First Edition: Dec. 14, 2020
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KHN:
Hospitals Scramble To Prioritize Which Workers Are First For COVID Shots
If there’s such a thing as a date with destiny, it’s marked on Dr. Taison Bell’s calendar. At noon Tuesday, Bell, a critical care physician, is scheduled to be one of the first health care workers at the University of Virginia Health System to roll up his sleeve for a shot to ward off the coronavirus. “This is a long time coming,” said Bell, 37, who signed up via hospital email last week. “The story of this crisis is that each week feels like a year. This is really the first time that there’s genuine hope that we can turn the corner on this.” (Aleccia, 12/14)
KHN:
This Health Care Magnate Wants To Fix Democracy, Starting In Colorado
In the final weeks before the Nov. 3 election, supporters of a down-in-the-weeds effort to overturn a tax law in Colorado received a cascade of big checks, for a grand total of more than $2 million. All came from Kent Thiry, the former CEO of DaVita, one of the largest kidney care companies in the country. This was not the first time he donated big to a ballot initiative aimed at tweaking the nitty-gritty details of how Colorado functions. Nor will it be the last. (Bichell, 12/14)
KHN:
In COVID Hot Zones, Firefighters Now ‘Pump More Oxygen Than Water’
As a boy, Robert Weber chased the blazing lights and roaring sirens of fire engines down the streets of Brooklyn, New York. He hung out at the Engine 247 firehouse, eating ham heroes with extra mayonnaise, and “learning everything about everything to be the best firefighter in the world,” said his wife, Daniellle Weber, who grew up next door. (Cahan, 12/14)
Reuters:
Historic U.S. Vaccine Campaign Begins With First Shipments 'Delivering Hope' To Millions
“Today, we’re not hauling freight, we’re delivering hope,” said Andrew Boyle, co-president of Boyle Transportation, which was hired by UPS to help ferry vaccine from the factory to a waiting plane in Lansing. The precious cargo was escorted to airports by body-armor-clad security officers. (Baertlein, 12/13)
The Washington Post:
First Coronavirus Vaccine Shipments Leave Pfizer Facility, Head To States
Additionally, the governors of California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada announced Sunday that an independent review of the Pfizer vaccine found it was safe for public use. They said the vaccine was on the way but did not give a specific estimate for when the first shots would be given. (Firozi, Kornfield and Dawsey, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Mass Distribution Of Covid-19 Vaccines Is Under Way. ‘Everything Has To Come Together.’
Trucks filled with Covid-19 vaccine vials pulled out of Pfizer Inc.’s Kalamazoo, Mich., production plant on Sunday morning, part of one of the largest mass mobilizations since the country’s factories were repurposed to help fight World War II. The effort to vaccinate the nation relies on chemists, factory workers, truck drivers, pilots, data scientists, bureaucrats, pharmacists and health-care workers. It requires ultracold freezers, dry ice, needles, masks and swabs converging simultaneously at thousands of locations across the country. (Krouse, Hopkins and Wilde Mathews, 12/13)
AP:
COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments Begin In Historic US Effort
“This is a historic day,” said Richard W. Smith, who oversees operations in the Americas for FedEx Express, which is delivering 630-some packages of vaccine to distribution sites across the country. United Parcel Service also is transporting a share of the vaccine. Helping with the transport of the vaccine has special meaning to Bruce Smith, a FedEx package handler at the Grand Rapids airport, whose older sister, Queen, died after she contracted the coronavirus in May. She was hospitalized in Georgia one day after he saw her on a video chat, and they never spoke again. (Irvine and Gash, 12/13)
Stat:
First Covid-19 Vaccines To Arrive In States Monday, Marking A Pivotal Moment In The Pandemic Response
The distribution plan contradicts promises made by President Trump, who in a video released shortly after the FDA authorization, claimed that shipments of the vaccine had already begun and that the vaccine would be administered “in less than 24 hours.” [General Gus] Perna insisted that the distribution efforts, like packing vaccines, began almost immediately after the FDA authorized the vaccine for use in individuals age 16 or older on Friday. The vaccine will begin shipping from Pfizer’s manufacturing facility to UPS and Fedex within 24 hours, Perna added. (Florko, 12/12)
The New York Times:
