ABSTRACT
Apart from many social and economic problems worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to sudden halt in face-to-face climate-related meetings. Moreover, it has also negatively influenced the works related to the preparations for the sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and organizing the 26th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), namely COP26 to be held in Glasgow, which was postponed to November 2021. This article presents a global study undertaken among UNFCCC contact points and other climate experts, to ascertain the impacts of the pandemic on the implementation of SDG13 and UNFCCC processes. The methodological approach entails an bibliometric analysis, online survey, and authors’ expert judgment. Results of the bibliometric analysis show that the most common terms associated with this theme are COVID-19, climate change, CO2, energy, “pandemic-related,” and “adaptation-related.” In addition, the survey revealed some difficulties associated with online participation in the processes from many developing countries. The study concluded that there is negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the UNFCCC process, more minor government priorities regarding climate action, loss of traction of the process, and a challenge to achieve the Paris Agreement, with less significant support from the respondents from less developed countries. The findings suggest that urgent action is needed, to make up for the lost time, and place climate issues more prominently on the global agenda. Copyright © 2022 Filho, Hickmann, Nagy, Pinho, Sharifi, Minhas, Islam, Djalanti, García Vinuesa and Abubakar.
ABSTRACT
Purpose There is increasing evidence of adverse cardiovascular morbidity associated with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (proBNP) is a biomarker of myocardial stress associated with outcomes in various respiratory and cardiac diseases. We hypothesized that proBNP level would be associated with mortality and clinical outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of hospitalized COVID-19 patients (n=1232) using adjusted logistic and linear regression to assess the association of admission proBNP (analyzed by both categorical cutoff >125 pg/mL and continuous log transformed proBNP) with clinical outcomes. Covariates included age, sex, race, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, coronary artery disease (CAD), diabetes, smoking history, and chronic kidney disease stage (Model 1), with Troponin I added in Model 2. We performed survival analysis by a multivariate Cox proportional hazard model, incorporating log transformed proBNP. We additionally treated BMI, a strong potential confounder of both proBNP levels and COVID-19 outcomes, as an ordinal variable ordered across tertiles. Results Patients were mean age 62.9±17.6, 53.8% male, and 35.9% Black. Preadmission comorbidities were hypertension (57.1%), diabetes (31.6%), CAD (9.0%) and heart failure (HF, 10.6%). In Model 1 and 2, higher proBNP level was significantly associated with death, new HF, length of stay, ICU duration and need for ventilation among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This significance persisted after ordinal compression of BMI across tertiles. The adjusted hazard ratio of death for log[proBNP] was 1.56 (95% CI: 1.23-1.97;P<0.0001). Conclusion Using a relatively large and racially diverse hospitalized COVID-19 patient cohort, we find that proBNP is associated with adverse clinical outcomes, including mortality and new HF in COVID-19. Further prospective investigation is warranted on the utility of proBNP for clinical prognostication in COVID-19.