About Covid-19
Check out this cartoon.
Israel starts administering third dose of Pfizer vaccine to at-risk adults: “Israel’s Ministry of Health on Monday began offering a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to severely immunocompromised adults in what health experts say could be the first phase of an experiment to provide booster shots for older people and the most vulnerable.”
A Covid Test as Easy as Breathing: The article is a good review of Covid-19 diagnostic breath tests in use/underdevelopment.
'Surprising amount of death' will soon occur in these US regions from increased Covid-19 cases, expert says: “The US is averaging about 19,455 new cases over the last seven days, a 47% increase from the week prior, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And a third of those, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said, come from five hot spots: Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Nevada.”
FDA expected to announce new warning on Johnson & Johnson vaccine related to rare autoimmune disorder: “About 100 preliminary reports of Guillain-Barré have been detected after 12.8 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine were administered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement. These cases have largely been reported about two weeks after vaccination and mostly in men, many aged 50 years and older. Available data do not show a pattern suggesting a similar increased risk with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, after more than 321 million doses of those vaccines have been administered in the United States. The Guillain-Barré cases will be discussed as part of an upcoming meeting of CDC advisers, the agency said.”
Autoimmunity to Annexin A2 predicts mortality among hospitalised COVID-19 patients: ”Levels of anti-Annexin A2 antibodies at admission strongly predicted mortality among hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Given its critical protective function in the lung, Annexin A2 antagonism may play an important role in the pathophysiology of COVID-19…
This study investigated the possibility that COVID-19 patients have autoimmune antibodies to Annexin A2, a protective protein expressed in the lung and other organs. Since this phospholipid-binding protein is critical for fibrinolysis, lung elasticity, cell membrane repair, and integrity of the pulmonary vasculature, antagonism of Annexin A2 may explain many of the hallmark clinical features of severe COVID-19 cases.”
Republicans push to ban "discrimination" against unvaccinated people: “State Republican lawmakers around the country are pushing bills — at least one of which has become law — that would give unvaccinated people the same protections as those surrounding race, gender and religion.”
Quarter-dose of Moderna COVID vaccine still rouses a big immune response: “Two jabs that each contained only one-quarter of the standard dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine gave rise to long-lasting protective antibodies and virus-fighting T cells, according to tests in nearly three dozen people1. The results hint at the possibility of administering fractional doses to stretch limited vaccine supplies and accelerate the global immunization effort.”
About healthcare IT
HHS Updates Interoperability Standards to Support the Electronic Exchange of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Social Determinants of Health: “With this new update, health IT stakeholders nationwide will have clearer direction toward the standardized, electronic exchange of social determinants of health (SDOH), sexual orientation, and gender identity (SO/GI) among several other updated data elements. This lays the foundation for the provider community to start systemizing the capture and use of SDOH and SO/GI data in the clinical setting. While encouraged, this update does not require health professionals, such as doctors and nurses, to record this data or individuals to share such data. It does however set a path forward for health IT to build in support for exchanging these data as they become applicable to an individual's care.”
Class action filed after HHS warns 130 hospitals, health systems left millions' PHI exposed: “Two patients filed a class action against two radiology companies after more than 1 million patients who received care at hospitals nationwide may have been exposed because of vulnerabilities in medical imaging archiving software.”
About the public’s health
Handful of cities driving urban greenhouse gas emissions - study: “Just 25 big cities – almost all of them in China – accounted for more than half of the climate-warming gases pumped out by a sample of 167 urban hubs around the world, an analysis of emissions trends showed on Monday.
In per capita terms, however, emissions from cities in the richest parts of the world are still generally higher than those from urban centres in developing countries, researchers found in the study https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2021.696381/ full published in the open access journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.”
About pharma
Generics, Retailers Escape Zantac MDL With Preemption: “A Florida federal judge dismissed all claims against manufacturers of the generic form of the heartburn medication Zantac and retailers in sprawling multidistrict litigation alleging the drug contains a known carcinogen, finding that all claims are preempted by federal law. In a 49-page order filed Thursday, U. S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg dismissed claims that the generic makers and retailers failed to warn consumers about the dangers of ranitidine, the generic name for Zantac, saying federal law does not allow them to change the labels from what was approved for the brand name version of the drug.”
FDA Approves Drug to Reduce Risk of Serious Kidney and Heart Complications in Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease Associated with Type 2 Diabetes: “FDA has approved [Bayer Healthcare’s] (finerenone) tablets to reduce the risk of kidney function decline, kidney failure, cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attacks, and hospitalization for heart failure in adults with chronic kidney disease associated with type 2 diabetes.”
European Parliament Strives to Grant EMA Expanded Authority: “The European Parliament has voted to expand the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) authority to monitor the supply chain for drugs and medical devices.
The EU lawmakers specifically called for the creation of an EU database ‘aimed at detecting, predicting and preventing shortages of medicinal products,’ and acting as an information exchange between the EMA and national authorities in the EU member states.”
About hospitals and health systems
COMMUNITY BENEFIT: The Lown Institute, listed hospitals that contributed the most and least to their communities based on how much in tax breaks they get from their non-profit status. The overall message is: “72% of private nonprofit hospitals had a fair share deficit, meaning they spent less on charity care and community investment than they received in tax breaks.”
Intermountain Healthcare shutters 25 retail pharmacies, redirects consumers to CVS: “Intermountain Healthcare will be shutting down 25 retail pharmacies and handing off their prescriptions and inventories to CVS Pharmacy beginning in August, the companies announced this week…
In the announcement, leaders from both companies acknowledged that consumers are increasingly interested in retail pharmacies that can deliver additional services and convenient shopping options.”
Average amount generally paid ratio for hospitals, broken down by state: “The average amount generally paid ratio for hospitals across the U.S. is 39.4 percent, according to an analysis of 4,674 hospitals released by Hospital Pricing Specialists.
The AGP® ratio is calculated by taking the sum of all claims that have been paid by health insurers divided by the sum of the gross charges for those claims.
Based on the analysis, hospitals in Maryland have the highest AGP ratio at 81 percent and hospitals in Florida have the lowest ratio at 18.2 percent.”
These findings are one reason listing of gross charges for comparison shopping is not helpful to patients.