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☆ CDC will have less data to track Covid and new variants after public health emergency ends
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

"The end of the public health emergency means CDC will have less authority to collect certain types of public health data — that means less data will be available to us," Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC's principal deputy director, told reporters during a call Thursday. Congress required these labs in March 2020 to send results to the federal government, but that mandate was tied to the public health emergency. "In some of the jurisdictions or some of the states those authorities will go away with the end of public health emergency," he said. The spotty reporting of case data also means the CDC will no longer report virus transmission at the county level after the public health emergency ends. Shah said the CDC will still have ways to monitor Covid after the public health emergency ends.

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday it would stop reporting or monitoring COVID-19 case data and transmission rates after the government ends the pandemic's public health emergency designation next week. The government on May 11 will end the COVID-19 public health emergency that allowed millions of Americans to receive vaccines, tests, and treatments at no cost during the pandemic. "The changes that we're discussing today are happening because the end of the Public Health Emergency means that CDC will have less authority to collect certain types of public health data," said CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Nirav Shah. The CDC will continue to provide COVID death rates but will no longer rely on aggregate case data reported by local jurisdictions and will instead use national death certificate data, Jackson said. COVID-19 surveillance will be folded into a wider integrated strategy for monitoring respiratory viruses, he said, adding that some data reporting including demographic case data, the CDC's work on long COVID, and wastewater surveillance for the virus will continue past May 11.

☆ R.S.V. Vaccine Approved for Older Adults
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Christina Jewett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

advisory panel reviewed data from trials for two vaccines aimed at older adults, one from GSK and one from Pfizer. The virus can lead to pneumonia, which is far more worrisome for older adults and especially for those with underlying medical conditions like heart and lung disease or diabetes. vaccine for older adults is also expected to receive F.D.A. in older adults and said it expected authorization in the first half of this year. Last week, the European Medicines Agency did recommend approval of GSK’s vaccine for adults 60 and older.

☆ Biden will end Covid vaccine mandates for federal workers and international travelers on May 11
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration will end its Covid-19 vaccine mandates for federal employees, contractors and international air travelers next week. The White House said in a statement Monday that those vaccine requirements will end on May 11, the same day the Covid public health emergency expires. The Health and Human Services Department also will start phasing out its vaccine mandate for health-care facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said. In addition, it will end vaccination requirements for Head Start programs. And the Department of Homeland Security will lift vaccination requirements for people entering the U.S via its land borders with Canada and Mexico, according to the Biden administration.

Governments were able to tailor their data reporting so it could be aggregated. Pulling the data closest to the outbreaks allowed us to publish nearly real-time information as the pandemic spread. Politicized rhetoric about vaccines also drove decisions in some parts of the country to end data reporting. As of this spring, only seven states continued to publish data on cases and deaths more than once a week. There is still much to do to fix the hodgepodge of antiquated, disconnected surveillance data systems that exist across governments.

☆ U.S. Covid-19 Deaths and Hospitalizations Near New Lows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jon Kamp | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

New Covid-19 subvariants are on the rise, but the U.S. has broadly recorded declining numbers this year. Photo: Gabby Jones for The Wall Street JournalU.S. Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths are hovering near new lows, providing fresh evidence that even as the virus endures it has become less damaging in a population with strengthened immune defenses. New subvariants are on the rise, and cutbacks in data reporting have clouded the view of recent trends. But the U.S. has broadly recorded declining numbers this year following a winter of less intense Covid-19 spread.

☆ Sleep gummies: Possibly harmful doses of melatonin, CBD found
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Testing of over two dozen melatonin “gummies” sold as sleep aids found some had potentially dangerous amounts of the hormone that helps regulate sleep, according to a new study. “Four of the tested products contained levels of CBD that were between 4% and 18% higher than on the label,” Cohen said. “We choose gummies over other products because we thought parents would chose edibles to give to their children,” Cohen said. Gummies sold as sleep aids had much higher levels of melatonin than stated on the label, as well as CBD, according to the study. “However, that doesn’t mean melatonin products are going to work or they’re a good idea to take.

☆ Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +55 min

Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ In his most extensive interview yet, Anthony Fauci wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic — and the decisions that will define his legacy. But when people say, “Fauci shut down the economy” — it wasn’t Fauci. But somehow or other, the general public didn’t get that feeling that the vulnerable are really, really heavily weighted toward the elderly. We also had a public-health system that we thought was really, really good. But it was really, really antiquated.

☆ Juul to pay $462 million to six states in its largest settlement ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Juul Labs, the e-cigarette maker, is paying $462 million to six US states and DC in the largest multi-state settlement yet for the troubled company that has been accused of contributing to the rise of vaping among youth. Based on responses to the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students reported using e-cigarettes within the previous 30 days. California is getting $175.8 million, Illinois is getting $67.6 million, Massachusetts is getting $41.7 million, Colorado is getting $31.7 million, New Mexico is getting $17 million and District of Columbia is getting $15 million. West Virginia said on Monday that Juul is paying $7.9 million for similar accusations of marketing toward youth. Last summer, the FDA ordered Juul products to be removed from the US market.

