Development trends of human organoid-based COVID-19 research based on bibliometric analysis.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has posed a catastrophic threat to human health worldwide. Human stem cell-derived organoids serve as a promising platform for exploring SARS-CoV-2 infection. Several review articles have summarized the application of human organoids in COVID-19, but the research status and development trend of this field have seldom been systematically and comprehensively studied. In this review, we use bibliometric analysis method to identify the characteristics of organoid-based COVID-19 research. First, an annual trend of publications and citations, the most contributing countries or regions and organizations, co-citation analysis of references and sources and research hotspots are determined. Next, systematical summaries of organoid applications in investigating the pathology of SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccine development and drug discovery, are provided. Lastly, the current challenges and future considerations of this field are discussed. The present study will provide an objective angle to identify the current trend and give novel insights for directing the future development of human organoid applications in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Plastic or plastic-free life: From formation to removal.

Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) have caused global environmental concerns due to their ubiquitous existence in our surrounding environment and the potential threats posed to the ecosystem and human health. This review aims to extend current knowledge on the formation and degradation of MPs and NPs. The paper presents the potential sources of MPs and NPs including plastic containers, textiles, cosmetics, personal care products, COVID-19 wastes, and other plastic products. Once in the natural environment, the fragmentation and degradation of plastic wastes are thought to be initiated by physical, chemical, and biological factors. The corresponding degradation mechanism will be presented in the present review. Given the plastic life and environment, humans are inevitably exposed to MPs and NPs through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact. The potential risks MPs/NPs pose to humans will be also discussed in our study. Currently, the relevance of MP/NP exposure to human health outcomes is still controversial and not yet fully understood. Deciphering the translocation and degradation of plastics in the human body will be helpful to reveal their potential organotoxicity. In this case, available approaches to alleviate MP/NP pollution and advanced strategies to reduce MP/NP toxicity in humans are recommended to build a plastic-free life.

Pathway of Cell Death and Its Role in Virus Infection.

The global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 in the past 2 years has aroused great attention to infectious diseases, and emerging virus outbreaks have brought huge challenges to the global health system. Viruses are specific pathogens that completely rely on host cells for their own survival and disease transmission. At present, a growing number of studies have proved that inducing the death of virus-infected cells can prevent the spread of virus and promote disease recovery. Therefore, many ways to induce the death of infected cells are considered to be beneficial to host immunity. Cell death is a basic biological phenomenon. Programmed cell death (PCD), as an important part of the host's innate immune response, provides effective protection against virus transmission. Pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis are the most commonly studied pathways of PCD. Recent studies have found that three pathways of cell death can be activated during virus infection. More and more studies have shown the existence of extensive connections between PCDs, and this complex relationship is defined as PANoptosis, an inflammatory PCD pathway regulated by the PANoptosome complex, whose characteristics cannot be explained by any of the three PCD pathways. During viral infection, PANoptosis can promote inflammatory response by inducing the production of inflammatory cytokines and cell death to exert an antiviral mechanism. This article reviews the various effects of cell death pathways during viral infection and provides new ideas for clinical antiviral therapy and related immunotherapy.

Trend and Co-occurrence Network of COVID-19 Symptoms From Large-Scale Social Media Data: Infoveillance Study.

