Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

9 INFECTION CONTROL COVID-19 reinfection likely for unvaccinated, study suggests By Mackenzie Bean M odeling estimates suggest natural immunity from a COVID-19 infection fades quickly, leaving individuals susceptible to reinfection, ac- cording to a study published Oct. 1 in The Lancet Microbe. Researchers at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale School of Public Health and University of North Carolina at Charlotte analyzed data on seven types of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. They used this data, along with their knowledge of evolutionary principles, to model the risk of COVID-19 reinfection among unvaccinated people. Under endemic conditions, the model projected rein- fection would likely occur between three and 63 months after peak antibody response, with the median time being 16 months. "Reinfection can reasonably happen in three months or less," lead author Jeffrey Townsend, PhD, the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, said in a news release. "There- fore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. Previous infec- tion alone can offer very little long-term protection against subsequent infections." Researchers also predicted reinfection will become "increas- ingly common" as COVID-19 becomes an endemic disease. n CDC to spend $2.1B to bolster US infection control and prevention efforts By Erica Carbajal T he CDC plans to spend $2.1 billion from the American Rescue Plan to boost the nation's infection control and prevention efforts, marking a record federal investment in this sector. In October, the agency distributed an initial $500 million to support strike teams that will assist nursing homes and long-term care facilities experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and labor shortages, according to a Sept. 17 announcement. The CDC will roll out the rest of the funds over the next three years to support state and local health departments in addressing a rise in healthcare-associated infec- tions. The money will help states expand lab testing capabilities, provide training for front-line healthcare staff, and support other initiatives aimed at preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Nearly $900 million of the funding will go to healthcare providers, academic institutions and other nonprofit partners to establish new infection prevention and control measures. "This funding will dramatically improve the safety and quality of the healthcare de- livered in the U.S. during the pandemic," said Rochelle Walensky, MD, CDC director. "Funding will provide significant resources to our public health departments and healthcare systems and opportunities to develop innovative strategies to protect every segment of the U.S. population, especially those disproportionately affected by the pandemic, at a time that they are hit hard." n Plastic barriers may sometimes worsen COVID-19's spread, experts say By Mackenzie Bean C lear plastic barriers have become a staple in many public settings amid the pandemic, but sci- entists say they oen do little to prevent COVID-19's spread, and at times, may actually make things worse, e New York Times reported Aug. 19. e plastic shields are intended to protect people from germs in public settings such as classrooms, offices or stores. However, researchers who study aerosols and ventilation say the barriers can impede normal air flow and create "dead zones" where aerosol particles accumulate in high concentrations, preventing clean air from cycling back into a room. "If you have a forest of barriers in a classroom, it's going to interfere with proper ventilation of that room," Linsey Marr, PhD, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Blacksburg-based Virginia Tech and a leading expert on viral transmission, told the Times. "Everybody's aerosols are going to be trapped and stuck there and building up, and they will end up spreading beyond your own desk." ere is little real-world evidence available on how the clear barriers affect the risk of contracting COVID-19, but preliminary studies suggest they offer limited protection, according to the Times. For example, modeling studies done by British researchers found the plastic shields effectively blocked large particles from someone coughing, but not smaller aerosols exhaled while someone speaks. " Smaller aerosols travel over the screen and become mixed in the room air within about five minutes," Catherine Noakes, PhD, a ventilation expert and professor of environmental engineering for build- ings at the University of Leeds in England, told the Times. "is means if people are interacting for more than a few minutes, they would likely be exposed to the virus regardless of the screen." n

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