No attendees at an indoor concert that employed rapid COVID-19 lateral-flow screening, N95 respirators, and a well-ventilated venue tested positive for COVID-19 in the next 8 days, showing no increased virus transmission risk associated with the event, according to preliminary findings from a randomized, controlled trial published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. A team

Japan today extended its COVID-19 state of emergency for Tokyo and eight prefectures for another 3 weeks, hoping to get virus levels down to a manageable level ahead of the Olympics in late July. In other global developments, UK officials said cases involving the B1617.2 SARS-CoV-2 variant continue to rise and now make up about

Children have more complications with COVID than with flu, study finds Hospitalization, hypoxemia, pneumonia, and other complications were found more in children who contracted COVID-19 than in those who had seasonal flu, according to a study today in Pediatrics. The researchers drew from databases in France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, and the United States to

Two new JAMA studies reveal startling jumps in overdose-related cardiac arrests and fatal opioid overdoses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Record overdose-linked cardiac arrests The first study, led by University of California, Los Angeles, researchers and published yesterday in JAMA Psychiatry, involved 33.4 million patient emergency medical services (EMS) encounters from the beginning of the pandemic

Two new studies reveal that although COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has declined in the United States, 35.2% of adults 18 to 39 years and 8.7% of those 65 and older still said they would not partake as of March 2021 and November 2020, respectively. Trust rises in Black, Hispanic respondents UK researchers leading the first study,

A blood oxygen level below 92% and fast, shallow breathing were associated with significantly elevated death rates in a study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, suggesting that people who test positive for the virus should watch for these signs at home, according to a study led by University of Washington at Seattle researchers. The study, published

The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacted a 20% higher US death toll than previously estimated, particularly among racial minorities, underscoring the need to adapt policies to address deepening ethnic and sociodemographic disparities, according to a study led by Boston University researchers. The study, published yesterday in PLOS Medicine, consisted of analyzing provisional county-level COVID-19 and

This week four experts testified at a US Senate committee about the impacts of personal protective equipment (PPE) and drug shortages during COVID-19, the effectiveness of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), and what kind of steps leaders must take to be better prepared for the next public health emergency. The group spelled out the situation