Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Vaccine Studies / 23.05.2021
e7health.com CEO Discusses COVID-19, Masks and J&J Vaccine
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
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Dr. Baktari[/caption]
Jonathan Baktari, MD
CEO of e7health.com
Dr. Baktari dicusses COVID-19 vaccinations as well as the nine vaccinated New York Yankees have now tested positive for COVID-19. They all received the J&J vaccine.
MedicalResearch.com: There are nine known COVID positive results among members of the Yankees, previously immunized with the J&J vaccine. Do you know if the players have become ill or just tested positive on routine testing?
Response: Only 1 out of the 9 was mildly symptomatic and were all picked up as part of MLB testing protocol.
MedicalResearch.com: Do you know how long after they were vaccinated that they tested positive? Do you know of other incidences of positive reactions after vaccinations?
Response: According to MLB, all players tested positive after receiving the J&J vaccine. All were at least 14 days after the vaccine was administered. The 14 days post vaccination is when J&J is supposed to be effective in preventing serious illness and death.
Dr. Baktari[/caption]
Jonathan Baktari, MD
CEO of e7health.com
Dr. Baktari dicusses COVID-19 vaccinations as well as the nine vaccinated New York Yankees have now tested positive for COVID-19. They all received the J&J vaccine.
MedicalResearch.com: There are nine known COVID positive results among members of the Yankees, previously immunized with the J&J vaccine. Do you know if the players have become ill or just tested positive on routine testing?
Response: Only 1 out of the 9 was mildly symptomatic and were all picked up as part of MLB testing protocol.
MedicalResearch.com: Do you know how long after they were vaccinated that they tested positive? Do you know of other incidences of positive reactions after vaccinations?
Response: According to MLB, all players tested positive after receiving the J&J vaccine. All were at least 14 days after the vaccine was administered. The 14 days post vaccination is when J&J is supposed to be effective in preventing serious illness and death.
Dr. Navlakha[/caption]
Saket Navlakha PhD
Simons Center for Quantitative Biology
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this algorithm? How does it aide in patient care?
Response: The machine learning algorithm helps to predict if and when a patient will develop severe COVID symptoms, based on information on how the patient presents on the day of infection. This could lead to improved patient outcomes, by getting a “heads up” on what may happen in the near future.
Dr. Peruvemba[/caption]
Ramani “Ram” Peruvemba, MD, FASA
Co-founder and CMO of HSR.health
MedicalResearch.com: Would you tell us about your background?
Response: I am a dual-board certified Anesthesiologist and Pain Management physician, currently serving as the co-founder and CMO of 
Prof. Papageorghiou[/caption]
Aris Papageorghiou MBChB, MRCOG
Professor of Fetal Medicine and the Clinical Research Director
Oxford Maternal and Perinatal Health Institute
University of Oxford
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Our study was really guided by a key question: does Covid-19 in pregnancy increase the risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes as compared with pregnant women who do not have the infection?
The question is highly relevant because of the known deleterious effects of other coronavirus infections in pregnancy, e.g. SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus).
In order to answer this question we undertook this multinational cohort study.
Dr. Hosie[/caption]
Margaret J. Hosie BVM&S, MRCVS, BSc. PhD.
Professor of Comparative Virology
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
United Kingdom
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: SARS-CoV-2 is a new coronavirus of animal origin that recently jumped to humans and has spread rapidly across the world. It is likely that SARS-CoV-2 will establish as an endemic virus of humans, which has the potential to be transmitted to animals that live in close proximity to humans. There have been sporadic reports of infections in pet cats in households with COVID-19 patients, which demonstrates that cats are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and could act as virus reservoirs.
Dr. Blankson[/caption]
Joel N. Blankson, MD, PhD
Department of Infectious Diseases
Associate Professor
Cellular and Molecular Medicine Program
Johns Hopkins
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Which vaccines did you evaluate?
Response: Prior studies from several groups including our own have found T cell cross-recognition of peptides from SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold coronaviruses.
We asked whether as a result of this cross-reactivity, immunization with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine would also enhance T cell responses to the common cold coronaviruses.
Prior studies also suggested that antibodies elicited from the mRNA vaccines had a reduced ability to neutralize the emerging variants of concern.
Most of the study participants had received the Pfizer vaccine, but a few had received the Moderna vaccine. 
