Even though clinical trials haven’t shown it works against COVID-19, doctors continue to prescribe ivermectin – and a new study suggests health insurers are heavily subsidizing the cost of those prescriptions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the health care delivery landscape and shifted the ways in which patients access health care. Digital literacy, access to technology, and the ability to effectively communicate with providers virtually have become critical indicators of social determinants of health. Now, to add to our understanding, Boston-area researchers have investigated demographic disparities in the use of virtual consultation compared with in-person surgical consultation after the initial COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Their findings appear in an article—among the first of its kind—published online by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

What The Study Did: Researchers analyzed the association of COVID-19–related lockdown measures with the progression of nearsightedness in schoolchildren in Hong Kong and compared the effectiveness of two types of lenses in reducing the progression.

Findings reveal increased use of telemedicine among some historically underrepresented patient groups and may inform future efforts to improve telemedicine access.

A mathematical model revealed that the optimal time to initiate immune-modulating therapy in COVID-19 differed according to patients’ medical history and risk factors. Different patients also required different types of immunomodulation for optimal therapy.

One in 10 people may have clinically relevant levels of potentially infectious SARS-CoV-2 past the 10 day quarantine period, according to new research. The study, led by the University of Exeter and funded by Animal Free Research UK, used a newly adapted test which can detect whether the virus was potentially still active. It was applied to samples from 176 people in Exeter who had tested positive on standard PCR tests.

An ISB-led study examined the electronic health records of more than 18,000 people with SARS-CoV-2 tests during pregnancy, and found that those who contracted COVID-19 while pregnant were more likely to have poor birth outcomes including preterm birth, small for gestational age, low birth weight, and stillbirth. The poor outcomes of preterm birth and stillbirth were observed primarily with those infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the first or second trimester, whereas increased rates of small for gestational age were driven largely by third trimester infection.

The drug baricitinib (a type of drug known as a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis) is strongly recommended for patients with severe or critical covid-19 in combination with corticosteroids, says a WHO Guideline Development Group of international experts in The BMJ today.

Study shows incidence of severe outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 positive young people.

New research from Cornell University outlines key information about omicron’s older variant sibling, alpha, which emerged late in 2020. It turns out that the mutation that birthed alpha in the first place is very similar to the one that created omicron, but with very different results for the severity of each one.

Pregnant women should get vaccinated to minimize the detrimental health effects COVID-19 has on the placenta, the fetus and the newborn, states Roberta L. DeBiasi, M.D., M.S., division chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children’s National Hospital in an editorial published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

People who use electronic cigarettes and test positive for COVID-19 have a higher frequency of experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, compared to people who don't vape, according to new research from Mayo Clinic.