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The strongest link for developing long COVID was between severity of early illness and long COVID; 61% of those with long COVID had been hospitalized or had needed intensive care or noninvasive or mechanical ventilation. Use of mechanical ventilation during initial illness correlated with PCS (odds ratio [OR], 114.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 105.1 to 125.3) compared with requiring no medical care during initial COVID-19. (Soucheray, 3/27)

The global SARS-CoV-2 reinfection rate was just under 1% as of a year ago, with significant differences by variant, country, and time, according to a meta-analysis of 55 studies on more than 111,000 cases. Published in BMC Infectious Diseases, the meta-regression analysis by Sichuan University researchers in China included 46 cohort, 6 case-control, and 3 cross-sectional studies on COVID-19 reinfection rates up to March 2023. (Van Beusekom, 3/27)

While an increasingly anxious world watched a new coronavirus spread across the globe in early 2020, veteran immunologist Rafi Ahmed quickly grasped that his field was about to experience something truly extraordinary. His former student Ali Ellebedy was gnawed by frustration as Covid shutdowns stalled his influenza research; it took until the summer, when mass vaccination planning hit his radar, before the same realization kicked in. (Branswell, 3/28)