Estimates of the rate of infection and asymptomatic COVID-19 disease in a population sample from SE England
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.29.20162701: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West - Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent.
Consent: Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West - Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources 9 The ELISA was validated by a separate laboratory at Imperial College London, who employed a … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.29.20162701: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West - Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent.
Consent: Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West - Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources 9 The ELISA was validated by a separate laboratory at Imperial College London, who employed a hybrid double antigen bridging assay (DABA) using immobilised S1 and HRP- labelled S1 receptor binding domain (RBD) of known high specificity (>99.9%) to compare antibody reactivity in 50 unselected samples. HRP- labelled S1 receptor binding domain (RBDsuggested: NoneResults from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:This study, like many similar surveys has a number of limitations. An overarching consideration with regards to seroprevalence to SARS-CoV-2 is the longevity of seropositivity. In a longitudinal study of RT-PCR confirmed prior COVID-19 cases by Doores et al., individuals mounted a range of antibody responses, and a decline in levels and virus neutralisation was typically observable within three months of the onset of symptoms.18 Thus, it is plausible that antibody responses would have fallen below the level of detection by the time of assessment in some of our study participants. Estimation of prior COVID-19 infection was via a symptom based algorithm as PCR confirmation had not been undertaken, nevertheless, we have previously published that this algorithm had a high PPV of close to 80 percent and was trained on symptoms of 7178 swab positive individuals.11 No volunteer cohort is fully representative of the general population, but we sampled a range of age and ethnicities and included people from a wide area of deprived and affluent neighbourhoods and with a range of BMI. Despite this, the cohort is detectably more affluent and white,than the general population which would serve to reduce our estimate of prevalence, give the extra burden of disease shouldered by less affluent groups and people of black, asian and minority ethnic background. Additionally we use the index of multiple deprivation which is an area-level indicator rather than individual level socioeconomic- posit...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.29.20162701: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources 15 It is clear that asymptomatic disease holds important implications with regards to transmission, as asymptomatic individuals are unaware of their infected status, and may support a significantly longer period of viral shedding, thereby exacerbating the potency of transmission potential.16,17 Without parallel … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.29.20162701: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources 15 It is clear that asymptomatic disease holds important implications with regards to transmission, as asymptomatic individuals are unaware of their infected status, and may support a significantly longer period of viral shedding, thereby exacerbating the potency of transmission potential.16,17 Without parallel PCR testing alongside symptom tracking, we cannot be certain whether seronegative individuals reporting COVID-19 symptoms either did not develop detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, their antibody levels had declined to undetectable18 or whether thei symptoms related to another infection or condition. undetectable18suggested: NoneResults from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
This study, like many similar surveys has a number of limitations. An overarching consideration with regards to seroprevalence to SARS-CoV-2 is the longevity of seropositivity. In a longitudinal study of RT-PCR confirmed prior COVID-19 cases by Doores et al., individuals mounted a range of antibody responses, and a decline in levels and virus neutralisation was typically observable within three months of the onset of symptoms.18 Thus, it is plausible that antibody responses would have fallen below the level of detection by the time of assessment in some of our study participants. Estimation of prior COVID-19 infection was via a symptom based algorithm as PCR confirmation had not been undertaken, nevertheless, we have previously published that this algorithm had a high PPV of close to 80 percent and was trained on symptoms of 7178 swab positive individuals.11 No volunteer cohort is fully representative of the general population, but we sampled a range of age and ethnicities and included people from a wide area of deprived and affluent neighbourhoods and with a range of BMI. Despite this, the cohort is detectably more affluent and white,than the general population which would serve to reduce our estimate of prevalence, give the extra burden of disease shouldered by less affluent groups and people of black, asian and minority ethnic background. Additionally we use the index of multiple deprivation which is an area-level indicator rather than individual level socioeconomicposition. The excess of females in our data set reflects the TwinsUK cohort and, so far, differences in seropositivity between genders have been minor in other datasets. It is possible that women report symptoms more readily than men which means that the true assymtomatic rate may be higher. The data are from London and the South East and seroprevalence data from this study will therefore not be generalisable to the whole of the country or to children. Further work is planned to extend the study using larger numbers from the 4 million app users who reported symptoms to address many of the underlying factors influencing swab positivity and antibody responses. The present study is underpowered in this regard with the asymptomatic seropositive group comprising 9 individuals out of a total of 48 seropositive participants. In conclusion, we estimated that 12% of the SE England population were seropositive between 27th April and 2nd June, an average of 18 days from the peak of the epidemic in the UK. We estimate the asymptomatic rate to be 19%. Anosmia was the symptom with the highest specificity for seropositivity. These data should be useful for both epidemiology and public health planning and reinforces the need to collect good symptom data as neither PCR testing nor antibody tests adequately capture all disease.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
About SciScore
SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore is not a substitute for expert review. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers) in the manuscript, and detects sentences that appear to be missing RRIDs. SciScore also checks to make sure that rigor criteria are addressed by authors. It does this by detecting sentences that discuss criteria such as blinding or power analysis. SciScore does not guarantee that the rigor criteria that it detects are appropriate for the particular study. Instead it assists authors, editors, and reviewers by drawing attention to sections of the manuscript that contain or should contain various rigor criteria and key resources. For details on the results shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.29.20162701: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Methods: We undertook enzyme linked immunosorbent assay characterisation of IgM and IgG responses against SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and nucleocapsid protein of 431 unselected general-population participants of the TwinsUK cohort from South-East England, aged 19-86 (median age 48; 85% female). Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources 15 It is … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.29.20162701: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Ethics approval for the study was granted by NHS North West Liverpool East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference 19/NW/0187), IRAS ID 258513, and all participants gave written informed consent. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Methods: We undertook enzyme linked immunosorbent assay characterisation of IgM and IgG responses against SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and nucleocapsid protein of 431 unselected general-population participants of the TwinsUK cohort from South-East England, aged 19-86 (median age 48; 85% female). Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources 15 It is clear that asymptomatic disease holds important implications with regards to transmission, as asymptomatic individuals are unaware of their infected status, and may support a significantly longer period of viral shedding, thereby exacerbating the potency of transmission potential.16,17 Without parallel PCR testing alongside symptom tracking, we cannot be certain whether seronegative individuals reporting COVID-19 symptoms either did not develop detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, their antibody levels had declined to undetectable18 or whether thei symptoms related to another infection or condition. undetectable18suggested: NoneData from additional tools added to each annotation on a weekly basis.
About SciScore
SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore is not a substitute for expert review. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers) in the manuscript, and detects sentences that appear to be missing RRIDs. SciScore also checks to make sure that rigor criteria are addressed by authors. It does this by detecting sentences that discuss criteria such as blinding or power analysis. SciScore does not guarantee that the rigor criteria that it detects are appropriate for the particular study. Instead it assists authors, editors, and reviewers by drawing attention to sections of the manuscript that contain or should contain various rigor criteria and key resources. For details on the results shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.
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