Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Antibody Drugs Prove Effective As Protection Against Covid Breakthrough Cases
CIDRAP: Monoclonal Antibodies Shown Effective For Breakthrough COVID-19 Cases
New research from the Mayo Clinic shows monoclonal antibodies reduce the risk of hospitalization 77% in 1,395 patients who had breakthrough COVID-19 infections. The research was published yesterday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. To conduct the retrospective study, researchers compared outcomes of confirmed COVID-19 patients who were fully vaccinated treated with either bamlanivimab, bamlanivimab-etesevimab, or casirivimab-imdevimab, as single infusion from January to August 16, 2021, to those who did not receive treatment. (11/17)
Reuters: AstraZeneca COVID-19 Antibody Drug Offers 83% Protection Over Six Months
AstraZeneca (AZN.L) on Thursday cemented its lead in bringing a preventative COVID-19 shot for the non-infected to market for people who do not respond well to vaccines, saying its antibody drug cocktail offered 83% protection over six months. The injected therapy, called AZD7442 or Evusheld, had previously been shown to confer 77% protection against symptomatic illness after three months, in an earlier readout of the late-stage PROVENT trial in August. (Aripaka, 11/18)
Reuters: Antibody Protection After Mild COVID-19 May Not Last
Nearly everyone who had a mild case of COVID-19 still has antibodies to the coronavirus a year later, but that might not protect them from new variants, a small study suggests. Among 43 Australians who dealt with mild COVID-19 early in the pandemic, 90% still had antibodies 12 months later. But only 51.2% had antibodies that showed "neutralizing activity" against the original version of the virus and only 44.2% had antibodies that could neutralize the early Alpha variant, the research team at the University of Adelaide reported on Thursday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. (Lapid, 11/17)
CIDRAP: Study: Immune-Suppressed Not At Higher Risk Of Poor COVID Outcomes
A large US study finds that hospitalized COVID-19 patients taking medications that suppress the immune system, including cancer patients, are not at overall higher risk for dying of their infection or requiring invasive mechanical ventilation than those not taking these drugs. Early in the pandemic, immunosuppressed patients were thought to be at elevated risk of poor COVID-19 outcomes. Some damage to the lungs and other organs in severe infections are believed to result from overactivation of the immune system, and by summer 2020, physicians were treating severe COVID-19 with immunosuppressive drugs such as dexamethasone, the researchers noted. (Van Beusekom, 11/17)
Reuters: UK Study Suggests Delta Subvariant Less Likely To Cause Symptoms
A subvariant of Delta that is growing in Britain is less likely to lead to symptomatic COVID-19 infection, a coronavirus prevalence survey found, adding that overall cases had dropped from a peak in October. The Imperial College London REACT-1 study, released on Thursday, found that the subvariant, known as AY.4.2, had grown to be nearly 12% of samples sequenced, but only a third had "classic" COVID symptoms, compared with nearly a half of those with the currently dominant Delta lineage AY.4. (Smout, 11/18)
WUSF Public Media: Lung Transplants For COVID Patients Are Rising. So Are The Ethical Questions
Vezna Hang was a healthy 40-year-old who liked adventure, travel and zip-lining. He wasn't yet vaccinated against COVID in early March 2021. At the time, Florida hadn't quite yet opened up vaccine access to people his age. But Hang admits, he was hesitant to get the shot due to “all the politics that got involved." Then, Hang tested positive for coronavirus. So did his girlfriend. She had many of the typical symptoms, while generally feeling fine. He just noticed losing his ability to taste and smell. "And then one day, I just looked in the mirror and saw that my lips and my fingertips were blue," Hang recalled. (Sheridan, 11/17)
CNN: Coronavirus Spreads In Deer. Scientists Worry About What That Means For People
Scientists have found SARS-CoV-2 spreads like, well, a virus among white-tailed deer and other wild animals in the United States. People are the likely source, but that doesn't mean the virus can't evolve among these animals and then spill back into humans, and researchers are worried about what this spread means for the risk of future pandemics. (Fox, 11/17)
Meanwhile, science proves masks work against covid —
Axios: Mask-Wearing Reduces COVID Incidence By 53%, Study Shows
Mask-wearing is the single most effective public health measure against the coronavirus, cutting incidence by 53%, according to a new global study published in the British Medical Journal. The findings come as parts of the world, including D.C., increasingly loosen masking requirements, citing vaccine efficacy. Experts have warned against lifting mask mandates too soon. (Chen, 11/17)
In non-covid science developments —
AP: New Research Offers Glimpse Into Early Human Development
Scientists have been able to get a rare glimpse into a crucial, early stage of human development by analyzing an embryo in its third week after fertilization — a moment in time that has been difficult to study because of both practical and ethical considerations. European researchers looked at a single embryo that was 16 to 19 days old, donated by a woman who ended her pregnancy. Until now, experts said, researchers have lacked a full understanding of this stage of development because human embryos at this stage are difficult to obtain. Most women don’t yet know they’re pregnant by this point and decades-old global guidelines have until recently prohibited growing human embryos in a lab beyond 14 days. (Ungar, 11/17)
The New York Times: The DNA Of Roma People Has Long Been Misused, Scientists Reveal
For decades, geneticists have collected the blood of thousands of Roma people, a marginalized group living in Europe, and deposited their DNA in public databases. The ostensible purpose of some of these studies was to learn more about the history and genetics of the Roma people. Now, a group of scientists has argued this research, which has made the Roma the most intensely studied population in Europe over the past 30 years in forensic genetic journals, is rife with ethical issues and may harm the Romani people. (Imbler, 11/17)
