The Latest in COVID-19 News: Week Ending Feb. 27, 2021

By the Editors

Here are some of the major developments in COVID-19 this week. On the vaccine front, we got some real-world data on the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and the two companies also announced that they'll be testing a third dose as a booster against SARS-CoV-2 variants. In addition, the CDC published safety data from the first month of vaccinations.

Elsewhere, two articles in MMWR highlighted the high risk for COVID-19 transmission at indoor fitness centers — in one study, two thirds of 81 people who attended indoor classes at a Chicago gym developed COVID-19. Groups also published guidance on who should receive monoclonal antibodies, including tocilizumab.

And finally, a study found that a 4-week intervention in which laypeople called homebound older adults several times a week just to talk during the pandemic improved loneliness, depression, and anxiety.

Catch up on these and all the week's COVID-19 stories at the links below.

What Our Editors Had to Say

William E. Chavey, MD, MS: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a second, mental health pandemic that is outstripping our traditional infrastructure. I found intriguing the report on training laypeople to provide calls to homebound older adults. This is a low-cost, scalable option that seems to be beneficial. Whether the results are replicable will need to be determined.

Andre Sofair, MD, MPH: As we see that there are more and more SARS-CoV-2 variants found through surveillance in the U.S., I am encouraged that the biotech companies are doing studies on booster vaccines. The mRNA technology should make it easier to change the vaccine composition to address these new variants.