Expert guidance for COVID-19 vaccine deployment in Switzerland: a Delphi process.

Vaccines providing protection against COVID-19 are a core tool for ending the pandemic. Though international organisations created guidance in 2020 for vaccine deployment, this had to be adapted for each country's situation and values. We aimed to assist public health decision makers by identifying areas of consensus among Swiss experts for the deployment of one or more novel COVID-19 vaccines. An electronic, modified Delphi process between September and November 2020. We recruited a convenience sample of experts working in Switzerland from a variety of specialities, who completed two anonymous questionnaires. They voted on clarification questions and guidance statements from 0 (complete disagreement) to 10 (complete agreement). Responses for guidance statements with a median ≥8 and a lower inter-quartile range bound ≥7 were considered as reaching consensus. Sixty-five experts accepted (66% response rate), with 47 completing the first questionnaire (72%), and 48 the second (74%). Statements reaching consensus included: in the first phase we should vaccinate front-line healthcare professionals and people ≥65 years with risk factors; widespread vaccination of children and adolescents should not be an early priority; and vaccines should be provided free of charge in the setting of national or cantonal vaccination campaigns. Statements not reaching consensus included: early vaccination of people living with someone with risk factors who are not themselves at risk; vaccination of people with previous confirmed or suspected COVID-19; and whether vaccination should be mandatory for individuals with certain activities, such as front-line healthcare professionals. Experts reached consensus on several statements that were available for decision-makers when making key decisions for COVID-19 vaccine deployment in Switzerland. Statements without consensus highlighted areas requiring expert and public dialogue. The modified Delphi process allowed us to rapidly synthesise views from a broad panel of experts on sensitive topics, and could be considered for a broad range of issues during public health crises

Analysis of ADCs by Native Mass Spectrometry

International audienceMass spectrometry performed in nondenaturing conditions (native MS) has proven its utility for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), especially when ADCs’ subunits involve noncovalent interactions (i.e., cysteine-conjugated ADCs). Its hyphenation to ion mobility spectrometry (IM-MS) allows differentiation of gas-phase ions based on their rotationally averaged collision cross section providing an additional dimension of conformational characterization of ADCs. More recently, size exclusion chromatography (SEC) appeared as an interesting technique to perform online buffer exchange in an automated way prior to native MS/IM-MS analysis. Online SEC-native MS/IM-MS allows the global structural characterization of ADCs and the assessment of some critical quality attributes (CQAs) required for ADC release on the market, such as drug load distribution (DLD), drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR), the average DAR (DARav), and the relative amount of unconjugated mAb

Climate change, human migration, and skin disease: is there a link?

Climate change, exemplified by higher average global temperatures resulting in more frequent extreme weather events, has the potential to significantly impact human migration patterns and health. The consequences of environmental catastrophes further destabilize regions with pre-existing states of conflict due to social, political, and/or economic unrest. Migrants may carry diseases from their place of origin to their destinations and once there may be susceptible to diseases in which they had not been previously exposed to. Skin diseases are among the most commonly observed health conditions observed in migrant populations. To improve awareness among dermatologists of the burden of skin diseases among migrants, the group searched the English language scientific literature to identify articles linking climate change, migration, and skin disease. Skin diseases associated with human migration fall into three major categories: (i) communicable diseases, (ii) noncommunicable diseases, and (iii) environmentally mediated diseases. Adopting comprehensive global strategies to improve the health of migrants requires urgent attention