First Coronavirus Vaccines Head To States, Starting Historic Effort
At Novant Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., the new ultracold freezers are ready — enough to eventually house more than 500,000 doses of the first coronavirus vaccine approved in the United States. In Los Angeles, the Cedars-Sinai medical center has installed extra security cameras to protect the secret location of its soon-to-arrive supply of the vaccine. (Goodnough, Abelson and Hoffman, 12/12)
AP:
Explainer: How Much COVID-19 Vaccine Will Be Shipped In US
The first wave of shipments is going to health care workers and nursing home residents. Officials say vaccines should be available to everyone by the middle of next year. Trucks with Pfizer’s vaccine rolled out Sunday. They will deliver to 145 distribution centers around the country by Monday, said Army Gen. Gustave Perna of Operation Warp Speed, the government effort to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines. An additional 425 sites will get shipments Tuesday, and the remaining 66 on Wednesday. (Choi, 12/12)
The Hill:
Operation Warp Speed Head Says 40M Doses Of Vaccine Will Be Distributed By End Of The Month
Moncef Slaoui, the scientific head of Operation Warp Speed, said Sunday that the U.S. plans to distribute about 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020. “We plan to have about 40 million doses of the vaccine available to us and distributed in the US by the end of this year,” Slaoui said on “Fox News Sunday,” adding that the U.S. would distribute up to 80 million doses through January. (Budryk, 12/13)
USA Today:
Role-Playing, Planning For Earthquakes, Mass Training: US Health Care Centers Prep For Arrival Of COVID-19 Vaccine
Hospitals and medical centers spent Sunday preparing for the first COVID-19 vaccine to arrive Monday morning, a massive undertaking that began when a caravan of semis guarded by unmarked police cars pulled out of the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Portage, Michigan, just after dawn. Onlookers applauded and cheered as the tractor-trailers carrying 189 boxes of vaccine slowly rolled out. The doses held in those cartons will be injected into the arms of health care workers in all 50 states beginning Monday morning. (Weise, 12/13)
Stat:
‘It’s Peace Of Mind’: Covid-19 Vaccines Can’t Arrive Soon Enough For Many Frontline Health Workers
Now that the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been cleared for emergency use, frontline health care workers across the U.S. are days away from being offered the shots. They couldn’t be arriving at a more crucial moment, with Covid-19 cases at their highest level since the pandemic began a year ago and many hospitals overwhelmed. (McFarling, 12/13)
FierceHealthcare:
Exec Says CVS To Administer First COVID-19 Vaccines In Nursing Homes On Dec. 21
CVS is planning to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines in nursing homes beginning on Dec. 21, a top executive told Reuters. ... Chris Cox, senior vice president at CVS Health, told Reuters that the healthcare giant expects to receive its first shipments of the vaccine at the end of next week, but will hold off on beginning to administer the vaccine until Dec. 21 to comply with the regulatory agencies. (Minemyer, 12/11)
AP:
After 110K Virus Deaths, Nursing Homes Face Vaccine Fears
After 110,000 deaths ravaged the nation’s nursing homes and pushed them to the front of the vaccine line, they now face a vexing problem: Skeptical residents and workers balking at getting the shots. Being first has come with persistent fears that the places hit hardest in the pandemic — accounting for nearly 40% of the nation’s death toll — could be put at risk again by vaccines sped into development in months rather than years. Some who live and work in homes question if enough testing was done on the elderly, if enough is known of side effects and if the shots could do more harm than good. (Condon and Sedensky, 12/14)
Stat:
CDC Says People With History Of Severe Allergic Reaction Can Get Covid-19 Vaccine
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday said people who have experienced severe reactions to prior vaccines or injectable drugs can still get the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19, but should discuss the risks with their doctors and be monitored for 30 minutes afterward. The guidance is a shift from a prior proposal laid out Saturday that would have recommended against vaccination for that group of people. (Ross, 12/13)
The New York Times:
Pregnant And Breastfeeding Women May Opt To Receive The Vaccine
