Disrupted seasonality and association of COVID-19 with medically attended respiratory syncytial virus infections among young children in the US: January 2010–January 2023

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections and hospitalizations surged sharply in 2022 among young children. To assess whether COVID-19 contributed to this surge, we leveraged a real-time nation-wide US database of electronic health records (EHRs) using time series analysis from January 1, 2010 through January 31, 2023, and propensity-score matched cohort comparisons for children aged 0 – 5 years with or without prior COVID-19 infection. Seasonal patterns of medically attended RSV infections were significantly disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The monthly incidence rate for first-time medically attended cases, most of which were severe RSV-associated diseases, reached a historical high rate of 2,182 cases per 1,0000,000 person-days in November 2022, corresponding to a related increase of 143% compared to expected peak rate (rate ratio: 2.43, 95% CI: 2.25 – 2.63). Among 228,940 children aged 0 – 5 years, the risk for first-time medically attended RSV during 10/2022 – 12/2022 was 6.40% for children with prior COVID-19 infection, higher than 4.30% for the matched children without COVID-19 (risk ratio or RR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.27 – 1.55); and among 99,105 children aged 0 – 1 year, the overall risk was 7.90% for those with prior COVID-19 infection, higher than 5.64% for matched children without (RR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.21 – 1.62). These data provide evidence that COVID-19 contributed to the 2022 surge of severe pediatric RSV cases. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement We acknowledge support from the National Institute on Aging (grants nos. AG057557, AG061388, AG062272, AG07664), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grant no. AA029831), the Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC) of Cleveland (grant no. TR002548-01), National Cancer Institute Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (CA221718, CA043703). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: TriNetX is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the US federal law which protects the privacy and security of healthcare data. TriNetX is certified to the ISO 27001:2013 standard and maintains an Information Security Management System (ISMS) to ensure the protection of the healthcare data it has access to and to meet the requirements of the HIPAA Security Rule. Any data displayed on the TriNetX Platform in aggregate form, or any patient level data provided in a data set generated by the TriNetX Platform, only contains de-identified data as per the de-identification standard defined in Section 164.514(a) of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The process by which the data is de-identified is attested to through a formal determination by a qualified expert as defined in Section 164.514(b)(1) of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. This formal determination by a qualified expert, refreshed in December 2020, supersedes the need for TriNetX's previous waiver from the Western Institutional Review Board (IRB). We only used de-identified data. The MetroHealth System, Cleveland OH, IRB determined that research using TriNetX, in the way described here, is not Human Subject Research and therefore IRB exempt. We have another TriNetX study published through medRxiv. It can be found at: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.12.22269179v1. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes This study used population-level aggregate and de-identified data generated by the TriNetX Platform. Due to data privacy, patient-level data were not used and cannot be shared. All the results related to this study are included in the manuscript.

Short-Form Videos Degrade Our Capacity to Retain Intentions: Effect of Context Switching On Prospective Memory

Social media platforms use short, highly engaging videos to catch users' attention. While the short-form video feeds popularized by TikTok are rapidly spreading to other platforms, we do not yet understand their impact on cognitive functions. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N=60) investigating the impact of engaging with TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube while performing a Prospective Memory task (i.e., executing a previously planned action). The study required participants to remember intentions over interruptions. We found that the TikTok condition significantly degraded the users' performance in this task. As none of the other conditions (Twitter, YouTube, no activity) had a similar effect, our results indicate that the combination of short videos and rapid context-switching impairs intention recall and execution. We contribute a quantified understanding of the effect of social media feed format on Prospective Memory and outline consequences for media technology designers to not harm the users' memory and wellbeing.

We Did It, Y'all! Texas Observer Will Remain Open!

"Thanks to the extraordinary success of the staff’s fundraising this week," the publication's board of directors voted to rescind layoffs and shutdown.

25 Years of curl [LWN.net]

A break from Covid waves and a breakthrough for preventing Long Covid