Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

13 INFECTION CONTROL 60 Black members of National Academy of Medicine: Get the COVID-19 vaccine By Erica Carbajal D ozens of Black health experts from the National Academy of Medicine signed a letter urging Black Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. e letter, published in e New York Times Feb. 7, is backed by 60 Black health profession- als, including lead authors omas LaVeist, PhD, a medical sociologist and dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at New Orleans-based Tulane University, and Georges Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association. e authors called for a stop to the rampant disinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines, writing that spreading such lies fuels a long history of distrust of health institutions among the Black community and is a threat to the health of Black Americans. "We feel compelled to make the case that all Black Americans should get vaccinated to protect themselves from a pandemic that has disproportionately killed them at a rate 1.5 times higher as white Americans in cases in which race is known — a rate that is most likely very conservative," the authors wrote. e letter cited a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation that highlighted disparities related to COVID-19 vaccination efforts, showing 43 percent of Black Americans said they were taking a "wait and see" approach to getting a vaccine. e authors emphasized the science behind vaccine development, as well as the Black scientists who worked on COVID-19 vaccines and their role in reviewing efficacy data. "We encourage you to claim your place in line to get vaccinated. Do this for yourself. Do this for your community. We are asking you to trust our advice because we are a part of you. And together we can save lives," the letter said. n Physicians see spike in rare inflammatory condition linked to COVID-19 By Mackenzie Bean P hysicians are reporting a significant uptick in cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a rare inflammatory condition potentially linked to COVID-19, reported The New York Times. The condition, known as MIS-C, typically emerges several weeks after COVID-19 infection and causes symptoms like fever, inflammation and poor organ function. Physicians said these cases are not just becoming more common, but also more severe. "We're now getting more of these MIS-C kids, but this time, it just seems that a higher percentage of them are really critically ill," Roberta DeBiasi, MD, chief of infectious diseases at Children's National Hospital in Washing- ton, D.C., told the Times. About 80 percent to 90 percent of Children's National patients with MIS-C need intensive care, up from about half of patients in the spring, according to Dr. DeBiasi. Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., saw about two MIS-C cases per month between April and October 2020, with about 30 percent of patients needing intensive care. This jumped to 10 cases in December and another 12 in January, with about 60 percent needing ICU care. It's unclear why cases are rising, and experts say it's too early to speculate whether virus variants are influencing these numbers. Overall, MIS-C is still a rare condition. As of Feb. 8, the CDC had confirmed 2,060 cases nation- wide, including 30 deaths. n 5 staff infected in COVID-19 outbreak at Vermont hospital's oncology unit By Erica Carbajal F ive staff members at Rutland Regional Medical Center's inpatient medical oncology unit tested positive for COVID-19, the Rutland Herald reported Jan. 28. The first case was identified Jan. 22, when a staff member on the unit told her superiors that she'd been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus. The fifth case was confirmed the morning of Jan. 27. The Rutland, City, Vt.-based hospital restricted visitor access to the unit as a result of the outbreak. "We want to be sure that we contain the virus, and restricting access is just one of several key steps we are taking," Betsy Hassan, DNP, RN, the hospital's chief nursing officer said in a statement cited by the Rutland Herald. The hospital said it was working with state health officials to perform con- tact-tracing and test all patients and staff on the unit. Rutland Regional also implemented "higher level transmission-based precautions" on the unit, Dr. Hassan said. n

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