In its emergency authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Friday night, the Food and Drug Administration took an unexpected step, leaving open the possibility that pregnant and breastfeeding women may opt for immunization against the coronavirus. The agency authorized the vaccine for anyone 16 and older, and asked Pfizer to file regular reports on the safety of the vaccine, including its use in pregnant women. (Mandavilli, 12/11)
NPR:
CDC Advisers Agree With FDA: COVID-19 Vaccine Is OK For Public Use
An important federal advisory committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added its vote of support for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. In an emergency meeting Saturday, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend the first COVID-19 vaccine for use for people 16 or older in the U.S, expressing hope that the vaccine would help curb the spread of the disease that has killed more than 295,000 people in the U.S. (Huang, Simmons-Duffin and Wroth, 12/12)
Stat:
Experts Grapple With Covid-19 Vaccine Guidance On Severe Allergies
An independent advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to recommend use of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech. But the meeting also revealed an apparent divide in thinking on whether the vaccine should be given to people with a history of severe allergic reactions to other medicines, a determination that could prevent hundreds of thousands of people from receiving it. (Ross, 12/12)
The Washington Post:
Coronavirus Vaccines Can Have Side Effects. That Typically Means They’re Working.
The new coronavirus vaccine appears to be stunningly effective — blocking serious illness entirely in randomized trials — and it has passed strict safety reviews and won emergency authorization from regulators in the United States and several other countries so far. But news bulletins in the past week provided a reminder that this remains a revolutionary pharmaceutical agent that will be scrutinized in the months ahead as shots go into arms. Among the unknowns: To what extent does the vaccine prevent infection vs. simply preventing clinical illness? (Achenbach, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Getting Covid Vaccines To People Will Cost States Billions They Don’t Have
State leaders say they are short billions of dollars in funding needed to successfully provide Covid-19 vaccinations to all Americans who want to be inoculated by health officials’ June goal. The federal government is providing the vaccine, along with syringes, needles, face masks and shields. But state leaders say they must hire medical workers, provide community outreach and education, set up vaccination clinics and ensure storage capacity for vaccines. Some states are also concerned about having enough supplies, such as gloves and gowns, to protect health-care workers as well as people getting vaccinated. (Armour and Calvert, 12/13)
Politico:
Biden Starts Countering Trump’s Messaging On Vaccine
President-elect Joe Biden's team is feverishly working to get a messaging plan in place to sell a skeptical public on the first FDA-backed coronavirus vaccine, believing the Trump administration has set the effort back significantly. Biden implied on Friday that he’s not going to wait until he takes office to start counteracting Trump’s mixed messaging on the vaccine, which includes downplaying the public health threat of the coronavirus while hailing the unprecedented speed at which a shot was developed. (Roubein and Goldberg, 12/12)
The New York Times:
Trump Administration Plans A Rushed Effort To Encourage Americans To Be Vaccinated
The Trump administration, scrambling to make up for lost time after a halting start, is rushing to roll out a $250 million public education campaign to encourage Americans to take the coronavirus vaccine, which will reach the first patients in the United States this week. Federal officials acknowledge the effort will be a complicated one. It must compete with public doubt and mistrust of government programs amid deep political divisions created in part by a president who has spent much of the year belittling government scientists, promoting ineffective treatments and dismissing the seriousness of the pandemic — and is now rushing to claim credit for a vaccine that he has made a priority. (Gay Stolberg and Shear, 12/13)
The Hill:
FDA Chief: Americans' Hesitancy To Get Vaccine A 'Significant Problem'
Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said on Sunday that resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine by some Americans is a “significant problem” and officials are working to address those “fears and concerns.” Host Martha Raddatz noted during Hahn’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that recent polling shows between one-quarter and one-third of Americans do not want to receive a vaccine. (Balluck, 12/13)