BACKGROUND: For an emergent pandemic, such as COVID-19, the statistics of symptoms based on hospital data may be biased or delayed due to the high proportion of asymptomatic or mild-symptom infections that are not recorded in hospitals. Meanwhile, the difficulty in accessing large-scale clinical data also limits many researchers from conducting timely research. OBJECTIVE: Given the wide coverage and promptness of social media, this study aimed to present an efficient workflow to track and visualize the dynamic characteristics and co-occurrence of symptoms for the COVID-19 pandemic from large-scale and long-term social media data. METHODS: This retrospective study included 471,553,966 COVID-19-related tweets from February 1, 2020, to April 30, 2022. We curated a hierarchical symptom lexicon for social media containing 10 affected organs/systems, 257 symptoms, and 1808 synonyms. The dynamic characteristics of COVID-19 symptoms over time were analyzed from the perspectives of weekly new cases, overall distribution, and temporal prevalence of reported symptoms. The symptom evolutions between virus strains (Delta and Omicron) were investigated by comparing the symptom prevalence during their dominant periods. A co-occurrence symptom network was developed and visualized to investigate inner relationships among symptoms and affected body systems. RESULTS: This study identified 201 COVID-19 symptoms and grouped them into 10 affected body systems. There was a significant correlation between the weekly quantity of self-reported symptoms and new COVID-19 infections (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.8528; P<.001). We also observed a 1-week leading trend (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.8802; P<.001) between them. The frequency of symptoms showed dynamic changes as the pandemic progressed, from typical respiratory symptoms in the early stage to more musculoskeletal and nervous symptoms in the later stages. We identified the difference in symptoms between the Delta and Omicron periods. There were fewer severe symptoms (coma and dyspnea), more flu-like symptoms (throat pain and nasal congestion), and fewer typical COVID symptoms (anosmia and taste altered) in the Omicron period than in the Delta period (all P<.001). Network analysis revealed co-occurrences among symptoms and systems corresponding to specific disease progressions, including palpitations (cardiovascular) and dyspnea (respiratory), and alopecia (musculoskeletal) and impotence (reproductive). CONCLUSIONS: This study identified more and milder COVID-19 symptoms than clinical research and characterized the dynamic symptom evolution based on 400 million tweets over 27 months. The symptom network revealed potential comorbidity risk and prognostic disease progression. These findings demonstrate that the cooperation of social media and a well-designed workflow can depict a holistic picture of pandemic symptoms to complement clinical studies.

Children and adolescents' positive youth development qualities and internet addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study in China.

Backgrounds: Recent studies have shown that the qualities of children and adolescents' positive youth development (PYD) enable them to cope with developmental challenges in an adaptive manner and maintain healthy functioning. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still a lack of reporting on changes in children and adolescents' PYD qualities and Internet addiction and their relationship. This study investigated the association between PYD qualities and Internet addiction among the children and adolescents who have experienced the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: A school-based cohort survey was launched in December 2019 (Wave 1, before COVID-19 lockdown) and followed up in June 2020 (Wave 2, after COVID-19 lockdown). The Chinese PYD scale (80 items, scoring 80-480) and Young's Internet addiction test (20 items, scoring 20-100) were used to evaluate the children and adolescents' PYD qualities and the degree of their Internet addiction, respectively. Cross-sectional regressions, longitudinal regressions, and cross-lagged panel model were used to examine the association between PYD qualities and Internet addiction. Results: 7,985 children and adolescents completed both waves of surveys. Compared with children and adolescents before lockdown (Wave 1), their total PYD quality dropped from 4.99 to 4.96 after COVID-19 lockdown (Wave 2), and the mean score for Internet addiction rose from 35.56 to 36.16. Cross-sectional analysis showed that after controlling for basic characteristics such as age and gender, the total PYD quality of children and adolescents in two waves was negatively correlated with the degree of Internet addiction during the same period, with ß of -6.10 and -6.95, respectively. Longitudinal analysis showed that after controlling for basic characteristics, children and adolescents' total PYD quality in Wave 1 was negatively correlated with the Wave 2 of Internet addiction and the change between the two waves of Internet addiction, with ß of -3.35 and -0.26, respectively. Cross-lagged panel models showed a negative bilateral relationship between total PYD quality and Internet addiction. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the qualities of children and adolescents' PYD declined, which makes children and adolescents more vulnerable to Internet addiction. Therefore, it is necessary to widely implement programs in China that can comprehensively improve the qualities of children and adolescents' positive development to prevent Internet addiction, especially after the blockade due to public health emergencies.

Willingness to pay for and willingness to vaccinate with the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose in China.

