As vaccinations role out, the news of SARS-CoV-2 variants with mutations to the spike protein have dominated news cycles. One unanswered question has been - do the current vaccines protect against these variants?

We tackle this issue and look at a new paper [pre-print] by Wu et al. 

Prior randomized trials of convalescent plasma in COVID-19 have had disappointing results. However, these trials included patients with severe illness who were many days (if not weeks) into the course of their illness. To date, it was hypothesized, but unknown, that the benefit would be in patients very early in the course of their illness. We cover an RCT by Libster et al in NEJM on convalescent plasma in older patients with mild COVID-19.

Show notes/references: FOAMcast.org

Thanks for listening!

Lauren Westafer and Jeremy Faust

In this quick literature update we review the new recommendations from the CDC for the treatment of gonococcal infections which include:

• Higher dose ceftriaxone (500 mg IM) or 1 gm IM if ≥150 kg patient
• No routine azithromycin
• Preference for doxycycline for co-treatment of presumed chlamydial infection

Show notes and references: FOAMcast.org

Thanks for listening!
Lauren Westafer and Jeremy Faust