597-1682, e11
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

 

Clinical Picture
Bilateral superior ophthalmic vein thrombosis, ischaemic stroke, and immune thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination
Antonios Bayas, Martina Menacher, Monika Christ, Lars Behrens, Andreas Rank, Markus Naumann

Can technology increase COVID-19 vaccination rates?

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Lancet Digital Health
Apr 2021 Volume 3 Number 4 e204-e273
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/issue/current

 

Editorial
Can technology increase COVID-19 vaccination rates?
The Lancet Digital Health
… To manage the wealth of data from adverse events tracking, the MHRA have awarded £1·5 million to develop AI that can identify genuine COVID-19 vaccine adverse effects. While experts have applauded the MHRA’s forward thinking approach, development of AI based on limited self-reported public data and electronic health records that are subject to historic and systemic bias must be validated on data from minority and other at risk populations to maintain trust within these communities.
To combat bias in datasets and algorithms, transparent auditing of clinical AI tools is essential to accurately communicate results to the public for greater vaccine uptake. As the UK and the USA pass the milestones of 20 million and 100 million people (respectively) vaccinated against COVID-19, associated data must be made transparent and accessible. Datasets such as the England and Wales COVID-19 vaccination datasets, which are available upon request to researchers, are critical to communicate real-world effectiveness of the vaccine to the public.
President Biden has recently pledged over $500 million in additional funds to address vaccine uptake in the USA. This funding must be spent on establishing transparent COVID-19 vaccine data to aid informed public decisions. Technology can help monitor progress of vaccine programmes, but it will not be enough to establish trust among the public, especially among those most at risk.

Immunogenicity of the UK group B meningococcal vaccine (4CMenB) schedule against groups B and C meningococcal strains (Sched3): outcomes of a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial

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Lancet Infectious Diseases
May 2021 Volume 21 Number 5 p579-742, e110-e140
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current

 

Immunogenicity of the UK group B meningococcal vaccine (4CMenB) schedule against groups B and C meningococcal strains (Sched3): outcomes of a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial
Kimberly Davis, et al

The Use and Misuse of Mathematical Modeling for Infectious Disease Policymaking: Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Medical Decision Making (MDM)
Volume 41 Issue 4, May 2021
http://mdm.sagepub.com/content/current

 

Review
The Use and Misuse of Mathematical Modeling for Infectious Disease Policymaking: Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic
Lyndon P. James, Joshua A. Salomon, Caroline O. Buckee, Nicolas A. Menzies
First Published February 3, 2021; pp. 379–385

COVID vaccines: time to confront anti-vax aggression

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Nature
Volume 592 Issue 7856, 29 April 2021
https://www.nature.com/nature/volumes/592/issues/7856

 

World View | 27 April 2021
COVID vaccines: time to confront anti-vax aggression
Halting the spread of the coronavirus will require a high-level counteroffensive against new destructive forces.
Peter Hotez
Nearly one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered in less than six months, but anti-vaccine disinformation and targeted attacks on scientists are undermining progress. These threats must be confronted directly, and the authority and expertise of the health community alone aren’t enough to do this.

Even before the pandemic, I had a front-row seat to all of this. I have co-led efforts to develop vaccines in programmes, including a COVID-19 vaccine currently being tested in India. I also have an adult daughter with autism; my 2018 book, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism, became a dog whistle for anti-vaccine activists.

The World Health Organization recognized vaccine hesitancy as a top threat to global health before the pandemic. As COVID-19 vaccines moved through development, the public-health communities anticipated considerable vaccine hesitancy. Teams of experts, including me, began meeting regularly online to discuss how best to amplify evidence-based messages, deliver public-service announcements and address concerns around COVID-19 immunization.

I experienced sinking feelings during our Zoom calls. Although certainly worthwhile, I knew that messaging alone would be inadequate. We’d already seen this inadequacy in our efforts to prevent measles from returning to the United States and Europe in 2019, and to bolster vaccination rates for human papillomavirus to prevent cervical and other cancers. With COVID-19, our pro-vaccine messages would be drops in a vast sea of misinformation, much of it poured in deliberately by anti-vaccine forces.

