Leveraging natural history biorepositories as a global, decentralized, pathogen surveillance network.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic reveals a major gap in global biosecurity infrastructure: a lack of publicly available biological samples representative across space, time, and taxonomic diversity. The shortfall, in this case for vertebrates, prevents accurate and rapid identification and monitoring of emerging pathogens and their reservoir host(s) and precludes extended investigation of ecological, evolutionary, and environmental associations that lead to human infection or spillover. Natural history museum biorepositories form the backbone of a critically needed, decentralized, global network for zoonotic pathogen surveillance, yet this infrastructure remains marginally developed, underutilized, underfunded, and disconnected from public health initiatives. Proactive detection and mitigation for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) requires expanded biodiversity infrastructure and training (particularly in biodiverse and lower income countries) and new communication pipelines that connect biorepositories and biomedical communities. To this end, we highlight a novel adaptation of Project ECHO's virtual community of practice model: Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA). MEPA is a virtual network aimed at fostering communication, coordination, and collaborative problem-solving among pathogen researchers, public health officials, and biorepositories in the Americas. MEPA now acts as a model of effective international, interdisciplinary collaboration that can and should be replicated in other biodiversity hotspots. We encourage deposition of wildlife specimens and associated data with public biorepositories, regardless of original collection purpose, and urge biorepositories to embrace new specimen sources, types, and uses to maximize strategic growth and utility for EID research. Taxonomically, geographically, and temporally deep biorepository archives serve as the foundation of a proactive and increasingly predictive approach to zoonotic spillover, risk assessment, and threat mitigation.

[Building the scientific commons. Conflictualities and pluralism in the light of clinical trials Covid-19]. / Faire du commun dans les sciences - Conflictualités et pluralisme à l'épreuve des essais cliniques COVID-19.

TITLE: Faire du commun dans les sciences - Conflictualités et pluralisme à l'épreuve des essais cliniques COVID-19. ABSTRACT: La crise de la COVID-19 s'est ouverte sur un déficit de moyens thérapeutiques permettant de lutter efficacement contre cette maladie pour les cas les plus graves et sur de nombreuses initiatives visant à mettre en évidence un traitement efficace. Si différentes options ont été explorées, parmi lesquelles la transfusion de plasma de patients guéris, la lutte contre les mécanismes immunitaires déclenchant une réponse trop forte (les orages cytokiniques) ou, à moyen terme, la vaccination, ce sont dans un premier temps surtout les médicaments antiviraux qui ont nourri les espoirs. Après l'identification d'un certain nombre de principes actifs montrant des effets in vitro, il s'agissait d'obtenir rapidement des réponses quant à leurs effets bénéfiques in vivo et aux risques induits. Aussi, s'est-on senti en droit d'attendre que la science nous apporte les connaissances nécessaires sur ces médicaments, qu'elle nous parle, une fois sollicitée, de manière claire et d'une seule voix ; et cela, dans une situation d'urgence où la synchronisation des rythmes de la recherche et du soin n'a rien d'une évidence.

Managing COVID-19 With a Clinical Decision Support Tool in a Community Health Network: Algorithm Development and Validation.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality; large numbers of patients require intensive care, which is placing strain on health care systems worldwide. There is an urgent need for a COVID-19 disease severity assessment that can assist in patient triage and resource allocation for patients at risk for severe disease. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to develop, validate, and scale a clinical decision support system and mobile app to assist in COVID-19 severity assessment, management, and care. METHODS: Model training data from 701 patients with COVID-19 were collected across practices within the Family Health Centers network at New York University Langone Health. A two-tiered model was developed. Tier 1 uses easily available, nonlaboratory data to help determine whether biomarker-based testing and/or hospitalization is necessary. Tier 2 predicts the probability of mortality using biomarker measurements (C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, D-dimer) and age. Both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 models were validated using two external datasets from hospitals in Wuhan, China, comprising 160 and 375 patients, respectively. RESULTS: All biomarkers were measured at significantly higher levels in patients who died vs those who were not hospitalized or discharged (P<.001). The Tier 1 and Tier 2 internal validations had areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.79 (95% CI 0.74-0.84) and 0.95 (95% CI 0.92-0.98), respectively. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 external validations had AUCs of 0.79 (95% CI 0.74-0.84) and 0.97 (95% CI 0.95-0.99), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate the validity of the clinical decision support system and mobile app, which are now ready to assist health care providers in making evidence-based decisions when managing COVID-19 patient care. The deployment of these new capabilities has potential for immediate impact in community clinics and sites, where application of these tools could lead to improvements in patient outcomes and cost containment.

[SFBC working group "Biochemical markers of COVID-19"]. / Groupe de travail SFBC « Marqueurs biochimiques de COVID-19 ¼.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is responsible for an epidemic disease called COVID-19, which was initially evidenced in Wuhan, China, and spread very rapidly in China and around the world. In France, the first isolated case seems now to be reported in December 2019, stage 3 of the COVID-19 epidemic was triggered on March 14th, the start of the planned containment exit from May 11th. Healthcare services have faced a large influx of patients who may be beyond their capacity to receive and care, particularly in the Large-East and Ile-de-France regions. Some patients show an evolution of the disease never observed before with other coronaviruses and develop in a few days a very important inflammatory reaction, which can lead to death of patients. A working group of the French Society of Clinical Biology (SFBC) was set up with the objective of providing updated information on the current status of the biological prescriptions (focusing on biochemistry ones) and their evolution during the epidemic, and of analyzing the biological parameters associated with comorbidities and patient evolution in order to link biological results with medical events. The expanded working group covers all sectors of medical biology in France and extends to the French-speaking world: hospital sectors (CHU and CH, Army Training Hospitals) and the private sector opening a field of view on the biological situation in establishments for dependent elderly, social establishments and clinical medical institutions. The purpose of this article is the presentation of this working group and its immediate and future actions.