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Blood drawn from patients shortly after they were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may indicate who is most likely to land in the hospital, a study led by Stanford Medicine investigators has found. (Stanford Medicine, 1/19)

Some patients who develop new cognitive symptoms after a mild bout of COVID have abnormalities in their cerebrospinal fluid similar to those found in people with other infectious diseases. The finding may provide insights into how SARS-CoV-2 impacts the brain. (University of California-San Francisco, 1/19)

More than a third of participants in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials who received a placebo reported adverse events (AEs) such as headache and fatigue and contributed to the "nocebo effect," potentially rendering 76% of all AE reports after the first dose not true AEs, according to a meta-analysis yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 1/19)

A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) comments on the "ineffectual and fragmented" US COVID-19 pandemic responses thus far and recommends eight steps to manage the ongoing crisis amid variant fatigue, inflation, and supply chain disruptions. (Van Beusekom, 1/18)

Marking the first investigation into an outbreak tied to a domestic hydroponic growing operation, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) late last week issued the findings related to a Salmonella Typhimurium event linked to prepackaged salad greens that sickened 31 people from four states last summer. (1/18)

A randomized trial of children with uncomplicated pneumonia found that a 5-day course of antibiotics was superior to 10 days of treatment, US researchers reported today in JAMA Pediatrics. (Dall, 1/19)

Skiers, hikers, soldiers and others exposed to extreme cold temperatures can experience frostbite -- a painful injury that occurs when ice crystals form in the skin. Many extremely cold areas are also remote, and delays in frostbite treatment can result in severe wounds, scarring and even limb amputation. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Biomaterials have developed a cream that prevents frostbite injuries in mice when applied to the skin 15 minutes before severe cold exposure. (American Chemical Society, 1/19)

California-based diagnostics company Pathogenomix Inc. today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted it a Breakthrough Device Designation for Patho-Seq, an assay designed to rapidly detect hundreds of clinically relevant bacteria from patient infections. According to a company press release, Patho-Seq uses next-generation sequencing technology to return results 48 hours faster than the currently approved standard-of-care tests, and can identify multiple bacterial species from a single test run in cases where more than one pathogen may be contributing to a patient's infection. (1/19)

After cannabis legalization, the prevalence of moderately injured drivers with a THC level of at least 2 ng per milliliter in participating British Columbia trauma centers more than doubled. The increase was largest among older drivers and male drivers. (Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.) (Brubacher et al, 1/13)