I have a long-standing disagreement with many of my US public-health colleagues. I admire their commitment to disease prevention, but when I ask for a more direct way to counter anti-vaccine aggression, I’m told, “that’s not our approach; confrontation gives them a platform and oxygen.” In my opinion, this attitude reflects a time when we had dial-up modems. Today, the anti-vaccine empire has hundreds of websites and perhaps 58 million followers on social media. The bad guys are winning, in part because health agencies either underestimate or deny the reach of anti-science forces, and are ill-equipped to counter it.

Investigations by the US State Department and the UK Foreign Office have described how Russian intelligence organizations seek to discredit Western COVID-19 vaccines. One campaign implies that it could turn people into monkeys. This builds on a longer, well-documented history of Russia-sponsored disinformation, presumably to destabilize the United States and other democratic countries. The administration of US President Joe Biden has warned Russian media groups to halt their anti-vaccine aggression, and announced sanctions tied to disinformation and other behaviour, but we need much more.

The United States hosts the world’s largest and best-organized anti-vaccine groups. According to the London-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, these are influential groups, not a spontaneous grass-roots movement. Many far-right extremist groups that spread false information about last year’s US presidential election are doing the same about vaccines. Anti-vaccine groups also target Black communities; an anti-vaccine documentary released in March vilifies COVID-19 vaccine testing among African Americans, calling it “medical racism”.

Global anti-vaccine messaging around the adenovirus vaccines means that more people will die and the pandemic will be prolonged. Extremely rare but life-threatening blood clots caused the United States to pause roll-out of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and many European nations have stopped or restricted use of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine for similar reasons. However, those regions have other vaccine options, which is not the case for many countries. In March, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo halted use of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, and the African Union has stopped procurement.

Many people in Africa are tapping into anti-vaccine messaging. A rumour-tracking program from the analytics company Novetta in McLean, Virginia, finds that Russia specifically targets African countries to discredit Western vaccines in favour of its own Sputnik V. US-based anti-vaccine groups invoke colonialism and eugenics. Now, tens of thousands of vaccine doses are going unused. Anti-vaccine disinformation has turned reasonable questions and concerns over rare side effects into conspiracy worries, exaggerated fears, and outrage at being treated like ‘guinea pigs’.

Accurate, targeted counter-messaging from the global health community is important but insufficient, as is public pressure on social-media companies. The United Nations and the highest levels of governments must take direct, even confrontational, approaches with Russia, and move to dismantle anti-vaccine groups in the United States.

Efforts must expand into the realm of cyber security, law enforcement, public education and international relations. A high-level inter-agency task force reporting to the UN secretary-general could assess the full impact of anti-vaccine aggression, and propose tough, balanced measures. The task force should include experts who have tackled complex global threats such as terrorism, cyber attacks and nuclear armament, because anti-science is now approaching similar levels of peril. It is becoming increasingly clear that advancing immunization requires a counteroffensive.

The influence of evolutionary history on human health and disease

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Nature Reviews Genetics
Volume 22 Issue 5, May 2021
https://www.nature.com/nrg/volumes/22/issues/5

 

Review Article | 06 January 2021
The influence of evolutionary history on human health and disease
Our evolutionary history has resulted in highly complex and sophisticated human physiology. Yet evolutionary footprints have also left us prone to diseases. In this Review, the authors discuss how events from the earliest history of life on Earth through to modern human evolution influence many disease traits and outcomes. They describe how an understanding and application of evolutionary frameworks can inform precision medicine initiatives.
Mary Lauren Benton, Abin Abraham, John A. Capra

African genetic diversity and adaptation inform a precision medicine agenda

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Nature Reviews Genetics
Volume 22 Issue 5, May 2021
https://www.nature.com/nrg/volumes/22/issues/5

 

Review Article | 11 January 2021
African genetic diversity and adaptation inform a precision medicine agenda
Africa is a continent with deep evolutionary history, which has implications for the genetic underpinnings of disease. In this Review, the authors discuss how genetic features of African populations provide both challenges and opportunities for understanding disease genetics in Africa. They describe how this genetic knowledge — combined with initiatives including capacity-building, data sharing and increased representation of African genomes in genetic variation databases — can be leveraged towards achieving precision medicine approaches in African healthcare.
Luisa Pereira, Leon Mutesa, Michèle Ramsay

