Two doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered to mothers during pregnancy were 95% effective against infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant and 97% effective against related hospitalizations among infants younger than 6 months, according to a study of 8809 infants in The BMJ. Protection was lower against infection with the Omicron variant and corresponding hospitalizations, although a third dose boosted the effectiveness to 73% against infection and 80% against hospital admission.
Source: JAMA Online First
Genetic sequencing data from 63 participants linked 14 microRNAs (miRNAs) expressed in human pancreatic islet cells, which produce hormones that regulate blood glucose, with type 2 diabetes, according to results reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study also linked 4 miRNAs with a polygenic score for glycated hemoglobin, which reflects average blood glucose levels.
Source: JAMA Online First
This Medical News article discusses the resurgence of phage therapy research for antibiotic-resistant infections.
Source: JAMA Online First
In this Viewpoint, authors from Physicians for Human Rights and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center present findings from a joint report documenting the attacks on health care workers and facilities as a weapon of war in the Russian war with Ukraine.
Source: JAMA Online First
In the face of novel pathogens, incomplete knowledge, and disagreement about the merits of medical treatments, translating the duty to care into concrete benefits for patients depends on our ability to quickly act on the duty to learn. Learning is a dynamic process whose goal, in medical research, is to generate the evidence needed to reduce uncertainty and shift care toward safer, more effective, and efficient practice. It is also a social process that requires the cooperation of multiple stakeholders, including funders, researchers, health care professionals, health systems, regulatory bodies, and patients. The interests of these stakeholders can conflict, and the requirement of clinical equipoise is seen as a way to ensure that research promotes medical progress without compromising the interests of study participants. The equipoise requirement holds that (1) research that addresses uncertainty or conflicting medical judgments of conscientious and informed experts is likely to have social value and (2) allocating individuals to interventions that are subject to such conflict or uncertainty is consistent with respect for their rights or welfare. But when does clinical equipoise no longer hold?
Source: JAMA Online First
This platform randomized clinical trial examines the effectiveness ivermectin at a targeted dose of 600 μg/kg daily compared with placebo for the treatment of early mild to moderate COVID-19.
Source: JAMA Online First
A Cochrane meta-analysis of 11 eligible trials examining the efficacy of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 published through April 2022 concluded that ivermectin has no beneficial effect for people with COVID-19. Since May 2022, an additional 3 large randomized clinical trials including several thousand participants have been published, each reaching a similar conclusion.
Source: JAMA Online First
A 56-year-old man with no significant medical history has declined screening colonoscopy at previous physician visits but wants to undergo a less invasive test because his father died of colorectal cancer at age 80. What would you do next?
Source: JAMA Online First
This JAMA Patient Page describes the eye condition of strabismus, its signs and symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and treatment.
Source: JAMA Online First
Today we relaunch JAMA Express, a pathway in which manuscripts receive expedited review and processing with the goal of online first publication of accepted work within 4 weeks of submission. The JAMA Express pathway includes the standard rigorous editorial and peer review, editing, and production processes, as well as opportunities for amplification of findings with graphics, multimedia, social and news media attention, and the wide international reach of JAMA. JAMA Express is reserved for manuscripts that will be presented as late-breaking research at major scientific meetings or those with time-sensitive findings of major clinical or public health importance. Throughout the pandemic, JAMA has been committed to expedited review and publication of science important for the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and care of patients with COVID-19. In relaunching JAMA Express for a broader range of science, we acknowledge that prompt communication of novel scientific insights is critical to the efficient delivery of modern health care, to advancing knowledge, and to the translation of evidence to policy and practice. We commit to pursuing this important goal for JAMA authors and readers.
Source: JAMA Online First