Publications from our Experts

In a recent Short Communication in Preventive Medicine, CITF Leadership Group member Dr. Gina Ogilvie, CITF-funded researcher Dr. Daniel Grace and colleagues explore the mental health of sexual health service clients, an example of a marginalized community. They found that 55% of respondents self-rated their mental health as being poor at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health concerns are common among those [...]

A study by researchers at the University of Toronto, in collaboration with CITF-funded researcher Dr. Sasha Bernatsky from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, observed that people with autoimmune diseases had the same proportion of SARS-CoV-2 positive tests and a similar disease incidence compared to the general population in 2020. However, testing for COVID-19 is higher than in the general population. [...]

Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 or who have received SARS-CoV-2 vaccines (mRNA or adenovirus-based) have been shown to have virus-neutralizing activity in their saliva. These results appeared in a recent pre-print, therefore not yet peer reviewed, directed by scientists from Stanford University School of Medicine, with contributions from CITF-funded researchers Drs. Jennifer Gommerman, Allison McGeer, Anne-Claude Gingras, and Sharon Straus. Previous infection or [...]

In a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed, CITF Leadership Group member Dr. Mel Krajden and colleagues sought to identify factors associated with COVID-19 hospitalization by looking at all individuals with lab-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 in British Columbia as of January 15, 2021. Of all factors identified, it is one of the first reports linking mental illness and substance use with increased risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization. [...]

In their recent pre-print, not yet peer-reviewed, CITF Leadership Group member Dr. Gina Ogilvie, VSRG Working Group member Dr. Manish Sadarangani and colleagues in British Columbia explored COVID-19 vaccination intention among women and gender diverse individuals living with HIV. The authors report that the intention to get a vaccine in these groups was significantly lower than among their peers, despite the safety and effectiveness [...]

A collaborative effort of over 150 scientists from over 20 countries, including CITF-funded researcher Dr. Donald Vinh from McGill University Health Centre and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, has led to the identification of a surprisingly high prevalence of a type of antibody that has been linked to fatal outcomes of COVID-19. These autoantibodies – antibodies that mistakenly target a [...]

In a publication led by Dr. David Fisman from the University of Toronto in the Annals of Internal Medicine, CITF-funded researcher Dr. Sheila O’Brien and CITF Testing Working Party member Dr. Steven Drews, both from Canadian Blood Services, worked with colleagues from the University of Toronto and the University of Guelph and found that when accounting for testing rates, younger people in Ontario contracted [...]

Investigators from the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN), including CITF-funded researchers Drs. Jeffrey Kwong and Kumanan Wilson, provided epidemiological baseline rates of mortality and hospitalization to study COVID-19 outcomes in nursing home residents in Ontario. In a manuscript recently published in Vaccines, the researchers noted that the end of 2020 marked a return to pre-pandemic baseline death rates after a major increase  in the [...]

Few studies have shown that immunocompromised individuals may mount attenuated antibody responses, compared to their otherwise healthy counterparts. A new pre-print, therefore not yet peer-reviewed, by CITF-funded researcher Dr. Andrés Finzi and Dr. Cécile Tremblay, both from the University of Montréal, found that the immunogenicity of a single dose of the Moderna vaccine in people living with HIV depended on their CD4+ T cell [...]