Dr. Lashaki[/caption]
Masoud Jahandar Lashaki, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering
Florida Atlantic University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Toilet flushing can generate large quantities of microbe-containing aerosols depending on the design and water pressure or flushing energy of the toilet. Based on previous reports, a variety of different pathogens which are found in stagnant water or in waste products (e.g., urine, feces, and vomit) can get dispersed widely via such aerosolization, including the legionella bacterium responsible for causing Legionnaire’s disease, the Ebola virus, the norovirus which causes severe gastroenteritis (food poisoning), and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
Based on previous reports, such airborne dispersion is suspected to have played a key role in the outbreak of viral gastroenteritis aboard a cruise ship, where infection was twice as prevalent among passengers who used shared toilets compared to those who had private bathrooms. Similarly, transmission of norovirus via aerosolized droplets was linked to the occurrence of vomiting or diarrhea within an aircraft restroom, as passengers and crew who got infected subsequently were more likely to have visited restrooms than those that were not infected. The participants in the study reported that all of the restroom surfaces appeared to be clean, which indicates that infection is likely to have occurred via bioaerosols suspended within the restroom.
Although many of these studies blamed flush-generated aerosols for disease outbreak, a limited number of them quantified the presence of such aerosols. Consequently, we decided to conduct this study to demonstrate the spike in aerosol concentrations following flushing. 
Dr. Bullard[/caption]
Jared Bullard MD FRCPC
Associate Professor, Departments of Pediatrics & Child Health and Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
Max Rady College of Medicine
Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Cadham Provincial Laboratory
Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Children are well known to transmit epidemic/endemic respiratory viruses like influenza. Initial public health policy was based on that children were likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 effectively within a community and subsequently in-person school and extracurricular activities were suspended.
Initial research did not show a clear association with children driving transmission. The purpose of our study was to take respiratory samples from both children and adults with COVID-19 (all had SARS-CoV-2 detected by RT-PCR) and compare those samples by their ability to grow in cell culture and amount of virus in samples.
We took 175 samples from children (97 younger than 10 years of age and 78 between 11-17 years) and compared them to 130 adult samples from the same communities in Manitoba experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19. 
Dr. Sickbert-Bennett[/caption]
Emily Sickbert-Bennett PhD, MS, CIC, FSHEA
Director, Infection Prevention, UNC Hospitals
Administrative Director, Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, UNC Hospitals
Associate Professor of Medicine-Infectious Diseases, UNC School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Epidemiology, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Recently public health officials have recommended doubling masks, although the 
Dr. Dashti[/caption]
Hesam Dashti, PhD
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Senior Computational Scientist
The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What parameters does the SARS2 score take into consideration?
Response: While complex models have been developed for predicting the severity of COVID-19 from the medical history, laboratory, and imaging results of patients, simplified models with similar accuracy would be more practical for individualizing the decision making, especially when detailed medical history of patients is not readily available. In this study, we developed the SARS2 risk equations for estimating risk of hospitalization of patients with COVID-19 and also the risk of mortality among hospitalized patients. The “SARS2” risk equations are named for their input variables: Sex, Age, Race, Socioeconomic and Smoking status.
To develop and validate the models, we used the electronic records from 12,347 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 at the Mass General Brigham medical centers in Massachusetts between 02/26/2020 and 07/14/2020 to construct derivation and validation cohorts for estimating 1) risk of hospitalization within 30 days of COVID-19 positive PCR test, and 2) for the hospitalized patients, risk of mortality within approximately 3 months.
Dr. Meyer, J.D.[/caption]
Michelle N. Meyer, PhD, JD
Assistant Professor & Associate Director, Research Ethics, Center for Translational Bioethics & Health Care Policy
Faculty Co-Director, Behavioral Insights Team, Steele Institute for Health Innovation
Assistant Professor of Bioethics
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Geisinger, PA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Earlier research had found people are less likely to say they'll receive a COVID-19 vaccine offered to them under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) than one offered to them following full FDA approval. Earlier surveys had also found that only around 30% of health care workers intended to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Because the public often looks to local health care workers for health advice, and in most prioritization schemes they were slated to be offered vaccines first, this was quite concerning for the prospect of achieving population immunity. Commenters had warned that if the FDA chose to make COVID-19 vaccines available under EUAs, that substantial efforts would need to be made to ensure trust. On Dec. 4, 2020, an announcement about anticipated vaccine availability was emailed to all 23,784 Geisinger employees, who were asked to indicate their intention to receive a vaccine when one was available to them and the reasons for any hesitation they might have.
