Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Clorox Partnered With Two Health Nonprofits During The Pandemic
Undark: A Curious Union: Clorox, Cleveland Clinic, And The CDC Foundation
As a second wave of Covid-19 infections tore through the United States in the summer of 2020, a partnership was forged between the Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation’s premiere medical centers, and the Clorox Company, the California-based maker of surface disinfectants. Sales of Clorox products had been soaring since the beginning of the pandemic, when public health agencies were still warning that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, could lurk on surfaces, sickening people who touched them. The company’s stock was also soaring, and at times it struggled to keep up with demand. Under the partnership, the company and the clinic would co-produce public health guidelines to help the public navigate the Covid-19 pandemic. The arrangement continued into March of this year, when the CDC Foundation — an independent nonprofit chartered by Congress to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — joined the group. (Schulson, 7/13)
CIDRAP: COVID-19 Vaccines Shown To Protect At-Risk Patients
The Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines are as effective at preventing symptomatic illness in people with underlying medical conditions as in the rest of the population, finds a real-world study of more than 1 million at-risk UK residents. In the observational study, published late last week on the khub preprint server, a team led by Public Health England (PHE) researchers mined the electronic medical records of more than 700 general-practice clinics across the country, representing 10% of the population. They also conducted sentinel antibody testing from December 2020 to May 2021. (Van Beusekom, 7/12)
CIDRAP: Azithromycin Doesn't Help Mild-To-Moderate COVID-19, Study Finds
A randomized clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom found that use of the antibiotic azithromycin in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 did not reduce the risk of subsequent hospital admission or death. The results were presented last week at ECCMID and published simultaneously in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. In the open-label, randomized trial conducted at 19 UK hospitals from Jun 3, 2020, to Jan 29, 2021, adult COVID-19 patients considered suitable for initial ambulatory management were assigned to receive either standard care plus 500 milligrams of azithromycin once a day for 14 days or standard care alone. The primary outcome was hospital admission or death from any cause within 28 days of randomization. (7/12)
CIDRAP: Flu Vaccine Linked To Better COVID-19 Symptoms
People who received the flu vaccine prior to having COVID-19 had less risk of sepsis, stroke, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and disease requiring emergency or intensive care, according to a study presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) this year. The researchers looked at 74,754 patients in the international TriNetX research database: All had been diagnosed as having COVID-19, but half had received flu shots 2 weeks to 6 months prior to the infection. Patients were matched across COVID risk factors (eg, age, ethnicity, health conditions) and followed up at 30, 60, 90, and 120 days post-diagnosis. (7/12)
And on long covid —
Bloomberg: Long Covid Treatments Crop Up At Luxury Wellness Resorts
To beat long Covid, the version of the virus where symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks, you can employ the same tried-and-true tactics that help overcome the flu: Stay well-rested, guzzle clear fluids, and hope for the best. Or you can channel your inner Gwyneth Paltrow and pay $3,500 to have a therapist cake a paste of turmeric, galangal, and kaffir lime on your chest, cover it with an alcohol-doused towel, and set it all on fire. The latter technique—a traditional Ya-Pao detoxification therapy used for centuries in Thailand—is believed to balance the wind, water, and fire elements in the body. According to the practitioners who prescribe it, it’s also a great way to alleviate long Covid symptoms such as inflammations and coughs. (Schalkx, 7/13)
