22 COVID-19 related research findings

Cailey Gleeson -

Here are 22 COVID-19-related research findings covered by Becker's Hospital Review since Sept. 10:

Note: Findings are listed from oldest to most recent.

1. Unvaccinated individuals infected with COVID-19 face a 10 times higher risk of hospitalization and are 11 times more likely to die from the disease, according to the CDC's Sept. 10 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

2. A Sept. 22 JAMA Open Network study found the median number of organ systems affected by multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults is five. 

3. Seventy-three percent of severe COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Michigan Medicine early in the pandemic experienced delirium, according to a BMJ Open study.

4. Shrinking waveforms on electrocardiograms can be an indicator of which hospitalized COVID-19 and flu patients are at risk of declining health or death, according to a Sept. 25 study in the American Journal of Cardiology

5. Researchers at Oxford University published a study Sept. 27 that found the pandemic sparked life expectancy losses not seen since World War II.

6. Getting COVID-19 and flu vaccinations at the same time is safe, according to a Sept. 30 early research clinical trial from the U.K. 

7. Treatment with convalescent plasma did not significantly reduce the number of days spent on life support in patients with COVID-19, findings showed in JAMA research published Oct. 4.

8. COVID-19 has evolved to become more efficient at airborne travel, two new studies showed.

9. Reinfection of COVID-19 is likely in unvaccinated individuals at a median of 16 months, a Yale study showed.

10. An immune system overreaction in response to COVID-19 can cause patients to experience changes in color, itching and swelling in fingers and toes.

11. People with substance use disorders may be more susceptible to a breakthrough COVID-19 infection than those without the disorders, research published Oct. 5 in World Psychiatry suggests. 

12. A Columbia University study found the lung maintains long-term memory of COVID-19 infection.

13. A Pediatrics study found minority children in the U.S. were more likely to lose their caregivers to COVID-19 compared to white children. 

14. Black COVID-19 patients are less likely to receive medical follow-ups after hospitalizations and more likely to experience longer wait times to return to work, a University of Michigan study found.

15. The virus shedding of breakthrough COVID-19 infections may be less infectious than that coming from an unvaccinated COVID-19 patient, NPR reported

16. A study by The Lancet found if 74 percent of Texas and Florida residents had been vaccinated against COVID-19 by August, they could have reported a total of 95,000 fewer hospitalizations and 22,000 fewer deaths. 

17. A systematic review involving 250,351 COVID-19 survivors found more than half experienced at least one symptom six months or more after initially recovering from the illness. 

18. Male placentas showed increased immune activation compared with female placentas in pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19, a study published in Science Translational Medicine found. 

19. Residents in areas with the most robust primary care were 12 percent less likely to get infected and 42 percent less likely to die from COVID-19, according to a report by Primary Care Collaborative and the Robert Graham Center.

20. A study published in JAMA Open Network found patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were three times more likely to show a decline in cognitive function compared to COVID-19 patients who did not require that level of care.

21. While the COVID-19 delta variant is known to be more transmissible, it isn't closely linked to more severe outcomes among hospitalized patients, according to the CDC's Oct. 22 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

22. People vaccinated against COVID-19 are not at an increased risk of death and are actually less likely to die of other causes compared to unvaccinated individuals, the CDC said in an Oct. 22 report.

 

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