Dr. Rettew[/caption]
David C. Rettew, MD
Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics
University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Our group, the Wellness Environment Scientific Team at the University of Vermont, hadn’t planned to look at COVID at the outset of this study and instead were going to look at mental health and engagement in wellness activities in college students across a semester. The pandemic disrupted that plan when students were abruptly sent home but fortunately, they continued to do their daily app-based ratings of their mood, stress levels, and engagement in healthy activities. We then realized we had some interesting pre-COVID to COVID data that was worth exploring. 
Prof.Auger[/caption]
Nathalie Auger
Professeure agrégée de clinique
École de santé publique - Département de médecine sociale et preventive
University of Montreal
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been a major public health concern. The number of infected pregnant women continues to increase. Pregnant women and infants are particularly susceptible to COVID-19 because the physiologic changes of pregnancy involve cardiovascular, respiratory, and immune changes that may alter the response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fetuses may be exposed to SARS-CoV-2 during critical periods of development. The nature of the association between COVID-19 and pregnancy outcomes remains unclear and meta-analyses of pregnant women with COVID-19 are lacking.
Matt Spick[/caption]
Matt Spick, Post-Graduate Researcher
University of Surrey
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Guildford, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Are you measuring lipids or the virus?
Response: In this study, we aimed to detect what the virus does to us, rather than the virus itself. The gold standard for detecting COVID-19 is the RT-PCR test, but by their nature, PCR tests only provide diagnostic information, and at times during the pandemic the availability of PCR tests has been a bottleneck for the identification of the disease. Our goal was to investigate a novel method for the diagnosis of COVID-19, at the same time as learning more about what the disease does to us through lipidomics.
Benjamin E. Gewurz MD, PhD
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge,
Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: When the Covid-19 virus infects cells, it takes over and redirects our cells resources towards the projection of virus building blocks and new viruses. Building blocks include large amounts of RNAs that encode for the viral proteins, much as the mRNA vaccines direct our bodies to make the spike protein. We wondered how the virus changes cell metabolism in order to support the synthesis of vast amounts of viral RNAs within hours of infection.
Dr. Saha[/caption]
Abhishek Saha, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of California San Diego
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: At a very early stage of COVID 19 pandemic, the scientific community identified that respiratory droplet is the primary mode of transmission of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Naturally, the health agencies have encouraged facemasks to restrict these droplets from spreading during respiratory events, like coughing, sneezing, talking, etc. While WHO recommended using either N95 masks or other types of three-layer masks, due to a sharp increase in demand and scarcity in supplies, a variety of either home-made or locally purchased masks became popular. Naturally, one wonders if these single- and double-layer masks provide enough protection. To provide some insight into this critical question, our team, which also includes Professor Swetaprovo Chaudhuri from the University of Toronto, and Professor Saptarshi Basu of the Indian Institute of Science, experimentally analyzed what happens to the respiratory droplets when they impact single- and multi-layer masks. 
Dr. Jacob[/caption]
Jesse T. Jacob, MD
School of Medicine
Director, Antibiotic Stewardship Program
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Since coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was recognized in the United States in January 2020, the risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) attributed to exposures in the health care workplace has been studied with conflicting results, and the role of job functions (such as nurse) or specific workplace activities, including care for individuals with known and unknown SARS-CoV-2 positivity, increase the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
We assessed more than 24,000 healthcare providers between April and August 2020 across four large academic medical systems (Emory, Johns Hopkins, Rush University Medical Center, and University of Maryland) which collaborate in the CDC’s Prevention Epicenter Program and conduct innovative infection prevention research. Each site conducted voluntary COVID-19 antibody testing on its health care workers, as well as offered a questionnaire/survey on the employees’ occupational activities and possible exposures to individuals with COVID-19 infection both inside and outside the workplace. We also looked at three-digit residential zip-code prefixes to determine COVID-19 prevalence in communities. 
Dr. Lee[/caption]
Brian P. Lee, MD, MAS
Assistant Professor Clinical Medicine
University of Southern Californi
Keck School of Medicine
Los Angeles, California
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with mental health stressors, including anxiety, loneliness, and social instability. We hypothesized the pandemic may have led to increased alcohol and tobacco use as a coping mechanism for these stressors. National retrospective questionnaires had suggested higher reports of substance use, but these are limited by selection and recall biases, in addition to subjective report – we sought to address this knowledge gap by using a nationally-representative longitudinal cohort (Nielsen National Consumer Panel) tracking real-time purchases of households across the US. 