About COVID-19
Sanofi, after R&D setback, lends a hand to vaccine rival Pfizer for coronavirus shot production “Following its midstage coronavirus R&D setback, vaccine giant Sanofi is still looking for ways to help in the world’s effort to beat back the pandemic. It’s teaming up with leading vaccine players Pfizer and BioNTech to produce 100 million doses of the rival vaccine—even as Sanofi works to push its own programs through clinical testing.”
Biden administration aims to have enough vaccine for most Americans by summertime: “Biden’s administration will purchase 100 million doses each of the vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, and Moderna Inc, increasing the overall total doses to 600 million, with delivery expected by summer.
The previous purchase target was 400 million doses.”
Google Maps will soon display Covid-19 vaccination sites: ”The feature is rolling out in the coming weeks, beginning in four states: Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas…
The results, which will also be shown in search results in designated information panels, include details about whether an appointment is required, if the vaccine is only available to certain groups and if there's a drive-thru. Google said it's working with ‘authoritative sources’ for the information, including local governments and retail pharmacies. Information about vaccine sites will roll out to other states and countries later.”
Eli Lilly says antibody combo significantly cuts COVID-19 death risk: “The results from a final-stage clinical trial of more than 1,000 patients testing the combination of bamlanivimab and etesevimab found just 11 hospitalizations in patients taking the therapy, compared to 36 events in patients taking a placebo, a 70 percent reduction compared to a placebo.
There were 10 deaths total, all of which occurred in patients taking placebo, and no deaths in patients taking bamlanivimab and etesevimab together.
Lilly said the trial also demonstrated ‘strong evidence that the therapy reduced viral load and accelerated symptom resolution.’
…The announcement comes just days after Lilly reported that treatment with bamlanivimab alone cut nursing home staff and residents’ risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 infections by 57 percent against placebo.
With the new data, Lilly could ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize the treatment as a preventive measure. Currently, bamlanivimab is authorized for emergency use for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in high-risk patients.”
Biden says he’s ‘bringing back the pros’ for virus briefings: “Beginning Wednesday, administration experts will host briefings three times a week on the state of the outbreak, efforts to control it and the race to deliver vaccines and therapeutics to end it…
Wednesday’s briefing will be conducted virtually, rather than in person at the White House, to allow for questions from health journalists and to maintain a set timing no matter the schedule in the West Wing. It will feature Jeff Zients, the Biden administration’s coordinator for pandemic response; his deputy, Andy Slavitt; Fauci; Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the chair of Biden’s COVID-19 equality task force; and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC.” Here is a link to today’s briefing from a hour ago..
FDA Takes Action to Place All Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers from Mexico on Import Alert to Help Prevent Entry of Violative and Potentially Dangerous Products into U.S., Protect U.S. Consumers: “As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration… has placed all alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico on a countrywide import alert to help stop products that appear to be in violation from entering the U.S. until the agency is able to review the products’ safety. Over the course of the ongoing pandemic, the agency has seen a sharp increase in hand sanitizer products from Mexico that were labeled to contain ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol) but tested positive for methanol contamination. Methanol, or wood alcohol, is a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin and life-threatening when ingested. Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient in hand sanitizer or other drugs.”
COVID-19 Clinical management: living guidance: The latest update from WHO has 5 new conditional recommendations, including: “A conditional recommendation for use of pulse oximetry monitoring at home as part of a package of care…”
UI researchers develop quicker method of antibody testing: “Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new way to test for antibodies. This can give people results in just 15 minutes. This one only needs a drop of blood. The other ones require more than that.
This blood sample also doesn’t have to be sent away to another lab for testing and can be processed on-site. Each tests only costs $2 to perform. One of the reasons this new method is important is because it will allow people who’ve had the COVID-19 vaccine to see how well it worked.”
Data and Policy to Guide Opening Schools Safely to Limit the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: The CDC says that preventive measures in K-12 are largely working and should be continued: “…the preponderance of available evidence from the fall school semester has been reassuring insofar as the type of rapid spread that was frequently observed in congregate living facilities or high-density worksites has not been reported in education settings in schools.”
However, “…some school-related activities have increased the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among students and staff. Numerous media reports of COVID-19 outbreaks among US high school athletic teams suggest that contact during both practices and competition, and at social gatherings associated with team sports, increase risk.”
Large majorities of the region’s nursing home workers have declined the coronavirus vaccine: “A large percentage of nursing home workers in D.C., Maryland and Virginia have declined to take the coronavirus vaccine, officials say, presenting a major challenge in the region’s plans to protect its most vulnerable residents…
In an internal document obtained by The Washington Post, Maryland health officials said that as of Tuesday, only about 58 percent of the doses allocated to nursing home staff and residents had been administered — even though vaccination clinics have been conducted at every facility. Tredonna Kum, an administrative organizer for 1199 SEIU, which represents nursing home workers in Maryland and D.C., estimated that up to 80 percent of members chose not to be vaccinated during the first wave of clinics…
In North Carolina, the top public health official said in early January that most nursing home workers had declined the vaccine. In Ohio, more than 60 percent of nursing home workers opted out during the first wave of vaccination clinics, said Gov. Mike DeWine (R). Officials in Connecticut have reported similar numbers.