Reuters:
U.S. Expects To Have Immunized 100 Million Against COVID-19 By End Of March -Slaoui
The United States expects to have immunized 100 million people with the coronavirus vaccine by the end of March, the chief adviser for the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program said on Sunday. ... “We would have immunized 100 million people by the first quarter of 2021,” U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui said in an interview with Fox News Sunday. (12/13)
Forbes:
Trump Health Officials Blast President’s Vaccine Approval Pressure As ‘Useless And Unfortunate’
President Trump’s recent attempts to speed up the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, which reportedly went as far as threatening the FDA commissioner’s job, were brushed aside by high-ranking health officials on Sunday who decried the additional pressure as useless and potentially counter-productive. “I do think it’s not helpful,” Moncef Slaoui, the head of the White House’s program to accelerate the development of a Covid-19 vaccine, told Fox News Sunday in response to a question about President Trump’s tweet last week telling the FDA to “get the [damn] vaccine out NOW” and The Washington Post’s report that Chief of Staff Mark Meadows threatened Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn. (McEvoy, 12/13)
Politico:
FDA's Hahn: Covid-19 Vaccine Authorization Based In 'Science And Data'
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Sunday denied reports his agency was pressured by the Trump administration to get Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine authorized quickly, asserting authorization was based on a "thorough review of the science and data." "Our timeline, how we approached this was based upon our thorough review of the science and data," Hahn said on CNN's "State on the Union." "That's the promise we made to the American people, the transparency around that, and that's what we did.” (Carrasco, 12/13)
Bloomberg:
As Vaccines Move, Warp Speed Leader Rues Political Pressure
Moncef Slaoui of Operation Warp Speed was asked on “Fox News Sunday” about reports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief was told Friday his job was in jeopardy if the agency didn’t approve the first Covid vaccine by day’s end. If a phone call along those lines between Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and FDA Administrator Stephen Hahn happened as reported, “I think it was useless and unfortunate, and so are some of the tweets,” he said. (Czuczka and Miller, 12/13)
ABC News:
Refuting Trump, FDA Commissioner Says Pfizer Vaccine Could Not Have Been Authorized Sooner
As the first United States shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine set out across a beleaguered nation ravaged by nine months of illness and death, the leader of the agency responsible for authorizing the immunization for emergency use, maintained Sunday that the authorization was made as quickly as possible, despite claims to the contrary by President Donald Trump. "We do not feel that this could have been out a week earlier," Dr. Stephen Hahn, the FDA commissioner, countered on ABC's "This Week." "We went through our process. We promised the American people that we would do a thorough review of the application and that's what we did. We followed our process." (Kelsey, 12/13)
Politico:
Trump Rejects Plan For Early Vaccination At White House
President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday night that White House officials will not necessarily be given the first shot at the new Covid-19 vaccine. "People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary," Trump tweeted. "I have asked that this adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time. Thank you!" (Cohen, 12/14)
The New York Times:
Trump Delays Plan To Hasten Coronavirus Vaccines For White House Staff
President Trump said on Sunday night that he would delay a plan for senior White House staff members to receive the coronavirus vaccine in the coming days. The shift came just hours after The New York Times reported that the administration was rapidly planning to distribute the vaccine to its staff at a time when the first doses are generally being reserved for high-risk health care workers. Mr. Trump, who tested positive for the coronavirus in October and recovered after being hospitalized, also implied that he would get the vaccine himself at some point in the future, but said he had no immediate plans to do so. (12/14)
AP:
Trump Says He's Nixing Plan For Early Vaccine At White House
