Vaccination status for mild and asymptomatic infections with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 variant in Shanghai.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different vaccine regimens on mild and asymptomatic infections with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 variant in Shanghai. All asymptomatic patients and those with mild symptoms of Omicron infections were recruited from three major Fangcang shelter hospitals between March 26, 2022 and May 20, 2022. Nucleic acid for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction methods in nasopharyngeal swabs was assessed every day during the hospitalization. The value of cycle threshold lower than 35 was considered as positive result of SARS-CoV-2. A total of 214 592 cases were included in this study. The proportion of the asymptomatic patients was 76.90% and 23.10% of the recruited patients had mild symptoms. The median (interquartile range [IQR]: 25-75) duration of viral shedding (DVS) was 7 (5-10) days among all participants. The DVS varied greatly among different age groups. Children and the elderly had longer DVS compared with the adults. The booster shot of inactivated vaccine contributed to the shorter DVS in patients aged ≥70 years compared with the unvaccinated patients (8 [6-11] vs. 9 [6-12] days, p = 0.002]. Full inactivated vaccine regimen contributed to the shorter DVS in patients aged 3-6 years (7 [5-9] vs. 8 [5-10] days, p = 0.001]. In conclusion, the full inactivated vaccine regimen on children aged 3-6 years and booster inactivated vaccine regimen on the elderly aged ≥70 years appeared to be effective in reducing DVS. The booster vaccine regimen should be rigorously promoted and implemented.

Determinants and Consequences of Risk Disclosure: Evidence from Chinese Stock Markets during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examines the determinants and consequences of firms' disclosures related to the COVID-19 pandemic in annual financial reports in China. First, we find that firms with high growth opportunity or low stock liquidity tended to disclose COVID-19 pandemic information to mitigate information asymmetry. Second, our results show that voluntary risk disclosure significantly decreased stock risks due to the reduction of information asymmetry. We further find that stock price crash risks decreased for firms that reported risk information compared with those that did not. Our results suggest that detailed voluntary risk disclosure is needed to mitigate stock risks, especially in extreme situations.

Effect of continuing the use of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors on mortality in patients hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression analysis.

BACKGROUND: The effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) on mortality was preliminarily explored through the comparison of ACEIs/ARBs with non-ACEIs/ARBs in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Reaching a conclusion on whether previous ACEI/ARB treatment should be continued in view of the different ACE2 levels in the comparison groups was not unimpeachable. Therefore, this study aimed to further elucidate the effect of ACEI/ARB continuation on hospital mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in the same patient population. METHODS: We searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Ovid, and Embase for relevant articles published between December 1, 2019 and April 30, 2022. Continuation of ACEI/ARB use after hospitalization due to COVID-19 was considered as an exposure and discontinuation of ACEI/ARB considered as a control. The primary outcome was hospital mortality, and the secondary outcomes included 30-day mortality, rate of ICU admission, IMV, and other clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Seven observational studies and four randomized controlled trials involving 2823 patients were included. The pooled hospital mortality in the continuation group (13.04%, 158/1212) was significantly lower than that (22.15%, 278/1255) in the discontinuation group (risk ratio [RR] = 0.45; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.72; P = 0.001). Continuation of ACEI/ARB use was associated with lower rates of ICU admission (10.5% versus 16.2%, RR = 0.63; 95% CI 0.5-0.79; P < 0.0001) and IMV (8.2% versus 12.5%, RR = 0.62; 95% CI 0.46-0.83, P = 0.001). Nevertheless, the effect was mainly demonstrated in the observational study subgroup (P < 0.05). Continuing ACEI/ARB had no significant effect on 30-day mortality (P = 0.34), acute myocardial infarction (P = 0.08), heart failure (P = 0.82), and acute kidney injury after hospitalization (P = 0.98). CONCLUSION: Previous ACEI/ARB treatment could be continued since it was associated with lower hospital deaths, ICU admission, and IMV in patients with COVID-19, although the benefits of continuing use were mainly shown in observational studies. More evidence from multicenter RCTs are still needed to increase the robustness of the data. Trial registration PROSPERO (CRD42022341169). Registered 27 June 2022.

The Influencing Factors of Comprehensive Sexuality Education Capacity and Its Correlation with Subjective Social Status among Chinese Junior High School Students.

(1) Objective: Evidence suggests that comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can protect and empower younger generations to advocate for their reproductive health and wellbeing. This survey aims to investigate the current status and influencing factors of CSE among Chinese junior high school students, and to evaluate its correlation with the learning experience of sex education and subjective social status (SSS) to provide evidence for the implementation of CSE in the future. (2) Methods: A total of 4109 participants aged 11 to 16 years were recruited using data from a cross-sectional survey among junior high school students in China in 2021. CSE knowledge, attitude, and skills were used to generate the CSE comprehensive capacity by a principal component analysis. One-way ANOVA was used to assess the different effects of school sex education and family sex education. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the association between CSE comprehensive capacity and SSS. (3) Results: The average score of CSE comprehensive capacity was 82.44 ± 8.60 (with a total score of 100 points) among participants. After the adjustment, subjective social status was positively related to CSE comprehensive capacity (B = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.20-0.36), and SSS (School) (beta = 0.62) had a higher impact on CSE comprehensive capacity compared to SSS (Family) (beta = -0.10). School sex education was associated with the CSE knowledge level with a larger magnitude compared to family sex education (mean deviation = -0.53, p = 0.031), whereas family sex education was related to the CSE skill level with a greater magnitude (mean deviation =1.14, p = 0.005). (4) Conclusions: These findings suggest that sex education at school and within the family might have a different impact on CSE capacity, which was positively associated with SSS among junior high school students.