David Grabowski, a Harvard University health policy professor, said the numbers shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with long-term care facilities, where low wages and poor labor conditions — and earlier missteps fighting the coronavirus pandemic — have created a well of mistrust, especially among the Black and Latino workers who dominate the industry.”
Make the air in your home safer during COVID-19 by increasing ventilation and filtration: A useful infographic on ventilation and filtration procedures for the home..
HCA Healthcare forms consortium with AHRQ and research institutions to accelerate COVID-19 research: “HCA Healthcare is proud to announce that we’ve formed a consortium of prominent public and private research institutions to use HCA Healthcare’s vast data on COVID-19 hospital care to improve patient outcomes and public knowledge. The institutions – including the federal Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ), Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Meharry Medical College, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and others – will gain access to the data in a research program directed by the HCA Healthcare Research Institute (HRI).”
About health insurance
Anthem Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Results: The company report starts with a long list of initiatives before financial performance is presented. In short, 2020 4th Q profit was $551 million, a 41% decrease compared to the same period in 2019. Earnings for the full year were $4.6 billion compared to $4.8 billion in 2019.
Federal action on surprise medical bills: What doctors should know: This article from the AMA is a good summary of the surprise billing provisions (not just for physicians).
”Patient protections included in the No Surprises Act include:
A provision that patients may not be billed beyond the recognized in-network cost-sharing amount.
If a patient relies on erroneous network directory information to choose a physician, the plan cannot impose a cost-sharing amount greater than in-network rates and it must count toward the patient’s in-network out-of-pocket-maximum and in-network deductible.
Unless notice and consent requirements are met in non-emergency situations, if a provider submits a bill to a patient in excess of in-network cost sharing and the patient pays, the provider must refund with interest.
If a provider contract is terminated without cause, a “continuing patient” can continue for either 90 days or the date when no longer a continuing patient, whichever is earlier.”
Partners in Primary Care Announces 2021 Growth Plans for Its Senior-Focused Care Facilities: “ Partners in Primary Care announced… the details of its 2021 expansion. Having opened 15 new centers in 2020, plans for 2021 include up to 20 more centers, including entering the Atlanta market, additional centers in the Houston area and five more in Louisiana, including Lafayette and the North Shore outside of New Orleans as well as two new centers in Nevada.
The planned center openings will bring the total number of centers Partners in Primary Care operates (including its Orlando, Florida-based Family Physicians Group facilities) to nearly 80 centers. By 2023, Partners in Primary Care expects to operate approximately 100 centers.”
Partners in Primary Care is a payer-agnostic subsidiary of Humana Inc. focused on primary care for seniors. About healthcare IT
Ransomware Activity Targeting the Healthcare and Public Health Sector: “This joint cybersecurity advisory was coauthored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This advisory describes the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by cybercriminals against targets in the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) Sector to infect systems with ransomware, notably Ryuk and Conti, for financial gain.”
One non-technical finding is that stealing medical chart information for fraudulent billing is far more profitable than stealing credit card and other similar personal data.
And in a related article: 13 healthcare provider malware, ransomware and phishing incidents for January.
Trends in EMR Interoperability: From The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and KLAS Research, this report is an up-to-date survey of the state of EMR interoperability. While rates have doubled over the last 3 years, there is still a long way to go to make sure systems achieve their full potential. Included in this study is use of FHIR.
About health professionals
January 2021 Physician Flash Report: From KaufmanHall: “Although physician practices saw some gains in the third quarter of 2020, most performance measures remained well below 2019 levels. Many practices saw an uptick in productivity and revenues in the late summer and early fall with the easing of social distancing policies and limits on non-urgent care .
As a result, health systems experienced a 9 .5% decrease in the level of investment needed to subsidize inadequate physician revenues between July and October 2020, with the median Subsidy per Physician Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) dropping to $194,632 across all specialties. Year-over-year, Subsidy per Physician FTE was up just 0.5% in October, after climbing 14.1% year-over-year from January to July—reflecting the effects of sizable volume and revenue swings brought about by the COVID-19 crisis .
After suffering significant declines early in the pandemic, many organizations saw volumes rebound somewhat by October. This enabled an increase in physician productivity.”
About the public’s health
Millions earmarked for public health emergencies were used to pay for unrelated projects, inspector general says: “Federal officials repeatedly raided a fund earmarked for biomedical research in the years leading up to the covid-19 pandemic, spending millions of dollars on unrelated salaries, administrative expenses and even the cost of removing office furniture, according to the findings of an investigation into a whistleblower complaint shared with The Washington Post.
The investigation, conducted by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services and overseen by the Office of Special Counsel, centered on hundreds of millions of dollars intended for the development of vaccines, drugs and therapies by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority or BARDA, an arm of the federal health department.
The unidentified whistleblower alleged that officials in the office of the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, which oversaw the biomedical agency, wrongly dipped into the money set aside by Congress for development of lifesaving medicines, beginning in fiscal 2010 and continuing through at least fiscal 2019, spanning both the Obama and Trump administrations.”
National Obesity Monitor: The Adult Obesity Rate (ages 20+) for 2017-2018 was 42.4% and the Youth Obesity Rate (ages 2-19) for 2017-2018 was 19.3%, a record high.