ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) seropositivity was assessed for 3,066 individuals visiting hospitals in St. Louis, Missouri, during July 2020, November 2020, or January 2021. Seropositivity in children increased from 5.22% in July to 21.16% in January. In the same time frame, seropositivity among adults increased from 4.52% to 19.03%, prior to initiation of mass vaccination. IMPORTANCE This study determined the percentage of children and adult samples from the St. Louis metropolitan area in Missouri with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during three collection periods spanning July 2020 to January 2021. By January 2021, 20.68% of the tested individuals had antibodies. These results show the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in St. Louis, Missouri, and provide a snapshot of the extent of infection just prior to the start of mass vaccination.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Antibodies, Viral/immunology , COVID-19 Serological Testing/methods , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Missouri , Pandemics/prevention & control , Seroepidemiologic Studies , Young AdultABSTRACT
Reported coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case counts likely underestimate the true prevalence because mild or asymptomatic cases often go untested. Here, we use a sero-survey to estimate the seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the St. Louis, MO, metropolitan area in a symptom-independent manner. Five hundred three adult and 555 pediatric serum/plasma samples were collected from patients presenting to Barnes-Jewish Hospital or St. Louis Children's Hospital between 14 April 2020 and 12 May 2020. We developed protocols for in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) using spike and nucleoprotein and used the assays to estimate a seroprevalence rate based on our samples. Overall IgG seropositivity was estimated to be 1.71% (95% credible interval [CI], 0.04% to 3.38%) in pediatric samples and 3.11% (95% CI, 0.92% to 5.32%) in adult samples. Seropositivity was significantly lower in children under 5 years of age than in adults, but rates between adults and children aged 5 or older were similar. Of the 176 samples tested from children under 4 years of age, none were positive.IMPORTANCE This study determined the percentages of both children and adult samples from the greater St. Louis metropolitan area who had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in late April to early May 2020. Approximately 1.7 to 3.1% of the tested individuals had antibodies, indicating that they had previously been infected by SARS-CoV-2. These results demonstrate that the extent of infection was about 10 times greater than the number of confirmed cases at that time. Furthermore, it demonstrated that by 5 years of age, children were infected to an extent similar to that of adults.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Viral/blood , Antibodies, Viral/immunology , COVID-19/blood , COVID-19/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Adolescent , Adult , COVID-19/epidemiology , Child , Child, Preschool , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/methods , Female , Humans , Immunoglobulin G/blood , Immunoglobulin G/immunology , Infant , Male , Middle Aged , Missouri/epidemiology , Seroepidemiologic Studies , Young AdultABSTRACT
How did the great financial crisis (GFC) of 2008-2010 impact on R&D and innovation in the United Kingdom and internationally? What can we learn about the likely innovation effects of the COVID-19 crisis on small and medium enterprises (SME) innovation? Numerous international studies suggest the strong procyclicality of R&D and innovation investments in firms: investment rises in recovery and falls sharply in times of crisis. This procyclicality is driven in firms by both internal financial resources or slack and varying market incentives for innovation. Cash constraints, in particular, may impact most strongly on R&D and innovation investments by smaller firms. In the United Kingdom, the proportion of innovating firms fell by around a third during the GFC and took around four to six years to recover. Recovery was also uneven - notably weaker in some sectors and regions. The COVID-19 crisis seems likely to leave many firms financially weaker, with the most significant impacts on the willingness or ability of SMEs to sustain R&D and innovation. Where firms are able to sustain these investments, however, the evidence from the GFC suggests that they will lead to better survival chances, stronger growth and higher profitability. Some additional financial support for innovation has been announced by the UK government. Whether this will be sufficient to sustain SME levels of innovative activity, however, remains to be seen.