Preparing anti-SARS-CoV-2 agent EIDD-2801 by a practical and scalable approach, and quick evaluation via machine learning.

EIDD-2801 is an orally bioavailable prodrug, which will be applied for emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19. To investigate the optimal parameters, EIDD-2801 was optimized via a four-step synthesis with high purity of 99.9%. The hydroxylamination procedure was telescoped in a one-pot and the final step was precisely controlled on reagents, temperature and reaction time. Compared to the original route, the yield of the new route was enhanced from 17% to 58% without column chromatography. The optimized synthesis has been successfully determinated on a decagram scale: the first step at 200 g and the final step at 20 g. Besides, the relationship between yield and temperature, time, and reagents in the deprotection step was investigated via Shapley value explanation and machine learning approach-decision tree method. The results revealed that reagents have the greatest impact on yield estimation, followed by the temperature.

Quantitative analysis of droplet deposition produced by an electrostatic sprayer on a classroom table by using fluorescent tracer.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation, measures to mitigate the risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in an indoor setting are urgently needed. Among the various types of disinfectant methods, electrostatic spraying is often applied to decontamination in public places. For quantitatively characterizing electrostatic spraying, we developed the novel evaluation method by using a fluorescent tracer. By applying this method, we performed three different experiment cases (static test on a table, static test on a cylinder, and dynamic test on a table) to figure out its unique characteristics (Coulombic fission and wraparound effect) and measure its performance in various aspects. To be specific, bimodal distribution with peak sizes of ~10 and ~100 µm was found due to Coulombic fission. Otherwise, a unimodal distribution with a peak size of ~100 µm occurred for the uncharged droplets. As a result, the effective contact area increased by 40-80 % due to small progeny droplets. The wraparound effect was examined on two different cylinders: copper (Cu) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe. When the target surface was not charged (Cu 0 kV and PVC 0 kV), the average normalized concentrations on the backside of the cylinder (θ = 180°) increased by around 67 % for charged droplets. Meanwhile, when the target surface was highly charged (PVC -19 kV), the average normalized concentrations at θ = 180° were increased more than two times for charged droplets.

[Transmission of Coronavirus via Aerosols and Influence of Environmental Conditions on Its Transmission].

The COVID-19 pandemic has endangered human health and production since 2019. As an emerging disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, its potential transmissibility via aerosols has caused heated debate. This work summarizes the current research findings on virus aerosol generation, aerodynamic properties, and environmental influencing factors on their survivability in order to elucidate coronavirus transmission via aerosols. The occurrence and distinction of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, and MERS-CoV in real atmospheric environments are summarized. The deficiencies of existing research and directions for necessary future research on confirming the airborne transmission mechanism of coronavirus as well as the need for multidisciplinary research are discussed.

Is there possibility of vertical transmission of COVID-19: a systematic review.

In order to investigate the clinical features of pregnant women and their neonates with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the evidence of vertical transmission of COVID-19, we retrieved studies included in PubMed, Medline and Chinese databases from January 1, 2000 to October 25, 2020 using relevant terms, such as 'COVID-19', 'vertical transmission' et al. in 'Title/Abstract'. Case reports and case series were included according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. We conducted literature screening and data extraction, and performed literature bias risk assessment. Total of 13 case series and 16 case reports were collected, including a total of 564 pregnant women with COVID-19 and their 555 neonates, of which 549 neonates received nucleic acid test for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and 18 neonates was diagnosed with COVID-19. The positive rate is 3.28%. Amniotic fluid of one woman was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The majority of infected neonates were born under strict infection control and received isolation and artificial feeding. Up till now, there is no sufficient evidence to exclude the possibility of vertical transmission for COVID-19 based on the current available data.

Association between vaccinations and clinical manifestations in children with COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: The infection rate of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children was less than that in adults. However, the underlining reason is not well known. METHODS: Children with COVID-19 were recruited from two Children's Hospitals in Wuhan and Shanghai in this case-control study. The associations of initial symptoms with age, vaccinations of Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG), and influenza and pathogens were determined by Chi-square t-test. RESULTS: We evaluated 248 confirmed cases, and 56 suspected cases with COVID-19. The median age was 6.82 years old, and 118 cases (38.82%) were girls. Furthermore, 30.26% of all patients were asymptomatic cases. The percentage of asymptomatic cases vaccinated with BCG was not significantly higher than that without BCG vaccination [86/280 (30.71%) vs. 6/13 (46.15%), P=0.203], and initial symptoms were not related with immunized influenza vaccine (P=0.267). Compared to parameters in pediatric patients with normal body temperatures, patients with fever had higher C reactive protein (CRP) (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric COVID-19 patients with BCG vaccinations exhibit similar clinical manifestations compared to those without BCG vaccinations, and the severity of symptoms in pediatric patients may be related to the maturity of immune function.