It was not immediately clear what the scale of the vaccination program was supposed to be, according to two people briefed on the matter, or what effect Trump’s tweet would have on the government’s efforts to protect top leadership. News that White House staff would receive the vaccine early drew criticism on social media. Trump and his aides have consistently flouted the COVID-19 guidelines issued by his own administration, including hosting large holiday parties with maskless attendees this December. (Miller, 12/14)
The Telegraph:
Immune System 'Friendly Fire' May Cause Long Covid, Yale Study Finds
Immune system “friendly fire” may cause long Covid as antibodies mistakenly target organs and tissues instead of the Coronavirus, a Yale study has found. Researchers in the US found Covid-19 patients had large numbers of misguided antibodies in their blood that went on to target organs, tissues and the immune system itself, rather than the invading virus. This could explain why some victims of the disease develop so-called long Covid; a continuation of medical problems many weeks after the initial attack of Covid-19 has been beaten off. (Nicholls, 12/13)
The Guardian:
'Autoantibodies' May Be Driving Severe Covid Cases, Study Shows
Dramatic levels of “friendly fire” from the immune system may drive severe Covid-19 disease and leave patients with “long Covid” – when medical problems persist for a significant time after the virus has been beaten – scientists have said. Researchers at Yale University found that Covid-19 patients had large numbers of misguided antibodies in their blood that targeted the organs, tissues and the immune system itself, rather than fighting off the invading virus. (Sample, 12/13)
CNBC:
Covid ‘Long Haulers’ May Take More Than A Year To Recover, Says Mayo Clinic Doctor
Coronavirus patients who develop “post-Covid syndrome” brain fog and fatigue — often referred to as “long haulers” — may feel the effects for more than a year, according to a Mayo Clinic doctor studying the phenomenon. Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn, an occupational medicine specialist, told CNBC in a phone interview Wednesday that he won’t be “too shocked” if some Covid-19 long-haulers were to experience a similar, lengthy recovery trajectory as some sufferers of severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS, a respiratory virus similar to the novel coronavirus, sparked an epidemic in 2003. (Stankiewicz, 12/9)
ProPublica:
Congressional Investigation Finds Many Booster Seat Makers “Endangered” Children’s Lives After Review Of “Meaningless Safety Testing”
In an unusually harsh and pointed report, a U.S. House subcommittee, responding to a ProPublica investigation, found widespread evidence that the nation’s largest manufacturers of car seats “endangered the lives of millions of American children and misled consumers about the safety of booster seats” in crashes that can kill or paralyze children. On Friday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy upped the ante, formally requesting that federal highway safety regulators, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, investigate “unfair and deceptive marketing and unreasonable risks to safety” by the makers of booster seats. Separately, the subcommittee urged state attorneys general to look for violations of consumer protection laws by these companies. (Callahan, 12/11)
CBS News:
Congressional Probe Raises Safety Concerns About Booster Seats
A congressional investigation is raising new questions about the safety of some popular children's car booster seats. The probe began after a ProPublica investigation aired on "CBS This Morning" in February which showed how some booster seats got a passing grade, despite disturbing video of crash test dummies being violently tossed around during safety testing. That video was originally obtained by ProPublica. New videos obtained by "CBS This Morning" show child-size dummies flailing violently in car booster seats during side-impact crash tests. In each case, the booster seats passed the tests. Because there are no federal standards for such side-impact crash tests, the companies decide what qualifies as passing. (Van Cleave, 12/10)
Reuters:
U.S. Lawmakers Plan To Split $908 Billion COVID-19 Plan Into Two Parts: Source
A $908 billion bipartisan COVID-19 relief plan set to be introduced in the U.S. Congress as early as Monday will be split into two packages in a bid to win approval, a person briefed on the matter said. The plan’s highlights were made public on Dec. 1, but the authors now plan to divide them into two proposals that could be voted on separately, the source said. (Cornwell and Shepardson, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Congressional Leaders Weigh Narrow Covid-19 Relief Bill
