Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Still Don't Know Why Some Patients Stay Sick For So Long: 'COVID Is A Totally Different Animal'
The Washington Post: Chronic Coronavirus: These Patients Have Been Sick For Weeks, But Doctors Don't Know Why
It started for Melanie Montano with a tightness in her chest, almost like someone was sitting on top of her. It was March 15, and she was sweating but freezing cold. And she had a strange “pins-and-needles” sensation on the back of her legs. “It was as if I woke up in a totally different body,” she recalled. Over the following weeks, Montano, 32, developed a fever, cough, stomach problems, and lost her sense of taste and smell like other sufferers of the novel coronavirus. Unlike most of them, though, her symptoms never went away. (Cha and Bernstein, 6/11)
The Associated Press: Researchers Ask If Survivor Plasma Could Prevent Coronavirus
Survivors of COVID-19 are donating their blood plasma in droves in hopes it helps other patients recover from the coronavirus. And while the jury’s still out, now scientists are testing if the donations might also prevent infection in the first place. Thousands of coronavirus patients in hospitals around the world have been treated with so-called convalescent plasma — including more than 20,000 in the U.S. — with little solid evidence so far that it makes a difference. One recent study from China was unclear while another from New York offered a hint of benefit. (Neergaard, 6/12)
San Francisco Chronicle: SARS Antibodies Block Coronavirus Infections, Study Shows
Antibodies from people who recovered from SARS — a deadly respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus that emerged nearly 20 years ago — may be critical to fighting COVID-19, according to a study in the journal Nature. The peer-reviewed paper reveals how an antibody discovered in a person infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus in 2003 acted as a potent blocker against SARS-CoV-2, the closely related coronavirus that causes COVID-19. (Dizikes, 6/11)
Modern Healthcare: Microsoft, Biotech Firm Release Data On COVID-19 Immune Response
Microsoft Corp. and Seattle biotech company Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. on Thursday launched a database designed to provide public health agencies and researchers with population-level information about patients' immune response to COVID-19. The database, dubbed ImmuneCODE, provides researchers with information about T cells—a key part of immune response—and how they respond to the virus, from "initial exposure through clearance," Harlan Robins, Adaptive Biotechnologies' co-founder and chief scientific officer, said in a statement. (Cohen, 6/11)
