Harnessing Twitter data to survey public attention and attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines in the UK.

Attitudes to COVID-19 vaccination vary considerably within and between countries. Although the contribution of socio-demographic factors to these attitudes has been studied, the role of social media and how it interacts with news about vaccine development and efficacy is uncertain. We examined around 2 million tweets from 522,893 persons in the UK from November 2020 to January 2021 to evaluate links between Twitter content about vaccines and major scientific news announcements about vaccines. The proportion of tweets with negative vaccine content varied, with reductions of 20-24% on the same day as major news announcement. However, the proportion of negative tweets reverted back to an average of around 40% within a few days. Engagement rates were higher for negative tweets. Public health messaging could consider the dynamics of Twitter-related traffic and the potential contribution of more targeted social media campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy.

The impact of COVID-19 on gastric cancer surgery: a single-center retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Patients with cancer are more likely to incur poor clinical outcomes. Due to the prevailing pandemic, we propose some surgical strategies for gastric cancer patients. METHODS: The 'COVID-19' period was defined as occurring between 2020 and 01-20 and 2020-03-20. The enrolled patients were divided into two groups, pre-COVID-19 group (PCG) and COVID-19 group (CG). A total of 109 patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in this study. RESULTS: The waiting time before admission increased by 4 days in the CG (PCG: 4.5 [IQR: 2, 7.8] vs. CG: 8.0 [IQR: 2,20]; p = 0.006). More patients had performed chest CT scans besides abdominal CT before admission during the COVID-19 period (PCG: 22 [32%] vs. CG: 30 [73%], p = 0.001). After admission during the COVID period, the waiting time before surgery was longer (PCG: 3[IQR: 2,5] vs. CG: 7[IQR: 5,9]; p < 0.001), more laparoscopic surgeries were performed (PCG: 51[75%] vs. CG: 38[92%], p = 0.021), and hospital stay period after surgery was longer (7[IQR: 6,8] vs.9[IQR:7,11]; p < 0.001). In addition, the total cost of hospitalization increased during this period, (PCG: 9.22[IQR:7.82,10.97] vs. CG: 10.42[IQR:8.99,12.57]; p = 0.006). CONCLUSION: This study provides an opportunity for our surgical colleagues to reflect on their own services and any contingency plans they may have to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Gastric Cancer Surgery: A Single-Center Retrospective Study (preprint)

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Patients with cancer are more likely to incur poor clinical outcomes. Due to the prevailing pandemic, we propose some surgical strategies for gastric cancer patients. Methods: : The ‘COVID-19’ period was defined as occurring between 2020-01-20 and 2020-03-20. The enrolled patients were divided into two groups, pre-COVID-19 group (PCG) and COVID-19 group (CG). A total of 109 patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in this study. Results: : The waiting time before admission increased by 4 days in the CG (PCG: 4.5 [IQR: 2, 7.8] vs. CG: 8.0 [IQR: 2,20]; p=0.006). More patients had performed chest CT scans besides abdominal CT before admission during the COVID-19 period (PCG: 22 [32%] vs. CG: 30 [73%], p=0.001). After admission during the COVID period, the waiting time before surgery was longer (PCG: 3[IQR: 2,5] vs. CG: 7[IQR: 5,9]; p<0.001), more laparoscopic surgeries were performed (PCG: 51[75%] vs. CG: 38[92%], p=0.021), and hospital stay period after surgery was longer (7[IQR: 6,8] vs.9[IQR:7,11]; p<0.001). In addition, the total cost of hospitalization increased during this period, (PCG: 9.22[IQR:7.82,10.97] vs. CG: 10.42[IQR:8.99,12.57]; p=0.006). Conclusion: This study provides an opportunity for our surgical colleagues to reflect on their own services and any contingency plans they may have to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.

Early risk factors of the exacerbation of coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the early risk factors for the exacerbation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Restrospective analysis of clinical data of 85 patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), including gender, age, comorbidities, symptoms, blood routine, clotting profile, biochemical examination, albumin, myocardial enzyme profile, inflammatory markers, and chest computed tomography (CT). All laboratory examinations were measured within first 24 hours after admission, and chest CT was performed before admission. A total of 56 (65.9%) patients had a history of exposure to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan. Fever and dry cough accounted for the highest percentage of all symptoms. Male COVID-2019 patients were more likely to develop severe pneumonia. Patients with severe and critical conditions are older and have higher rates of hypertension (P = .003) and coronary heart disease (P = .017). All severe and critical patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed bilateral lung involvement and have more multiple lobes involvement than common patients (P < .001). Severe and critical patients showed higher white blood cell count (P = .006), neutrophil (NEU) count (P = .001), NEU% (P = .002), procalcitonin (P = .011), C-reactive protein (P = .003), prothrombin time (P = .035), D-dimer (P = .025), aspartate aminotransferase (P = .006), and lower lymphocyte (LYM) count (P = .019), LYM% (P = .001), albumin (P < .001). Logistic regression analysis showed that NEU count is an independent risk factor for deterioration, with the threshold of 6.5 × 109 ·L-1 . We concluded that the laboratory independent risk factor for the progression of COVID-19 pneumonia is NEU count. In addition, COVID-19 patients with bilateral lung involvement or multiple lobes involvement should be taken seriously and actively treated to prevent deterioration of the disease.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Gastric Cancer Surgery: A Single-center Retrospective Study Based on Real-world Data (preprint)

Background ： A respiratory epidemic defined as coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ) is becoming unstoppable and has been declared a pandemic. Patients with cancer are more likely to develop COVID-19. Based on our experience during the pandemic period, we propose some surgery strategies for gastric cancer patients under the COVID-19 situation. Methods ： We defined the ‘COVID-19’ period as occurring between 2020-01-20 and 2020-03-20. All the enrolled patients were divided into two groups, pre-COVID-19 group (PCG) and COVID-19 group (CG). A total of 109 patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in this study. Results ： The waiting times before admission increased by 4 days in CG(PCG:4.5 [IQR: 2, 7.8] vs. CG:8.0 [IQR: 2,20]; P = 0.006). More patients had performed chest CT scan besides abdominal CT before admission during COVID-19 period(PCG:22[32%]vs. CG:30[73%], p=0.001). After admission, during COVID period, the waiting time before surgery was longer(3[IQR: 2,5] vs. 7[IQR: 5,9]; P < 0.001),more laparoscopic surgery were performed(PCG: 51[75%] vs. CG: 38[92%],p=0.021), and hospital stay after surgery was longer (7[IQR: 6,8] vs.9[IQR:7,11] ; P < 0.001). The total cost of hospitalization increased during COVID period, (9.22[IQR:7.82,10.97] vs. 10.42[IQR:8.99,12.57]; p=0.006). Conclusion ： Since no data is available yet on the impact of COVID-19 on gastric cancer patients,our own experience with COVID-19 in gastric cancer surgery has hopefully provided an opportunity for colleagues to reflect on their own service and any contingency plans they have to tackle the crisis.  Keywords:  gastric cancer; coronavirus disease 2019; COVID-19; retrospective analysis; real-world data.