Top in ID: Shorter antibiotic course for pneumonia, COVID-19 booster doses

Researchers reported that antibiotic therapy can be safely discontinued in patients with moderately severe community-acquired pneumonia who have an early clinical response. It was the top story in infectious disease last week.

Another top story was about COVID-19 vaccine booster doses. The CDC and FDA said in a joint statement that booster doses are not necessary at this time. Meanwhile, Pfizer and BioNTech are moving forward with a COVID-19 vaccine booster program.

Read these and more top stories in infectious disease below:

Shorter antibiotic therapy noninferior to longer therapy for community-acquired pneumonia

Three days of antibiotic therapy was noninferior to 8 days of therapy for patients with moderately severe community-acquired pneumonia, according to a study published in The Lancet. Read more.

CDC, FDA say booster doses not needed as Pfizer eyes authorization

Pfizer and BioNTech announced positive initial findings from an ongoing trial assessing a booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine and said they plan to submit the data soon to the FDA. Read more.

In US, 11% of people have missed second COVID-19 vaccine dose

Potentially millions of people in the United States who received the first dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine have not returned for their second shot, according to data shared by the CDC. Read more.

Moderna begins first study of mRNA vaccine for flu

Experts have been optimistic that the science and collaboration that went into developing numerous COVID-19 vaccines in record time may help spur development of vaccines against other long-time targets, like influenza. Read more.

Risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission ‘quite high’ among hospital roommates

Nearly 40% of patients who shared a hospital room with a patient with SARS-CoV-2 at one Boston hospital became infected within 14 days, according to study results published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Read more.