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Background: As the COVID-19 Delta variant has spread across the globe, healthcare workers' (HCWs) knowledge, worries, and vaccine booster acceptance should be assessed. Methods: Online questionnaires aimed at HCWs in Saudi Arabia were distributed between 9 and 12 August 2021, aiming to evaluate HCWs' perceptions and worries about the Delta variant as well as their feelings about receiving a booster-vaccine. Results: A total of 1279 HCWs participated, with 51.1% being physicians and 41.7% nurses. 92.5% were aware of the emergence of the Delta variant. Still, only 28.7% were found to have sufficient knowledge of the variant, and their level of worry about it was higher than their level of worry about the Alpha variant (2.32/5 versus 1.79/5). The main information sources cited by the participants were social media (50.5%), while 30.5% used scientific journals. Overall, 55.3% were willing to receive a vaccine booster, while one third would have preferred to receive a new mRNA vaccine specifically developed for the Delta variant. Factors associated with vaccine booster acceptance were receiving both vaccination doses (p = 0.008), believing that the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine is effective against variants (p < 0.001), and agreement that mixing/matching vaccines is effective against variants (p < 0.001). Conclusions: A high percentage of HCWs were aware of the Delta variant, but only a small fraction had decent quality of knowledge about it. The participants exhibited high worry levels and showed a modest acceptance of receiving a vaccine booster dose. These results should encourage public health officials to scale up educational efforts to disseminate reliable information about the different variants and provide recommendations about receiving a vaccine booster. Further research on methods to alleviate HCWs' worries about emerging variants is warranted.
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BACKGROUND Primary pericardial tumors have a prevalence of between 6.7% and 12.8% of all tumors arising in the cardiac region. Pericardial schwannoma is a rare entity. It arises from the cardiac plexus and vagus nerve innervating the heart. Most of the reported cases, have presented with benign behavior, however, in rare situations, they can undergo transformation to malignant behavior When comparing the prevalence of cardiac tumors to that of pericardial tumors, the latter is much lower in occurrence. A review of English literature identified six pericardial schwannoma cases. CASE REPORT We present a case of a 30-year-old male patient who presented to our center with the chief complaint of six months of gradually progressive left chest pain. His past medical history (PMH) was positive for panic attacks (for which he was taking beta-blockers), paroxysmal tachycardia, sweating, and irritability. A computed tomography chest scan was done; a differential diagnosis of paraganglioma was suggested. However, histopathological examination confirmed the pericardial mass was a schwannoma. The patient was surgically treated by thoracotomy to resect the lesion. CONCLUSIONS This case adds to the existing limited literature on pericardial schwannoma as the seventh reported case. Neurogenic cardiac tumors; our case marks the second case reported to occur in the subcarinal area near the left atrium.