About Covid-19
The pandemic marks another grim milestone: 1 in 500 Americans have died of covid-19: “People older than 85 make up only 2 percent of the population, but a quarter of the total death toll. One in 35 people 85 or older died of covid, compared with 1 in 780 people age 40 to 64.”
Low-dose mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine generates durable memory enhanced by cross-reactive T cells: More scientific data indicating a booster Covid-19 vaccine is not needed, at least at 6 months out for the Moderna version.
”Vaccine-specific CD4+ T cell, CD8+ T cell, binding antibody, and neutralizing antibody responses to the 25-μg Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine were examined over 7 months post-immunization, including multiple age groups, with a particular interest in assessing whether pre-existing cross-reactive T cell memory impacts vaccine-generated immunity. Vaccine-generated spike-specific memory CD4+ T cells 6 months post-boost were comparable in quantity and quality to COVID-19 cases, including the presence of T follicular helper cells and IFNγ-expressing cells. Spike-specific CD8+ T cells were generated in 88% of subjects, with equivalent memory at 6 months post-boost compared to COVID-19 cases. Lastly, subjects with pre-existing cross-reactive CD4+ T cell memory had increased CD4+ T cell and antibody responses to the vaccine, demonstrating the biological relevance of SARS-CoV-2–cross-reactive CD4+ T cells.”
Over Half of States Have Rolled Back Public Health Powers in Pandemic: “Republican legislators in more than half of U.S. states, spurred on by voters angry about lockdowns and mask mandates, are taking away the powers state and local officials use to protect the public against infectious diseases.
A KHN review of hundreds of pieces of legislation found that, in all 50 states, legislators have proposed bills to curb such public health powers since the covid-19 pandemic began. While some governors vetoed bills that passed, at least 26 states pushed through laws that permanently weaken government authority to protect public health. In three additional states, an executive order, ballot initiative or state Supreme Court ruling limited long-held public health powers. More bills are pending in a handful of states whose legislatures are still in session.”
Hospital Asks Staff to Prove Religious Exemption for COVID Vaccine by Refusing Tylenol: “Conway Regional Hospital in Arkansas is allowing employees to bypass a vaccine mandate on religious grounds, but they're asking some to validate that objection by promising not to use more than 30 medications and vaccines…
CEO and President of Conway Regional Matt Troup told Little Rock-based news station KARK that the hospital saw an influx in religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine with a majority of them citing an issue with fetal cells. In response, the hospital created a form that requires employees to attest to the fact that they don't use any medications, prescription or otherwise, or vaccines that also used fetal cells in their development.
More than 30 items were listed on the form, including Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Ex-Lax, Benadryl and Claritin. The hospital acknowledged that it wasn't an extensive list and employees had to attest to not using anything that used fetal cells.”
Biden's team tightens grip on state use of Covid antibody treatments: “The Biden administration is imposing new limits on states’ ability to access to Covid-19 antibody treatments amid rising demand from GOP governors who have relied on the drug as a primary weapon against the virus.
Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week.”
U.S. says federal employees must be vaccinated by Nov. 22: “The Biden administration said most federal employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no later than Nov. 22 as it drafts rules to require large employers to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly.”
Judge blocks medical worker vaccine mandate in NY state: “A federal judge temporarily blocked the state of New York on Tuesday from forcing medical workers to be vaccinated after a group of health care workers sued, saying their Constitutional rights were violated because the state’s mandate disallowed religious exemptions.
Judge David Hurd in Utica issued the order after 17 health professionals, including doctors and nurses, claimed in a lawsuit Monday that their rights were violated with a vaccine mandate that disallowed the exemptions.
The judge gave New York state until Sept. 22 to respond to the lawsuit in federal court in Utica. If the state opposes the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary court order blocking the vaccine mandate, a Sept. 28 oral hearing will occur.”
CureVac Downsizes COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing: This action emphasizes the advantage of early movers.
”CureVac is cancelling production deals with two European contract manufacturers tasked with producing the drug substance for the German company’s messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, CVnCoV, which is currently being evaluated by the European Medicines Agency.
CureVac said contracts with the two companies, Wacker and the Celonic Group, were being cancelled because of the increased demand for already approved products [emphasis added], including the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA-based vaccines.”
Three in five Americans support new Biden administration vaccine mandates: “However, this majority support masks deep divisions at the partisan level.
Overall, 60% of Americans support the federal government implementing these two rules. There is a similar level of support among employed Americans for their own employer to require vaccines in the workplace (57%).
For both of these new requirements, more than eight in ten Democrats support them, and so do around 60% of Independents. Only around 30% of Republicans back these requirements, however.