Vaccination plus Decarceration — Stopping Covid-19 in Jails and Prisons

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New England Journal of Medicine
April 29, 2021 Vol. 384 No. 17
http://www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/medical-journal

 

Perspective
Vaccination plus Decarceration — Stopping Covid-19 in Jails and Prisons
Benjamin A. Barsky, J.D., M.B.E., Eric Reinhart, B.A., Paul Farmer, M.D., Ph.D., and Salmaan Keshavjee, M.D., Ph.D.
… Stopping the epidemic in jails and prisons is vital for protecting staff and incarcerated people; it is also critical for curbing the spread of Covid-19 into surrounding communities, especially Black and Latinx communities that are disproportionately affected by jail- and prison-linked coronavirus spread.1 Furthermore, as we become aware of an increasing range of SARS-CoV-2 variants, we face greater urgency to disrupt the ideal environment that current carceral conditions provide for viral mutations that could undermine the efficacy of available vaccines and threaten health far beyond American borders.
Vaccination of incarcerated people is important for changing this dynamic, but it is not enough. We believe that it must be coupled with large-scale decarceration to increase the real-world effectiveness of vaccination, disrupt wide-ranging viral transmission chains, and turn off the epidemiologic pump that puts the health of all at risk from mass incarceration.
Decarceration strategies can guide decisions made by a range of actors who wield power to change current conditions, including federal and state legislators, state and local law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, mayors, governors, the U.S. attorney general, and the president of the United States. We believe the medical community has a parallel responsibility to ensure that science is heard and applied. On the grounds of scientific evidence and our ethical responsibility to protect the vulnerable and the public at large, we can use our influence to demand that policymakers implement decarceration alongside priority vaccination in jails and prisons.

Leveraging Open Science to Accelerate Research

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New England Journal of Medicine
April 29, 2021 Vol. 384 No. 17
http://www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/medical-journal

 

Leveraging Open Science to Accelerate Research
Kushal T. Kadakia, M.Sc., Adam L. Beckman, B.S., Joseph S. Ross, M.D., M.H.S., and Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D.
… The idea of embracing open science represents a vision for research conduct that promotes standard processes for sharing protocols and registering studies, reporting and disseminating results, and sharing data, biospecimens, and code. The advancement of science — an intrinsically iterative process — is contingent on reporting practices that enable data to be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable to permit independent scrutiny, replication, and follow-on investigations. Realizing the value of research and fostering trust in science requires study information to be readily available to the public and the scientific community, including in open-access journals and on preprint platforms. Over the past 20 years, policymakers and investigators have promoted open science to counteract clinical researchers’ tendency to sequester data. Such efforts have included the recent release of NIH data-sharing guidelines and public–private partnerships for data sharing, such as the Yale University Open Data Access Project (which two of us help to lead). The urgency associated with the pandemic has created an imperative to accelerate the adoption of open science…

Choices in a Crisis — Individual Preferences among SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines

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New England Journal of Medicine
April 29, 2021 Vol. 384 No. 17
http://www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/medical-journal

 

Choices in a Crisis — Individual Preferences among SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines
Daniel B. Kramer, M.D., M.P.H., Douglas J. Opel, M.D., M.P.H., Efthimios Parasidis, J.D., M.B.E., and Michelle M. Mello, J.D., Ph.D.
… We believe that public health officials should anticipate these good-faith concerns and provide clear recommendations regarding accommodation of individual preferences. Nevertheless, at this point in the pandemic, we find countervailing considerations more compelling, and we recommend restricting patient choice. The key guideposts for this position are expediency, equity, and equanimity…

Health Outcomes in Young Children Following Pertussis Vaccination During Pregnancy

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Pediatrics
Vol. 147, Issue 5 1 May 2021
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/

 

Articles
Health Outcomes in Young Children Following Pertussis Vaccination During Pregnancy
Meghan Laverty, Natasha Crowcroft, Shelly Bolotin, Steven Hawken, Kumanan Wilson, Gayatri Amirthalingam, Anne Biringer, Jocelynn Cook, Vinita Dubey, Romina Fakhraei, Scott A. Halperin, Frances Jamieson, Jeffrey C. Kwong, Manish Sadarangani, Ewa Sucha, Mark C. Walker, Deshayne B. Fell
Pediatrics, May 2021, 147 (5) e2020042507

