February 17, 2022
- Vol. 386 No. 7
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Audio Summary
- Health Care Safety during the Pandemic and Beyond — Building a System That Ensures Resilience
L.A. Fleisher, M. Schreiber, D. Cardo, and A. Srinivasan
Since the pandemic began, U.S. health care safety has declined severely, suggesting that our system lacks a sufficiently resilient safety culture and infrastructure. We need to build a more resilient delivery system, capable of maintaining high safety levels in crises.609-611 - Inherited Patients Taking Opioids for Chronic Pain — Considerations for Primary Care
P.O. Coffin and A.M. Barreveld
Patients who have taken opioids for years for chronic pain must be treated differently from those who have not because such therapies cause profound physiological and neurologic changes. Reflexive approaches to tapering or discontinuing opioids should be avoided.611-613 - Home Help
R. Srivastava
When her mother is discharged from rehab after a fall that caused multiple pelvic fractures, a doctor experiences first-hand the frustrations of getting the requisite home help up and running. Even in a generous health system, time, advocacy, and resources are required.614-615 - Challenges in Inferring Intrinsic Severity of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant
R.P. Bhattacharyya and W.P. Hanage
Omicron’s spread in South Africa has led to fewer hospitalizations and deaths per documented case than were seen during previous waves. But caution is warranted when it comes to making inferences about omicron’s intrinsic severity using population-level observations.e14
- Fetal-like Hemoglobin in Sickle Cell Anemia
M.H. Steinberg
Sickle hemoglobin polymerizes when it is deoxygenated, thereby damaging the sickle erythrocyte and initiating vascular occlusion and hemolysis. Preventing the polymerization of sickle hemoglobin should avert the secondary pathophysiological consequences ...689-691 - CAR T-Cell Therapy for Large B-Cell Lymphoma — Who, When, and How?
M. Roschewski, D.L. Longo, and W.H. Wilson
Large B-cell lymphoma is a spectrum of aggressive B-cell cancers with broad genetic and clinical heterogeneity.1 First-line chemotherapy cures most patients, but those with relapsed or refractory disease usually die of lymphoma. Salvage chemotherapy ...692-696 - The Challenge of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Human Challenge Studies
L.J. Anderson and E.E. Walsh
The development of drugs for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a major cause of respiratory disease in young children and high-risk adults, is a high priority.1-3 In this issue of the Journal, Ahmad et al. report the results of a human ...696-697 - Audio Interview: A New Antiviral against Covid-19
E.J. Rubin, L.R. Baden, and S. Morrissey
In this audio interview conducted on February 15, 2022, the editors discuss long-awaited trial results for nirmatrelvir, a new antiviral against Covid-19, as well as new studies of the protection offered by previous infection with SARS-CoV-2.e25
- SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Neutralization in Serum from Vaccinated and Convalescent Persons
Serum from vaccinated persons was assayed for ability to neutralize the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Persons who had received two doses of the BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, or ChAdOx1-S vaccine had serum that poorly neutralized omicron, but those who had recovered from infection and were then vaccinated or who had been vaccinated and had breakthrough infection had high levels of neutralizing activity.698-700 - Ultrarapid Nanopore Genome Sequencing in a Critical Care Setting
Because a genetic diagnosis can guide clinical management and improve prognosis in critically ill patients, much effort has gone into developing methods that result in rapid, reliable results. The authors describe extremely rapid sequencing and analysis of the genomes of 12 patients, 5 of whom received a diagnosis.700-702 - Live Birth with or without Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidy
To the Editor: Although the results of the trial conducted by Yan et al. (Nov. 25 issue)1 were robust, the conclusions may not be generalizable to all clinical practices. The authors chose to make the cumulative live-birth rate the primary outcome; live ...703-704 - Tirzepatide versus Semaglutide Once Weekly in Type 2 Diabetes
To the Editor: In the SURPASS-2 trial (A Study of Tirzepatide [LY3298176] versus Semaglutide Once Weekly as Add-on Therapy to Metformin in Participants with Type 2 Diabetes), Frías et al. (Aug. 5 issue)1 report that treatment with tirzepatide, a dual ...e17 - Insights into Salt Handling and Blood Pressure
To the Editor: Ellison and Welling (Nov. 18 issue)1 discuss salt intake and its association with blood pressure. The authors summarize the mechanisms by which salt raises blood pressure as including primary vascular dysfunction, primary sympathetic ...e18
