Background: To investigate sex differences in coronavirus disease 2019 outcomes in a large Illinois-based cohort. Methods: A multicenter retrospective cohort study compared males versus females with COVID-19 infections from March 1, 2020, to June 21, 2020, in the Rush University System. We analyzed sex differences in rates of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, vasopressor use, endotracheal intubation, and death in this cohort. A multivariable model correcting for age and sum of comorbidities was used to explore associations between sex and COVID-19-related outcomes. Results: There were 8108 positive COVID-19 patients-4300 (53.0%) females and 3808 (47.0%) males. Males had higher rates of hospitalization (19% vs. 13%; p < 0.001), ICU transfer (8% vs. 4%; p < 0.001), vasopressor support (4% vs. 2%; p < 0.001), and endotracheal intubation (5% vs. 2%; p < 0.001). Of those who died, 92 were males and 64 were females (2% vs. 1%; p = 0.003). A multivariable model correcting for age and sum of comorbidities showed a significant association between male sex and mortality in the total cohort (odds ratio, 1.96; 95% confidence interval, 1.34-2.90; p = 0.001). Conclusion:Male sex was independently associated with death, hospitalization, ICU admissions, and need for vasopressors or endotracheal intubation, after correction for important covariates.

Bilinguals rarely produce words in an unintended language. However, we induced such intrusion errors (e.g., saying el instead of he) in 32 Spanish-English bilinguals who read aloud language-selective and language-mixed paragraphs with English or Spanish word order. Bilinguals produced language intrusions almost exclusively in language-mixed paragraphs, and most often when attempting to produce dominant-language targets (accent-only errors also exhibited reversed language dominance effects). Most intrusion errors occurred for function word targets, especially when they did not match paragraph language word order. Eye movements showed that fixating a word in the non-target language increased intrusion errors only for function word targets. Together, these results imply multiple mechanisms of language control, including (a) inhibition of the dominant language at both lexical (Green, 1998) and sublexical processing levels, (b) special retrieval mechanisms for function words in mixed-language utterances (Myers-Scotton, 1993), and (c) attention’s role in monitoring target language for match with intended language.

COVID‐19 has significant case fatality. Glucocorticoids are the only treatment shown to improve survival, but only among patients requiring supplemental oxygen. WHO advises patients to seek medical care for “trouble breathing,” but hypoxemic patients frequently have no respiratory symptoms. Our cohort study of hospitalized COVID‐19 patients shows that respiratory symptoms are uncommon and not associated with mortality. By contrast, objective signs of respiratory compromise—oxygen saturation and respiratory rate—are associated with markedly elevated mortality. Our findings support expanding guidelines to include at‐home assessment of oxygen saturation and respiratory rate in order to expedite life‐saving treatments patients to high‐risk COVID‐19 patients.

According to the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC), 90% of professionals practicing in the field of genetic counseling in the United States (U.S.) identify as non-Hispanic White (NSGC, 2019b). In contrast, approximately 40% of the U.S. population is comprised of people from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, including those who identify as Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, American Indian, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Alaskan, or two or more races (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). This lack of racial/ ethnic minority representation among genetic counselors represents an important problem given that lack of representation has been well documented as contributing to health disparities (i.e., differences in health outcomes between groups) across a

The novel COVID-19 has had an unprecedented and devastating spread internationally. COVID-19 infection can lead to a number of cardiovascular sequelae, including heart failure, which may portend worse clinical outcomes. Here, we report a rare case of a 57-year-old woman who developed acute left ventricular systolic dysfunction with apical ballooning consistent with takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM), and mixed cardiogenic and septic shock in the setting of COVID-19 disease. We briefly review the pathophysiology and diagnosis of TCM (also described as apical ballooning syndrome and stress-induced cardiomyopathy). Additionally, this case highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to clinical decision-making and resource allocation in diagnosis and management of critical illness in the setting of the ongoing international COVID-19 pandemic.