☆ Google drops global vaccine requirement to enter buildings, says 'world is in a very different place'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

"We put in place emergency measures such as our Covid-19 vaccine policy to keep everyone safe, but now the world is in a very different place. Several hundred Google employees at the time signed and circulated a manifesto opposing the company's Covid vaccine mandate, arguing leadership's decision will have an outsized influence in corporate America. We put in place emergency measures such as our Covid-19 vaccine policy to keep everyone safe, but now the world is in a very different place. Based on this, we’re now lifting our global vaccine policy. Covid-19 vaccines have been a critical part of our overall strategy to keep Googlers safe, especially in the workplace.

☆ RSV cases in US show signs of return to pre-pandemic seasonality - CDC
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 6 (Reuters) - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) circulation is showing signs of return to pre-pandemic seasonality in the U.S. after two years of irregular onsets and peaks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday. Typically, cases of RSV virus that can cause severe illness or death in the very young and old rose in October before waning in April. The varying timing could be challenging for drugmakers racing to get their RSV vaccines to the market. In both pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, RSV cases began to surge earlier in Florida and the Southeast and later in regions further north and west, the researchers said. "Policy makers should consider RSV seasonality when making recommendations about the timing of studies and administration of new immunization and other RSV prevention products," the report said.

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☆ Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel defends fivefold price hike of Covid vaccine during Senate grilling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Moderna plans to raise the list price of its vaccine 400% to $130 when the shots are sold on the private market as early as this fall. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on Wednesday defended the company's plans to hike the price of its Covid shots fivefold, deflecting pressure at a Senate hearing to abandon the increase while taking barbs over his compensation. Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., questions Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, during the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing titled Taxpayers Paid Billions For It: So Why Would Moderna Consider Quadrupling the Price of the COVID Vaccine? He told the committee that the Covid vaccine market is changing substantially as the U.S. government stops buying and distributing the shots for the entire country. The Covid vaccine remains Moderna's only product on the market at the moment.

☆ Moderna expects to price its COVID vaccine at about $130 in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Patrick Wingrove | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Hannah BeierMarch 20 (Reuters) - Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) expects to price its COVID-19 vaccine at around $130 per dose in the U.S. going forward as purchases move to the private sector from the government, the company’s president Stephen Hoge said in an interview on Monday. Hoge said the government's Medicare health plan for seniors pays $70 per dose for the seasonal influenza vaccine. Sanders, chair of the Senate’s powerful Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has said Moderna should not raise the price of its vaccine because of the government funding it received. He plans to question Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel on the price increase at the hearing on Wednesday. Moderna in February forecast significantly declining 2023 COVID-19 vaccine sales, which reached $18.4 billion in 2022.

☆ FDA advisors recommend full approval of Pfizer Covid treatment Paxlovid for adults 50 and over and other high-risk people
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Food and Drug Administration's independent panel of advisors recommended full approval of Pfizer's Covid-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid for high-risk adults 16-1 on Thursday, but flagged potentially harmful drug interactions. The FDA first made Paxlovid available in December 2021 for emergency use in high-risk individuals ages 12 and up. More than half of Paxlovid-eligible Medicare and Veterans Affairs patients are on medications that have drug interactions with Paxlovid, according to an FDA review of safety surveillance data. Roughly 74% of Paxlovid prescriptions were from adult primary care practitioners who may not be experienced with managing the possible adverse drug interactions, the FDA review added. To complete a full course of the drug, patients must take three Paxlovid pills twice a day for five days.

☆ U.S. plans to lift Covid testing requirements for travelers from China
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Sally Bronston | Zoë Richards | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. plans to lift a Covid testing requirement for travelers from China put in place earlier this year, a source familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The U.S. began requiring pre-departure negative Covid tests for travelers ages 2 and up flying from China on Jan. 5. The policy followed a surge in coronavirus cases in China after it ended its strict "Covid-zero" policy in December. China has repeatedly been accused of undercounting Covid-related deaths. After the Covid travel policy was implemented in January, U.S. officials have seen evidence that cases, hospitalizations and deaths in China are declining, sources familiar with the decision to lift the testing requirement said.

☆ JPMorgan says this biotechnology stock can rally nearly 50% because of its drug pipeline
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Vir Biotechnology has an underappreciated opportunity in the flu prevention market, JPMorgan said. He shaved $1 off his price target to $34, which still implies an upside of 48.9% from Friday's close. "Vir Biotechnology holds long-term pipeline opportunities across multiple infectious disease indications including hepatitis B, and Influenza A," he said in a note to clients Monday. He said the stock could see upside when the latest Peninsula study data hits, given it's expected to be a linear read-through from the young adult-focused earlier study. The stock has whiplashed in its first years as a publicly traded company, recording advances of 113% and 56.4% in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

☆ Iran Investigates Hundreds of Alleged Poison Attacks Against Schoolgirls
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Sune Engel Rasmussen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An image taken from a video shows a young woman in a hospital after allegedly being poisoned at an unspecified location in Iran. Iranian officials are investigating the alleged poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls across the country after a wave of hospitalizations sparked anger against the government for initially playing down the incidents. Since November, hundreds of mostly female students in dozens of schools have been taken to hospitals with symptoms of poisoning such as nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, dizziness and fatigue. In one video posted on social media on Wednesday, a girl with asthma said she had mentioned to her teacher that she had noticed a strange smell and struggled to breathe, after which the teacher asked the class if they smelled anything, and then the whole class fell ill.

