ASM is keeping the pulse of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In the eye of a pandemic, the need for a trusted, up-to-date resource of coronavirus research plays a crucial role in supporting the scientific community on the frontlines fighting the virus.

This registry includes top-ranked, COVID-19 research articles curated by experts and serves as a resource for scientists working together to address fundamental science and accelerate scientific research on SARS-CoV-2.

 

 

 

July 20, 2020

Three months have passed since the COVID-19 Research Registry was launched. As of today, over 30,000 users have visited the registry. The strong support from the many users of the registry is gratifying. Designed for the scientific research community, the registry will continue to be a trusted source for credible science about COVID-19 in specific, and coronaviruses, in general.

The number of published and pre-print articles continues to accelerate over the past 3 months, which has presented some significant challenges. We screened over 2,500 articles each week to select relevant and high-quality papers to populate the registry. This effort is a partnership between ASM staff and my colleagues in the curatorial board and curators team. I cannot thank them enough for their hard work and contributions!

Besides the sheer volume of papers, another challenge is to balance different viewpoints and to present objective and credible science to the scientific community. It is not easy when new findings come out every week and conflicting results appear. Our goal is to collect the best papers and resolve conflicts by keeping ourselves updated with the rapid development of the field. Your suggestions and opinions are welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Starting in Aug., we will add a new activity to the registry.  The curatorial board will host a monthly COVID-19 Registry Virtual Journal Club on the third Thursday of each month at 2 p.m. EST.  The inaugural event will take place on Thursday, Aug. 20 at 2 p.m. EST. We envision this will be a robust forum to engage the research community and interested learners in scientific discussions, collaborative networking and information sharing on the topic of research and discoveries on SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses. Please mark your calendar. Registration information will be available at the beginning of Aug.

Sincerely,

 

---

Bi-weekly Commentary Letter

September 17, 2020

By Dr. Catherine J. Pachuk, Chief Scientific Officer at Somahlution, Inc.
 
“COVID-19 re-infection by a phylogenetically distinct SARS-coronavirus-2 strain confirmed by whole genome sequencing” by To, K. et al. published on the Clinical Infectious Diseases on August 25, 2020.
 
Accounts of reinfection have been reported in individuals following apparent recovery from initial infection with SARS-CoV-2. In the absence of sufficient supporting data, it is not clear whether these reports documented reinfection or have instead described cases of prolonged viral shedding.
 
To et al. present the first well-documented case of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in a patient who first tested positive in mid-March, became ill, was hospitalized and later released following two serial negative nasopharyngeal swabs. Approximately 4.5 months later, upon border screening in Hong Kong, he tested positive again, but remained asymptomatic. Whole genome sequencing on samples collected during both episodes demonstrated that the two viral genomes were phylogenetically distinct, mapping to two different GISAID clades indicating the patient was re-infected opposed to shedding virus over an extended time.
 
It is not known if reinfection is associated with differences in viral load compared to initial infection, however, the case for active infection during the second episode was supported by elevated CRP values and relatively high viral RNA load with gradual decline; the patient was therefore presumably still infectious. Asymptomatic reinfection or reinfection associated with milder disease is consistent with the presence of pre-existing adaptive immune responses induced following first exposure and is consistent with studies in which vaccination of Rhesus macaques conferred protection against disease but not viral infection.
 
The results demonstrate that reinfection is possible (at least with viruses having sufficient sequence differences) and may be associated with asymptomatic or milder disease, although the generalizability of this is not known. The results suggest that immune responses elicited by natural infection (and perhaps vaccination) may not confer “sterilizing immunity” against future infections and individuals may still become infected and transmit virus after vaccination and/or resolution of initial infection.

Video & Other Curricular Resources for COVID-19

• “COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and the Pandemic”.
• Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (AAC) Podcast: Therapeutic approaches for COVID-19: Myths and Facts.
• Science Forum: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) by the numbers.
• Vaughn Cooper: “The ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2” April 1, 2020 (YouTube11:21).
• Dr. Pamela Bjorkman: Intro to Viruses, Antivirals, and Vaccines April 10, 2020 (YouTube 52:57).
• Scott Page: Understanding Fatality Rate Models  April 3, 2020 (YouTube 10:12).
• Minute Physics: "How to tell if we’re beating Covid-19"  March 27, 2020 (YouTube 7:15).
• 3 Blue 1 Brown "Simulating an Epidemic"  March 27, 2020 (YouTube 2:07).
• Britt Glaunsinger: "Coronaviruses 101, Focus on Molecular Virology"  March 25, 2020 (YouTube 1:02:18).
• Vaughn Cooper: "Evolutionary Biology of Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2"  March 24, 2020 (YouTube 11:48).
• Pennings and colleagues: "How does SARS-CoV-2 spread?"  March 24, 2020 (Vimeo 8:25).
• Nick Jewell "The Exponential Power of Now"  March 19, 2020 (YouTube 1:06:00).
• Online Marty: "Disease Spread Simulation"  March 18, 2020 (YouTube 2:52).
• Pennings and colleagues: "Coronavirus in numbers"  March 11, 2020 (Vimeo 10:18).
• Pennings: "SARS-CoV-2 and phylogenetic trees"  March 2, 2020 (Vimeo 14:15).
• University of Pennsylvania: "Coronavirus Outbreak Symposium"  April 3, 2020 (YouTube).
• Coursera: Fighting COVID-19 with Epidemiology: A Johns Hopkins Teach-Out  (Free Course).

Blogs, Articles and Opinions

• Atul Gawande: Amid the Coronavirus Crisis, a Regimen for Re-entry.
• Dougan and Holt: “How to make a new COVID-19 vaccine starting from scratch” April 9, 2020.

Coronavirus experts and ASM staff working together to bring forward the top COVID-19 research studies to the community.

Email suggestions for research to be highlighted in the COVID-19 Registry.