Objective: The present study aims to assess the willingness to pay (WTP) for and willingness to vaccinate (WTV) with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine booster dose in China when the pandemic is under adequate control and the majority of the population is vaccinated. This study is also to identify significant factors associated with the WTP. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on adults with no past or present COVID-19 infection. An online questionnaire was distributed to collect data on vaccination status, quarantine experience, and factors related to health beliefs on vaccination. The WTV was assessed through the vaccination preference. The WTP was examined by payment scale (PS) and iterative bidding game (IBG) administered in random order. Three IBG algorithms with different starting-price were presented randomly. The average WTP of PS and IBG were analyzed as primary outcomes using univariate and multivariate analyses. Multivariate ordered logistic regression was performed to identify significant factors for the WTP. Results: The survey recruited 543 participants with a mean age of 32 years and 57.80% being female. The WTV rate was 86.74%, while 94.66% of participants completed full-schedule or enhanced vaccination. The mean WTP was CNY 149 (±CNY 197) and the median WTP was CNY 80. Regarding significant factors for the WTP, urban residents were 57% more likely (95% CI: 1.11-2.22) to pay for a high-priced vaccine than rural residents. Respondents who completed full-schedule vaccination were 46% more likely (95% CI: 1.03-2.07) to pay for a high-priced vaccine than those who completed enhanced vaccination. Respondents with a low household income of CNY 40k or lower were 62% less likely (95% CI: 0.21-0.66) to pay for a high-priced vaccine than those with a middle household income of CNY 110k-210k. Other significant factors associated with the WTP included the perceived benefit of vaccination and peer environmental pressure in the health belief model. Conclusion: The WTV with the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose was high in China. The WTP was influenced by the place of residence, vaccination status, household income, perceived benefit of vaccination, and environmental peer pressure. Study findings can inform policymakers to better design vaccination programs and financial schemes involving out-of-pocket payments.

Spy&IAC enables specific capture of SpyTagged proteins for rapid assembly of plug-and-display nanoparticle vaccines.

From modular vaccine production to protein assembly on nanoparticles, the SpyCatcher/SpyTag system provides a convenient plug-and-display procedure. Here, we established a general-purpose immunoaffinity chromatography (IAC) method for SpyTagged proteins (Spy&IAC). SpyTags are displayed on the surface of nanoparticles to induce high-affinity monoclonal antibodies, allowing the specific capture of the target protein. Taking the key core antigenic regions of two coronaviruses that are currently more threatened in the field of human and animal diseases, the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2 and the COE protein of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) as model proteins, a purification model with SpyTag at the N-terminal or C-terminal expressed in E. coli or mammalian cells was constructed. After the efficient elution of Spy&IAC, the final yield of several proteins is about 3.5-15 mg/L culture, and the protein purity is above 90 %. Purification also preserves the assembly function and immunogenicity of the protein to support subsequent modular assembly and immunization programs. This strategy provides a general tool for the efficient purification of SpyTagged proteins from different expression sources and different tag positions, enabling the production of modular vaccines at lower cost and in a shorter time, which will prepare the public health field for potential pandemic threats.

Maternal and neonatal safety of COVID-19 vaccination during the peri-pregnancy period: A prospective study.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the safety of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine in Chinese pregnant women and their fetuses when inoculated during the peri-pregnancy period. METHODS: Eligible pregnant women were prospectively collected and divided into a vaccine group (n = 93) and control group (n = 160) according to whether they had been vaccinated against COVID-19 within 3 months before their last menstruation period (LMP) and after pregnancy. Demographic data of couples, complications during pregnancy and delivery of pregnant women, and data of newborns at birth were collected. RESULTS: Sixty-six women were vaccinated with a median time of 35.5 (range = 0-91) days before LMP, and 27 women were vaccinated with a median time of 17 (range = 1-72) days after LMP. The incidence of premature rupture of membrane (PROM) in the vaccine group was significantly higher than that in the control group (16.13% vs. 6.88%, p = 0.019). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that maternal peri-pregnancy COVID-19 vaccination was not an independent risk factor for PROM (odds ratio: 2.407, 95% confidence interval: 0.932-6.216, p = 0.069). There was no difference in the incidence of other complications during pregnancy and delivery between the two groups. A total of 253 neonates were delivered, including two cases with congenital abnormalities in each group. The incidence of congenital abnormalities between the two groups was similar (2.15% vs. 1.25%, p = 0.626). There was no difference in neonatal length, weight, head circumference, and Apgar score between the two groups (p > 0.05), but the incidence of neonatal jaundice in the vaccine group was significantly higher than that in the control group (20.43% vs. 7.5%, p = 0.002). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that maternal peri-pregnancy vaccination, postpartum blood loss, cesarean section, 1-min Apgar score, and paternal smoking were independent risk factors for neonatal jaundice. CONCLUSIONS: It is safe for pregnant women and their fetuses to be inoculated the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine during the peri-pregnancy period, but attention should be paid to neonatal jaundice.