Genomic and epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 in Africa

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PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
http://www.plosntds.org/
(Accessed 1 May 2021)

 

Genomic and epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 in Africa
Jones Lamptey, Favour Oluwapelumi Oyelami, Michael Owusu, Bernard Nkrumah, Paul Oluwagbenga Idowu, Enoch Appiah Adu-Gyamfi, Armin Czika, Philip El-Duah, Richmond Yeboah, Augustina Sylverken, Oluwatayo Israel Olasunkanmi, Ellis Owusu-Dabo, Christian Drosten, Yaw Adu-Sarkodie
Research Article | published 26 Apr 2021 PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009335

Risk communication during COVID-19: A descriptive study on familiarity with, adherence to and trust in the WHO preventive measures

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PLoS One
http://www.plosone.org/
[Accessed 1 May 2021]

 

Risk communication during COVID-19: A descriptive study on familiarity with, adherence to and trust in the WHO preventive measures
Nirosha Elsem Varghese, Iryna Sabat, Sebastian Neumann-Böhme, Jonas Schreyögg, Tom Stargardt, Aleksandra Torbica, Job van Exel, Pedro Pita Barros, Werner Brouwer
Research Article | published 29 Apr 2021 PLOS ONE
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250872

Potential impact of introducing vaccines against COVID-19 under supply and uptake constraints in France: A modelling study

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PLoS One
http://www.plosone.org/
[Accessed 1 May 2021]

 

Potential impact of introducing vaccines against COVID-19 under supply and uptake constraints in France: A modelling study
Laurent Coudeville, Ombeline Jollivet, Cedric Mahé, Sandra Chaves, Gabriela B. Gomez
Research Article | published 28 Apr 2021 PLOS ONE
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250797

Willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 among Bangladeshi adults: Understanding the strategies to optimize vaccination coverage

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PLoS One
http://www.plosone.org/
[Accessed 1 May 2021]

 

Willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 among Bangladeshi adults: Understanding the strategies to optimize vaccination coverage
Minhazul Abedin, Mohammad Aminul Islam, Farah Naz Rahman, Hasan Mahmud Reza, Mohammad Zakir Hossain, Mohammad Anwar Hossain, Adittya Arefin, Ahmed Hossain
Research Article | published 27 Apr 2021 PLOS ONE
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250495

Factors Influencing Health Care Workers’ Willingness to Respond to Duty during Infectious Disease Outbreaks and Bioterrorist Events: An Integrative Review

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Prehospital & Disaster Medicine
Volume 36 – Issue 3 – June 2021
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/latest-issue

 

Systematic Review
Factors Influencing Health Care Workers’ Willingness to Respond to Duty during Infectious Disease Outbreaks and Bioterrorist Events: An Integrative Review
Eleanor J. Murray, Matt Mason, Vanessa Sparke, Peta-Anne P. Zimmerman
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2021, pp. 321-337

Guidance for Health Risk Assessment at Recurrent Mass Gatherings: The Jeddah Tool Framework

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Prehospital & Disaster Medicine
Volume 36 – Issue 3 – June 2021
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/latest-issue

 

Special Report
Guidance for Health Risk Assessment at Recurrent Mass Gatherings: The Jeddah Tool Framework
Kingsley L. Bieh, Anas Khan, Ahmed El-Ganainy, Badriah Alotaibi, Sujoud Ghallab, Nour Abdulmalek, Nomai Mukhtar, Hani Jokhdar
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2021, pp. 348-353

A nationwide post-marketing survey of knowledge, attitudes and recommendations towards human papillomavirus vaccines among healthcare providers in China

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Preventive Medicine
Volume 146 May 2021
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/preventive-medicine/vol/146/suppl/C

 

Research article Open access
A nationwide post-marketing survey of knowledge, attitudes and recommendations towards human papillomavirus vaccines among healthcare providers in China
Xiaoqian Xu, Yueyun Wang, Yawen Liu, Yanqin Yu, … Fanghui Zhao
Article 106484