About the public’s health
Fact-checking Trump’s letter blasting the World Health Organization: The headline is self-explanatory.
Location, location, location: This Castlight research found that: “More than half (54 percent) of America’s counties have zero COVID-19 testing sites. This testing shortfall is not limited to counties with very low populations. Of 1,176 metro counties, meaning they have a population above 50,000, 38 percent have zero testing sites.” Texas and Florida are given as examples and a chart provides data for all states.
Florida Ousts Top COVID-19 Data Scientist: “Rebekah Jones was the manager of the Geographic Information System team at Florida's Department of Health. She helped create a data portal that for months has provided easily accessible and detailed information on COVID-19 cases broken down by ZIP code. The Florida COVID-19 dashboard has been praised by researchers in the state and by Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator.
Last week, Jones notified public health researchers in an email that she'd been removed from the project.”
States accused of fudging or bungling COVID-19 testing data: This article is the “other side” of the one above.
Study projects US COVID-19 deaths to triple by end of year:”A new study suggests the number of Americans who will die after contracting the novel coronavirus is likely to more than triple by the end of the year, even if current social distancing habits continue for months on end.
The study, conducted by the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics Institute at the University of Washington's School of Pharmacy, found that 1.3 percent of those who show symptoms of COVID-19 die, an infection fatality rate that is 13 times higher than a bad influenza season.”
COVID-19 patients testing positive for second infection not contagious, study shows: “Researchers in Korea found evidence that patients who test positive for COVID-19 a second time aren't capable of infecting others, and may have neutralizing antibodies that protect them from getting sick again.”
Johnson & Johnson Stops Selling Talc-Based Baby Powder In U.S. And Canada: “Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talcum-based baby powder in the United States and Canada after being ordered to pay out billions of dollars related to lost legal battles over claims the product causes cancer.”
Roe v Wade: Woman behind US abortion ruling was paid to recant: “Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe in the US Supreme Court's decision on Roe v Wade, shocked the country in 1995 when she came out against abortion. But in new footage, McCorvey alleges she was paid to switch sides.The documentary, AKA Jane Roe, airs this Friday on the US channel FX. The programme was filmed in the last months of McCorvey's life before her death at age 69 in 2017 in Texas…In her ‘deathbed confession’, as she calls it, a visibly ailing McCorvey says she only became an anti-abortion activist because she was paid by evangelical groups. ‘I was the big fish,’ she said. ‘I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they'd put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say.’”
U.S. Births Continue to Fall, Fertility Rate Hits Record Low: “The report on provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates notable birth and population measures reached record lows in 2019. American women, for example, are now projected to have about 1.71 children over their lifetimes – down 1% from 2018 and below the rate of 2.1 needed to exactly replace a generation.
’The (total fertility) rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and consistently below replacement since 2007,’ the report says.”
These trends will have a profound effect on future funding of Medicare and Social Security, among other programs.
All 50 States Have Eased Coronavirus Restrictions: “All 50 states have begun to reopen in at least some way, more than two months after the coronavirus thrust the country into lockdown. But there remain vast discrepancies in how states are deciding to open up, with some forging far ahead of others.” This NY Times article surveys these changes and other COVID-19 topics.
About pharma
8 recent drug approvals: Good to see non-COVID-19 activity.