Background : Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been used for severe illness caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but its treatment effects and safety are unclear. Purpose : This study reviews the effect and safety of CHM granules in the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19. Methods : We conducted a single-center, retrospective study on patients with severe COVID-19 in a designated hospital in Wuhan from January 15, 2020 to March 30, 2020. The propensity score matching (PSM) was used to assess the effect and safety of the treatment using CHM granules. The ratio of patients who received treatment with CHM granules combined with usual care and those who received usual care alone was 1:1. The primary outcome was the time to clinical improvement within 28 days, defined as the time taken for the patients’ health to show improvement by decline of two categories (from the baseline) on a modified six-category ordinal scale, or to be discharged from the hospital before Day 28. Results : Using PSM, 43 patients (45% male) aged 65.6 (57–70) years from each group were exactly matched. No significant difference was observed in clinical improvement of patients treated with CHM granules compared with those who received usual ( P = 0.851). However, the use of CHM granules reduced the 28-day mortality ( P = 0.049) and shortened the duration of fever (4 days vs. 7 days, P = 0.002). The differences in the duration of cough and dyspnea and the difference in lung lesion ratio on computerized tomography scans were not significant. Commonly, patients in the CHM group had an increased D -dimer level ( P = 0.036). Conclusion : For patients with severe COVID-19, CHM granules, combined with usual care, showed no improvement beyond usual care alone. However, the use of CHM granules reduced the 28-day mortality rate and the time to fever alleviation. Nevertheless, CHM granules may be associated with high risk of fibrinolysis.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most common psychiatric sequelae among novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of PTSD symptoms, PTSD-related factors, and its relationship with quality of life at long-term follow-up in hospitalized COVID-19 survivors.Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken to evaluate the health consequences of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors. All participants were interviewed face-to-face through a series of questionnaires: a researcher-developed symptom questionnaire, the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist–Civilian Version, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item, and the 36-item Short Form.Results: A total of 574 participants were enrolled with an average age of 57 years. The median follow-up time post-discharge was 193.9 days (SD = 15.32). Among the participants, 77.9% of survivors presented with at least one symptom, where fatigue or muscle weakness (47.9%) was reported the most frequently, followed by chest distress (29.4%) and sleep difficulty (29.4%). The prevalence of PTSD was 11.15% [95% confidence interval (CI): 8.56, 13.73] with a cut-off score of 44. Factors such as respiratory symptoms [odds ratio (OR): 3.53; 95% CI: 1.68–7.42], anxiety (OR: 14.64; 95% CI: 7.09–30.21), and sleep difficulty (OR: 2.17; 95% CI: 1.14–4.16) were positively related to PTSD. Those COVID-19 survivors with potential PTSD had significantly lower quality of life than those without (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Our study illustrated that a significant number of COVID-19 survivors were suffering from physical or mental distress to varying degrees at 6 months post-discharge. People with PTSD were more likely to experience persistent respiratory symptoms and sleep difficulty, as well as anxiety and a decreased quality of life. Such survivors require greater attention to their mental health, particularly the PTSD symptoms at the early phase, which may play an important role in the recovery of both the physical and psychological health of COVID-19 survivors.

A case of the absorption of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) promoted by professor Xu ZOU's acupuncture technique for “benefiting kidney and strengthening anti-pathogenic qi ” is introduced. A female patient suffered from COVID-19, 64 years old, had been treated with acupuncture and Chinese herb granules for 10 days on the base of the oral administration of moxifloxacin. In the re-examination, the chest CT image indicated that the absorption of COVID-19 was obvious as compared with before, the nucleic acid test of novel corona virus was negative and the patient narrated no obvious discomfort. Acupuncture therapy plays its active adjuvant effect in the whole process of the treatment of COVID-19.

Background: Real-world evidence on the effectiveness of inactivated vaccines against the Delta and Omicron (BA.2.38) variants remains scarce. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to estimate the adjusted vaccine effectiveness (aVE) of one, two, and three doses of inactivated vaccines in attenuating pneumonia, severe COVID-19, and the duration of viral shedding in Delta and Omicron cases using modified Poisson and linear regression as appropriate. Results: A total of 561 COVID-19 cases were included (59.2% Delta and 40.8% Omicron). In total, 56.4% (184) of Delta and 12.0% (27) of Omicron cases had COVID-19 pneumonia. In the two-dose vaccinated population, 1.4% of Delta and 89.1% of Omicron cases were vaccinated for more than 6 months. In Delta cases, the two-dose aVE was 52% (95% confidence interval, 39–63%) against pneumonia and 61% (15%, 82%) against severe disease. Two-dose vaccination reduced the duration of viral shedding in Delta cases, but not in booster-vaccinated Omicron cases. In Omicron cases, three-dose aVE was 68% (18%, 88%) effective against pneumonia, while two-dose vaccination was insufficient for Omicron. E-values were calculated, and the E-values confirmed the robustness of our findings. Conclusions: In Delta cases, two-dose vaccination within 6 months reduced pneumonia, disease severity, and the duration of viral shedding. Booster vaccination provided a high level of protection against pneumonia with Omicron and should be prioritized.