May 1, 2025

COVID: Early Inflammatory Phase

Tocilizumab and IVIG Experience During the Service Follow-up in Patients with Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia
Authors looked at the effects of early administration of tocilizumab and IVIG on clinical outcome in patients with severe COVID-19. Patients with progressive clinical and laboratory deterioration who received tocilizumab or IVIG between 07/2020 and 10/2020 in a public hospital ward were retrospectively evaluated. A total of 74 patients were identified, of whom 29 (39%) received IVIG only and 26 (35%) received tocilizumab only. They found that patients with severe COVID-19 who received IVIG in early stages of the disease did not have better clinical outcomes regarding mortality, length of hospital stay and ICU admission compared to those who received tocilizumab. If anything they observed concerning side effects with IVIG such as bradycardia.

COVID: The Late Phase/PASC/Long COVID

Risk of New-Onset Type 2 Diabetes among Vaccinated Adults after Omicron or Delta Variant SARS-CoV-2 Infection
This cohort study used Singapore’s national COVID-19 registry to construct cohorts with a positive or negative SARS-CoV-2 test result between September 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022. Vaccination status and new-onset T2D were determined using the National Immunization Registry and the National Diabetes Database. In subgroup analyses, increased postinfectious risk of T2D was observed during Delta predominance among Indian individuals but not among Chinese or Malay individuals. During Omicron predominance, elevated postinfectious risk of T2D (HR, 1.50 [95% CI, 1.06-2.11]) was observed among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals but not among fully vaccinated or boosted individuals. Compared with historical influenza hospitalizations, patients with COVID-19 had 45.0% higher postacute risk of T2D during Delta predominance vs 56.0% higher risk during Omicron predominance.