and ensuring equitable COVID-19 vaccine access remains a national priority.* COVID-19 has disproportionately affected racial/ethnic minority groups and those who are economically and socially disadvantaged (1,2). Thus, achieving not just vaccine equality (i.e., similar allocation of vaccine supply proportional to its population across jurisdictions) but equity (i.e., preferential access and administration to those who have been most affected by COVID-19 disease) is an important goal. The CDC social vulnerability index (SVI) uses 15 indicators grouped into four themes that comprise an overall SVI measure, resulting in 20 metrics, each of which has national and state-specific county rankings. The 20 metric-specific rankings were each divided into lowest to highest tertiles to categorize counties as low, moderate, or high social vulnerability counties. These tertiles were combined with vaccine administration data for 49,264,338 U.S. residents in 49 states and the District of Columbia (DC) who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose during December 14, 2020-March 1, 2021. Nationally, for the overall SVI measure, vaccination coverage was higher (15.8%) in low social vulnerability counties than in high social vulnerability counties (13.9%), with the largest coverage disparity in the socioeconomic status theme (2.5 percentage points higher coverage in low than in high vulnerability counties). Wide state variations in equity across SVI metrics were found. Whereas in the majority of states, vaccination coverage was higher in low vulnerability counties, some states had equitable coverage at the county level. CDC, state, and local jurisdictions should continue to monitor vaccination coverage by SVI metrics to focus public health interventions to achieve equitable coverage with COVID-19 vaccine.COVID-19 vaccine administration data are reported to CDC by multiple entities via immunization information systems (IIS), the Vaccine Administration Management System, or direct data submission. † Vaccination coverage was defined as the number of residents who

Ocean viruses alter ecosystems through host mortality, horizontal gene transfer and by facilitating remineralization of limiting nutrients. However, the study of wild viral populations is limited by inefficient and unreliable concentration techniques. Here, we develop a new technique to recover viruses from natural waters using iron-based flocculation and large-pore-size filtration, followed by resuspension of virus-containing precipitates in a pH 6 buffer. Recovered viruses are amenable to gene sequencing, and a variable proportion of phages, depending upon the phage, retain their infectivity when recovered. This Fe-based virus flocculation, filtration and resuspension method (FFR) is efficient (> 90% recovery), reliable, inexpensive and adaptable to many aspects of marine viral ecology and genomics research.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory, demyelinating, and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) triggered by autoimmune mechanisms. Microglia are critical for the clearance of myelin debris in areas of demyelination, a key step to allow remyelination. TREM2 is expressed by microglia and promotes microglial survival, proliferation, and phagocytic activity. Herein we demonstrate that TREM2 was highly expressed on myelin-laden phagocytes in active demyelinating lesions in the CNS of subjects with MS. In gene expression studies, macrophages from subjects with TREM2 genetic deficiency displayed a defect in phagocytic pathways. Treatment with a new TREM2 agonistic antibody promoted the clearance of myelin debris in the cuprizone model of CNS demyelination. Effects included enhancement of myelin uptake and degradation, resulting in accelerated myelin debris removal by microglia. Most importantly, antibody-dependent TREM2 activation on microglia increased density of oligodendrocyte precursors in areas of demyelination, as well as the formation of mature oligodendrocytes thus enhancing remyelination and axonal integrity. These results are relevant as they propose TREM2 on microglia as a potential new target to promote remyelination.

Microbes and their viruses drive myriad processes across ecosystems ranging from oceans and soils to bioreactors and humans. Despite this importance, microbial diversity is only now being mapped at scales relevant to nature, while the viral diversity associated with any particular host remains little researched. Here we quantify host-associated viral diversity using viral-tagged metagenomics, which links viruses to specific host cells for high-throughput screening and sequencing. In a single experiment, we screened 10(7) Pacific Ocean viruses against a single strain of Synechococcus and found that naturally occurring cyanophage genome sequence space is statistically clustered into discrete populations. These population-based, host-linked viral ecological data suggest that, for this single host and seawater sample alone, there are at least 26 double-stranded DNA viral populations with estimated relative abundances ranging from 0.06 to 18.2%. These populations include previously cultivated cyanophage and new viral types missed by decades of isolate-based studies. Nucleotide identities of homologous genes mostly varied by less than 1% within populations, even in hypervariable genome regions, and by 42-71% between populations, which provides benchmarks for viral metagenomics and genome-based viral species definitions. Together these findings showcase a new approach to viral ecology that quantitatively links objectively defined environmental viral populations, and their genomes, to their hosts.