Nonelderly Medicaid enrollees in racial and ethnic minority groups have significantly worse care experiences than white enrollees, a Health Affairs study published in February found.

The first 30 consecutive patients who underwent a lung transplant due to COVID-19 complications at Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine had positive outcomes, according to findings recently published in JAMA. 

A mechanism has been identified that may explain why some people with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell, according to research published Feb. 1 in Cell.

COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates have been significantly higher among unvaccinated people during the recent omicron wave compared to rates among those who are fully vaccinated or boosted, a Feb. 1 CDC report found.

The National Institutes of Health has started a study to test whether a temporary reduction in immunosuppressive medication among organ transplant recipients leads to a better antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination. 

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received a combination of remdesivir and hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin — a highly concentrated solution of antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2 — did not fare better than those who received remdesivir alone, according to phase 3 trial results published Jan. 27 in The Lancet.

A third dose of Pfizer or Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization among people with weakened immune systems, according to a CDC report published the week of Jan. 28.

A year after COVID-19 patients left intensive care, almost 75 percent reported lingering physical symptoms, more than 26 percent reported mental symptoms and more than 16 percent had cognitive symptoms, according to a study published Jan. 24 by JAMA Network.

Surgical patients treated in hospitals with good work environments for nurses are less likely to require intensive care or die, according to a study published Dec. 15 in AACN Advanced Critical Care.

While the highly transmissible omicron variant has pushed U.S. cases and hospitalizations to record highs, a smaller proportion of cases resulted in hospitalization compared to earlier pandemic surges, according to the CDC's Jan. 25 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 

Clinicians may be able to determine which patients are at risk of developing prolonged COVID-19 symptoms based on four clinical factors measured at the time of diagnosis, according to a study published Jan. 24 in Cell.

Children's hospitals nationwide have seen record levels of COVID-19 patients amid the omicron surge, despite children having the lowest risk of hospitalization from the virus.

In a small study of 100 people who contracted COVID-19 in the first wave, more than half have long-term changes to their sense of smell, according to preliminary research published Jan. 20 by MedRxiv.

The healthcare industry should expand the "quadruple aim" to include a fifth key focus: advancing health equity, three physician leaders wrote in a Jan. 21 op-ed published in JAMA.

Scott Quiner — a COVID-19 patient who was transferred from Coon Rapids, Minn.-based Mercy Hospital to a Texas care facility after a judge issued a restraining order stopping the hospital from turning off lifesaving machines — has died, according to The New York Times.

A National Institutes of Health-funded study involving more than 2,000 couples found COVID-19 vaccination doesn't affect the chances of conception. 

A new study from researchers at University of Oxford in the U.K. suggests issues with attention span and memory may linger for months after a mild COVID-19 infection.

As Massachusetts hospitals struggle amid the current omicron surge, multiple reports have emerged of patients dying because they couldn't be transferred to higher-level care, NPR reported Jan. 18. 

A study involving nearly 132,000 women in Scotland found nearly all pregnant women who were admitted to critical care for COVID-19-related illness were unvaccinated, according to the findings published Jan. 13 in Nature Medicine. 

A ventilated patient with severe COVID-19 was transferred from Coon Rapids, Minn.-based Mercy Hospital to a Texas care facility after a judge issued a restraining order stopping the hospital from turning life-saving machines off, according to a Jan. 17 report from the Star Tribune.