About Covid-19
Inhaled steroid speeds recovery in Covid patients at home, study finds: “A widely available asthma drug has been found to reduce the recovery time for Covid-19 patients treated at home by an average of three days, according to a large clinical study in the UK led by Oxford university. The interim results for the inhaled steroid, known as budesonide, provide the first statistically powerful evidence for a drug speeding recovery in people who are not hospitalised.”
Moderna study finds COVID-19 vaccine 90 percent effective six months after dose: “Moderna announced on Tuesday that their coronavirus vaccine was 90 percent effective six months after a person receives their second dose.
’Vaccine efficacy starting two weeks following the second dose and based on the updated adjudicated cases remains consistent with prior updates, including greater than 90% against all cases of COVID-19, and greater than 95% against severe cases of COVID-19,’ the company announced.
Moderna is working for its vaccine to be fully approved by the U.S. as it is only under emergency authorizations from the Food and Drug Administration.”
Pfizer expects to meet US supply target ahead of schedule as authorities halt use of J&J shot: ”Pfizer can meet its supply target with the US government two weeks early as it boosts production, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday.”
Regeneron Says Its COVID-19 Antibody Combination Cuts Symptomatic Infections:”Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said its COVID-19 antibody cocktail, REGEN-COV (casirivimab with imdevimab) reduced the risk of symptomatic infections by 81 percent in a late-stage trial…
Those treated with the antibody combination who suffered from symptomatic infection generally saw their symptoms end in one week vs. three weeks for the placebo arm in the study conducted with the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.” Here are the latest NIH treatment recommendations, including use of monoclonal antibodies.
A Guide To The 1st Appellate Clash Over COVID-19 Coverage: “On Wednesday, the Eighth Circuit will become the first appellate court to consider whether COVID-19 closures trigger business interruption insurance when it hears an Iowa dental clinic's appeal of an order that Cincinnati Insurance doesn't have to cover its pandemic-related losses.” The article provides an overview of this important, contentious issue.
Europe won't renew AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine contracts next year: report: “The European Commission has opted against renewing its vaccine contracts with AstraZeneca and J&J once they expire at the end of the year, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed source from the Italian health ministry…
Both shots have come under scrutiny over rare but serious cases of blood clots in people who had received the vaccines, prompting several countries to halt use of the AZ shot while the European Medicines Agency completed a follow-up safety review. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has struggled to meet the delivery targets it originally laid out, while J&J just this week said it would delay its vaccine rollout in the bloc over safety concerns.”
About healthcare IT
Biden outlines health IT funding priorities: “The extensive list includes billions in funding for public health data modernization, broadband and 5G expansion, social determinants of health, cybersecurity and more.” See the article for spending details.
Anthem, K Health, Blackstone launching joint digital health venture: “Hydrogen Health is backed by investment from Blackstone and Anthem, and K Health CEO Allon Bloch will serve as the new company's chief executive. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The new venture will harness K Health's artificial intelligence tools to bring new digital health offerings to the consumer and employer markets, according to an announcement from the companies. Hydrogen Health will develop new platforms targeting the direct-to-consumer, direct-to-employer and direct-to-insurer markets.”
CMS bans coding hospitals use to hide prices from web searches: The update is that: “Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter April 13 to HHS calling for strict enforcement of the price transparency requirements. The letter cited evidence of hospitals' lack of compliance, including the Journal's analysis of more than 3,100 sites that use the search-blocking code, according to the report.”
100 Million More IoT Devices Are Exposed—and They Won’t Be the Last: Not strictly healthcare-related, but this Wired e-zine article explains details of why the systems are vulnerable.
About the public’s health
Syphilis Cases in California Drive a Record-Setting Year for STDs Nationwide: “In California and the U.S., about half of syphilis cases are in men who have sex with men. More than a third of women in the West who have syphilis also use meth, which has surged in recent years. These are just some of the trends causing overall national cases of sexually transmitted diseases to hit an all-time high for the last six years in a row, reaching 2.5 million. And the consequences are now trickling down to babies, who are contracting syphilis from their mothers: Congenital syphilis rates nearly quadrupled between 2012 and 2019.”
6th Circ. OKs Ohio Down Syndrome Abortion Law: “The majority of the Sixth Circuit has undone a block on an Ohio law that criminalizes abortion based on a Down syndrome diagnosis, ruling that ‘the right to an abortion before viability is not absolute.’ In a divided Tuesday decision, the appellate court reversed a lower court's preliminary injunction blocking H. B. 124, with the majority saying that the state is allowed to regulate previability abortions so long as those regulations don't put too much of a burden on women who want an abortion.”
2021’s Best & Worst States for Children’s Health Care: FYI. The best is DC. The worst is Texas.
High number of meals consumed in U.S. have low nutritional value: “About 65% of adult meals and 80% of children's meals from restaurants had low nutritional value In 2018, the most recent year for which information is available…” Anyone surprised?
About pharma
US agency says women can get abortion pill via mail: “Women seeking an abortion pill will not be required to visit a doctor’s office or clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday in the latest reversal in an ongoing legal battle over the medication.
The Food and Drug Administration announced the policy change a day earlier in a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, one of several medical groups that has sued over the restriction put in place under the Trump administration.”
Rethink specialty pharma benefits: A good, current review of specialty drugs and the methods companies are using to hold down costs.
About health insurance
House passes bill to avert Medicare cuts: “The House on Tuesday approved a bill that would put off automatic cuts to Medicare provider payments until the end of the year.
The bill passed with a strong bipartisan majority of 384-38…
The automatic cuts were originally put into place by the 2011 Budget Control Act, which set up an annual 2 percent reduction in Medicare payments as one of its mechanisms for reducing the debt. Congress has never allowed the cuts to take place, however, voting to overturn them regularly over the past decade.”
Medicaid, CHIP Enrollment Increased After 2 Years of Decline: “Actual data, as opposed to projected data, showed the Medicaid and CHIP combined enrollment from February 2020 to October 2020 reached 7.2 million. Using preliminary data, experts anticipate that in November 2020 that number rose half a million to hit 7.7 million enrollees.”