- More than 150,000 deaths from COVID-19 went uncounted in the U.S. in the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new study in Science Advances. Researchers used machine learning to evaluate death certificates from March 2020 to December 2021, and estimated that 19% more COVID-19 deaths occurred than originally reported. These deaths disproportionately affected people of color and people from marginalized communities. “This study indicates that the U.S. death investigation system reported COVID-19 deaths in a systematically inequitable way that hid the true extent of pandemic mortality and inequities,” the authors wrote. MuckRock’s Uncounted project has also investigated excess COVID-19 deaths, read more here.
- Swiss researchers have found that up to 60% of healthcare workers in a medium-size cohort study may have at least one symptom of Long COVID. The study was published in Infection and included 456 participants infected with SARS-CoV-2; it found a majority of participants had self-reported Long COVID four years after infection. “Our findings indicate that full recovery from [Long COVID] remains uncertain for many patients, and functional limitations persist,” the authors concluded, highlighting a need for occupational health strategies for the disease to “minimize the loss of essential workforce.”
- A small clinical trial is recruiting in Orange, California, to test Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Field Stimulation (PENFS) in children with post-concussion syndrome and Long COVID. PENFS is a non-invasive neuromodulation treatment that targets pain processing areas in the brain that has been used to treat some symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in children. The study is recruiting 125 pediatric participants between the age of 11 and 18. Study contact: Pari Mokhtari, pari.mokhtari@choc.org.
