A Bad Year with Great Papers in Clinical Microbiology

Explore a comprehensive review of groundbreaking clinical microbiology research from 2020, focusing on the challenges and innovations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Delve into discussions by three Journal of Clinical Microbiology editors as they highlight nine influential papers, covering topics such as SARS-CoV-2 testing methods, blood culture utilization during the pandemic, artificial intelligence applications in diagnostics, metagenomics for pathogen detection, and antimicrobial resistance. Gain insights into the rapid development of COVID-19 diagnostics, including saliva-based tests and portable sequencing platforms, as well as advancements in detecting tick-borne pathogens and analyzing cerebrospinal fluid. Learn about the correlation between neutralizing antibodies and COVID-19 protection, and understand the global spread of antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus pyogenes.

Introduction
Guest Introductions
Bacteria and Blood Culture Utilization During COVID19 Surge
Role of Saliva in COVID19 Diagnosis
neutralizing antibodies correlate with protection from COVID19
artificial intelligence and digital slide scanning
negative predictive value
targeted metagenomics
Abbott IDnow
Nanopore Sequencing
Metagenomics
Diagnostic stewardship
Reduced in vitro susceptibility to betalactam antibiotics