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The use of public transport falls by 73% in the pandemic, with the most vulnerable being the most affected
Use of public transportation fell 72.7% in the United States from February 15 to May 17, but vulnerable populations and essential or physical workers were more likely to continue using it, according to a study published yesterday in Plus one.
The study used data from the Transit app in 63 metropolitan areas, as well as applicable surveys and studies to measure the timing of demand and demographic changes.
Hourly traffic data revealed that demand on weekdays and weekends became more similar during the pandemic, highlighting that those without orthodox 9 to 5 hours, typically essential workers, were hit the hardest according to the researchers. However, the biggest indicator of continued use of public transportation was race.
The larger the black population in a city, the smaller the decrease in demand for public transportation. Women made up 70% of black passengers. Many others who needed to ride public transportation for physical jobs were Hispanic, which corresponds to 2018 statistics showing that Hispanics have the lowest percentage (22%) of administrative, professional and related occupations compared to whites, black and asian.
Awareness of COVID-19, indicated by Google searches for “coronavirus,” also had a significant association with lower use of public transportation, but was not as influential as ethnicity, occupation, and even age. The relative proportion of bus passengers aged 45 to 64 doubled when comparing April 2020 to September 2019, while use by children and those aged 25 to 44 decreased.
“It’s a dramatic story of social equity about who has to move during the pandemic,” study co-author Harvey Miller, PhD, said in an Ohio State University (OSU) news release.
Coastal cities experienced a decrease in demand earlier compared to cities in the Midwest and South. College towns are among those that experienced the steepest drops, probably related to school ordinances. Ridership in other cities, such as Austin, Texas, likely reflected political action, as declines in public transportation use occurred on the same day the local state of emergency was declared.
November 18th Plus one study
OSU Press Release November 18
Mink, a possible animal reservoir for COVID-19
A Danish study today in Emerging infectious diseases demonstrates the rapid spread of COVID-19 in farm mink, the emergence of new virus variants, and viral transmission to people.
SARS-CoV-2 infection has been documented in a variety of animal hosts, including ferrets, dogs, hamsters, and non-human primates, but not in pigs or chickens. Previous studies have identified COVID-19 in minks grown in the Netherlands and Denmark.
The researchers identified three mink farms, out of a total of 1,200 in Denmark, to investigate due to COVID-19 in people linked to the farms. Mink blood, throat, nasal and fecal smear samples were analyzed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, along with feed and air samples from each farm. Viral genomes were sequenced to analyze relationships between virus variants, and animal serum samples were analyzed for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.
The researchers found a high initial seroprevalence (97% and 67%) for animals sampled on two farms, but only 3% seroprevalence for a third farm, suggesting a more recent introduction. Significantly, when low-prevalence farm animals were retested 12 days later, seroprevalence had increased to 97%, indicating rapid transmission between farm animals and the potential for significant exposure to the virus from people who work with minks.
Air samples inside cages tested positive for the virus on two farms, but food or air samples did not.
The viral sequences of the mink at the first farm closely matched those of a human case, diagnosed in mid-May, leading researchers to suspect human introduction of the virus. A viral variant present on one farm appears to have spread to the other two farms and may indicate an adaptation to the mink and increased transmission capacity. The same variant was detected in later linked human cases.
“There appears to be some risk of virus transmission to people who work with infected minks, as well as to their contacts, and therefore indirectly to the public,” the authors wrote.
Mink infections occurred with little apparent clinical disease or animal mortality, making detection of viral spread difficult. “Mink farms could represent a serious and unrecognized animal reservoir for SARS-CoV-2,” they added.
Nov 19 Emerg Infect Dis study
COVID-19 infection is not linked to poor pregnancy outcomes
A large study of a Texas hospital today in JAMA network open found that SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy was not associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Neonatal infection occurred in 3% of infants, primarily among asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic women, and hospitalization rates for infected mothers were similar to those of non-pregnant women.
Researchers evaluated 3,374 pregnant women who delivered babies between March 18 and August 22 at Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, 252 of whom tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. COVID-19.
There were no differences in age, parity (number of live births), body mass index, or diabetes between infected and uninfected women, but SARS-CoV-2 positivity was more common among Hispanic women. Women of Hispanic ethnicity made up 75% of the cohort, but made up 91% of the SARS-CoV-2 positive women. Thirteen infected women (5%) had a serious or critical illness.
Infected women did not have a significantly higher frequency of preterm delivery, severe pre-eclampsia, or cesarean delivery due to an abnormal fetal heart rate compared to SARS-CoV-2 negative women (52 women [21%] vs 684 women [23%]; relative risk, 0.94; 95% CI 0.73 to 1.21; P = .64), and there were no stillbirths among women with COVID-19 during pregnancy.
No differences were seen between groups for secondary outcomes such as placental abruption, infection of any type, and excessive blood loss, and placental abnormalities were not associated with disease severity.
Among 188 newborns screened, 6 (3%) tested positive for COVId-19 and all were born to women whose infections were diagnosed during the third trimester. The researchers caution that they were unable to determine whether the diagnosis of early neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection was the result of vertical transmission, from mother to child, or by another route.
In contrast to previous studies showing high rates of hospitalization in pregnant women, the rate of hospitalization for infected women in this study was similar to the rates among non-pregnant women (6% hospitalized vs. 5.8% among non-pregnant women).
“Our findings that 5% of all women who delivered with SARS-CoV-2 infection develop or develop severe or critical illness are new and lower than the rates in previous reports,” the authors note.
Nov 19 JAMA Netw Open study