A group of rank-and-file lawmakers made a last-minute push to craft a bipartisan coronavirus aid proposal, as leadership in both parties indicated they might drop the most contentious issues in the talks and pass a narrower bill. The bipartisan set of lawmakers has in recent days struggled to finish crafting a $908 billion aid package, tripping up over disagreements on creating liability protections for businesses and other entities to help them guard against coronavirus-related suits. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) last week proposed dropping the protections if Democrats agreed to forego state and local aid that has drawn Republican objections. (Duehren and Torry, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Congress Eyes Targeted Coronavirus Aid For Small Businesses
Lawmakers considering a fresh round of financial aid for small businesses are focusing on firms with fewer employees that could show they have been hurt by the pandemic-triggered downturn, addressing criticisms that dogged the Paycheck Protection Program. “Let us target the program to the smaller of the small businesses. Let’s make sure it’s based upon need, so that we get to the small businesses that really need help,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, during a Congressional hearing last week. (Omeokwe, 12/13)
The New York Times:
This Week Will Be Decisive In Determining Whether Congress Passes A Stimulus Deal Before The End Of The Year.
Congress will reconvene on Monday for a make-or-break week in the effort to deliver badly needed relief to Americans and an economy hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic before the Christmas holidays. After months of impasse, lawmakers are now staring down a Friday deadline to complete a must-pass government funding bill to which they hope to attach new money for small businesses, unemployed Americans, the airline and restaurant industries, and schools. Many of the relief programs created this year are set to expire next week, putting millions of Americans at risk of losing government support as the health crisis continues in their communities. (12/13)
Modern Healthcare:
Oncologists Sue To Stop White House Outpatient Drug Pay Rule
Community oncologists are suing the Trump administration to stop implementation of its new outpatient drug pay demonstration, which would cut Medicare reimbursement for certain high-spend drugs. The Community Oncology Alliance argues that CMS' plan to tie drug payment to foreign prices in Medicare Part B would cause financial hardship for providers, reduce patient access, and reduce pay rates from other payers. The model depends on providers negotiating drugmakers' prices down to meet reduced reimbursement levels. (Cohrs, 12/11)
Modern Healthcare:
Hospital Associations Sue HHS Over 340B Enforcement
The suit accuses HHS of not requiring drug companies to provide discounted drugs to hospitals in the program as mandated by 340B regulations, according to a news release from the group, which also includes 340B Health, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Children's Hospital Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Also participating in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, are Avera St. Mary's Hospital in Pierre, S.D., Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, Va., and St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco. (Barr, 12/12)
Modern Healthcare:
HHS Finalizes Rule Easing Protection Of Substance Abuse Disorder Medical Records
HHS on Friday finalized a rule clarifying that courts can allow disclosure of confidential communications between patients and substance abuse treatment programs if it aids the investigation or prosecution of serious crimes. It aims to correct a 2017 rule that reworked privacy protections for substance use disorder information. According to the final rule, HHS didn't intend to block information that could help criminal investigations. (Brady, 12/11)
NPR:
Op-Ed Urging Jill Biden To Drop The 'Dr.' Sparks Outrage Online
An opinion column in The Wall Street Journal came under fire over the weekend for asking educator and incoming first lady Jill Biden — who holds two master's degrees and a doctorate in education — to stop using the title "Dr." In the op-ed published Friday evening, writer and former editor of The American Scholar magazine Joseph Epstein urged Biden to drop the title, a message that public figures and women in academia panned on Twitter as misogynistic both in substance and tone. (Treisman, 12/13)
Slate:
Everyone Is Mad At Wall Street Journal For Op-Ed Saying Jill Biden Should Drop Dr. Title.