Unraveling the potential human health risks from used disposable face mask-derived micro/nanoplastics during the COVID-19 pandemic scenario: A critical review.

With the global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), disposable face masks (DFMs) have caused negative environmental impacts. DFMs will release microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) during environmental degradation. However, few studies reveal the release process of MPs/NPs from masks in the natural environment. This review presents the current knowledge on the abiotic and biotic degradation of DFMs. Though MPs and NPs have raised serious concerns about their potentially detrimental effects on human health, little attention was paid to their impacts on human health from DFM-derived MPs and NPs. The potential toxicity of mask-derived MPs/NPs, such as gastrointestinal toxicity, pneumotoxicity, neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, reproductive and transgenerational toxicity, and the underlying mechanism will be discussed in the present study. MPs/NPs serve as carriers of toxic chemicals and pathogens, leading to their bioaccumulation and adverse effects of biomagnification by food chains. Given human experiments are facing ethical issues and animal studies cannot completely reveal human characteristics, advanced human organoids will provide promising models for MP/NP risk assessment. Moreover, in-depth investigations are required to identify the release of MPs/NPs from discarded face masks and characterize their transportation through the food chains. More importantly, innovative approaches and eco-friendly strategies are urgently demanded to reduce DFM-derived MP/NP pollution.

Tracking the Impact of COVID-19 and Lockdown Policies on Public Mental Health Using Social Media: Infoveillance Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and its corresponding preventive and control measures have increased the mental burden on the public. Understanding and tracking changes in public mental status can facilitate optimizing public mental health intervention and control strategies. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to build a social media-based pipeline that tracks public mental changes and use it to understand public mental health status regarding the pandemic. METHODS: This study used COVID-19-related tweets posted from February 2020 to April 2022. The tweets were downloaded using unique identifiers through the Twitter application programming interface. We created a lexicon of 4 mental health problems (depression, anxiety, insomnia, and addiction) to identify mental health-related tweets and developed a dictionary for identifying health care workers. We analyzed temporal and geographic distributions of public mental health status during the pandemic and further compared distributions among health care workers versus the general public, supplemented by topic modeling on their underlying foci. Finally, we used interrupted time series analysis to examine the statewide impact of a lockdown policy on public mental health in 12 states. RESULTS: We extracted 4,213,005 tweets related to mental health and COVID-19 from 2,316,817 users. Of these tweets, 2,161,357 (51.3%) were related to "depression," whereas 1,923,635 (45.66%), 225,205 (5.35%), and 150,006 (3.56%) were related to "anxiety," "insomnia," and "addiction," respectively. Compared to the general public, health care workers had higher risks of all 4 types of problems (all P<.001), and they were more concerned about clinical topics than everyday issues (eg, "students' pressure," "panic buying," and "fuel problems") than the general public. Finally, the lockdown policy had significant associations with public mental health in 4 out of the 12 states we studied, among which Pennsylvania showed a positive association, whereas Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio showed the opposite (all P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: The impact of COVID-19 and the corresponding control measures on the public's mental status is dynamic and shows variability among different cohorts regarding disease types, occupations, and regional groups. Health agencies and policy makers should primarily focus on depression (reported by 51.3% of the tweets) and insomnia (which has had an ever-increasing trend since the beginning of the pandemic), especially among health care workers. Our pipeline timely tracks and analyzes public mental health changes, especially when primary studies and large-scale surveys are difficult to conduct.

Willingness to pay for and willingness to vaccinate with the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose in China