While most support various masking and vaccine requirements in public places (including workplaces), this week’s poll also shows that a plurality of Americans say the current priority for the federal government should be redoubling efforts to get remaining unvaccinated Americans vaccinated (38%), rather than providing booster shots (28%) or providing vaccines to people in developing countries (19%).
Among the vaccinated, nearly half (48%) say vaccinating the unvaccinated is priority. Just one in ten unvaccinated Americans agree.”
Unvaccinated COVID-19 hospitalizations cost billions of dollars: From KFF: “Our analysis of HHS and CDC data indicates there were 32,000 preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations in June, 68,000 preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations in July, and another 187,000 preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations among unvaccinated adults in the U.S. in August, for a total of 287,000 across the three months.”
The cost was $3.7 billion for August alone.
About health insurance
Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2020: Released yesterday by the US Census Bureau: Highlights:
“In 2020, 8.6 percent of people, or 28.0 million, did not have health insurance at any point during the year.
The percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2020 was 91.4.
In 2020, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than public coverage at 66.5 percent and 34.8 percent, respectively. Of the subtypes of health insurance coverage, employment-based insurance was the most common, covering 54.4 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicare (18.4 percent), Medicaid (17.8 percent), direct-purchase coverage (10.5 percent), TRICARE (2.8 percent), and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) coverage (0.9 percent).
Between 2018 and 2020, the rate of private health insurance coverage decreased by 0.8 percentage points to 66.5 percent, driven by a 0.7 percentage-point decline in employment-based coverage to 54.4 percent.
Between 2018 and 2020, the rate of public health insurance coverage increased by 0.4 percentage points to 34.8 percent.
In 2020, 87.0 percent of full-time, year-round workers had private insurance coverage, up from 85.1 percent in 2018. In contrast, those who worked less than full-time, year-round were less likely to be covered by private insurance in 2020 than in 2018 (68.5 percent in 2018 and 66.7 percent in 2020).
More children under the age of 19 in poverty were uninsured in 2020 than in 2018. Uninsured rates for children under the age of 19 in poverty rose 1.6 percentage points to 9.3 percent.”
CVS – Aetna lied about provider network to win Medicaid contracts, suit alleges: “Aetna illegally secured contracts with Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program by misrepresenting the number of pediatric providers in its network, according to a federal whistleblower lawsuit unsealed Tuesday.
The insurer benefited from this alleged fraud because the lack of providers limited access to care, saving Aetna money. Aetna Better Health of Pennsylvania CEO Jason Rottman and Alice Jefferson, director of the company’s quality management division, are named as defendants along with the company in the lawsuit, which was filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Aetna, a CVS Health subsidiary, violated the federal False Claims Act by operating a shadow network of primary care providers for children enrolled in HealthChoices, the state’s Medicaid managed care program, the lawsuit alleges. Prosecutors also say Aetna has similar problems with provider networks in all 13 states where it has Medicaid contracts.
Because Aetna was paid on a per-member per-month basis to manage enrollees’ care, the company was able to keep a larger portion of the cash paid through the federally funded program because children were unable to find providers in their network, the suit alleges.”
United States Intervenes and Files Complaint in False Claims Act Suit Against Health Insurer for Submitting Unsupported Diagnoses to the Medicare Advantage Program: “The United States has intervened and filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York under the False Claims Act against Independent Health Association, Independent Health Corporation (Independent Health), DxID LLC (DxID) and Betsy Gaffney, former CEO of DxID. The government alleges that Independent Health, DxID and Gaffney violated the False Claims Act by submitting or causing the submission of inaccurate information about the health status of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage Plans in order to increase Independent Health’s reimbursement. Independent Health is headquartered in Buffalo, New York. DxID was headquartered in Buffalo until it ceased operations in August.”
About the public’s health
Screening for Chlamydia and GonorrheaUS Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement: “The USPSTF recommends screening for chlamydia in all sexually active women 24 years or younger and in women 25 years or older who are at increased risk for infection. (B recommendation) The USPSTF recommends screening for gonorrhea in all sexually active women 24 years or younger and in women 25 years or older who are at increased risk for infection. (B recommendation) The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea in men. (I statement)”
Justice Department asks federal judge to block enforcement of Texas abortion law: “The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to grant a temporary restraining order or injunction that would prevent Texas from enacting a law that bans nearly all abortions in the state, heating up a battle between the Biden administration and Texas Republicans, led by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The department argued in a court filing late Tuesday that Texas had adopted the law, known as Senate Bill 8, ‘to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights.’”