Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus.
1. Taiwan finds decreased overall death rate in 2020 compared to 2019
Findings suggests mask wearing, physical distancing, and restricting large social events may have had a positive spillover effect
Researchers from Taipei Medical University and Menzies School of Health Research, Australia found lower mortality rates for all-causes, pneumonia, and influenza in 2020 compared to 2019. Traffic deaths were up slightly. These finding suggest that mask-wearing, physical distancing, and restricting large social events may have had a positive spillover effect on population health. A brief research report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-7788.
A team of researchers in Taipei, Taiwan and Darwin, Australia sought to assess the possibility of undocumented COVID-19 deaths in Taiwan and whether nonpharmaceutical interventions and behavior changes affected all-cause, pneumonia and influenza, and road traffic deaths in 2020. They collected government data from 2008 to 2020 for yearly population deaths in those areas and looked at monthly road traffic deaths for January to October 2020. Using midyear population and World Health Organization (WHO) standard population data, they calculated the corresponding adjusted mortality rates per 100,000 persons for each year.
The data showed that the age- and sex-adjusted all-cause mortality rate per 100,000 persons in 2020 was 399.8, which the authors say is in line with the decreasing trend seen in recent years and notably lower than the 2019 rate. The adjusted pneumonia and influenza mortality rate in 2020 was 48.7, which is significantly lower than the 2019 rate and a deviation from the overall increasing trend. Finally, the adjusted road traffic mortality rate in 2020 was 8.8, which is higher than the 2019 rate but in line with the increasing trend in the past 3 years.
According to the researchers, these findings suggest that Taiwan’s rapid, coordinated, and early response should be an example for other countries.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead authors can be contacted directly. Wayne Gao, PhD, can be reached at waynegao@tmu.edu.tw. Marita Hefler, PhD, can be reached at marita.hefler@menzies.edu.au.
2. Immunization experts call on clinicians to utilize immunization information systems to facilitate fair and equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution
Immunization information systems (IISs) play a central role in coordinating distribution, administration, documentation, and monitoring of COVID-19 vaccination by confidentially collecting and consolidating vaccination data from multiple providers within a geographic area. Among other tools, IISs are critical to ensuring adequate vaccination across targeted populations and geographic areas. The United States has an independent network of 61 IISs in 49 states, the District of Columbia, 3 cities, and 8 territories.
Immunization experts from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, the American Immunization Registry, and the Immunization Action Committee call on clinicians to familiarize themselves with their IIS to maximize their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. They say that the more clinicians are aware of and connected to their IISs, the better they will be able to address equitable vaccine distribution, manage vaccine uptake, and monitor vaccination series completion.
Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-7725.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text.
The lead author, Andrew B. Trotter, MD, MPH, can be reached through Lori Botterman at lbott@uic.edu.
3. Experts discuss principles for clinical decision making when science is uncertain
In a new commentary published in Annals of Internal Medicine, authors from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School apply principles for translating imprecision in diagnostic and therapeutic information into clinical decisions to address 3 ongoing areas of uncertainty related to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of COVID-19. For each case, the authors briefly review the current state of knowledge, highlight the level of uncertainty, and then suggest a pathway forward for clinical decision making during the pandemic.
According to the authors, clinicians can only make decisions based on the information that is available at the time. Due to the nature of the pandemic, the advice provided may change as the science advances. Their goal is to illustrate how one could use available strategies to evaluate new information as it emerges and incorporate evidence into clinical decisions at the individual and hospital levels.
Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-8179.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text.
The lead author, Joshua P. Metlay, MD, PhD can be reached through Michelle Tagerman at MTAGERMAN1@mgh.harvard.edu.