The Wall Street Journal is facing lots of criticism after it published an op-ed that called on soon-to-be first lady Dr. Jill Biden to drop the “Dr.” from her title when she moves into the White House. Joseph Epstein, a former Northwestern University professor, claims in the piece that “‘Dr. Jill Biden’ sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.” He also opens the piece by speaking directly to President-elect Joe Biden’s wife: “Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo.” Epstein cites an unnamed “wise man” who supposedly said “no one should call himself Dr. unless he has delivered a child” and then goes on to ask Biden to “think about it.” (Politi, 12/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Hospitalizations Hit Record, Doubling In Five Weeks
The U.S. neared 300,000 Covid-19 deaths on Sunday, as virus vaccines from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE started shipping across the country. Johns Hopkins data showed 299,057 had died from the virus, while Covid-19 cases in the country exceeded 16 million, and hospitalizations hit a record high. (12/13)
The New York Times:
The 2020 Death Toll Is Higher Than Normal, And It’s Not All Covid-19
The year 2020 has been abnormal for mortalities. At least 356,000 more people in the United States have died than usual since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the country in the spring. But not all of these deaths have been directly linked to Covid-19.More than a quarter of deaths above normal have been from other causes, including diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure and pneumonia, according to a New York Times analysis of estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Lu, 12/13)
The New York Times:
Covid Patient Study Shows Some Benefit From An Arthritis Drug
Adding an arthritis drug called baricitinib to Covid treatment regimens that include the antiviral drug remdesivir might shave a day or more off recovery times, especially for those who are seriously sick, according to a study published on Friday. The findings of a government-sponsored clinical trial were made public more than three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the dual treatment. Earlier this month, some experts said they were uncomfortable deploying drugs without the opportunity to vet the underlying data supporting their performance. Last month, the World Health Organization also recommended against remdesivir as a treatment for Covid patients because evidence supporting its use was lacking. (Wu, 12/13)
Becker's Hospital Review:
Smell Test May Help Spot COVID-19 Cases
A scratch-and-sniff screening tool that identifies impaired sense of smell, a common symptom of COVID-19, could help quickly pinpoint cases, CBS News reports. Researchers from the University of Colorado in Boulder studied a smell test called U-Smell-It, which combines the use of a scratch-and-sniff card with different scents and an app where users input what they smelled. The app then alerts users if it detects an impaired sense of smell, indicating the need for a standard COVID-19 test. (Carbajal, 12/11)
Stat:
Early Data Suggests Wearables Can Flag Some Covid-19 Cases Early
The results of several ambitious studies testing wearables as early predictors of for Covid-19 are in — and they suggest that data from devices including Apple Watches, Fitbits, and Oura smart rings may be useful for flagging some infections in people before they even feel ill. Recently published research from ongoing efforts at three high-profile institutions in the Golden State — the University of California in San Francisco, Stanford University, and Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego — indicate that wearables can detect a bump in heart rate or temperature, the most consistent signs that the body is mounting a response to an external threat before symptoms appear. (Brodwin, 12/14)
AP:
States Get Tracing Apps To Talk To Each Other As Virus Rises
As coronavirus exposure notification technology slowly rolls out across the country, every resident in 17 states and the District of Columbia will now be able to send and receive alerts beyond their home state if they’ve tested positive for the coronavirus or come into contact with someone who has. On Friday, Virginia joined Washington, D.C., and 16 other states that have been using the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server, which allows phones to “talk to each other” across state borders. This means users in these 18 areas won’t have to download a separate app in places they are visiting. (Anderson, 12/11)
The New York Times:
Vaccinated? Show Us Your App
