Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Drug That Calms Immune System Could Either Address Deadly 'Cytokine Storms' Or Backfire
The New York Times: Despite Qualms, Arthritis Drug To Be Tested In Coronavirus Study
An Eli Lilly drug for rheumatoid arthritis carries a warning on its label saying patients with infections should not take it because it can make infections worse. Yet the National Institutes of Health is about to test it in people hospitalized with coronavirus infections. The study, whose innovative design is meant to find out — fast — what works, began at the end of February with the antiviral drug remdesivir made by Gilead Sciences. Four hundred patients have been treated either with remdesivir or a placebo. The results are now being analyzed and will be known within a few weeks. (Kolata, 4/13)
Los Angeles Times: Emergency Room Doctor, Near Death With Coronavirus, Saved With Experimental Treatment
As critically ill, elderly patients streamed into his emergency room outside Seattle, Dr. Ryan Padgett quickly came to understand how deadly COVID-19 could be. Of the first two dozen or so he saw, not a single one survived. It took longer for Padgett and his colleagues at EvergreenHealth Medical Center — the first hospital in the country to treat multiple coronavirus patients — to learn how easily the disease could spread. (Read, 4/13)
The Washington Post: Anti-Malarial Drug Touted By Trump Was Subject Of CIA Warning To Employees
The CIA has privately advised its workforce that taking an anti-malarial drug touted by President Trump and some of his supporters as a promising treatment for the novel coronavirus has potentially dangerous side effects, including sudden death. The warning, featured on a website for CIA employees with questions related to the spread of covid-19, came in late March after public discussion — and promotion by the president — that hydroxychloroquine, administered in concert with the antibiotic azithromycin, might prove effective against the disease. (Barrett, 4/13)
