Comparison of COVID-19 and Influenza-Related Outcomes in the United States during Fall-Winter 2022-2023: A Cross-Sectional Retrospective Study.

Influenza and COVID-19 contribute significantly to the infectious disease burden during the respiratory season, but their relative burden remains unknown. This study characterizes the frequency and severity of medically attended COVID-19 and influenza during the peak of the 2022-2023 influenza season in the pediatric, adult, and older adult populations and characterizes the prevalence of underlying conditions among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. This cross-sectional analysis included individuals in the Veradigm EHR Database linked to Komodo claims data with a medical encounter between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023 (study period). Patients with medical encounters were identified with a diagnosis of COVID-19 or influenza during the study period and stratified based on the highest level of care received with that diagnosis. Among 23,526,196 individuals, there were more COVID-19-related medical encounters than influenza-related encounters, overall and by outcome. Hospitalizations with COVID-19 were more common than hospitalizations with influenza overall (incidence ratio = 4.6) and in all age groups. Nearly all adults hospitalized with COVID-19 had at least one underlying medical condition, but 37.1% of 0-5-year-olds and 25.0% of 6-17-year-olds had no underlying medical conditions. COVID-19 was associated greater burden than influenza during the peak of the 2022-2023 influenza season.

Comparative Effectiveness of Bivalent (Original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) COVID-19 Vaccines in Adults.

The emergence of Omicron variants coincided with declining vaccine-induced protection against SARS-CoV-2. Two bivalent mRNA vaccines, mRNA-1273.222 (Moderna) and BNT162b2 Bivalent (Pfizer-BioNTech), were developed to provide greater protection against the predominate circulating variants by including mRNA that encodes both the ancestral (original) strain and BA.4/BA.5. We estimated their relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) in preventing COVID-19-related outcomes in the US using a nationwide dataset linking primary care electronic health records and pharmacy/medical claims data. The study population (aged ≥18 years) received either vaccine between 31 August 2022 and 28 February 2023. We used propensity score weighting to adjust for baseline differences between groups. We estimated the rVE against COVID-19-related hospitalizations (primary outcome) and outpatient visits (secondary) for 1,034,538 mRNA-1273.222 and 1,670,666 BNT162b2 Bivalent vaccine recipients, with an adjusted rVE of 9.8% (95% confidence interval: 2.6-16.4%) and 5.1% (95% CI: 3.2-6.9%), respectively, for mRNA-1273.222 versus BNT162b2 Bivalent. The incremental relative effectiveness was greater among adults ≥ 65; the rVE against COVID-19-related hospitalizations and outpatient visits in these patients was 13.5% (95% CI: 5.5-20.8%) and 10.7% (8.2-13.1%), respectively. Overall, we found greater effectiveness of mRNA-1273.222 compared with the BNT162b2 Bivalent vaccine in preventing COVID-19-related hospitalizations and outpatient visits, with increased benefits in older adults.

The impact of a Facebook campaign among mothers on HPV vaccine uptake among their daughters: A randomized field study.

OBJECTIVE: The popularity of social networks provide an incredible opportunity to enhance the impact of preventive medicine programs. We aimed to assess whether a targeted Facebook campaign among mothers may increase the uptake of human Papilloma virus (HPV) immunization among their 8th-grade daughters. METHODS: This field study was conducted among the members of a state-mandated health organization in Israel. Included were all 21,592 members who were mothers to 14 year-old daughters in the 2018-19 school-year. A total of 17,271 (80%) were randomly allocated to the campaign arm and the rest (n=4,321) were selected as a reference group. The Facebook ads addressed issues and concerns regarding HPV-related diseases and HPV vaccine. Main outcome measures were Facebook metrics on exposure to campaign and HPV immunization among eighth grade daughters of the study participants. RESULTS: Between 8/2018-10/2018, Facebook ads were shown 1.8-million times (a reach of 88%). The uptake of HPV vaccine among daughters of women allocated to the campaign arm (55.3%) was similar (p = 0.749) to 55.0% in the control group. The only significant differences between study groups were observed when stratifying by SES level. In the lowest SES quartile, Facebook campaign significantly (p = .02) reduced vaccine uptake (35% vs. 39.0%), with a relative risk of 0.90 (95%CI: 0.82-0.98), while in the second SES quartile, Facebook campaign increased vaccine uptake from 52.6% to 55.8%, with a RR of 1.06 (95%CI,1.00-1.12). Among mothers in higher SES levels, daughters of exposed and unexposed mothers had similar immunization rates. CONCLUSIONS: Facebook campaign may increase the uptake of HPV vaccine among daughters to mothers of medium-to-low SES level, but it may reduce vaccination among lower SES groups.

Enhanced synaptic integration of adult-born neurons in the olfactory bulb of lactating mothers.

One of the most dramatic events during the life of adult mammals is the transition into motherhood. This transition is accompanied by specific maternal behaviors, displayed by the mother, that ensure the survival and the well-being of her offspring. The execution of these behaviors is most likely accompanied by plastic changes in specific neuronal circuits, but these are still poorly defined. In this work, we studied the mammalian olfactory bulb (OB), which has been shown to be an essential brain region for maternal behaviors in mice. In the OB, we focused on adult-born neurons, which are continuously incorporated into the circuit during adulthood, thus providing a potential substrate for heightened plasticity after parturition. We analyzed the dynamics and morphological characteristics of adult-born granule cells (abGCs), innervating the OB of primiparous lactating mothers, shortly after parturition as well as in naive females. In vivo time-lapse imaging of abGCs revealed that dendritic spines were significantly more stable in lactating mothers compared with naive virgins. In contrast, spine stability of resident GCs remained unchanged after parturition. In addition, while spine size distribution of abGCs was approximately similar between mothers and naive virgins, the spine density of abGCs was lower in lactating mothers and the density of their presynaptic components was higher. These structural features are indicative of enhanced integration of adult-born neurons into the bulbar circuitry of lactating mothers. This enhanced integration may serve as a cellular mechanism, supporting changes in olfactory coding of new mothers during their first days following parturition.

Three-dimensional distribution patterns of newborn neurons in the adult olfactory bulb.

We present a new method to study the three-dimensional (3D) spatial distribution patterns of newborn neurons in the mouse olfactory bulb (OB). Newborn neurons were transduced, in vivo, using lentiviruses to express green fluorescent protein (GFP). Two-photon (2P) microscopy was used to image thick OB slices (approximately 250 microm) at single cell resolution. Image-stacks were captured semi-automatically, and concatenated offline, to create larger image-stacks containing the positional information of all the labeled neurons. Serial reconstruction of the large image-stacks resulted in a three-dimensional virtual model, containing the exact position of all the labeled newborn neurons within large volumes of the OB. The feasibility of this method was demonstrated by analyzing the cell distributions of thousands of GFP labeled newborn neurons. This analysis identified 3D clusters in which the newborn cells' density is significantly higher than the mean density. We show that our method reveals information that is overlooked when sampling only a small fraction of the tissue in 2D. This method may serve as a valuable tool, not only for analyzing newborn neurons in the OB, but also for other neuronal types as well as for other brain regions.