About the public’s health
CDC may shorten COVID-19 quarantine period guidelines: The shortened time was not specified.
These are the top coronavirus vaccines to watch: This article updates the number of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in the pipeline and what stage they are at.
Initial Batch Of COVID-19 Vaccines Will Go To States Based On Population, Not Risk: “Instead of waiting for the advisory committee's recommendations, [Operation Warp Speed]… allocated the first 6.4 million doses to states, based on overall population. ‘I finally made the decision, late Friday night,’ said Gen. Gustave Perna, head of logistics for Operation Warp Speed, at the briefing Tuesday. ‘So states could prioritize based on [their] amount,’ meaning how many doses of vaccine each state will receive.”
Evidence Builds That an Early Mutation Made the Pandemic Harder to Stop: “…one mutation near the beginning of the pandemic did make a difference, multiple new findings suggest, helping the virus spread more easily from person to person and making the pandemic harder to stop.
The mutation, known as 614G, was first spotted in eastern China in January and then spread quickly throughout Europe and New York City. Within months, the variant took over much of the world, displacing other variants.” More recently, however: No evidence for increased transmissibility from recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2: “At this stage we find no evidence for significantly more transmissible lineages of SARS-CoV-2 due to recurrent mutations.”
Symptoms associated with a positive result for a swab for SARS-CoV-2 infection among children in Alberta: “About two-thirds of the children who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection reported symptoms. The symptoms most strongly associated with a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab result were anosmia/ageusia, nausea/vomiting, headache and fever.”
Zeteo Biomedical Partners With Iowa State University on Nasal COVID-19 Vaccine: “The Austin, Tex., company will contribute its ZEOx2 nasal delivery technology, including devices that support powder and reconstituted powder-to-liquid vaccine formulations that can be administered by either healthcare providers or patients. The company said the nasal delivery devices are commercially scalable to deliver millions of vaccine doses per day.”
With more data on its COVID-19 vaccine, Russian institute offers new evidence of success: “Joining the flood of press releases announcing positive results from COVID-19 vaccine trials, developers of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine today reported 91.4% efficacy from a second interim analysis of more than 18,000 people, bolstering a claim the team made on 11 November with scant evidence.” While this country will not be using this vaccine, it is important that it really works; many countries will be using this vaccine.
6.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses expected to be shipped to states by mid-December: ”An estimated 6.4 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine will be distributed to states and territories by mid-December, assuming it receives Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization by that point, Operation Warp Speed officials told reporters Tuesday.
State officials were notified Friday how many doses they should expect to receive in the initial distribution, and they will make their own decisions about who will be prioritized for the first doses.”
U.S. infectious disease group backs Gilead's remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment: “The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in updated guidelines said its experts back the drug for use in severe COVID-19 patients based on a clinical trial showing it reduced hospital stays. The WHO study that led to its recommendation against the drug suggested it had no benefit in saving lives or reducing the need for mechanical breathing assistance.”
Parents' Age Key to Whether Kids Get Vaccinated Against COVID, Study Finds: “Younger parents are much less likely than older ones to plan to vaccinate their children and themselves against COVID-19.”
Oxford Covid vaccine 'bottlenecks' mean UK's full order will not be ready until end of next year: “According to the news source, AstraZeneca is facing an uphill battle, having already fallen behind schedule. During the first wave, the company targeted 30 million doses ready for use in the UK by September, but now expects only four million by the end of the year.
In total, the firm says it will have produced 20 million doses by the end of 2020, but these shots will not yet have been poured into vials, which takes time…”
Aetna pilot harnesses CVS pharmacists to address Medicaid members' social needs: “Through the HealthTag initiative, CVS Health pharmacists and pharmacy employees are empowered to offer more personalized information when Aetna Medicaid members come to pick up prescriptions, providing the members with health information beyond how to take their medications appropriately.
Inside the prescription bag, members are provided additional details on how to access community services to address social concerns like food, housing or transportation. The network of these organizations is backed by Unite Us, a social care coordination program.”
About health insurance
CMS Issues Final Rule to Amend the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Risk Adjustment Data Validation [RADV] Program: “For 2019 benefit year HHS-RADV and beyond, CMS is finalizing the following three modifications to the error rate calculation:
CMS will modify the way that it groups medical conditions in HHS-RADV within the same hierarchical condition category (HCC) coefficient estimation groups in risk adjustment to determine failure rates for those HCCs. This modification seeks to better account for the difficulty in categorizing certain conditions and to, therefore, refine how the error rate calculation measures risk differences within and between condition groupings.
CMS will make changes that would reduce the magnitude of risk score adjustments for issuers close to the threshold used to determine whether an issuer is an outlier. Currently, issuers whose failure rates are not significantly different from issuers just inside the threshold may see significant changes to their risk scores and transfers, creating a “payment cliff” for issuers just outside the threshold. Adjusting the magnitude of risk score adjustments intends to mitigate this effect.
CMS will modify the error rate calculation in cases where certain outlier issuers have a negative failure rate. A low failure rate is not always due to more accurate data submission. A low failure rate can also be due to not identifying conditions that should have been reported in risk adjustment. The final rule refines the error rate calculation to mitigate the impact of adjustments that result from error rates driven by these newly found conditions.”
Connecticut Comptroller Lembo Launches "Network Of Distinction" To Deliver Highest-Quality Care And Save On Costs: “The Office of the State Comptroller is partnering with Signify Health to improve health outcomes for certain common procedures and save on costs through a new ‘Network of Distinction’ program. The doctors, hospitals and provider groups in the network will provide improved patient outcomes at a competitive fixed price for care from evaluation to recovery.
This innovative ‘episode of care’ delivery and payment model establishes a new industry standard by aligning clinical and financial incentives for the state employee health plan and the Connecticut Partnership Plan, totaling more than 220,000 members. Under the initial agreement, 180 health care provider groups have committed to meet a set of quality care standards at the lowest possible cost. New groups will continue to be added throughout the year.”
About healthcare financing
JD Health to raise up to $4bn in Hong Kong IPO: “JD Health, the healthcare unit of Chinese ecommerce group JD.com, will raise up to $4bn in Hong Kong next month, in what is likely to be one of the world’s biggest initial public offerings this year. The company, which sells pharmaceuticals and health services online, said an initial sale of 382m shares could bring in as much as $3.5bn, according to a term sheet seen by the Financial Times. That would value JD Health at up to $28.5bn.”