The vaccines to prevent COVID-19 are remarkable for their safety, efficacy, and pace of development. Initial enthusiasm that followed the release of the preliminary results that formed the basis for distribution of the vaccines under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) has been dampened by the inequity in access to the vaccines across the globe, vaccine hesitancy, and emergence of variants that partly evade vaccine-induced antibodies. These factors are related, and all 3 contribute to ongoing morbidity, mortality, and societal disruption related to SARS-CoV-2 in much of the world. Incomplete coverage with the vaccine leads to infection of immunocompromised persons who are likely to harbor the virus for prolonged periods (or chronically), allowing for mutations that are then selected for immune evasion and better fitness to the human host. The new variants are sufficiently altered structurally such that neither prior SARS-CoV-2 infection or even much higher levels of vaccine-induced antibodies are protective.
Source: JAMA Online First
This cohort study estimates the association of a BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine booster dose with SARS-CoV-2 infections among health care workers in Israel previously vaccinated with a 2-dose series of BNT162b2.
Source: JAMA Online First
This study examines the incidence of false-positive results in a sample of rapid antigen tests used to serially screen asymptomatic workers throughout Canada.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Viewpoint discusses addressing the problems in the health benefits market, which contribute to wage stagnation and rising economic inequality.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Viewpoint focuses on an emerging intervention, serious illness communication, and describes its components, presents evidence supporting the approach, and discusses areas for further research.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Viewpoint outlines approaches to successfully make clinical diagnoses, including coaching medical students in critical thinking and decision-making, promoting interdisciplinary teamwork, and mitigating judgment and decision-making biases.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Viewpoint reviews the leading objectives of the pandemic preparedness proposal, discusses the outcome of comparable past federal efforts, and emphasizes the imperative of intragovernmental coordination.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Viewpoint proposes a multistep plan that US can implement to achieve a “new normal” of living, in which the combined risk of all viral respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, does not exceed the risk during prepandemic years.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Viewpoint discusses the areas on which the US needs to improve its public health infrastructure in order to reduce COVID-19 transmission and achieve a “new normal”: testing, surveillance, masking, and ventilation.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Viewpoint discusses how US policy makers should address how the nation can move forward as the pandemic persists.
Source: JAMA Online First