Among all the tools that health agencies have developed over the years to fight epidemics, at least one has remained a constant for more than a century: paper vaccination certificates. In the 1880s, in response to smallpox outbreaks, some public schools began requiring students and teachers to show vaccination cards. In the 1960s, amid yellow fever epidemics, the World Health Organization introduced an international travel document, known informally as the yellow card. Even now, travelers from certain regions are required to show a version of the card at airports. (Singer, 12/13)
Fox Business:
Ex-Facebook Exec Suggests Everyone Who Gets Vaccinated To Wear Certain Color Mask
Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya suggested in a tweet on Friday that everyone who gets vaccinated should "all wear a mask of a special design or color" in order to let other people around them know that they have been vaccinated. The idea did not sit well with many on social media, who quickly blasted the idea, comparing it to Nazi Germany's use of the Star of David. (Manfredi, 12/13)
Bloomberg:
Pfizer May Offer Shots To Trial Volunteers Who Received Placebo
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE may soon allow participants in its Covid-19 vaccine trial to learn whether they received a placebo, rather than the real thing, and get the actual shot if they wish. “Pending required approvals, Pfizer and BioNTech plan to provide an option for clinical trial participants who received the placebo to get the vaccine at scheduled time points in the study,” Pfizer said in an emailed statement. “This option will be voluntary and implemented in alignment with the regulatory authorities where the trial is being conducted.” (LaVito, 12/14)
Stat:
A Portrait Of The Coronavirus At 1: How It Spreads, Infects, And Sickens
The coronavirus behind the pandemic presents some vexing dualities. It’s dangerous enough that it dispatches patients to hospitals in droves and has killed more than 1.6 million people, but mild enough that most people shrug it off. It blocks one arm of the immune system from responding as it takes hold, but lures other parts into dangerous hyperdrive. It homes in on cells high up in the airway — think the nose and throat — but also burrows deeper into the lungs, maximizing infectiousness without ceding how sick it can make people. (Joseph, 12/14)
The Wall Street Journal:
Covid-19 Poses Christmas Quandary For Families
Christmas marks the high point of the festive calendar for many Christians around the world. But this year, families face a dilemma: Whether to reunite despite the risk posed by the Covid-19 pandemic or play it safe and scale things down, at the expense of tradition. Many try to land somewhere in between, planning smaller festivities and lowering risks by using common sense honed by a year spent playing hide-and-seek with the virus. (Bender, 12/13)
The New York Times:
Snow Leopards Are The Latest Cats To Get The Coronavirus
Snow leopards at the Louisville Zoo are the latest animals to be infected with the coronavirus. One female cat, NeeCee, has tested positive and two males, Kimti and Meru, are presumed positive, based on tests at a regional veterinary diagnostic center that must be confirmed at a national lab. The cats are all showing minor symptoms of coughing and wheezing, much like the tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo that tested positive back in April. The New York cats recovered without difficulty and the Kentucky zoo expects the snow leopards will do the same. (Gorman, 12/11)
Bloomberg:
First Covid Vaccines’ Triumph Raises Hope For Cancer Fight
Now, with one vaccine vaccine having gained U.S. clearance and the other close behind, the pandemic validation could wrench open a whole new field of medicine. “We are now entering the age of mRNA therapeutics,” said Derrick Rossi, a former Harvard University stem-cell biologist who helped found Moderna in 2010. “The whole world has seen this. There is going to be increased investment and increased resources.” In some ways, the global pandemic was the perfect proving ground for the new technology as deep-pocketed backers -- including Pfizer -- became more willing to take a risk. But the effort was only possible because BioNTech and Moderna Inc. had worked on messenger RNA for years. (Kresge and Langreth, 12/13)
CIDRAP:
CDC Reports First Pediatric Flu Death Of The New Flu Season
Though flu activity in the United States remains well below expected levels for this time of year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported the first pediatric flu death of the 2020-21 season, a child who died from influenza B. The percentage of respiratory specimens that were positive for flu last week was 0.2%, and the percentage of clinic visits for flulike illness stayed at 1.6% for the third week in a row. Deaths from flu, pneumonia, and COVID-19 were at 14.3%, well above the 6.5% epidemic threshold, but with the vast majority deaths due to COVID-19. The CDC cautioned that flu patterns should be interpreted with caution, due to impacts from COVID-19. (12/11)