Objective: The present study aims to assess the willingness to pay (WTP) for and willingness to vaccinate (WTV) with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine booster dose in China when the pandemic is under adequate control and the majority of the population is vaccinated. This study is also to identify significant factors associated with the WTP. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on adults with no past or present COVID-19 infection. An online questionnaire was distributed to collect data on vaccination status, quarantine experience, and factors related to health beliefs on vaccination. The WTV was assessed through the vaccination preference. The WTP was examined by payment scale (PS) and iterative bidding game (IBG) administered in random order. Three IBG algorithms with different starting-price were presented randomly. The average WTP of PS and IBG were analyzed as primary outcomes using univariate and multivariate analyses. Multivariate ordered logistic regression was performed to identify significant factors for the WTP. Results: The survey recruited 543 participants with a mean age of 32 years and 57.80% being female. The WTV rate was 86.74%, while 94.66% of participants completed full-schedule or enhanced vaccination. The mean WTP was CNY 149 (±CNY 197) and the median WTP was CNY 80. Regarding significant factors for the WTP, urban residents were 57% more likely (95% CI: 1.11-2.22) to pay for a high-priced vaccine than rural residents. Respondents who completed full-schedule vaccination were 46% more likely (95% CI: 1.03–2.07) to pay for a high-priced vaccine than those who completed enhanced vaccination. Respondents with a low household income of CNY 40k or lower were 62% less likely (95% CI: 0.21–0.66) to pay for a high-priced vaccine than those with a middle household income of CNY 110k–210k. Other significant factors associated with the WTP included the perceived benefit of vaccination and peer environmental pressure in the health belief model. Conclusion: The WTV with the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose was high in China. The WTP was influenced by the place of residence, vaccination status, household income, perceived benefit of vaccination, and environmental peer pressure. Study findings can inform policymakers to better design vaccination programs and financial schemes involving out-of-pocket payments.

Antibody evasion of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, and BA.3 sub-lineages.

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has evolved into four sub-lineages-BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, and BA.3-with BA.2 becoming dominant worldwide. We and others have reported antibody evasion of BA.1 and BA.2, but side-by-side comparisons of Omicron sub-lineages to vaccine-elicited or monoclonal antibody (mAb)-mediated neutralization are necessary. Using VSV-based pseudovirus, we report that sera from individuals vaccinated by two doses of an inactivated whole-virion vaccine shows weak to no neutralization activity, while homologous or heterologous boosters markedly improve neutralization titers against all Omicron sub-lineages. We also present neutralization profiles against a 20 mAb panel, including 10 authorized or approved, against the Omicron sub-lineages, along with mAb mapping against single or combinatorial spike mutations. Most mAbs lost neutralizing activity, while some demonstrate distinct neutralization patterns among Omicron sub-lineages, reflecting antigenic differences. Collectively, our results suggest the Omicron sub-lineages threaten the neutralization efficacy of current vaccines and antibody therapeutics, highlighting the importance of vaccine boosters.

Emotion, analytic thinking and susceptibility to misinformation during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Misinformation has become prevalent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand why people believe and share misinformation, we conducted a nationwide survey during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. We found the indirect effects of COVID-19 risk on people's information accuracy judgment and associated information sharing intention through people's emotional states. People faced with a higher level of COVID-19 risk (measured by a 7-day moving average of daily new deaths or new cases) experienced weaker positive and stronger negative emotions, and heightened emotionality (both the positive and negative emotions) was associated with increased belief in and greater likelihood to share the COVID-19 information regardless of veracity. We also found that only the negative emotion mediated the relation between the COVID-19 risk and the truth discernment regarding accuracy judgment. However, the mediating effect of negative emotion disappeared among people with high analytic thinking ability. These findings suggest that the analytic thinking ability could moderate the destructive relationship between negative emotion and accuracy discernment. Based on a large sample, our findings provide actionable insights for the policymakers to respond to the spread of misinformation appropriately and promptly during the pandemic.

Inhibitor screening using microarray identifies the high capacity of neutralizing antibodies to Spike variants in SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination.

Rationale: Mutations of SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), could impede drug development and reduce the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Here, we developed a multiplexed Spike-ACE2 Inhibitor Screening (mSAIS) assay that can measure the neutralizing effect of antibodies across numerous variants of the coronavirus's Spike (S) protein simultaneously. Methods: The SARS-CoV-2 spike variant protein microarrays were prepared by printing 72 S variants onto a chemically-modified glass slides. The neutralization potential of purified anti-S antibodies and serum from convalescent COVID-19 patients and vaccinees to S variants were assessed with the mSAIS assay. Results: We identified new S mutations that are sensitive and resistant to neutralization. Serum from both infected and vaccinated groups with a high titer of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) displayed a broader capacity to neutralize S variants than serum with low titer NAbs. These data were validated using serum from a large vaccinated cohort (n = 104) with a tiled S peptide microarray. In addition, similar results were obtained using a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus neutralization assay specific for wild-type S and five prevalent S variants (D614G, B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.617.2), thus demonstrating that high antibody diversity is associated with high NAb titers. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the utility of the mSAIS platform in screening NAbs. Moreover, we show that heterogeneous antibody populations provide a more protective effect against S variants, which may help direct COVID-19 vaccine and drug development.

