Coronavirus
Global coronavirus cases top 20 million
Nathaniel Weixel, The Hill
Global coronavirus cases topped 20 million, according to Johns Hopkins University data, with the United States, Brazil and India accounting for more than half of those infections.
5 states set single-day coronavirus case records last week
Orion Rummler, Axios
Five states set new highs last week for coronavirus infections recorded in a single day, according to the COVID Tracking Project and state health departments. Only one state — North Dakota — surpassed a record set the previous week.
Health officials are quitting or getting fired amid outbreak
Michelle R. Smith and Lauren Weber, The Associated Press
Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health leaders around the U.S. have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible masks, lockdowns and infection data have become.
Why you should be skeptical of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine claims
Shane Savitsky and Rebecca Falconer, Axios
Scientists around the world are skeptical about Russia’s claims. There is no published scientific data to back up Putin’s claims that Russia has a viable vaccine — or that it produces any sort of immunity without significant side effects.
Coronavirus breaks out again in New Zealand after 102 days
Nick Perry, The Associated Press
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday that authorities have found four cases of the coronavirus in one Auckland household from an unknown source, the first reported cases of local transmission in the country in 102 days.
Payers
Costs higher for those who enroll on the ACA’s exchanges during special enrollment periods: study
Paige Minemyer, FierceHealthcare
People who sign up for individual market plans during special enrollment periods face higher costs than those who sign up for coverage during open enrollment, a new study shows.
Providers
Over 900 Health Workers Have Died of COVID-19. And the Toll Is Rising.
Danielle Renwick, The Guardian, and Shoshana Dubnow, Kaiser Health News
More than 900 front-line health care workers have died of COVID-19, according to an interactive database unveiled by The Guardian and KHN. Lost on the Frontline is a partnership between the two newsrooms that aims to count, verify and memorialize every U.S. health care worker who dies during the pandemic.
New York’s true nursing home death toll cloaked in secrecy
Bernard Condon et al., The Associated Press
Riverdale Nursing Home in the Bronx appears, on paper, to have escaped the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, with an official state count of just four deaths in its 146-bed facility. The truth, according to the home, is far worse: 21 dead, most transported to hospitals before they succumbed.
For Doctors of Color, Microaggressions Are All Too Familiar
Emma Goldberg, The New York Times
When Dr. Onyeka Otugo was doing her training in emergency medicine, in Cleveland and Chicago, she was often mistaken for a janitor or food services worker even after introducing herself as a doctor. She realized early on that her white male counterparts were not experiencing similar mix-ups.
Inside the Fight to Save Houston’s Most Vulnerable
Sheri Fink et al., The New York Times
As coronavirus infections surged in Texas this summer, Houston Methodist Hospital opened one intensive care unit after another for the most critically ill. We had unique access to one of the I.C.U.s, where many patients or their families gave us permission to follow their care.
Pharma, Biotech and Devices
Novavax expects it can meet U.S. COVID-19 vaccine demand in 2021, executives say
Carl O’Donnell and Abhijith G, Reuters
Novavax Inc’s manufacturing capacity is sufficient to meet the U.S. demand for COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, which it believes could be as high as 500 million to 600 million doses, company executives said on Monday.
Bayer Signs $875 Million Deal to Buy Women’s Health Biotech
Tim Loh, Bloomberg
Bayer AG struck an $875 million deal to acquire British women’s health biotech Kandy Therapeutics Ltd., bolstering its pharmaceuticals division before patents expire on some key products.
Moderna reveals it may not hold patent rights for coronavirus vaccine
Bob Herman, Axios
Moderna said in new financial filings that it “cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our patents or pending patent applications” — including the company’s experimental coronavirus vaccine.
Moderna Wants to Transform the Body Into a Vaccine-Making Machine
Robert Langreth and Naomi Kresge, Bloomberg Businessweek
The coronavirus vaccines from Moderna Inc., in Cambridge, Mass., and its German rival BioNTech SE propose to immunize people in a radically different way: by harnessing human cells to become miniature vaccine factories in their own right. Instead of virus proteins, the vaccines contain genetic instructions that prompt the body to produce them. Those instructions are carried via messenger RNA, or mRNA.
Antibody drugs could be one of the best weapons against Covid-19. But will they matter?
Matthew Herper and Adam Feuerstein, Stat News
Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, is less sure antibody treatments will be significant factors in bringing the pandemic under control. Even though the development efforts have been proceeding extraordinarily fast by normal standards, the U.S. has spent billions of dollars purchasing vaccines in advance, but has not done far less to shore up capacity for antibody drugs.
Health IT
Epic, Cerner, Allscripts vary in return-to-office approach
Jessica Kim Cohen, Modern Healthcare
While some electronic health record system developers are pushing for a return to in-person work, others are following the lead of big tech companies and evaluating whether remote work options could extend beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Telemedicine shines during pandemic but will glow fade?
Tom Murphy, The Associated Press
Doctors scrambled to shift to telemedicine when the coronavirus hit the U.S earlier this year. Care providers like the Cleveland Clinic went from averaging 5,000 telemedicine visits a month before the pandemic to 200,000 visits just in April.
With Livongo’s arsenal of health devices, Teladoc is poised to move into remote monitoring
Erin Brodwin, Stat News
As part of its landmark $18.5 billion deal to buy Livongo, telehealth giant Teladoc Health is poised to inherit a set of devices that the chronic care company has used for years to turn mountains of patient data into easily digestible health advice.
Inspired by llamas’ unique antibodies, scientists create a potent anti-coronavirus molecule
Usha Lee Mcfarling, Stat News
Inspired by a unique kind of infection-fighting antibody found in llamas, alpacas, and other camelids, a research team at the University of California, San Francisco, has synthesized a molecule that they say is among the most potent anti-coronavirus compounds tested in a lab to date.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Don’t Let the Search for a COVID-19 Vaccine Hinder Solutions for Other Diseases
Byron Dorgan, Morning Consult
Too many Americans, worried about being infected by the coronavirus, are delaying or postponing medically necessary visits to their doctor to get needed tests, surgery and treatment for other serious diseases like cancer, heart disease and more. And, as the National Institutes of Health’s stark warning describes, that delay can be fatal to many patients.
Research Reports
Examining multimorbidity differences across racial groups: a network analysis of electronic medical records
Pankush Kalgotra et al., Scientific Reports
Health disparities across ethnic or racial groups are typically examined through single behavior at a time. The syndemics and multimorbidity health disparities have not been well examined by race.
General
Trump: Executive order on pre-existing conditions is ‘a signal’
Politico
President Donald Trump on Monday acknowledged a prospective executive order he’s considering to make insurers cover pre-existing conditions amounted to political messaging — and that Obamacare already offered such protections.
AAMC, the medical school trade association, gave $500,000 to dark-money group in 2018
Lev Facher, Stat News
The dark-money group Citizens for Truth in Drug Pricing, which has run several major anti-pharma campaigns on conservative radio shows, received significant funding from the Association of American Medical Colleges, according to a recent review of federal tax documents.
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