Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Experts Down Play Lab-Leak Theory Amid Covid Origins Debate
The New York Times: Scientists Press Case Against The Covid Lab Leak Theory
In the latest volley of the debate over the origins of the coronavirus, a group of scientists this week presented a review of scientific findings that they argue shows a natural spillover from animal to human is a far more likely cause of the pandemic than a laboratory incident. Among other things, the scientists point to a recent report showing that markets in Wuhan, China, had sold live animals susceptible to the virus, including palm civets and raccoon dogs, in the two years before the pandemic began. They observed the striking similarity that Covid-19’s emergence had to other viral diseases that arose through natural spillovers, and pointed to a variety of newly discovered viruses in animals that are closely related to the one that caused the new pandemic. (Zimmer and Gorman, 7/9)
The Wall Street Journal: Bat Scientists Warn That The World May Never Know Covid-19 Origins
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists all over the world have been struggling to pin down the origin of the coronavirus that caused it. Linfa Wang knows they may never succeed. Dr. Wang, a professor in the emerging infectious diseases program at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, is an expert in bat viruses. He has joined the hunt for the origin of Covid-19 even though he and fellow scientists are still searching for the precise source of a different coronavirus: the one that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. That virus emerged in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people world-wide. (Dockser Marcus, 7/11)
The New York Times: A Breathalyzer To Detect Covid-19? Scientists Are On It.
The SpiroNose, made by the Dutch company Breathomix, is just one of many breath-based Covid-19 tests under development across the world. In May, Singapore’s health agency granted provisional authorization to two such tests, made by the domestic companies Breathonix and Silver Factory Technology. And researchers at Ohio State University say they have applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an emergency authorization of their Covid-19 breathalyzer. (Anthes, 7/11)
Bloomberg: Woman Infected With Two Covid-19 Variants Highlights Next Risk
A 90-year-old woman died after becoming infected with two different strains of Covid-19, revealing another risk in the fight against the disease, Belgian researchers found. In the first peer-reviewed analysis of an infection with multiple strains, scientists found the woman had contracted both the alpha variant, which first surfaced in the U.K., and the beta strain, first found in South Africa. The infections probably came from separate people, according to a report published Saturday and presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. (Ring, 7/10)
The New York Times: The Rationing Of A Last-Resort Covid Treatment
Throughout the pandemic, such scenes have played out across the country as American doctors found themselves in the unfamiliar position of overtly rationing a treatment. But it was not ventilators, as initially feared: Concerted action largely headed off those shortages. Instead, it was the limited availability of ECMO — which requires expensive equipment similar in concept to a heart-lung machine and specially trained staff who can provide constant monitoring and one-on-one nursing — that forced stark choices among patients. Doctors tried to select individuals most likely to benefit. But dozens of interviews with medical staff and patients across the country, and reporting inside five hospitals that provide ECMO, revealed that in the absence of regional sharing systems to ensure fairness and match resources to needs, hospitals and clinicians were left to apply differing criteria, with insurance coverage, geography and even personal appeals having an influence. (Fink, 7/12)
KHN: Government Oversight Of Covid Air Cleaners Leaves Gaping Holes
The sting is a rare example of enforcement in an arena where money is gushing like a geyser but oversight is nearly nonexistent. Electronic air cleaners, heavily marketed to gyms, doctors’ offices and hospitals, companies and schools awash in federal covid relief funds, tend to use high-voltage charges to alter molecules in the air. The companies selling the devices say they can destroy pathogens and clean the air. But academic air quality experts say the technology can be ineffective or potentially create harmful byproducts. Companies that make the devices are subject to virtually no standardized testing or evaluation of their marketing claims. A KHN investigation this spring found that over 2,000 schools across the country have bought such technology. (Weber and Jewett, 7/12)
CNN: You Asked, We’re Answering: Your Top Questions About Covid-19 And Vaccines
CNN readers from around the world have asked more than 150,000 questions (and counting) about coronavirus. We’re reading as many as we can and answering some of the most popular questions here. (Yan, 7/11)
