Data Analysis of Infection Rates Among Exposed Healthcare Workers Could Reveal Effective Prophylactics Against SARS-CoV-
The global crisis provoked by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and the economic and social consequences associated to the essential policies applied to contain it, necessitates the expedited development of therapeutic solutions. It is a priority to produce data b
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Data Analysis of Infection Rates Among Exposed Healthcare Workers Could Reveal Effective Prophylactics Against SARS-CoV-2 Guido Núñez-Mujica, Therese Kichuk, and César Carrasco-López Abstract
The global crisis provoked by the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, and the economic and social consequences associated to the essential policies applied to contain it, necessitates the expedited development of therapeutic solutions. It is a priority to produce data both rapidly and accurately in order to identify current therapies that can be repurposed to offer protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection. As healthcare workers are both at high risk for infection and able to be readily diagnosed, they offer a potential wealth of data to be analyzed. A systematic data analysis of exposure and infection rates among healthcare workers could yield patterns identifying common protective factors, such as medications with prophylactic potential against SARSCoV-2, that can be fast-tracked into available G. Núñez-Mujica In Situ Diagnostics, Santiago, Chile GenoSUR, Miami, FL, USA T. Kichuk Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA C. Carrasco-López (*) Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected]
therapies. With results suggesting their activity against other coronaviruses and their widespread adoption, Antiretroviral cocktails could be a promising initial target for such large-scale data analysis approach. Keywords
Antiretroviral · Antiviral · Coronavirus · COVID-19 · Data science · Healthcare · Vaccine The social distancing measures being implemented worldwide have proven to be effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Ji et al. 2020). The devastating economic and societal consequences of these measures (Lippi et al. 2020; Cornwall 2020), however, could make them unsustainable and challenge their extended implementation throughout the process of developing, approving, and widely administering a vaccine. We are faced with a situation in which long-term enforcement of practices employed to minimize the deadly consequences of this pandemic could result in political, social and economic catastrophe- especially for our most vulnerable populations (Cornwall 2020). Therefore, it is of vital importance to accelerate the discovery of effective
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prophylactics to aid in safely ramping down social distancing policies. In order to accelerate the identification of useful compounds, it is crucial to investigate repurposing medications already approved to combat disease in clinical settings. Numerous clinical trials have been rapidly initiated to test the efficacy of currently available drugs in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (U. S. National Library of Medicine, Clinical Trials System 2020a, b). It is necessary, however, to also increase the number of trials assessing the efficacy of these medications in preventing the infection, as studies performed only with patients who are seriously ill might lead researchers to erro
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