☆ Flu vaccine was 68% effective at preventing hospitalization in children but less protective for seniors this season
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Paquita Bonillo, 84 years old, receives the fourth dose of Covid-19 and flu vaccine in the garden of the Feixa Llarga nursing home on September 26, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. The flu vaccine has been 68% effective at preventing hospitalizations in children but has been less protective for seniors this season, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccine was 35% effective at preventing hospitalization for seniors in one study, and 42% effective in a second analysis. The flu hit early this season, as the weekly hospitalization rate peaked in December and has declined since then, according to CDC data. More than 100 children have died from the flu this season.

☆ After unexpected death of 6-year-old girl, family becomes target of 'Died Suddenly' anti-vax conspiracy theories
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An anti-vax social-media campaign has targeted the family of a 6-year-old girl who died suddenly. A photo of the child posted on the "Died Suddenly" Twitter blamed her parents for vaccinating her. #DiedSuddenly is a recent iteration of an online conspiracy spreading disinformation about vaccines. The "Died Suddenly" hashtag is centered around a video by the same name, which labels itself as a "documentary film of a generation." Anastasia and her family are only one of the latest targets of the "Died Suddenly" Twitter account, which began posting in October 2022 and has nearly 300,000 followers.

☆ Fungal infections are becoming more common. Why isn't there a vaccine?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Ritesh Shukla | Getty ImagesFungal infections are becoming more common in the United States, but unlike illnesses caused by bacteria or viruses, there's no vaccine to protect against a fungal threat. Fungi cause a wide range of illnesses in people, from irritating athlete's foot to life-threatening bloodstream infections. In the U.S., fungal infections are responsible for more than 75,000 hospitalizations and nearly 9 million outpatient visits each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite the growing threat, there are currently no licensed vaccines — in the U.S. or abroad — to prevent fungal infections. Fatal fungal infectionsNorris said that the ultimate goal would be to develop a single vaccine that protects against all fungal infections.

☆ CVS Health beats quarterly profit estimates on lower medical costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Companies CVS Health Corp FollowFeb 8 (Reuters) - CVS Health (CVS.N) beat quarterly profit estimates on Wednesday, as a decline in hospitalizations from COVID-19 helped bring down medical costs at its Aetna insurance business. The company posted an adjusted profit of $1.99 per share, above estimates of $1.92 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data. CVS reaffirmed its full-year adjusted profit forecast of between $8.70 and $8.90 per share. Reporting by Raghav Mahobe and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Centene profit beats on easing medical costs, Medicare boost
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Health insurer Centene Corp (CNC.N) beat fourth-quarter profit estimates by a small margin on Tuesday, helped by easing medical costs and steady demand for its government-backed Medicare health insurance business. Most health insurers saw their costs fluctuate during the pandemic, but have benefited in recent quarters from declining COVID-related hospitalizations. Larger rival UnitedHealth (UNH.N) recently said medical costs were more predictable with the world in the third year of COVID-19. Medicaid program helps cover medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. Revenue from Centene's Medicare health insurance business rose about 24% to $5.45 billion from a year earlier.

☆ Cigna beats quarterly profit expectations as COVID medical costs fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Leroy Leo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A screen displays the logo for Cigna Corp. on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 16, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File PhotoCompanies Cigna Corp FollowFeb 3 (Reuters) - Cigna Corp (CI.N) beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Friday, aided by a sharp fall in medical costs due to lower COVID-19-related hospitalizations. The company's annual profit forecast of at least $24.60 per share was marginally below expectations of $24.84 per share. The insurer forecast medical care ratio of 81.5% to 82.5% for 2023, compared with Wall Street estimate of 81.9%. Excluding one-off items, the company reported a profit of $4.96 per share in the fourth quarter, beating analysts' average estimate by 10 cents.

Companies Humana Inc FollowFeb 1 (Reuters) - Humana Inc (HUM.N) on Wednesday beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit as the health insurer's investment income jumped, even as the company reported higher-than-expected medical costs. Health insurers' costs were expected to decline on lower COVID-19-related hospitalizations, though there were concerns around a surge in flu and respiratory syncytial virus cases in the last quarter of 2022. The health insurer said it expects to add at least 625,000 members to its Medicare Advantage plan this year. Excluding one-off items, the health insurer reported a profit of $1.62 per share, higher than analysts' average estimate of $1.46 per share, according to Refinitiv data. The company's $160 million investment income was higher than Wall Street estimates of $136.7 million, Oppenheimer analyst Michael Wiederhorn said.

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