Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Evidence Emerging Of Lasting Immunity After COVID Infection
The New York Times: Scientists See Signs Of Lasting Immunity To Covid-19, Even After Mild Infections
Scientists who have been monitoring immune responses to the coronavirus for months are now starting to see encouraging signs of strong, lasting immunity, even in people that developed only mild symptoms of Covid-19, a flurry of new studies has found. Disease-fighting antibodies, as well as immune cells called B cells and T cells capable of recognizing the virus, appear to persist months after infections have resolved — an encouraging echo of the body’s robust immune response to other viruses. (Wu, 8/16)
The New York Times: Clinical Trials Of Coronavirus Drugs Are Taking Longer Than Expected
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc in the United States and treatments are needed more than ever, clinical trials for some of the most promising experimental drugs are taking longer than expected. Researchers at a dozen clinical trial sites said that testing delays, staffing shortages, space constraints and reluctant patients were complicating their efforts to test monoclonal antibodies, man-made drugs that mimic the molecular soldiers made by the human immune system. (Thomas, 8/14)
The mysteries of COVID persist —
Crain's Detroit Business: COVID-19 'Long Haulers' Have Lingering Health Problems
Physicians say some patients discharged from hospitals after COVID-19 have developed heart and kidney problems, suffered lung damage and neurological issues such as blood clots and joint pain. Dr. Heather Abraham, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine, opened a COVID-19 continuing care clinic in late July at the University Health Center at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital. (Greene, 8/16)
Modern Healthcare: Docs Question Why Some COVID-19 Patients Develop Post-Recovery Complications
Surviving COVID-19 — and leaving the hospital — isn't always the end of the journey. Crain's interviewed several leading clinical specialists and researchers in Michigan who focus their care on patients most likely to have post-hospitalization complications from coronavirus. (Greene, 8/16)
Stat: Seven Months Later, What We Know — And Don't Know — About Covid-19
The “before times” seem like a decade ago, don’t they? ... In reality, though, it’s only been about seven months since the world learned a new and dangerous coronavirus was in our midst. In the time since Chinese scientists confirmed the rapidly spreading disease in Wuhan was caused by a new coronavirus and posted its genetic sequence on line, an extraordinary amount has been learned about the virus, SARS-CoV-2, the disease it causes, Covid-19, and how they affect us. (Joseph, Branswell and Cooney, 8/17)
The Washington Post: Wartime Doctors Battling Covid-19 Rush To Treat The Ill — But Without Knowing What Really Works
For most of April, Marylu Seidel felt like she was starring in a science fiction movie. Her husband of 34 years, Jeff, was sedated in an intensive care unit more than an hour’s drive away in Madison, Wis., and her only window into his world was a daily phone call with his nurses. His doctors, first at a local community hospital and then at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, tried everything to help Jeff defeat the coronavirus — a ventilator, an antibiotic, an antimalarial drug, blood thinners, a blood plasma transfusion. Today, Jeff is alive, one of millions of people who have recovered after being diagnosed with covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. But if you ask his grateful family or even his doctors what kept him alive, the answer is unsettling. (Johnson, 8/16)
