ABSTRACT
Associations between vaccine breakthrough cases and infection by SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants have remained largely unexplored. Here we analyzed SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequences and viral loads from 1,373 persons with COVID-19 from the San Francisco Bay Area from February 1 to June 30, 2021, of which 125 (9.1%) were vaccine breakthrough infections. Fully vaccinated were more likely than unvaccinated persons to be infected by variants carrying mutations associated with decreased antibody neutralization (L452R, L452Q, E484K, and/or F490S) (78% versus 48%, p = 1.96e-08), but not by those associated with increased infectivity (L452R and/or N501Y) (85% versus 77%, p = 0.092). Differences in viral loads were non-significant between unvaccinated and fully vaccinated persons overall (p = 0.99) and according to lineage (p = 0.09 - 0.78). Viral loads were significantly higher in symptomatic as compared to asymptomatic vaccine breakthrough cases (p < 0.0001), and symptomatic vaccine breakthrough infections had similar viral loads to unvaccinated infections (p = 0.64). In 5 cases with available longitudinal samples for serologic analyses, vaccine breakthrough infections were found to be associated with low or undetectable neutralizing antibody levels attributable to immunocompromised state or infection by an antibody-resistant lineage. These findings suggest that vaccine breakthrough cases are preferentially caused by circulating antibody-resistant SARS-CoV-2 variants, and that symptomatic breakthrough infections may potentially transmit COVID-19 as efficiently as unvaccinated infections, regardless of the infecting lineage.
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections , Breakthrough Pain , COVID-19ABSTRACT
Objectives: The objective of this study aims to quantify and share the experiences of the residents and tutors during the transition to web-based learning during this time of COVID-19. Normally radiology residents would visit the different public hospitals to attend the different didactic teachings. However this is no longer possible and web-based learning has been implemented instead. Methods: Online anonymized surveys were given to the residents and tutors to gather feedback regarding the web-based learning exercise to help quantify the effectiveness of the sessions and to gather suggestions for improvement going forward. Results: The feedback from the web-based learning experience was generally positive from both the tutors and the residents and quality of learning was not compromised. Issues faced gradually improved as participants get more accustomed to web-based learning. The quality of learning also increased as tutors started to get more familiar and integrated their teaching material with the tools available in the software. Conclusions: As such, it is strongly recommended that the use of web-based learning should be considered the new norm going forward, even as the end of social distancing measures locally and worldwide remain uncertain.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
The Movement Control Order (MCO) encourages mandatory stay-at-home and has resulted in much socio-economic-technical repercussions. As such, this study aims to identify lessons from innovative examples to quicken recovery for the tourism industry in Malaysia. We investigate two examples of global innovation and two examples of local innovation with regards to organizational/process/product (including innovative privacy and security protection) and marketing innovation during the COVID-19 MCO in Malaysia. Findings highlight the need for organizational innovation, (including careful privacy and security protection), followed by business model transformation through shifts in centrality in design, mediated by product/process/marketing innovation. A human-centred, crowd-sourcing (social-collaborative computing) use case is presented as an example. Another key contribution is confirmation of a Restorative Innovation framework’s components and its adaptation post-COVID-19. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.