No genetic causal association between systemic lupus erythematosus and COVID-19.

Objective: Emerging evidence suggests an increased prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the prototype of autoimmune disease, compared to the general population. However, the conclusions were inconsistent, and the causal relationship between COVID-19 and SLE remains unknown. Methods: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the bidirectional causal relationship between COVID-19 and SLE using bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, including MR-Egger, weighted median, weighted mode, and the inverse variance weighting (IVW) method. Results: The results of IVW showed a negative effect of SLE on severe COVID-19 (OR = 0.962, p = 0.040) and COVID-19 infection (OR = 0.988, p = 0.025), which disappeared after Bonferroni correction. No causal effect of SLE on hospitalized COVID-19 was observed (OR = 0.983, p = 0.148). In the reverse analysis, no causal effects of severe COVID-19 infection (OR = 1.045, p = 0.664), hospitalized COVID-19 (OR = 0.872, p = 0.109), and COVID-19 infection (OR = 0.943, p = 0.811) on SLE were found. Conclusion: The findings of our bidirectional causal inference analysis did not support a genetically predicted causal relationship between SLE and COVID-19; thus, their association observed in previous observational studies may have been caused by confounding factors.

Financial Constraints with the Outbreak of COVID-19 and the Equity Guarantee Swap

In order to further alleviate the financing constraints on SMEs and to reduce financing costs incurred following the outbreak of COVID-19, this article introduces an innovative financial arrangement called equity for guarantee swaps (EGS), which are based on widely used credit guarantee schemes (CGS). EGS can reduce information asymmetry and increase credit to SMEs, so that they can obtain more favorable financing conditions and alleviate liquidity difficulties. This helps to reverse the adverse impact of the pandemic. More importantly, from an academic perspective EGS demonstrate Pareto improvement over CGS.

Discontinuation of Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibitors During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: In March and April 2020, medical societies published statements recommending continued use of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors despite theoretical concerns that these medications could increase COVID-19 severity. Determining if patients discontinued RAS inhibitors during the COVID-19 pandemic could inform responses to future public health emergencies. METHODS: We analyzed claims data from US adults with health insurance in the Marketscan database. We identified patients who filled a RAS inhibitor and were persistent, defined by not having a ≥30-day gap without medication available, and high adherence, defined by having medication available on ≥80% of days, from March 2019 to February 2020. Among these patients, we estimated the proportion who discontinued their RAS inhibitor (i.e., had ≥30 consecutive days without a RAS inhibitor available to take) between March and August 2020. For comparison, we estimated the proportion of patients that discontinued a RAS inhibitor between March and August 2019 after being persistent with high adherence from March 2018 to February 2019. RESULTS: Among 816,380 adults who were persistent and adherent to a RAS inhibitor from March 2019 to February 2020, 10.8% discontinued this medication between March and August 2020. Among 822,873 adults who were persistent and adherent to a RAS inhibitor from March 2018 to February 2019, 11.7% discontinued this medication between March and August 2019. The multivariable-adjusted relative risk for RAS inhibitor discontinuation in 2020 vs. 2019 was 0.94 (95% CI 0.93-0.95). CONCLUSIONS: There was no evidence of an increase in RAS inhibitor discontinuation during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 and inflammatory bowel disease crosstalk: From emerging association to clinical proposal.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an acute respiratory inflammation that has emerged worldwide since December 2019, and it quickly became a global epidemic. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of chronic nonspecific intestinal inflammatory diseases whose etiology has not been elucidated. The two have many overlapping symptoms in clinical presentation, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, pneumonia, etc. Imbalance of the autoimmune system in IBD patients and long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs may increase the risk of infection; and systemic symptoms caused by COVID-19 may also induce or exacerbate intestinal inflammation. It has been found that the SARS-CoV-2 receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2, which is highly expressed in the lung and intestine, is an inflammatory protective factor, and is downregulated and upregulated in COVID-19 and IBD, respectively, suggesting that there may be a coregulatory pathway. In addition, the immune activation pattern of COVID-19 and the cytokine storm in the inflammatory response have similar roles in IBD, indicating that the two diseases may influence each other. Therefore, this review aimed to address the following research questions: whether SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to the progression of IBD; whether IBD increases the risk of COVID-19 infection and poor prognosis; possible common mechanisms and genetic cross-linking between the two diseases; new treatment and care strategies for IBD patients, and the feasibility and risk of vaccination in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Can artificial intelligence enable the government to respond more effectively to major public health emergencies? --Taking the prevention and control of Covid-19 in China as an example.

In recent years, public health emergencies have occurred frequently, posing a serious threat to the regional economy and the safety of people's lives and property. In particular, the outbreak of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus this year has caused serious losses to the global economy. On this basis, this article attempts to use modern advanced artificial intelligence technology and modern social science and technology to provide technical assistance and support for the prevention and control of major public health incidents, in order to improve the Chinese government's public relations capabilities and response to public health emergencies. Ability and level. This article attempts to use 3S technology closely related to artificial intelligence technology to design and establish a public health emergency response system, so as to improve the government's response and decision-making ability to respond to and deal with public health emergencies, and reduce the occurrence of emergencies. The results showed that among the 298 respondents, 145 believed that public health emergencies depend on human-to-human transmission. Most event information is acceptable, while 169 people who rely on mobile phones for information think that most of them are acceptable, and 89 people who rely on TV media for information think that most of them are acceptable. It shows that the use of artificial intelligence technology can effectively solve and prevent the further development of the situation, and at the same time improve the government's ability and level to respond to major public health emergencies, and increase the government's prestige in the eyes of the public.