Establishment of a rapid diagnosis assay for SARS-CoV-2 infection based on MALDI-TOF MS

Objective: To establish a rapid, high-throughput detection assay of serum peptidome profiling for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection based on matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS).

Homologous or heterologous booster of inactivated vaccine reduces SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant escape from neutralizing antibodies.

The massive and rapid transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has led to the emergence of several viral variants of concern (VOCs), with the most recent one, B.1.1.529 (Omicron), which accumulated a large number of spike mutations, raising the specter that this newly identified variant may escape from the currently available vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. Using VSV-based pseudovirus, we found that Omicron variant is markedly resistant to neutralization of sera from convalescents or individuals vaccinated by two doses of inactivated whole-virion vaccines (BBIBP-CorV). However, a homologous inactivated vaccine booster or a heterologous booster with protein subunit vaccine (ZF2001) significantly increased neutralization titers to both WT and Omicron variant. Moreover, at day 14 post the third dose, neutralizing antibody titer reduction for Omicron was less than that for convalescents or individuals who had only two doses of the vaccine, indicating that a homologous or heterologous booster can reduce the Omicron escape from neutralizing. In addition, we tested a panel of 17 SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Omicron resists seven of eight authorized/approved mAbs, as well as most of the other mAbs targeting distinct epitopes on RBD and NTD. Taken together, our results suggest the urgency to push forward the booster vaccination to combat the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Myocarditis and Pericarditis following COVID-19 Vaccination: Inequalities in Age and Vaccine Types.

An increasing number of myocarditis/pericarditis incidences has been reported after coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) vaccination in adolescents and young adults. This study was designed to investigate the incidence rate of-and risk for-myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination in the United States according to age and vaccine type. This study used the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) from 11 December 2020 to 13 August 2021. A population-based data mining approach was performed based on the reporting odds ratio (ROR). Adverse events of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination were rare, with an incidence rate of 5.98 (95% CI = 5.73-6.24) cases per million doses administered. The incidence rate was higher in adolescents and after the administration of the second dose of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Overall, two mRNA vaccines were significantly associated with increased risks for myocarditis/pericarditis (mRNA-1273 (Moderna): ROR = 2.91, 95% CI = 2.21-3.83; BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech): ROR = 5.37, 95% CI = 4.10-7.04) compared to all other vaccines from VAERS. The viral vector vaccine of Ad26.COV2.S (Janssen) was not associated with signals of myocarditis/pericarditis (ROR = 1.39; 95% CI = 0.99-1.97). This study found increased risks for myocarditis/pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. For patients at high risk for myocarditis/pericarditis or with myocardial injuries, the viral vector vaccine may be an alternative for consideration.

Graphical Trajectory Comparison to Identify Errors in Data of COVID-19: A Cross-Country Analysis.

Data from the early stage of a novel infectious disease outbreak provide vital information in risk assessment, prediction, and precise disease management. Since the first reported case of COVID-19, the pattern of the novel coronavirus transmission in Wuhan has become the interest of researchers in epidemiology and public health. To thoroughly map the mechanism of viral spreading, we used the patterns of data at the early onset of COVID-19 from seven countries to estimate the time lag between peak days of cases and deaths. This study compared these data with those of Wuhan and estimated the natural history of disease across the infected population and the time lag. The findings suggest that comparative analyses of data from different regions and countries reveal the differences between peaks of cases and deaths caused by COVID-19 and the incomplete and underestimated cases in Wuhan. Different countries may show different patterns of cases peak days, deaths peak days, and peak periods. Error in the early COVID-19 statistics in Brazil was identified. This study provides sound evidence for policymakers to understand the local circumstances in diagnosing the health of a population and propose precise and timely public health interventions to control and prevent infectious diseases.