March 7, 2025

COVID: Active Vaccination/Immunity

Interim Estimates of 2024–2025 COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Among Adults Aged ≥18 Years — VISION and IVY Networks, September 2024–January 2025
Here we read that vaccine effectiveness (VE) of 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine was 33% against COVID-19–associated emergency department (ED) or urgent care (UC) visits among adults aged ≥18 years and 45%–46% against hospitalizations among immunocompetent adults aged ≥65 years, compared with not receiving a 2024–2025 vaccine dose. VE against hospitalizations in immunocompromised adults aged ≥65 years was 40%. They give us some context on how COVID-19 continues to be an issue in the U.S. During September 24, 2023–August 11, 2024, approximately 800,000 COVID-19–associated hospitalizations occurred in the United States (1); adults aged ≥65 years accounted for 70% of these hospitalizations; 30% or 1 in 3 people hospitalized for COVID-19 are under 65.

COVID: Early Inflammatory Phase

Effect of Early and Delayed Treatment with Remdesivir on Mortality in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19
Electronic health records in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) database were used. They identified 373,226 eligible person-trial hospitalizations, of which 53,959 were initiators and 319,267 were noninitiators of RDV treatment. Patients were divided into clinical severity subgroups based on baseline oxygenation, which included no supplemental oxygen (NSO), noninvasive supplemental oxygen (NISO), or invasive ventilation (IV). Initiators were matched with replacement to noninitiators receiving the same oxygenation type. Trials beginning on days 1–3 and days 4–7 of hospitalization were pooled separately to evaluate the effects of early and delayed initiation of RDV, respectively. Early, but not delayed, RDV treatment was associated with a reduction in 60-day mortality in the no-supplemental-oxygen (NSO) (hazard ratio [HR], 0.89; 95% CI, 0.84–0.95) and noninvasive supplemental oxygen (NISO) subgroups (HR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.84–0.99), but not in those receiving invasive ventilation (IV).